tetratonic

The two Creek Indian "Duck Dance Songs" from the north- eastern United States illustrate the use of a tetratonic scale, A, C, D, E ( Example 5a ), and a pentatonic scale, A, C, D, E, G ( Example 5b ).

1976, Bruno Nettl, Helen Myers, Folk Music in the United States, page 38

This four-note pattern is called a tetratonic, or also sometimes referred to as a melodic structures (by saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, and others). […] This is powerful because applying this tetratonic formula R235 or R345, you have something that works(!) to play on every chord change and on every beat.

2015, Andy McWain, Jazz Practice Ideas with Your Real Book

Of course such tetratonic music is capable of powerful expression in its own particular mood but there has apparently been no attempt to evolve form as such.

1974, I. E. N. Chauhan, Ethnomusicology-tribal Music: The Music of Kinnaur, page 20

Beyond these areas Sasak music largely diverges from pélog and slendro tonality, and there are a number of tetratonic forms — in compositions for gamelan beleq and kamput, for example.

2006, David D. Harnish, Bridges to the Ancestors: Music, Myth, And Cultural Politics, page 232

This tetratonic polymer proved to be more active than any of the tritonic polymers, showing the maximal inhibition recordable under standard test conditions.

2009, G. E. W. Wolstenholme, David W. FitzSimons, Julie Whelan, Submolecular Biology and Cancer, page 179