40/27: Difference between revisions

| Color name = y5, yo 5th

| Sound = jid_40_27_pluck_adu_dr220.mp3

The '''classic grave fifth''' of '''40/27''' is the interval between [[9/8]] and [[5/3]]. It is a syntonic comma ([[81/80]]) flat of [[3/2]]. In some contexts it may be considered a "wolf fifth". In [[meantone]], of course, it is equated with a perfect fifth.

 

Although often underappreciated and even avoided on account of its dissonant sound in comparison to the perfect fifth, it can nevertheless prove useful in the hands of the right composer.  Specifically, when used as an interval in its own right, or as the interval spanning the difference between the root and the fifth of a chord, its dark and active sound creates a kind of tension that, in classical-leaning or even medieval-leaning styles, can be arguably followed up either by a chord containing a [[64/45]] tritone for an increase in tension, or by a chord with a perfect fifth between the root and the fifth for a decrease in tension.  Alternatively, a chord built around this grave fifth may be used in chord that acts as the final chord in an interrupted cadence with the effect of making such a cadence all the more powerful.

 

In [[Zarlino]], it appears as the fifth of the ii chord.

 

* [[27/20]] – its [[octave complement]]