On the surface there might appear to be no link between Black Sabbath, Wagner's Gotterdammerung, West Side Story and the theme tune to the Simpsons. But all of them rely heavily on tritones, a musical interval that spans three whole tones, like the diminished fifth or augmented fourth. This interval, the gap between two notes played in succession or simultaneously, was branded Diabolus in Musica or the Devil's Interval by medieval musicians.

A rich mythology has grown up around it. Many believe that the Church wanted to eradicate the sounds from its music because it invoked sexual feelings, or that it was genuinely the work of the Devil. It is a mythology much beloved of long-haired guitar wizards.

Reader comment: Judson says,

Here's a song my band did in the early eighties called 'fucker's concert' based on the evil tritone: MP3 Link

I thought I'd throw in this song I wrote and performed with a band called I Need Sleep based on the tritone. It's about Oliver Cromwell. You can find it at this address.

The sound which the Tripods in the movie "war of the worlds" (2005) emit to signal each other and induce fear in the humans is actually, in musical terms, a tritone - also known as a diminished fifth. The tritone was used because it is known for causing distress to the human ear, being only a half-step away from a perfect fifth chord. Link

It is also called 'Diabolus in Musica' and was used in a song of the very same name by Jim Thirlwell, aka Foetus. I own the CD, it's an awesome piece of music. Jim is also a longtime friend around the SRL shop.

Here's an interview with him: Link.

And on his site, the album with Diabolus song, with notes from Thirlwell: Link.

Snip: (Diabolus In Musica:)

"mi contra fa

Diabolus est in musica"

Diabolus in Musica was a medieval term for the tritone (augmented fourth or diminished fifth). It divides the octave into two equal parts (in this case C and F#).

In the medieval system of church modes the tritone was the most conspicuous as the interval between the final and the fourth degree of the modes on F, the Lydian and Hypolydian.

The first mention of the word "tritonus" seems to be in the 9th or 10th century organum treatise "Musica Enchiriadis", though it was not explicitly prohibited until the development of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal system. From then until the end of the Renaissance the tritone, nicknamed Diabolus in Musica, was regarded as a dangerous interval associated with evil and was banned by the chirch as being thought to summon Satan.

Those found using the chord were routinely subjected to slow torturous death by genital mutilation and the administering of such implements as the skull crusher, the breast breaker and the wheel. Burnings at the stake were also favoured.

RECOMMENDED LISTENING CONDITIONS: BLACKNESS; OXYGEN AT LISTENERS DISCRETION; EXTREME STEREO OR HEADPHONES; LARGE VOLUME MANDATORY.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 10:15:50 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments