Consecutive fifths

In <a href="/facts/Music/hDVP0xsQ">music</a>, consecutive fifths or parallel fifths are progressions in which the <a href="/facts/Interval_(music)/aFwkkgpY">interval</a> of a <a href="/facts/Perfect_fifth/PTIaHPuI">perfect fifth</a> is followed by a different perfect fifth between the same two musical parts (or <a href="/facts/Melody/5TR3IE3Y">voices</a>): for example, from C to D in one part along with G to A in a higher part. <a href="/facts/Octave/RA4gWvkV">Octave</a> displacement is irrelevant to this aspect of musical grammar; for example, a parallel twelfth (i.e., an octave plus a fifth) is equivalent to a parallel fifth.
Parallel fifths are used in, and are evocative of, many musical genres, such as various kinds of Western folk and medieval music, as well as popular genres like <a href="/facts/Rock_music/zBM2guyQ">rock music</a>. However, parallel motion in <a href="/facts/Consonance_and_dissonance/RfQJwFFF">perfect consonances</a> (P1, P5, P8) is strictly forbidden in <a href="/facts/Species_counterpoint/9yd8pKzN">species counterpoint</a> instruction (1725–present), and during the <a href="/facts/Common_practice_period/nJ8HnoB2">common practice period</a>, consecutive fifths were strongly discouraged. This was primarily due to the notion of <a href="/facts/Voice_leading/05GAdDIG">voice leading</a> in tonal music, in which "one of the basic goals ... is to maintain the relative independence of the individual parts."
A common theory is that the presence of the 3rd harmonic of the <a href="/facts/Harmonic_series_(music)/PdElIrxL">harmonic series</a> influenced the creation of the prohibition.

Consecutive fifths open-in-new

Consecutive fifths