pitch class

noun

: the set of all musical pitches of the same name regardless of octave

The single pitch class that symbolizes Wozzeck's idée fixe in the murder scene is first asserted in this connection as the final note of Act II …

—George Perle, The Operas of Alban Berg, 1989

—usually hyphenated when used before another noun

pitch-class sets

called also chroma

Word History

First Known Use

1962, in the meaning defined above

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