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In a book on jazz harmony in Russian I have noticed the term 'open interval'. Example 57 says that interval -9 in the right arrangement is 'open interval' (in this case it's bad). The left arrangement is 'better' (smth which looks like 67 is in fact 'major 7th' in Russian notation).

My question is: Does 'open interval' here mean that one of the notes which form the -9 interval is THE HIGHEST of all the four notes, i.e. openness implies there is nothing above Bflat here?

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No, when talking about chord voicings, "open" means the voicing covers more than one octave. "Closed" means less than an octave.

So, in this case, the voicing on the left, spreads only a M7, while the one on the right spreads more than an octave (m9).

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    Welcome to Stack Exchange Peter! If you haven't already, please take the tour and visit the help centre for more information about this site. This is a good first answer, +1 – Aric Aug 28 '18 at 14:22
  • @Richard - is that the right way round? Sounds odd to me. Respect. – Tim Aug 29 '18 at 6:03
  • @Tim Oh, thanks! I move too quickly sometimes... – Richard Aug 29 '18 at 11:42
  • Note too that some textbooks call these "closed" and "open" intervals "simple" and "compound," respectively. – Richard Aug 29 '18 at 11:42

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