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In music theory and harmonic analysis, a synthetic chord is a made-up or non-traditional (synthetic) chord (collection of pitches) which cannot be analyzed in terms of traditional harmonic structures, such as the triad or seventh chord.

This title is applied to a group of notes, usually a scale-like succession of pitches, with a fixed progression of tones and semitones. This scale can obviously be transposed to any pitch, and depending on its intervallic makeup, will have a fixed number of possible transpositions. Furthermore, the sintetakkord can be used either vertically or horizontally; Roslavets' music is not concerned with the order of the pitches, but rather with the whole 'field' thus created, so that the system is less oriented toward themes and more toward harmonic fields.

— Sitsky (1994),

However, synthetic chords originated not with Roslavets but with musicologist Sabaneev and his study of composer Scriabin's Prometheus published in 1910. See: Mystic chord.

For example, if a composer uses a synthetic scale as the basis for a passage of music and constructs chords from its tones, in much the same way that a tonal composer may use a major or minor scale's notes to build harmonies, then the resulting chords may be synthetic chords and referred to as such.

Some synthetic chords may be analyzed as traditional chords, including the Prometheus chord, which may be analyzed as an altered dominant chord.

An example of a synthetic chord would be the repeated chord in the first act of Puccini's Turandot at the beginning of the text passage "Non indugiare, se chiami appare...".

See also

• Synthetic mode

References

1. Brelet, Gisele (1947). Esthetique et creation musicale, p.60. cited in Dufrenne, Mikel (1989). The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience, p.253. ISBN 0-8101-0591-8.
2. Sitsky, Larry (1994). Music of the Repressed Russian Avant-Garde, 1900-1929, p.42. ISBN 978-0-313-26709-3.
3. (2000). "Nikolai Roslavets and His Viola Sonatas", Journal of the American Viola Society, Volume 16, p.16-17. University of Michigan.
4. Hakobian, Levon (1998). Music of the Soviet Age, 1917-1987, p.26-7. ISBN 978-91-972133-4-9.

v t e Chords
By form	Triad Major Minor Augmented Diminished Suspended Seventh Leading-tone Major Minor Dominant Dominant seventh flat five Diminished Half-diminished Diminished major Minor-major Augmented major Augmented minor Altered seventh Nondominant Harmonic seventh Extended Ninth Eleventh Thirteenth Upper structure Dominant 7♯9 Polychord Tone cluster Added / omitted Sixth Augmented sixth Lydian Seven six Specific Alpha Bridge Complexe sonore Dream Elektra Farben Grandmother Magic Mystic Northern lights Petrushka Psalms So What Tristan Viennese trichord General Mixed interval Secundal Tertian Quartal Synthetic chord Tetrad
By function	Diatonic Tonic Supertonic Mediant Subdominant Dominant Submediant Leading tone / Subtonic Altered Approach Borrowed Chromatic mediant Neapolitan Passing Secondary Secondary dominant Secondary leading-tone Secondary supertonic Other Common Contrast Primary triad Subsidiary Substitute
Techniques	Barre Block Chordioid Chord-scale system Guitar Open Power Slash
Other	Arpeggio Chord names and symbols List of chords Factor

• Post-tonal music theory