- Northern lights chord
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In music, the 'northern lights' chord is an eleven-note chord from Ernst Krenek's Cantata for Wartime (1943), that represents the Northern Lights. Erickson cites the chord as an example of a texture arranged so as to, "closely approach the single-object status of fused-ensemble timbres, for example, the beautiful 'northern lights'...chord, in a very interesting distribution of pitches, produces a fused sound supported by a suspended cymbal roll"[1].
At eleven-notes the chord is one pitch shy of the total chromatic. Every note except E is sounded.
Sources
- ^ a b c Erickson, Robert (1975). Sound Structure in Music, p.166 & 168. ISBN 0-520-02376-5.
Chords By type Major · Minor · Dominant · Dominant seventh flat five · Diminished · Half-diminished · Diminished major · Minor-major · Augmented major · Augmented minor · Nondominant · Harmonic seventh chordAdded
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- Musical texture
- Timbre
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