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Quartal harmony is harmony based on the interval of a perfect fourth. It stands in contrast to the triadic harmony (also known as tertian harmony), which is based on major and minor thirds. Quintal harmony is based on the interval of a perfect fifth, which is the inversion of a perfect fourth, and is considered by some to be equivalent to quartal harmony.
Quartal harmony, quintal harmony, quartal melodic motion, and quintal melodic motion are prevalent in many major 20th-century orchestral works, including Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (brasses, rehearsal 16 through rehearsal 18) Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra (1st movement: strings in measures 1-49; motive introduced by the trombone in measure 134, which later becomes the subject of a fugato played by the brass section starting at measure 316, and later closes out the first movement as a brass section unison).
While quartal harmony, quintal harmony, quartal motion and quintal motion are often looked upon as having been invented by 20th-century composers, their use is not without precedent in music of earlier eras. For example, French composer Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400-1474) is credited as one of the first composers to have utilized a technique called fauxbourdon (literally “false melody”) in his sacred vocal music, in which one voice is called upon to improvise a line sung a fourth below another voice.
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