The Elektra chord is a "complexly dissonant signature-chord"Lawrence Kramer. "Fin-de-siècle Fantasies: Elektra, Degeneration and Sexual Science", Cambridge Opera Journal, vol. 5, no. 2. (July 1993), pp. 141–165. and motivic elaboration used by composer Richard Strauss to represent the title character of his opera Elektra that is a "bitonal synthesis of E major and C-sharp major" and may be regarded as a polychord related to conventional chords with added thirds,H. H. Stuckenschmidt; Piero Weiss. "Debussy or Berg? The Mystery of a Chord Progression", The Musical Quarterly, vol. 51, no. 3. (July 1965), pp. 453–459. in this case an eleventh chord. It is enharmonically equivalent to a 79 chord, D–F–A–C–E, and a 69 chord, E–G–B-C-F.
In the opera, the chord—Elektra's "harmonic signature"—is treated various ways betraying "both tonal and bitonal leanings... a dominant over a nonharmonic bass." It is associated as well with its seven-note complement which may be arranged as a dominant thirteenth while other characters are represented by other motives or chords, such as Klytämnestra's contrasting harmony. The Elektra chord's complement appears at important points and the two chords form a 10-note pitch collection, lacking D and A, which forms one of Elektra's "distinctive 'voices'."Carolyn Abbate, "Music and Language in Elektra", in Richard Strauss: Elektra, ed. Derrick Puffett, Cambridge Opera Guides (Cambridge, 1989), 107–127. Cited in Kramer (1993), p. 156.
Use in other works The chord is also found in Claude Debussy's Feuilles mortes, where it may be analyzed as an appoggiatura to a minor ninth chord, Franz Schreker's Der ferne Klang, and Alexander Scriabin's Sixth Piano Sonata.
See also Gamma chord Mystic chord Petrushka chord Psalms chord Tristan chord
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