In music of ancient Greece, the term epidiapente indicated an interval a perfect fifth higher."epidiapente", Oxford Reference This meaning was also used by western European composers of the Renaissance,Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, Harvard University Press, 1950, p. 227: "Diapente [Gr. pente, five]. Ancient Greek and medieval name for the fifth. Epidiapente, fifth above; subdiapente or hypodiapente, fifth below. Hence, canon in epidiapente, canon in the fifth above." and can even be found as late as The Musical Offering of J. S. Bach. In that case, it was used in the "Fuga canonica in epidiapente" to indicate that the second (unwritten) voice was to enter a fifth higher.Fuga canonica in epidiapente' from Musikalisches Opfer", Netherlands Bach Society. Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg described in 1801 a canon to the upper fifth as canon in diapente.Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, Traité de la fugue et du contrepoint, Paris, Naderman, 1801, p. 121.
The term 'hypodiapente' designated canons at the lower fifth.
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