quartal harmony
A harmonic system built on stacked perfect fourths rather than the traditional thirds of tertian harmony
In Depth
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.