What does Diabolus in Musica mean?
The Devil in Music
Album title and lyrical themes Diabolus in Musica is a Latin term for “The Devil in Music” or tritone. Medieval musical rules did not allow this particular dissonance.
What notes are in a tritone?
tritone, in music, the interval encompassed by three consecutive whole steps, as for instance the distance from F to B (the whole steps F–G, G–A, and A–B). In semitone notation, the tritone is composed of six semitones; thus it divides the octave symmetrically in equal halves.
What is Devil’s chord?
In music a tritone consists of two notes that are three whole steps apart, such as “C” to “F#.” Not found in either the major or minor scales, and due to its discordant sound, it has been called “the Devil’s Chord.”
Why do we listen to the Devil’s tritone?
John Sloboda, a professor of music psychology at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, explained to NPR in 2012 that the dissonant intervals of the Devil’s Tritone are particularly affecting because of this listener’s instinct to find resolution in music, and the fact that we’re used to getting it:
When did the tritone become an unstable interval?
From then until the end of the Renaissance the tritone was regarded as an unstable interval and rejected as a consonance by most theorists. The name diabolus in musica (“the Devil in music”) has been applied to the interval from at least the early 18th century, though its use is not restricted to the tritone.
Why is the tritone important in classical music?
In classical music, the tritone is a harmonic and melodic dissonance and is important in the study of musical harmony. The tritone can be used to avoid traditional tonality: “Any tendency for a tonality to emerge may be avoided by introducing a note three whole tones distant from the key note of that tonality.”
Who was the first band to play a descending tritone?
In the ‘70s and ‘80s many prog rockers have been loyal proponents of diabolus in musica. The beginning of Rush’s “YYZ” is all triads, King Crimson use a descending tritone in “Red” and Primus play flatted fifths throughout the South Park theme song.
