tetrachord

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in music theory, a series of four notes spanning the interval of a perfect fourth

   The theorist divided the scale into two tetrachords.

2. 2
   noun

   in set theory for music, any collection of four distinct pitch classes

   The analyst identified the repeated tetrachord underlying the passage.

From Greek tetrachordon ("four-stringed instrument; series of four notes"), combining tetra- ("four") with chorde ("string"). Ancient Greek theory treated the tetrachord as a basic unit of scalar organization.

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