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Elektra (opera). (
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Component intervals from root | |
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diminished fourth | |
minor second | |
diminished seventh | |
perfect fifth | |
root | |
Forte no. / | |
5-32 / |
The Elektra chord is a "complexly dissonant signature- chord" [1] and motivic elaboration used by composer Richard Strauss to represent the title character of his opera Elektra that is a " bitonal synthesis of E major and C-sharp major" and may be regarded as a polychord related to conventional chords with added thirds, [2] in this case an eleventh chord. It is enharmonically equivalent to a 7#9 chord : D♭-F-A♭-C♭-E and a 6b9 chord : E-G#-B-C#-F.
In Elektra the chord, Elektra's " harmonic signature" is treated various ways betraying "both tonal and bitonal leanings...a dominant 4/2 over a nonharmonic bass." It is associated as well with its seven note complement which may be arranged as a dominant thirteenth [1] while other characters are represented by other motives or chords, such as Klytämnestra's contrasting harmony. The Elektra chord's complement appears at important points and the two chords form a 10-note pitch collection, lacking D and A, which forms one of Elektra's "distinctive 'voices'" [3]
The chord is also found in Claude Debussy's Feuilles mortes, where it may be analyzed as an appoggiatura to a minor ninth chord, and Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang, and Alexander Scriabin's Sixth Piano Sonata. [2]