Elektra chord

[[Image:Elektra chord.png|thumb|250px|Elektra chord: E B D{{music|b}} F A{{music|b}}.

{{listen|filename=Elektra chord.ogg|title=Elektra chord|description=Elektra chord as arpeggio then simultaneously|format=Ogg}}]]

{{Infobox chord|

chord_name=Elektra chord|

first_interval=root|

second_interval=perfect fifth|

third_interval=diminished seventh|

fourth_interval=minor second|

fifth_interval=diminished fourth|

forte_number=5-32|

complement=7-32

}}

The Elektra chord is a "complexly dissonant signature-chord"Lawrence Kramer. "Fin-de-siècle Fantasies: Elektra, Degeneration and Sexual Science", Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2. (Jul., 1993), pp. 141-165. and motivic elaboration used by composer Richard Strauss to represent the title character of his opera Elektra that is a "bitonal synthesis of E major and C-sharp major" and may be regarded as a polychord related to conventional chords with added thirds,H. H. Stuckenschmidt; Piero Weiss. "Debussy or Berg? The Mystery of a Chord Progression", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 3. (Jul., 1965), pp. 453-459. in this case an eleventh chord. It is enharmonically equivalent to a 7{{music|#}}9 chord : D{{flat}}-F-A{{flat}}-C{{flat}}-E and a 6{{flat}}9 chord : E-G{{music|#}}-B-C{{music|#}}-F.

[[Image:Elektra chord extended.png|thumb|400px|center|Elektra chord implies an E major and C{{music|#}} major chord together (C{{music|#}} E{{music|#}} G{{music|#}} = D{{music|b}} F{{music|natural}} A{{music|b}})

{{listen|filename=Elektra chord extended.ogg|title=Each chord separately as arpeggio then both simultaneously}}]]

In Elektra the chord, Elektra's "harmonic signature" is treated various ways betraying "both tonal and bitonal leanings...a dominant {{music|42}} over a nonharmonic bass." It is associated as well with its seven note complement which may be arranged as a dominant thirteenth while other characters are represented by other motives or chords, such as Klytämnestra's contrasting harmony. The Elektra chord's complement appears at important points and the two chords form a 10-note pitch collection, lacking D and A, which forms one of Elektra's "distinctive 'voices'"Carolyn Abbate, 'Music and Language in Elektra', in Richard Strauss: Elektra, ed. Derrick Puffett, Cambridge Opera Guides (Cambridge, 1989), 107-27. Cited in Kramer (1993), p.156.

[[Image:Elektra chord motive.png|thumb|400px|center|Motivic elaboration of Elektra chord

{{listen|filename=Elektra chord motive.ogg|title=Elektra chord as motive}}]]