Press Up to hear a perfect fourth, then try the quiz!
Intervals · P4 ·
Perfect fourth
A perfect fourth is five semitones, the distance from C up to F. It is the first leap of the Bridal Chorus from Wagner’s Lohengrin, the tune people call "Here Comes the Bride."
Listen: C4 and F4
Quiz
Wormy plays one of these, up or down, from a different note each time. Can you tell which: major third, perfect fourth, tritone?
What it sounds like
Five keys apart, strong and open, a little ceremonial, like something is about to begin.
In music theory
Sol up to do, a pickup note landing on the downbeat, starts many hymns and anthems. Guitar and bass strings are tuned mostly in fourths. Turn a fourth upside down and it becomes a fifth.
Where you've heard it
- Bridal Chorus ("Here Comes the Bride"): the first two notes, going up.Published 1850. Richard Wagner, Lohengrin, Act 3, first performed in Weimar in 1850.
- Amazing Grace: "A-maz-," sol up to do, going up.Published 1829. The tune "New Britain," printed in Columbian Harmony (1829) and in William Walker's Southern Harmony (1835).
- Auld Lang Syne: "Should auld," sol up to do, going up.Published 1799. Traditional Scots tune, printed with Robert Burns's words in 1799.
- Eine kleine Nachtmusik: the first two notes, G down to D, going down.Published 1827. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Serenade No. 13, K. 525, first published 1827.
Every tune named here is public domain in the US or traditional. Wormy names the spot; it never plays the song.