quartal harmony
theoryKWOR-tul
A harmonic system built on stacked perfect fourths rather than the traditional thirds of tertian harmony
Quartal harmony replaces the major and minor thirds of conventional chords with perfect fourths, producing a more open, ambiguous sound. A three-note quartal chord (e.g., C-F-B♭) has no clear major or minor quality. The technique became important in early 20th-century music through Scriabin, Bartók, and Hindemith, and later became a signature sound of modal jazz through McCoy Tyner's piano voicings. It is also fundamental to the harmonic language of many film and video game scores.
McCoy Tyner's left-hand quartal voicings on John Coltrane's A Love Supreme became one of the most imitated piano textures in modern jazz.