news.bbc.co.uk— What's the link between the theme tune to the Simpsons, Black Sabbath, and West Side Story? They all use the Devil's Interval, a musical phenomenon suppressed by the Church in the Middle Ages.
Apr 28, 2006View in Crawl 4
@modusopVery right - Tritones are actually used a lot. Besides the V7 chords, they are also used in +6 chords (Fr, Ger, and It) because tritones lead to the dominant so well. Tritones have always been used but they were hidden. I'm currently playing a piece by Bach and there are so many times that Bach will even make leaps of tritones in between phrases. (Not a lot, but you actully have to play the music to realize it.) @Magic RobertWhat? Basses and Tenors are usally tuned in 4th's or 5th's to get the V-I relationship or the semi abrasive I-IV. Horn bookes use open 5ths and Octaves and other close notes in the overtone series... which Tritones are not. So um... Yea...
ProfDuck Quote:"Show me anywhere in Medieval or Renissance music that incorporates a tri-tone.You'd be hard-pressed to find anything in the Baroque and Classical (before Beethoven) that uses it, too, since the tri-tone was a huge taboo in composition"What are you talking about? start with Bach's WTC book I number 1. There are dominant 7ths and secondary dominant 7ths containing the tritone all over the place. Composers were playing with the tritone in a serious compositional sense a full two centuries before Bach. Go get a refresher in your music history.
ProfDuck: This particular piece of music theory stems at latest from the Baroque period. It's mentioned in Fux's Gradus Ad Parnassum (p.35 of the first part in the edition that I have).
Side note... When Elfman wrote the Simpsons theme, he based the melody off of The Jetsons which, until then, was the last prime time cartoon on network TV.
I'm glad there are real musicians on this site. I get so upset when people just read articles and suddenly feel that they know everything about the subject!Bach uses tritones everywhere! 251's (II-V-I's) use tritones and inverted tritones to sound wonderous! Tritone substitution of 251's is wonderful!I love it when Bach sticks a dominant 7th chord in, it's so beautiful. His use of dominant chords is so different than we use it today! Both uses are great!
For anyone looking at the bottom of the comments, if you want a good technical explanation of the tritone, scroll up to DerJazzMeister 's first comment on this article. The tritone is interesting, but I personally think that there is a great deal of misconception surrounding the tritone, as well as music theory in general. That being said, the article is somewhat intersting. Overall, though, I think that people place too much historical significance on the tritone when associating it with contemporary music. Unless you, too, believe that the tritone evokes the essence of evil, then all these assocations boil down to semantics. I think it is helpful to understand the tritone in a broader context of music history and theory. To summarize, the tritone was rarely used, and then used more, and now is used a lot. Maybe a bit over-simplistic, but it's true.Also, for something else interesting about musical dissonance, check out Monteverdi's use of an unprepared ninth in L'Orfeo. Fascinating stuff, music history.
The trick about the dominant 7 chord (in its most common incarnation, the V7) is that it's constructed on thirds, not a tritone-- in the same way a triad is two thirds, and it just so happens that the top one forms a fifth.The V7 is used very, very often in music (mostly the V65)because it wants to resolve so strongly to the I chord. Oh, and please, if you're going to use figured bass (ie, calling chords by roman numerals), do it properly. The "2" chord should be written "ii" because it's minor, and the Augmented 6th should be "vi(plus)". (not (plus) 6.) Really, it's just common courtesy to use the proper conventions...does anyone know why it doesn't want me to add plusses?
gpit2286Apr 29, 2006
@modusopVery right - Tritones are actually used a lot. Besides the V7 chords, they are also used in +6 chords (Fr, Ger, and It) because tritones lead to the dominant so well. Tritones have always been used but they were hidden. I'm currently playing a piece by Bach and there are so many times that Bach will even make leaps of tritones in between phrases. (Not a lot, but you actully have to play the music to realize it.) @Magic RobertWhat? Basses and Tenors are usally tuned in 4th's or 5th's to get the V-I relationship or the semi abrasive I-IV. Horn bookes use open 5ths and Octaves and other close notes in the overtone series... which Tritones are not. So um... Yea...
derjazzmeisterApr 30, 2006
ProfDuck Quote:"Show me anywhere in Medieval or Renissance music that incorporates a tri-tone.You'd be hard-pressed to find anything in the Baroque and Classical (before Beethoven) that uses it, too, since the tri-tone was a huge taboo in composition"What are you talking about? start with Bach's WTC book I number 1. There are dominant 7ths and secondary dominant 7ths containing the tritone all over the place. Composers were playing with the tritone in a serious compositional sense a full two centuries before Bach. Go get a refresher in your music history.
metasquaresApr 30, 2006
ProfDuck: This particular piece of music theory stems at latest from the Baroque period. It's mentioned in Fux's Gradus Ad Parnassum (p.35 of the first part in the edition that I have).
lwlockApr 30, 2006
Side note... When Elfman wrote the Simpsons theme, he based the melody off of The Jetsons which, until then, was the last prime time cartoon on network TV.
fitchmicahApr 30, 2006
I'm glad there are real musicians on this site. I get so upset when people just read articles and suddenly feel that they know everything about the subject!Bach uses tritones everywhere! 251's (II-V-I's) use tritones and inverted tritones to sound wonderous! Tritone substitution of 251's is wonderful!I love it when Bach sticks a dominant 7th chord in, it's so beautiful. His use of dominant chords is so different than we use it today! Both uses are great!
nextyoyomaApr 30, 2006
For anyone looking at the bottom of the comments, if you want a good technical explanation of the tritone, scroll up to DerJazzMeister 's first comment on this article. The tritone is interesting, but I personally think that there is a great deal of misconception surrounding the tritone, as well as music theory in general. That being said, the article is somewhat intersting. Overall, though, I think that people place too much historical significance on the tritone when associating it with contemporary music. Unless you, too, believe that the tritone evokes the essence of evil, then all these assocations boil down to semantics. I think it is helpful to understand the tritone in a broader context of music history and theory. To summarize, the tritone was rarely used, and then used more, and now is used a lot. Maybe a bit over-simplistic, but it's true.Also, for something else interesting about musical dissonance, check out Monteverdi's use of an unprepared ninth in L'Orfeo. Fascinating stuff, music history.
eleraamaMay 2, 2006
The trick about the dominant 7 chord (in its most common incarnation, the V7) is that it's constructed on thirds, not a tritone-- in the same way a triad is two thirds, and it just so happens that the top one forms a fifth.The V7 is used very, very often in music (mostly the V65)because it wants to resolve so strongly to the I chord. Oh, and please, if you're going to use figured bass (ie, calling chords by roman numerals), do it properly. The "2" chord should be written "ii" because it's minor, and the Augmented 6th should be "vi(plus)". (not (plus) 6.) Really, it's just common courtesy to use the proper conventions...does anyone know why it doesn't want me to add plusses?