Polychord: Definition from Answers.com

Bitonal polychord: F major on top of C major.^[1]

In music and music theory, a bichord or polychord consists of two or more chords, one on top of the other.

The use of polychords may suggest bitonality or polytonality. Harmonic parallelism may suggest bichords.

Examples may be found in Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka, p.15, and Rite of Spring, "Dance of the Adolescents" (1921) ^[2] (see Petrushka chord). They may also be found in the song "Point of No Return" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, including chords such as E♭m over Fm.^[3]

Polychords: Em, EbM, EbM, and DM over Dm.^[4]

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In the polychords in the image above, the 1st, "might well suggest," a thirteenth chord, the 2nd may suggest a, "d minor ninth chord with upper extensions," but the octave separation of the 3rd makes the suggestion of, "two independent triads with their a m9 apart," even more likely, and the 4th is a, "split-third chord."^[4]

Extended chords contain more than one triad, and so can be regarded as a type of polychord:

Separate chords within an extended chord.^[5]

Examples of extended chords include the Elektra chord.

Fred Steiner's 1957 Perry Mason theme, "Park Avenue Beat", ends with a DM/Cm polychord quoted by Frank Zappa in "Jezebel Boy", Broadway the Hard Way (1988) and described by Walter Everett as "juicy".^[6]

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Source

^ Pen, Ronald (1992). Introduction to Music, p.242. ISBN 0070380686.
^ DeLone et al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music, p.336. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.
^ "Past the Point of No Return". Scribd. http://www.scribd.com/doc/14869318/Past-the-Point-of-No-Return. Retrieved on Jul. 6, 2009.
^ ^a ^b Kostka & Payne (1995). Tonal Harmony, p.494. Third Edition. ISBN 0070358745.
^ Marquis, G. Welton (1964). Twentieth Century Music Idioms. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
^ Walter Everett (Autumn, 2004). "A Royal Scam: The Abstruse and Ironic Bop-Rock Harmony of Steely Dan", p.208-209, Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 201-235.

Chords

By type

Triad	Major · Minor · Augmented · Diminished · Suspended

Seventh	Major · Minor · Dominant · Diminished · Half-diminished · Minor-major · Augmented major · Augmented minor

Extended	Ninth · Eleventh · Thirteenth · Upper structure

Other	Sixth · Minor sixth · Augmented sixth · Altered · Added tone · Polychord · Quartal and quintal · Tone cluster · Power chord

By function

Diatonic	Tonic · Dominant · Subdominant · Submediant

Altered	Borrowed · Neapolitan chord · Secondary dominant

With names

Elektra chord · Hendrix chord · Mystic chord · Petrushka chord · Tristan chord · Psalms chord · So What chord · Mu chord

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Polychord

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Source