page_title: Polytonality
section_title: Polytonality and polychords
hierarchical_section_title: Polytonality / Polytonality and polychords
caption_attribution_description: English: Thirteenth Polychord - Separate chords within an extended chord.
context_page_description: Polytonality is the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key, at the same time.
  Some examples of bitonality superimpose fully harmonized sections of music in different keys.
context_section_description: Polytonality requires the presentation of simultaneous key-centers. The term "polychord" describes chords that can be constructed by superimposing multiple familiar tonal sonorities. For example, familiar ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords can be built from or decomposed into separate chords:
  Thus polychords do not necessarily suggest polytonality, but they may not be explained as a single tertian chord. The Petrushka chord is an example of a polychord (Ellenberger 2005, 20). This is the norm in jazz, for example, which makes frequent use of "extended" and polychordal harmonies without any intended suggestion of "multiple keys."
caption: Separate chords within an extended chord (Marquis 1964,[page needed]). About this soundPlay (help·info)
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