Fifth complement

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Revision as of 10:08, 17 August 2025 by FloraC (talk | contribs) (Undo revision 190130 by VectorGraphics (talk). I actually did a Google search just to verify this and in fact, perhaps surprisingly, I found no earlier sources.)
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Analogous to the octave complement, the fifth complement of a given fifth-reduced interval is its interval distance from the perfect fifth (3/2). It seems to be very useful as a way of conceptualizing and constructing more traditional-sounding triads, and even as a way of describing the relationships between different thirds.

History

The thought that the major third and the minor third complement or contrast each other may date well back to classical era, when triads in the form of root-3rd-P5 dominated the construction of chords. The term was seemingly coined by Flora Canou in September 2020. [1]

Examples

The following interval pairs are fifth complementary to each other

See also

Footnotes