The most beautiful piano chords?

[drsmoo]

In my opinion it's a polychord. When combinging a major chord with it's fifth. ie F major and C major. I guess that would be an F9(with a major 7) or a C6add11. Regardless of the name, an incredibly beautiful, evocative chord.

[panic]

The chord that closes Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, C major with a retained sixth.

[ted]

I find myself unable to specify a most beautiful chord in isolation. It's the same as trying to find the most beautiful rhythm. It isn't a meaningful question for me personally, even in a comparative sense, if only for the reason that any musical element hardly ever occurs in isolation. There are certainly chords, rhythms, melodies, textures and so on which I consider very beautiful in their context, but if I play them in isolation they do not seem so remarkable.

Even worse than this, and more generally, within a very large acceptable variation I have great difficulty in picking out the most beautiful object within any given class of objects. It's just the way I'm made, I think, because many of my friends perform this latter task at once and with absolute sureness. They can look at a hundred photos of women, birds, landscapes, clothes, for instance, and single out one in a matter of seconds as being the most beautiful.

[drsmoo]

Well of course, it is a very subjective question, and a progression of chords could make a chord that on it's own would seem "ugly" sound very beautiful. What I guess I mean to say is, everyone has their own ideas of beauty. (And I think it would likely be found that, those who have a tendency to experience strong imagery wih music, would have their "most beautiful" chord associated with their most beautiful images/smells/colors etc) So, if you could pick one chord, that you personally could choose to represent sublime beauty, what would it be? It doesn't neccesarily have to be THE chord. Just whatever comes to your mind at the moment.

[practicingnow]

The 3 B Major 2nd inversion chords at the very end of the Liszt B minor Sonata

[infectedmushroom]

Maybe a good idea to show what our favorite chords are with this site:



https://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/

[rob47]

[danyal]

Shostakovich piano concerto no1, 4th mvt, middle of trumpet solo.... (sighs)

[cfortunato]

A straight major chord, of course, 1-3-5. That's why it's the major chord.

[nanabush]

My single favorite chord is:  Gb Bb Db F, also in other keys

I also like  G Ab C G, also in other keys

Chord progression B major tonic chord to D flat major tonic chord (aka subdominant chord of Gb major to dominant chord of Gb major), and also in other keys

[mikey6]

Love that part!

I'm surpsrised considering all the Scriabin nuts around, no one's mentioned the mystic chord?
Mine would probably a 13#11 at the moment.

I guess that would be an F9(with a major 7) or a C6add11. Regardless of the name, an incredibly beautiful, evocative chord.

actually it would be a fmaj9 (if the root is f) with the maj 7th.

[ted]

drsmoo:

Thank you for your explanation but I still cannot do it.

If there is one thing I have learned from this forum, it is that I really do not think like other people who play the piano. The fact is neither good nor bad, but interesting nonetheless. When it comes to isolated chords I can usually tell what I am hearing, my indecision is not a matter of aural acuity.

If I play the chord suggested by drsmoo, (C major + F major) and then play something else, say (C major + E major), I hear two different things and know what they are. My problem, although it has to be said I do not see it as a problem, is that I cannot place them as points per se on a linear aesthetic scale. They are more in the nature of quales, abstract entities like colours or patterns. Each exists in its own right and is neutral with respect to beauty. I can rate them by beauty no more than I can rate blue against red. I can rate them very easily by many other linear criteria, for example likelihood of having being used by Chopin, likelihood of being used by Brubeck or how many of each I have played over the last week (if I could remember, which I probably cannot). What I cannot do is assign general beauty on a well-defined linear scale.

I hope this explains my complete inability to answer this question. It is a mystery to me how anybody can answer it. Perhaps it depends on extra-musical associations from the past.

[dinosaurtales]

I can't name just one.  It depends on the context - where it came from, and where it's going -

[pianistimo]

agreed about progressions and modulations influencing the chord in question - and yet i'm with cfortunato - on the pleasure of hearing a simple major chord.  leroy anderson seems to emphasize this with his C major piano concerto.

