HEXACHORDS

Renaissance music theory did not use scales the way modern theory does. To understand how renaissance musicians played music on a consort of flutes it's important to understand the way they grouped the notes into overlapping patterns of six, called hexachords. The hexachords made fingering different sizes of flute (discant, alto/tenor, and bass) easier, as well as transposing consort music so that it would fit on a set of flutes. See also MODES.

The hexachords and the renaissance flute (Ardal Powell TRAVERSO, January 1999)