All-interval tetrachords

[BWV]

Anyone mess around with these? Most associated with Elliott Carter, these are two different 4-note cells, just numbering half steps - 0137 and 0146, each of which contains all the interval classes (1-6, as 7+ are inversions of 1-6)

some common shapes fall into this like the common 13th voicing 5x567x, other voicings sound more out there- any combination of a tritone and minor third (or major 6th) that does not create an octave creates an all-interval tetrachord.

I have played around with them harmonically, an example it the intro to Ipanema I posted a couple of weeks ago.

Jonathan Leathwood posted a good intro here

[Christian Miller]

Anyone mess around with these? Most associated with Elliott Carter, these are two different 4-note cells, just numbering half steps - 0137 and 0146, each of which contains all the interval classes (1-6, as 7+ are inversions of 1-6)

some common shapes fall into this like the common 13th voicing 5x567x, other voicings sound more out there- any combination of a tritone and minor third (or major 6th) that does not create an octave creates an all-interval tetrachords.

I have played around with them harmonically, an example it the intro to Ipanema I posted a couple of weeks ago.

Jonathan Leathwood posted a good intro here

There’s a decade of someone’s life right there


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[James W]

I love Carter.

[Bob_Ross]

Anyone mess around with these?

As a composer, yes; as a guitarist, no...at least, I don't recall ever doing anything guitaristic with them, like searching for voicings/fingerings.

I've used all interval tetrachords as the basis for harmonic fabrics that are ambiguous yet have a distinct identity. But it can be difficult to not get sucked into Carter emulations, simply because his handling of them was so comprehensive.

[Mick-7]

Nicholas Slonimsky delves into this in the last couple of chapters of his Thesaurus, he calls it pandiatonic harmony.

[wolflen]

I agree this would be a good composers tool kit for suspense/mystery/horror genre ..

A young pretty high school girl opens the door to a dark basement..where a high pitch sound is coming from..

" Grandma..is that you..do you need help..?? "

[Mick-7]

Amusing that the piece he uses as an example (Shard) starts with a IIm-V chord progression, i.e., Em6/D > A13.

[BWV]

Another way to think about it is a tension on a diminished- mix up the tritone from one diminished with the minor 3rd of another then resolve to the diminished