Quartal/Quintal harmony

[gavbrown]

A recent chat was taking place on that little chat thing on the homepage about Quartal harmony. I was promoting it and Kevin was asking how it progresses (how chord progressions work, if I understood correctly). I tried to answer in the chat thing, but there apparently is a limited number of characters which are allowed, fewer than I could use to give an answer, so I thought I would continue the conversation here, in case there is interest. The most basic quartal harmony chord consists of 3 notes, a perfect 4th apart, e.g., C-F-Bflat. You don't really have keys in quartal harmony (there's no quartal c scale for example). So the way quartal music functions is entirely different from tertial music. It's something one uses either in a simple fashion (such as in a few quartal chords punctuated here and there throughout an otherwise traditional piece), or in a drone/repetetive fashion (common in rock n roll). Quartal progressions, when they happen, tend to be in whole tone moves (such as C-F-Bflat up to D-G-C up to E-A-D, again, common in rock n roll). There's no reason the notes have to all be rigid perfect fourths, you can vary it and introduce dissonance (such as C-F-B (without the flat)). It and also be quite satisfying as a way to construct a melody, again, mixing it with other styles. I find it works well with modal styles. By way of example, here is a piece I wrote that begins with a largely quartal melody, then includes modal and tertial harmony

[Kevin]

I can see this working with hand bells but what would it be like with say clarinets etc?

[Deleted]

It would work just as well (or just as badly) with any instruments, Kevin. It's really just a sort of extension of tonal structures. When you stop playing exactly according to the rules, if you have added notes as in jazz, or chromatic notes as in just about anything, you get very easily to the situation where it's difficult to say just what kind of a chord a certain group of notes really is. That's something that's been around at least since the days of Mendelssohn & Berlioz.

So if you've got a quartal/quintal chord like C-G-D, it could just be a straightforward C chord with the 3rd omitted (so it doesn't matter if it's C major or C minor) with an added 9th but the 7th omitted. Follow it with an F triad (again it doesn't matter if it's major or minor), and you've got a new version of the perfect cadence.

Alternatively, if you add another 5th so you've got C-G-D-A (that is, four fifths stacked on top of each other), well that could be a C chord with no 3rd, but with added 9th and 11th. Or it could also be an A minor chord, with the 5th missing, with an added 7th & 11th. Follow that with a D chord (either major or minor of course!) and you've got a different twist on the perfect cadence, in a different key.

Or again you could always write whatever sounds right, and don't analyse what you've done in too much detail unless you really have to, for instance if you need to sort out where the music's going before it gets as lost as you are. That happens to me all the time!

... Tony ...

[Joseph]

or, you can simply stop trying to pigeon hole your choices by relating back to diatonic harmony and accept the sound for what it is . . . I THINK Tony suggests this in his final paragraph.

[Deleted]

That's exactly what I was trying to say, Joe.

[Ed Sharpe]

The use of voicings using fourths are common in Jazz. Even in the context of “functional harmony” in Jazz one can voice the chords using a fourths. For example given a C7 chord one might voice it (top down) as C G D in the right hand and Bb and E in the left hand.

My piece “Black Fire” (http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/88632.html) makes use of quartal voicings through out the entire piece.

“Wasuremono” (http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/15902.html) also makes use of quartal voicings in a modal context, often moving in parallel motion.

“59,620 Years (The Return of Mars)” (http://www.scoreexchange.com/scores/20562.html) makes use of vertical structures based on fourths and even staked minor 7ths, id est: F Eb Db

[Kevin]

Dec 30, 2015 16:43:06 GMT Joseph said:

or, you can simply stop trying to pigeon hole your choices by relating back to diatonic harmony and accept the sound for what it is . . . I THINK Tony suggests this in his final paragraph.

I think I will stick to this.

[Deleted]

The beginning of Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé begins with a low note and fifths are continuously added above creating a 7 note quintal chord, setting the mood for the mythical world of Daphnis et Chloé.


And here is the second movement from Paule Maurice's Tableaux de Provence. It uses notes from the quartal chord but the notes aren't all a fourth away from one another, but it sets the ambiguous mood up very well.

[Joseph]

Jan 8, 2016 14:35:08 GMT @shadocapital said:

. . . And here is the second movement from Paule Maurice's Tableaux de Provence. 

this is a charming little piece, I've been listening to the entire recording.  Thank you for bringing it to our attention.  Joseph

[Deleted]

Glad you liked it