A tetrad is a set of four notes in music theory. When these four notes form a tertian chord they are more specifically called a seventh chord, after the diatonicinterval from the root of the chord to its fourth note (in root position close voicing). Four-note chords are often formed of intervals other than thirds in 20th- and 21st-century music, however, where they are more generally referred to as tetrads.[1] Musicologist Allen Forte in his The Structure of Atonal Music never uses the term "tetrad", but occasionally employs the word tetrachord to mean any collection of four pitch classes.[2] In 20th-century music theory, such sets of four pitch classes are usually called "tetrachords".[3][4]
Anonymous (2001). "Tetrachord". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Forte, Allen (1985). "Pitch-Class Set Analysis Today". Music Analysis 4, nos. 1 & 2 (March–July: Special Issue: King's College London Music Analysis Conference 1984): 29–58.
Gamer, Carlton (1967). "Some Combinational Resources of Equal-Tempered Systems". Journal of Music Theory 11, no. 1:32–59.
Hanson, Howard (1960). Harmonic Materials of Modern Music: Resources of the Tempered Scale. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Roeder, John (2001). "Set (ii)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
