(Rene),** a famous civilian born at Bailleul in Anjou in 1537. He was advocate in the parliament of Paris, where he pleaded for a long time with great reputation. He at last shut himself up in his closet; and composed many works, which have been collected together, and printed in 6 vols., folio. He died at Paris in 1666.

**CHORASSAN,** or **Khorassan,** a province of Persia adjoining to Ulbec Tartary. This was the ancient Bactria, and the birth-place of Kouli Khan.

**CHORD,** or **CORD,** primarily denotes a slender rope or cordage*. The word is formed of the Latin chorda, and that from the Greek, χορδα, a gut, string, whereof things may be made.

**CHORD,** in geometry, a right line drawn from one part of an arch of a circle to another. Hence,

**Chord of an Arch,** is a right line joining the extremes of that arch.

**Chord,** in music, the union of two or more sounds uttered at the same time, and forming together an entire harmony.

The natural harmony produced by the resonance of a sounding body, is composed of three different sounds, without reckoning their octaves; which form among themselves the most agreeable and perfect chord that can possibly be heard: for which reason they are called, on account of their excellence, perfect chords. Hence, in order to render that harmony complete, it is necessary that each chord should at least consist of three sounds. The trio is likewise found by musicians to include the perfection of harmony; whether because in this all the chords, and each in its full perfection, are used; or, because upon such occasions as render it improper to use them all, and each in its integrity, arts have been successfully practised to deceive the ear, and to give it contrary persuasion, by deluding it with the principal sounds of each chord, in such a manner as to render it forgetful of the other sounds necessary to their completion. Yet the octave of the principal sound produces new relations, and new consonances, by the completion of the intervals: they commonly add this octave, to have the affluence of all the consonances in one and the same chord (see CONSONANCE.) Moreover, the addition of the dissonance, (see DISCORD,) producing a fourth sound superadded to the perfect chord, it becomes indispensible necessary, if we would render the chord full, that we should include a fourth part to express this dissonance. Thus, the series of chords can neither be complete nor connected but by means of four parts.

Chords are divided into perfect and imperfect. The perfect chord is that which we have lately described; which which is composed of the fundamental sound below, of its third, its fifth, and its octave; they are likewise subdivided into major and minor, according as the thirds which enter into their composition are flat or sharp: (See INTERVAL.) Some authors likewise give the name of perfect to all chords, even to dissonances, whose fundamental sounds are below. Imperfect chords are those in which the sixth, instead of the fifth, prevails, and in general all those whose lowest are not their fundamental sounds. These denominations, which had been given before the fundamental basis was known, are now most unhappily applied: those of chords direct and reversed, are much more suitable in the same sense. (See the account of INVERTED Chords.)

Chords are once more divided into consonances and dissonances. The chords denominated consonances, are the perfect chord, and its derivatives; every other chord is a dissonance.

A table of both, according to the system of M. Rameau, may be seen in Rouffleau's Musical Dictionary, vol. I. p. 27.

After the table to which our readers have been referred, Rouffleau adds the following observations, which are at the same time so just and so important, that we should be very sorry if they escape the reader's attention.

At the words harmony, fundamental bass, composition, &c. he promises to treat concerning the manner of using all the chords to form regular harmony; and only adds, in this place, the subsequent reflections.

1. It is a capital error to imagine, that the methods of inverting the same chord are in all cases equally eligible for the harmony, and for the expression. There is not one of these different arrangements, but has its proper character. Every one feels the contrast between the softness of the false fifth, and the grating sound of the tritone, though the one of these intervals is produced by a method of inverting the other. With the seventh diminished, and the second redundant, the case is the same with the interval of the second in general use, and the seventh. Who does not feel how much more vocal and sonorous the fifth appears when compared with the fourth? The chord of the great sixth, and that of the lesser sixth minor, are two forms of the same fundamental chord; but how much less is the one harmonious than the other? On the contrary, the chord of the lesser sixth major is much more pleasing and cheerful than that of the false fifth? And only to mention the most simple of all chords, reflect on the majesty of the perfect chord, the sweetness of that which is called the chord of the fifth, and the infidelity of that which is composed of a sixth and a fourth; all of them, however, composed of the same sounds. In general, the redundant intervals, the sharps in the higher part, are proper by their severity to express violent emotions of mind, such as anger and the rougher passions. On the contrary, flats in the higher parts, and diminished intervals, form a plaintive harmony, which melts the heart. There are a multitude of similar observations, of which when a musician knows how to avail himself, he may command at will the affections of those who hear him.

2. The choice of simple intervals is scarcely of less importance than that of the chords, with regard to the stations in which they ought to be placed. It is, for instance, in the lower parts that the fifth and octave should be used in preference; in the upper parts, the third and sixth are more proper. If you transpose this order, the harmony will be ruined even though the same chords are preserved.

3. In a word, the chords are rendered still more harmonious, by being approximated and only divided by the smallest practicable intervals, which are more suitable to the capacity of the ear than such as are remote. This is what we call contracting the harmony, an art which few composers have skill and abilities enough to put in practice. The limits in the natural compass of voices, afford an additional reason for lessening the distance of the intervals, which compose the harmony of the chorus, as much as possible. We may affirm, that a chorus in improperly composed, when the distance between the chords increases; when those who perform the different parts are obliged to scream; when the voices rise above their natural extent, and are so remotely distant one from the other that the perception of harmonical relations between them is lost.

We say likewise, that an instrument is in concord, when the intervals between its fixed sounds are what they ought to be; we say in this sense, that the chords of an instrument are true or false, if it preserves or does not preserve its chords. The same form of speaking is used for two voices which sing together, or for two sounds which are heard at the same time, whether in unison or in parts.

CHORDS, or Cords, of Musical Instruments, are strings, by the vibration of which the sensation of sound is excited, and by the divisions of which the several degrees of tone are determined.