[sonatainfsharp]

It isn't the chord, but rather what you do with it, that matters. 

[Derek]

I think the last thing that was said makes the most sense. It is mostly a matter of context.

Though I have to say that a single chord on its own is an eminently pleasant sound, especially on a freshly tuned instrument....or especially an organ.  Who here doesn't feel an incredible sense of finality and endorphins being pumped into your head at the final tonic chord of a glorious organ piece?

Of course, that too is an example of context.

I don't think many people here would just want to sit and listen to a single chord for minutes or longer on end. That wouldn't be music in that case it would just be a pleasant, musicAL sound.


Personally, I go through phases of fascination with certain sounds. Sometimes it is a normal major chord, other times its something really weird that I don't know a proper label for, other times its a 9th chord, etc.  But then I throw that chord into various situations I probably didn't see them in before. Its all about context.

Actually...one sound I find particularly pleasing is to play a normal dominant seventh chord in my right hand, and then play an octave chord a major third below that chord. What a lovely sound!

[cfortunato]

You mean Like Eb-Eb-G-B-D-F (going up)?  That doesn't sound like much of anything to me.  Interesting.

Ok, since nobody likes plain majors, how about major 7ths?  They make women fall apart.  Or the 7th flatted ninth as a dominant?  (For the effect of this, play two Ds with the left hand, and C-Eb-Gb-A with the right, then resolve to a G).

[ted]

Fall apart ? On the contrary, my wife seems physically stable and in full possession of her faculties whatever note combination I play.

[pianistimo]

i just played it and it made me fall off the bench due to the ugliness of the sound.  can you try again.  the D clashed with the C and the G clashed with the A and i didn't like the minor sound.

liked your first idea better.  it's like flowers in spring, or happy happy joy joy.

scriabin has some good stuff going on (as rachmaninov did) - but i have to learn what's going on with his composition and the chord choices.  seems that he likes wide intervals and they magnify the chords somehow.

i think the appeal of the 'emperor' concerto is the Eb MAJOR key and the contrasts occasionally.

[mikey6]

I don't think many people here would just want to sit and listen to a single chord for minutes or longer on end. That wouldn't be music in that case it would just be a pleasant, musicAL sound.

Stockhausen or Glass seem to think so.

[cfortunato]

The 7-9 is probably not quite in the spirit of the questio, since it doesn't stand alone: it's a substitute for a Dominant 7th.  The one I suggest is a D7-9 and substitutes for a D7.  That's why I said resolve to G.

As for the major 7th:   

1) Play a Cmaj7.  Slowly and prettily with argeggios and trills thrown in.

2) Play an Fmaj7.  Slowly and prettily with argeggios and trills thrown in.

3) Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.  Occassionally throw in another maj7 just to avoid monotony.

4) Pretend you are doing something soulful and impressive.

Honestly.  It works.

[pianistimo]

i've just gone mentally insane by cfortunato's suggestion.  why not try the 1/2 step above and just go for the tritone with the trills and all.  am still sitting here in the twilight zone.  how about an FM7  Fmin7 and then CM7?  (does the most beautiful chord go with the song 'the most beautiful girl int he world'? - if so, this is the first three chords of that song - you can do karaoke while you play.  i'll get the rest of the chords).

ted, you need to work on your wife - she's lost all faculties due to your playing too many avante garde improvisations.  try playing just a C major chord while telling her that you want to make up for all those sounds you tried on her before.  then, the G major and proceed through the circle of fifths.  (can add suggested trills).  there's something balancing about it. 

or, the overtone series.  that's why mozart is still so popular. people rely on it to get their bearing back after they play glass or stockhausen or mucynzski.  i think they tried to make people insane.

[sauergrandson]

Poulenc Organ Concerto, the beginning.

