In music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 or music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

, secundal is the quality of a chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

 made from seconds, and anything related to things constructed from seconds such as counterpoint

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...

. Secundal chords are often referred to more generally as tone cluster

Tone cluster

A tone cluster is a musical chord comprising at least three consecutive tones in a scale. Prototypical tone clusters are based on the chromatic scale, and are separated by semitones. For instance, three adjacent piano keys struck simultaneously produce a tone cluster...

s, especially when non-diatonic. "[Any] three or more pitches in secundal relationship may correctly be referred to as a tone cluster." Chords which may be considered as built from seventh

Seventh

Seventh may refer to:* Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution-Music:* Diminished seventh, a chromatically reduced minor seventh interval...

s, because of musical inversion

Inversion (music)

In music theory, the word inversion has several meanings. There are inverted chords, inverted melodies, inverted intervals, and inverted voices...

, are actually secundal. Polychords may create secundal chords.

The secundal harmony in Ross Lee Finney

Ross Lee Finney

Ross Lee Finney Junior was an American composer born in Wells, Minnesota who taught for many years at the University of Michigan. He studied with Nadia Boulanger, Edward Burlingame Hill, Alban Berg and Roger Sessions...

's "Playing Tag" provides "accentuation and forward motion", as well as the basis for the "fragmentary melody

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

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