Northern lights chord
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Northern_Lights_chord.png/220px-Northern_Lights_chord.png)
In music, the "northern lights" chord is an eleven-note chord from Ernst Krenek's Cantata for Wartime (1943), that represents the Northern Lights. Krenek's student Robert Erickson cited the chord as an example of a texture arranged so as to "closely approach the single-object status of fused-ensemble timbres, for example, the beautiful 'northern lights' ... chord, in a very interesting distribution of pitches, produces a fused sound supported by a suspended cymbal roll.'[1] "The 'northern lights' sounds, so icy and impersonal and menacing, are a brilliant orchestral invention."[2]
At eleven notes, the chord is one pitch shy of the total chromatic. Every note except E is sounded.
References
- ^ a b Erickson, Robert (1975). Sound Structure in Music, p.166 & 168. ISBN 0-520-02376-5.
- ^ Erickson, Robert (1995). Music of Many Means: Sketches and Essays on the Music of Robert Erickson, p.28. Scarecrow. ISBN 9780810830141.
- v
- t
- e
Chords
Triad |
|
---|---|
Seventh | |
Extended |
|
Added / omitted | |
Specific |
|
General |
![P8-M7-m7-M6-m6-P5-TT-P4-M3-m3-M2-m2](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Pyramid_chord.png/60px-Pyramid_chord.png)
Diatonic |
|
---|---|
Altered | |
Secondary | |
Other |
- Arpeggio
- Chord names and symbols
- List of chords
- Factor