FIFTH

In Music, one of the harmonical intervals or concords. It is the second In order of the concords, the ratio of the chords that afford it being as 3:2. It is called tho fifth, as containing five terms or sounds between its extremes and four degrees; so that in the natural scale of music it comes in the fifth plnce or order from the fundamental. The ancients called it Diapcnte, and the Italians at present call it Quinta. The imperfect, defective, or false fifth, called by the ancients semi-diapente, is le than the fifth by a lei ii semitone. [s. 467]