Everything about Bare Fifth totally explained
The
perfect fifth is the
musical interval between a note and the note seven
semitones above it on the musical scale. For example, the note G lies a perfect fifth above C; D is a perfect fifth above G, C is a perfect fifth above F, and so on.
The term
perfect identifies it as belonging to the group of
perfect intervals (
perfect fourth,
perfect octave) so called because of their simple pitch relationships and their high degree of
consonance. There are two other kinds of fifths: the
diminished fifth, which is one
chromatic semitone smaller, and the
augmented fifth, which is one chromatic semitone larger.
The perfect fifth is occasionally referred to as the
diapente, and abbreviated
P5. Its
inversion is the
perfect fourth.
The perfect fifth is an important interval in tonal music. It is more
consonant, or stable, than any other interval except the
unison and the
octave. It is a valuable interval in chord structure, song development, and western tuning systems. It occurs on the
root of all
major and
minor chords (triads) and their
extensions. It was the first accepted harmony (besides the octave) in
Gregorian chant, a very early formal style of musical composition.
Hearing perfect fifths
There are various ways to train the ear to recognize a perfect fifth. One is to sing the first five notes of the major scale in
solfege:
do re mi fa sol; the first and last notes form a perfect fifth. Another is to sing the first four notes of the familiar tune
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, which likewise outline a perfect fifth. On a
piano keyboard, a perfect fifth can be approximated by holding down two notes, one of which is the seventh note higher than the base note.
The pitch ratio of a perfect fifth
The idealized pitch ratio of a perfect fifth is 3:2, meaning that the upper note makes three vibrations in the same amount of time that the lower note makes two. In the
cent system of pitch measurement, the 3:2 ratio corresponds to approximately 702 cents. Something close to the idealized perfect fifth can be heard when a
violin is tuned: if adjacent strings are adjusted to the exact ratio of 3:2, the result is a smooth and consonant sound, and the violin is felt to be "in tune". Idealized perfect fifths are employed in
just intonation.
In keyboard instruments such as the
piano, a slightly different version of the perfect fifth is normally used: in accordance with the principle of
equal temperament, the perfect fifth must be slightly narrowed: seven
semitones, or 700 cents. (The narrowing is necessary to enable the instrument to play in all keys.) Many people can hear the slight deviation from the idealized perfect fifth when they play the interval on a piano.
The following sound file illustrates the perfect fifth in equal temperament. In this recording, the interval displays quite noticeable "beats" (pulsations), which result from the 700-cent interval.
Use in harmony
The perfect fifth is a basic element in the construction of major and minor triads, and because these chords occur frequently in much music, the perfect fifth interval occurs just as often. However, because many instruments contain a perfect fifth as an
overtone, it isn't unusual to omit the fifth of a chord (esp. in root position) since it's already present due to this overtone.
The perfect fifth is also present in
seventh chords as well as "tall tertian" harmonies (harmonies consisting of more than four tones stacked in thirds above the root). The presence of a perfect fifth can in fact soften the
dissonant intervals of these chords, as in the
major seventh chord in which the dissonance of a major seventh is softened by the presence of two perfect fifths.
One can also build chords by stacking fifths, yielding quintal harmonies. Such harmonies are present in more modern music, such as the music of
Paul Hindemith. This harmony also appears in
Stravinsky's
The Rite of Spring in the
Dance of the Adolescents where four C
Trumpets, a
Piccolo Trumpet, and one
Horn play a five-tone B-Flat quintal chord.
A
bare fifth,
open fifth or
empty fifth is a chord containing only a perfect fifth with no third. The closing chord of the
Kyrie in
Mozart's
Requiem and of the first movement of
Bruckner's
Ninth Symphony are both examples of pieces ending on an empty fifth, though these "chords" are common in
Sacred Harp singing and throughout
rock music, especially
hard rock,
metal, and
punk music, where overdriven or distorted guitar can make thirds sound muddy, and fast chord-based passages are made easier to play by combining the four most common guitar hand shapes into one. Rock musicians refer to them as
power chords and often include octave doubling (for example their bass note is doubled one octave higher, for example F3-C4-F4).
An
empty fifth is sometimes used in
traditional music, for example in some
Andean music genres of pre-Columbian origin, such as
k'antu,
tarqueada and
sikuri. The same melody is being led by parallel fifths and octaves during all the piece. Hear examples:, .
Use in tuning and tonal systems
A perfect fifth in
just intonation, a
just fifth, corresponds to a frequency ratio of 3:2, while in 12-tone
equal temperament, a perfect fifth is equal to seven
semitones, or 700 cents, about two
cents smaller than the just fifth.
The just perfect fifth, together with the
octave, forms the basis of
Pythagorean tuning. A flattened perfect fifth is likewise the basis for
meantone tuning.
The
circle of fifths is a model of
pitch space for the
chromatic scale (chromatic circle) which considers nearness not as adjacency but as the number of perfect fifths required to get from one note to another.
Further Information
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