Hexachord

A hexachord is a collection of six . The term derives from the Greek language word , a compound of ἕξ ( hex, six) and χορδή ( chordē).Ephraim Chambers, , 2 vols. (London: Printed for J. and J. Knapton and, 1728): 1, part 2: 247.

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Usage Since the 11th century, hexachords have been used in music pedagogy. Guido of Arezzo is the nominal creator of a learning system that relied on a six-note scale to facilitate rapid learning of melodies.Rockstro, W.S.. " Hexachord", Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Macmillan, 1911. 391f. Hexachord also could refer to the musical interval of a Major sixth.William Holder, A Treatise of the Natural Grounds and Principles of Harmony. London: John Carr, 1694. 86, 192.

, in cello, which opens Die Jakobsleiter by Arnold Schoenberg, notable for its compositional use of hexachordsArnold Whittall, The Cambridge Introduction to Serialism, Cambridge Introductions to Music (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008): 23. (hardback) (pbk).]]In the 20th century, music theorists broadened the definition of the hexachord into any collection of six notes. The notes did not need to be contiguous members of a scale or tone row.

Howard Hanson (1960). 9780891972075, Appleton-Century-Crofts. ISBN 9780891972075

George Perle, Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, sixth edition, revised (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991): 6. . David Lewin used the term in this sense as early as 1959.David Lewin, "Re: Intervallic Relations Between Two Collections of Notes", Journal of Music Theory 3, no. 2 (November 1959): 298–301, citation on 300. Carlton Gamer uses hexachord and hexad interchangeably.Carlton Gamer, "Some Combinational Resources of Equal-Tempered Systems", Journal of Music Theory 11, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 37, 41.

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See also

• Hexatonic scale
• Musica ficta
• Guidonian hand
• Combinatoriality
• Hexachordal complementation
• 6-20, Mystic chord, 6-Z43, and 6-Z44

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Sources

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Further reading

• Rahn, John. 1980. Basic Atonal Theory. Longman Music Series. New York and London: Longman Inc. .
• Roeder, John. "Set (ii)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001.

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External links

• Hexachords, solmization, and musica ficta

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