Polychord 

In music and music theory, a bichord or polychord consists of two or more chords, one on top of the other.

The use of polychords may suggest bitonality or polytonality. Harmonic parallelism may suggest bichords.

Examples may be found in Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka, p.15, and Rite of Spring, "Dance of the Adolescents" (1921) (DeLone et al. 1975, p.336). They may also be found in the song "Point of No Return" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, including chords such as Fm over Em or A over Fm.

Extended chords contain more than one triad, and so can be regarded as a type of polychord:

Separate chords within an extended chord

Play thirteenth chord (help·info)

Examples include the Elektra chord which may be regarded as an eleventh or a poly- chord.

See also

Source


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