[pianistimo]

ooh.  i love poulenc.  i will go listen. rats. i can't get my earphones to work.  two years ago i did a report on his salve regina.  some really beautiful chords in there, too.  basically everything he wrote was intruiging , but very open.  some chords are not full chords but almost impressions of chords, keys.

[Derek]

I just think it is odd to think of any particular chord as "UGLY."

Sometimes I really love to hear a shockingly stark contrast---something very dissonant and odd sounding, and then something very tonal and normal and melodic juxtaposed against it. This has a very objective analogy of contrasting innocence with corruption or violence with peace or what have you.  I don't really think of those things when I play, but you know what I mean.  But the contrast, and the context, is where the beauty comes from.

In fact, I really don't think any single isolated musical device is all that interesting. I could say I think the circle of fifths is "cool" and syncopated rhythms are "neat"  but unless they are in the context of a truly GOOD piece of music, it's hard to rate their quality as stand alone things.

[orlandopiano]

Any from the opening moments of Appalachian Spring.

[clef]

I find myself unable to specify a most beautiful chord in isolation. It's the same as trying to find the most beautiful rhythm. It isn't a meaningful question for me personally, even in a comparative sense, if only for the reason that any musical element hardly ever occurs in isolation. There are certainly chords, rhythms, melodies, textures and so on which I consider very beautiful in their context, but if I play them in isolation they do not seem so remarkable.

Even worse than this, and more generally, within a very large acceptable variation I have great difficulty in picking out the most beautiful object within any given class of objects. It's just the way I'm made, I think, because many of my friends perform this latter task at once and with absolute sureness. They can look at a hundred photos of women, birds, landscapes, clothes, for instance, and single out one in a matter of seconds as being the most beautiful.

I agree.  It's not so much about the chords by them self, its about the chord progressions. 

[musicsdarkangel]

Before the first long octave run occurs in Liszt's Orage, there's an awesome chord before hand.  I wouldn't call it beautiful but its really badass

hmmmm, i'll have to think about this one; i know there are several.  There are some excellent ones from the Rach 2nd sonata 2nd movement.

[superstition2]

The beauty of a chord depends on the tuning system quite a bit. Older tuning systems improve certain chords, but yield worse results with other chords.

[mwarner1]

Or the 7th flatted ninth as a dominant?  (For the effect of this, play two Ds with the left hand, and C-Eb-Gb-A with the right, then resolve to a G).

I was wondering why this wasn't make sense to me at first... it makes a lot more sense when you call the "Gb" by it's real name in this context: "F#". I agree, it's a cool chord when followed by the G chord (V7b9 - I). The D already gets held over in a regular dominant 7th, but the added flat 9th (Eb) adds a tendency tone toward the I chord's D (the 5th of the chord). And if the D only appears in the bass in the first chord, as you imply, the D following the Eb melodically fills its place in a sense.

Theory babble...

[panic]

The second-to-last chord in the first fugue of OC is probably the coolest single chord I've ever heard. It sounds like looking through a weird kind of crystal or glass or something.

[cfortunato]

The E major at the end of the Beatles "A Day In The Life."

[ted]

ted, you need to work on your wife - she's lost all faculties due to your playing too many avante garde improvisations.

"Avant-garde" - the dictionary says "pioneers or innovators in art"

Why, thank you pianistimo, what a wonderful compliment; though I somehow doubt I am.

[pianistimo]

well, it's the ultimate compliment if your wife likes to hang around listening and admiring.  *where's my hubby when i play piano.  just to tease me - he'll stick around for a minute - looking down at his watch and pretending that he's listening or something.  my life is hell in terms of having audience participation.  my kids tell me to play softer - or stop.  the cat goes in another room.  BUT, the neighbors sometimes like it and stop in the street and say 'who's that playing the piano.'  don't know if that's good or bad- but i imagine to myself it's really good.  that they're out there in the cold and just stay as long as they can handle the temperature.  can you imagine the ultimate compliment - a person freezes to death on your porch because they like to hear you play.

