How You Know Its the Devil
What is a tritone and why was it nicknamed the devil'south interval?
18 June 2018, sixteen:19 | Updated: 18 June 2018, sixteen:22
Meet the tritone - an interval so dissonant that it's earned the nickname 'The Devil'south Interval' and was avoided for centuries by composers and the pupils they taught.
But why is the tritone so offensive to our ears – and how accept clever composers used this unique power to write moving and powerful music?
What is a tritone?
A tritone is an interval made up of three tones, or vi semitones. In each diatonic scale in that location is only one tritone, and information technology occurs between the quaternary and seventh degrees of the scale, so in a C major scale this would be between F and B. Or in G major it would be between C and F precipitous:
Simply let's non forget, before the invention of keyboard instruments there was no 'universal tuning' and instruments were tuned in lots of dissimilar ways. The tritone really played a vital role in the development of modern harmony...
Did yous know that not all accidentals were created at the same time? F sharp and B flat were the first ones, and they were invented to attempt and solve the problem of the tritone in music.
The devil's music
In times past, music was organised into modes rather than keys. The modes only used the white keys on a keyboard, so the only style you could play a different calibration, or a different pattern of tones and semitones, was to start on a different annotation.
Each mode had its own recognisable flavour and character. There was an accepted tradition of which modes were suitable for joyful music (e.g. Ionian and Lydian) and which were for more mournful subjects, (east.g. Dorian and Phrygian).
The system of modes worked for every note of the scale... until you got to B. This scale was called the Locrian manner, and it was the only 1 where the 5th degree of the scale is non a perfect fifth - it's an augmented 4th – a forbidden tritone!
This went against everything music appeared to represent, and was christened diabolus in musica – the Devil in music. The Locrian mode was very rarely used.
Composers who wanted to use this concluding fashion began to tamper with the devilish B to F interval to attempt and better the scale. Some composers flattened the B until it was a perfect fifth below the F, and others sharpened the F until information technology was a perfect fifth to a higher place the B, giving us our offset two accidentals – B flat and F sharp.
Why does the tritone audio and then horrible?
John Sloboda, a professor of music psychology at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, explained that the tritone is particularly unnerving because the human brain is hardwired to observe harmony and symmetry in music:
"When we hear something anomalous, it gives you a little scrap of an emotional frisson, because it's strange and unexpected. The emotional result of hearing a tritone, might not be too unlike from the i experienced at the lesser of a staircase that failed to mention information technology'south missing its last step."
Pitches sound harmonious together when there is a simple ratio between the frequencies of the 2 notes. The ratio of ii notes an octave apart is a pleasing 2:i, and these sounds are so consonant we even give both the notes the same name. The next most consonant interval is the perfect 5th, (3:2). And then information technology continues, through the total range of intervals.
Then how about our friend the tritone? Well, its notes end up in the unsightly proportion of 45:32 (or 64:45 depending on which way you melody it). Either style, this ratio sounds pretty ugly to the human ear. But it's not all bad news – the tritone has establish great fame and fortune in the world of alarms and emergency sirens!
To learn more about why some combinations of notes sound all gooey and lovely and others sound dissonant, click hither >
Was information technology really banned by the church?
Rumours abound that music featuring the tritone was banned from churches because of its association with the devil. But every bit juicy as this gossip about the tritone might be, there is no evidence that this always happened.
It's more likely that the strict rules of harmony observed by those composing for the church forbade the use of the augmented quaternary for musical reasons, rather than because they believed that it was the devil dwelling in music.
Where can I hear information technology?
The jarring nature of the tritone makes for instantly recognisable hooks in hit songs and catchy theme tunes. Here are a couple of our favourites:
Maria from Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story
Jimi Hendrix's Purple Brume
Source: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/music-theory/what-is-a-tritone/
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