Was Scriabin the first composer to use stacked fourths in a harmonic context ?!
Question: Was Scriabin the first composer to use stacked fourths in a harmonic context !?
He uses this technique in Poem Of Ecstasy and Tenth Piano Sonata!. Please name the composer and piece so I can compare the scores if there were compositions before his!. I can't think of any that precede him!. Www@Enter-QA@Com
Answers:
Usually Skryabin is the one who gets credited with this innovation!. But of course, his "mystic chord" is a very particular kind of fourth-stacking (they're not all perfect fourths)!.
I don't know enough of Skryabin's music well enough to cite THE first occurrence of stacked fourths, but you'd need to search earlier than these two works, if you want to find the first!. These are both post 1910 works!.!.!.and Schoenberg used stacked fourths (melodically AND harmonically) in his 1906 Chamber Symphony (op!. 9)!. I don't think the Schoenberg is the first, but it precedes both of the examples you mentioned!.
Two places to look for early examples:
- Persichetti's "20th century Harmony" book!. There's a chapter in there about "Chords by 4ths," which probably has an extensive list of works that use those chords!.
- Schoenberg's own "Theory of Harmony!." There's a chapter in this book, too, dealing with Chords in 4ths!. That would be a good place to look!.!.!.I don't remember if he gives any examples or not!.
I think these chords evolved out of allowing (forcing!?) a "suspension chord" to have stability without requiring resolution (think of a typical 4-3 suspension at a cadence point!.!.!.try to stabilize the suspended 4th)!.
also, as del has noted above, there is a HUGE difference between the 20th century uses of quartal harmony and the parallel fourths of medieval organum!.!.!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
I don't know enough of Skryabin's music well enough to cite THE first occurrence of stacked fourths, but you'd need to search earlier than these two works, if you want to find the first!. These are both post 1910 works!.!.!.and Schoenberg used stacked fourths (melodically AND harmonically) in his 1906 Chamber Symphony (op!. 9)!. I don't think the Schoenberg is the first, but it precedes both of the examples you mentioned!.
Two places to look for early examples:
- Persichetti's "20th century Harmony" book!. There's a chapter in there about "Chords by 4ths," which probably has an extensive list of works that use those chords!.
- Schoenberg's own "Theory of Harmony!." There's a chapter in this book, too, dealing with Chords in 4ths!. That would be a good place to look!.!.!.I don't remember if he gives any examples or not!.
I think these chords evolved out of allowing (forcing!?) a "suspension chord" to have stability without requiring resolution (think of a typical 4-3 suspension at a cadence point!.!.!.try to stabilize the suspended 4th)!.
also, as del has noted above, there is a HUGE difference between the 20th century uses of quartal harmony and the parallel fourths of medieval organum!.!.!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
I think you are correct to think that Skryabin (sorry, I just prefer that transliteration) was the first composer to build chords entirely of fourths!. However, there is an interesting article on quartal harmony in Wikipedia (a very goo example for Wiki)(link below)!.
Edit:
I think there is confusion here!. While it is true that fourths were very important in the pre-triadic-tonality Medieval and Renaissance periods, they didn't build whole chords and harmonic structures in superimposed fourths the way Skryabin did!. I think there's an important difference!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
Edit:
I think there is confusion here!. While it is true that fourths were very important in the pre-triadic-tonality Medieval and Renaissance periods, they didn't build whole chords and harmonic structures in superimposed fourths the way Skryabin did!. I think there's an important difference!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
One of Liszt's most brilliant students, a Julian Reubke, writing in 1860, gave us a genuine 12-tone passage (lasting well over a page!)!. Using 4ths (not all of them 'perfect' 4ths), this incredible man wrote chordal passages, for a few bars only, based upon the intervals of 4ths, at this same time!.
Reubke, light years ahead of even Liszt in terms of exploratory vision, wrote thus in response to Liszt's advise to invent 'new' chords 'all of the time'!.
Who knows what Reubke could have achieved had he not died suddenly, aged 21!
I suspect that 'stacked 4ths' would have been frequently employed by Debussy, as well!.
They are now a rather over-used device by jazz musicians!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
Reubke, light years ahead of even Liszt in terms of exploratory vision, wrote thus in response to Liszt's advise to invent 'new' chords 'all of the time'!.
Who knows what Reubke could have achieved had he not died suddenly, aged 21!
I suspect that 'stacked 4ths' would have been frequently employed by Debussy, as well!.
They are now a rather over-used device by jazz musicians!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
Whilst I am fairly confident that he didn't "invent" quartal harmony (it was used in the medievel and renaissance periods) he did bring its use some prominence!. There is an excellent article on the subject on wikipedia!.Www@Enter-QA@Com
if you mean what i think you mean, then i should say Wagner probably beat him to it!.!.!.!.and of course the medieval composers shunned thirds so you get parallel open fourths!.!.!.there is nothing new in this world!Www@Enter-QA@Com