Pentachord
{{Short description|Pentatonic scale}}
File:Ninth chord CMI9 chord.png
A pentachord in music theory may be either of two things. In pitch-class set theory, a pentachord is defined as any five pitch classes, regarded as an unordered collection {{harv|Roeder|2001}}. In other contexts, a pentachord may be any consecutive five-note section of a diatonic scale {{harv|Latham|2002}}. A pentad is a five-note chord {{harv|Bailey|1991|loc=450}}.
Under the latter definition, a diatonic scale comprises five non-transpositionally equivalent pentachords rather than seven because the Ionian and Mixolydian pentachords and the Dorian and Aeolian pentachords are intervallically identical (CDEFG=GABCD; DEFGA=ABCDE).
The name "pentachord" was also given to a musical instrument, now in disuse, built to the specifications of Sir Edward Walpole. It was demonstrated by Karl Friedrich Abel at his first public concert in London, on 5 April 1759, when it was described as "newly invented" {{harv|Knape, Charters, and McVeigh|2001}}. In the dedication to Walpole of his cello sonatas op. 3, the cellist/composer James Cervetto praised the pentachord, declaring: "I know not a more fit Instrument to Accompany the Voice" {{harv|Charters|1973|loc=1224}}. Performances on the instrument are documented as late as 1783, after which it seems to have fallen out of use. It appears to have been similar to a five-string violoncello {{harv|McLamore|2004|loc=84}}.
References
- {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Bailey|1991}}|reference=Bailey, Kathryn. 1991. The Twelve-note Music of Anton Webern: Old Forms in a New Language. Music in the Twentieth Century 2. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-39088-0}} (cloth). Reprinted Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-521-54796-3}} (pbk). Digital paperback reprint, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.}}
- {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Charters|1973}}|reference=Charters, Murray. 1973. "Abel in London". The Musical Times 114, no. 1570 (December): 1224–26.}}
- {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Knape, Charters, and McVeigh|2001}}|reference=Knape, Walter, Murray R. Charters, and Simon McVeigh. 2001. "Abel: (4) Carl Friedrich Abel". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.}}
- {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Latham|2002}}|reference=Latham, Alison (ed.). 2002. "Pentachord". The Oxford Companion to Music. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-866212-2}}.}}
- {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|McLamore|2004}}|reference=McLamore, Alyson. 2004. "'By the Will and Order of Providence': The Wesley Family Concerts, 1779–1787". Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle, no. 37 (2004): 71–220.}}
- {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Roeder|2001}}|reference=Roeder, John. 2001. "Set (ii)." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.}}
Further reading
- {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Rahn|1980}}|reference=Rahn, John. 1980. Basic Atonal Theory. Longman Music Series. New York and London: Longman Inc.. {{ISBN|0-582-28117-2}}.}}
{{Pitch segments}}
Category:Simultaneities (music)
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