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fourth

fourth

1 4.4
The musical interval between two notes that are four steps apart
  • noun
  • /fɔrθ/
  • Specialized
: cuarta
  • Provide a melody and ask students to write a piano accompaniment made up of chords built in fourths.
  • a perfect fourth
  • fourths and fifths

A perfect fifth descending is a perfect fourth ascending.

Examples

  • We can enjoy both the traditional IV chord and the discovery of perfect fourths.

    Academic text (1991)
  • McCoy Tyner adds to that feeling with his all-but patented fourths in his comping and solos.

    Academic text (2014)
  • Remember, you slide up to the fourths the second time around.

  • A perfect fifth descending is a perfect fourth ascending.

  • Traditional harmonization of fourths, fifths, and octaves is suggested.

    Academic text (2008)
  • If a child is looking for a IV chord and instead finds a chord built on perfect fourths, this mistake might inspire new and even more wonderful sounds.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Interestingly, consonant intervals such as octaves, perfect fifths, and perfect fourths are universal or nearly universal, as are unequal-step scales.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Harmonies built on a series of fourths (quartal harmony) or fifths (quintal harmony) can provide a slightly less familiar context for a composition.

    Academic text (2001)
  • In music theory, a perfect fourth can create a harmonically pleasing sound between two notes.

  • When playing the piano, you should practice moving from a fourth to a fifth to improve your skills.

Synonyms

quarte
vsfourth
  • Archaic
9.9

A distance between two musical notes that spans four steps on a scale

is the general term for the same interval in ordinary musical contexts

Compounds

123 1.4

A national holiday in the United States that celebrates the Declaration of Independence of 1776

21 3.1

About the fourth and last year of high school or college

12 1.0

One of four equal parts, for example of a cake or pie

fourth dimension
  • Specialized
7 8.5

An extra dimension beyond length, width and height often used for time

fourth estate
  • Literature
5 5.7

News organizations like newspapers and TV that watch and report on people in power

Fourth Reich
  • Offensive
4 9.9

A feared future German state that continues Nazi ideas

fourth power
  • Specialized
1 7.3

A number multiplied by itself four times

fourth ventricle
  • Specialized
1 6.8

A small space in the brain that holds spinal fluid and lets it flow to the spinal cord

fourth stomach
  • Specialized
1 8.5

A last stomach compartment in animals like cows and sheep that digests food

1 9.9

A 1215 meeting of Catholic church leaders that set important church rules and beliefs

A military expedition from 1202 to 1204 that tried to take back Jerusalem but instead sacked Constantinople

1 1.0

One of four equal pieces of something

1 2.7

One of sixty-four equal parts of a whole

One of sixty-four equal parts of a whole

fourth deck
  • Specialized
1 7.4

A low floor on a large ship for storing goods or where crew sleep

fourth cranial nerve
  • Specialized
1 7.0

A nerve that controls a top eye muscle and helps the eye look down

A meeting of church leaders in 869–870 that condemned Photius and helped cause the split between eastern and western churches

sixty-fourth note
  • Specialized
1 7.7

A very short musical sound equal to one sixty-fourth of a whole note

Euclid's fourth axiom
  • Specialized
9.9

An axiom in Euclidean geometry that all right angles are equal

A business or place of very low quality with bad service and dirty conditions

Poor teaching in schools that does not prepare students

How Wide

octave
  • Specialized
16 4.8
fifth
  • Specialized
4 5.8
fourth
  • Specialized
1 4.4
interval
  • Specialized
3 5.7
semitone
  • Specialized
1 7.0
microtonal
  • Specialized
1 9.1
unison
  • Specialized
1 5.4

Surface Forms

fourth singular
fourths plural

Morphology

fourth = four (transparent) = four + th

The ordinal form is clearly derived from the cardinal number 'four' with the suffix '-th'.

Etymology

The musical fourth gets its name from four because it covers 'four notes' when you count the starting note, so it is the interval that is four steps long.