Faking it
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,510
    What is a fuller chord? 1-3 or 1-5?
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    Location, location, location. Or in this case - context. A root and a third (if I understand your question correctly) will define the sonority as major or minor. A really in tune choir singing the root in a favorable acoustic will generate a strong overtone of the same pitch class as the fifth, making a complete triad.

    On the other hand, a root and fifth is more stable because of its consonance. That is, a 1-3 chord in certain contexts could suggest a tendency for the mi to resolve upward to fa. If the ear is expecting a complete triad, however, an open fifth will sound "empty" without a third.
  • don roy
    Posts: 306
    actually Kathy, thats an intriging question. Back in the day a 3rd was seen as a dissonance I believe, a passing of 2 voices on the way to a 4rth. Thats why so many renaissance pieces end on an open 5th (only that and the octave were intervils of rest)...at least thats whats left of a music history course taken probably, from before you were born!
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    If you want the chord to have identity, 1-3 and hope for the overtone 5th. However, when singing or playing a full triad, you generally emphasize the 1-5 for balance.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,094
    Introductory composition would give you a schoolmarm rule that you need the root and the third, and that the fifth is optional. But, in practice, things are not so simple. In addition to what others have already noted, 1-5 allows the acoustic to define the modality of the chord where that ambiguity is desirable.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Nothing like ending on a unison. It was good enough for a few hundred years.
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