[I Love Xenakis]

How bout Scriabin's mystic chord?


I really like A+E

[gorbee natcase]

All of them

[thorn]

the augmented 6th chord of C# in Ondine... perhaps not the chord itself, but the way it is used at the beginning and end.

[donjuan]

the augmented 6th chord of C# in Ondine... perhaps not the chord itself, but the way it is used at the beginning and end.

that IS beautiful!

My personal favorite is a B major chord, with the C# 2nd thrown in.  It's especially well used in Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

Either that, or the transfer from E major to augmented E major, for example, in Liszt's Sonetto 104 del Petrarca

[Waldszenen]

This is my favourite chord, something I discovered by accident when I was trying to improvise:



Play it slowly arpeggiated, not as an actual chord.

[burstroman]

I like the final chord of Jeux d'eau.

[ahinton]

I like the final chord of Jeux d'eau.

It's a bit of a "bum steer" of a question, I think (rather like asking for the identity of anyone's "favourite composer") but, since it's been asked - and since a "final chord" has been mentioned -  anyone for the final chord of that piece that - er - "dare not speak its name"?...

Best,

Alistair

[elevateme]

chopin ballade 4
janacek in the mists - III (andante?)
rach 2
gershwin prelude 3 middle section
ravel gaspard

[nicolaievich]

I really like the succession of chords at the beggining of Rach #2

[contrapunctus]

well, it's the ultimate compliment if your wife likes to hang around listening and admiring.  *where's my hubby when i play piano.  just to tease me - he'll stick around for a minute - looking down at his watch and pretending that he's listening or something.  my life is hell in terms of having audience participation.  my kids tell me to play softer - or stop.  the cat goes in another room.  BUT, the neighbors sometimes like it and stop in the street and say 'who's that playing the piano.'  don't know if that's good or bad- but i imagine to myself it's really good.  that they're out there in the cold and just stay as long as they can handle the temperature.  can you imagine the ultimate compliment - a person freezes to death on your porch because they like to hear you play.

I was just wondering, how do your neighbors hear you play? Are your houses right next to each other and you keep the doors and windows open? I was just wondering about that. In the subdivision where I live the houses are 60 feet or more apart.

[mwarner1]

This is my favourite chord, something I discovered by accident when I was trying to improvise:



Play it slowly arpeggiated, not as an actual chord.

Spell the G# as an Ab and you have a D half diminished 7th chord in 2nd inversion.

[franzliszt2]

The tristan chord.

The big Ab major chord in tchaikovsky's 2nd symphony, 1st mvt, introduction, after the horn solo. I'm sure its Ab major, unless my ears are totally out of pitch, which they could well be after practicing all week on a school piano that is totally microtonal.

[viking]

LH: plays a G, G-sharp, C-sharp, D
RH: plays a C, C-sharp, F-sharp, G
try it out.

[Tash]

randomly, here's a scene from our harmony class learning about the foregin sixths

lecturer is explaining the supposed derivatives of the english, french and german name- the french is apparently french because it sounds 'feeble' (according to the brits haha) or something along those lines

but my lecturer reckons it sounds 'quite sexy'- he breaks the chords and we all hear it, and we're all like 'wow that is quite a hot sounding chord' and tim goes 'oh jeez colin it's getting hot back here' lots of laughter hahaha

so i shall forever remember that when listening to french 6ths

[theodopolis]

I have two personal favourites in actual compositions.

The opening chord of Debussy's 'La Cathedrale Engloutie'

and

The opening chord of Messian's Le Banquet Celeste (1928) - Breaks me out in goosebumps every time.


Of course there's nothing on earth quite like a  C-major chord on an organ's plenum in 1/5 comma meantone temperament... preferably Schnitger

Theodopolis

[Pumkinhead]

The three final chords to Rachmaninoff's Etude Tableaux in C minor, Op. 33 No. 3.