fifth

This cycle of fifths produced 12 pitches that were mathematically correct, but the 13th pitch did not match the 1st pitch. In the West this so-called “Pythagorean comma” became bothersome as Western music oriented toward vertical sounds called harmony in which the distance between pitches in chords needed…

…mixtures these sound at a fifth above the unison (e.g., G above C), although ranks sounding at a third above and even at a flat seventh (e.g., E and B♭ above C) and their respective octaves are also found; but these are best restricted to mixtures intended for somewhat special…

…harmony, are the octave, the fifth, and the fourth. (An octave, as from C to the C above it, encompasses eight white notes on a piano keyboard, or a comparable mixture of white and black notes. A fifth, as from C to G, encompasses five white notes; a fourth, as…