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The tritone ( Tri - or three and Tone ) is a Musical Interval that spans three Whole Tones . The tritone is the same as an '''augmented fourth''', which in Equal Temperament is Enharmonic to a '''diminished fifth'''. It is often used as the main interval of Dissonance in Western harmony, and is important in the study of musical Harmony . DEFINITION AND NOMENCLATURE Only the augmented fourth consists of three whole tones in . OCCURRENCES The tritone occurs naturally between the 4th and 7th scale degrees of the Major Scale (for example, from F to B in the key of C major). It is also present in the natural minor scale as the interval formed between the second and sixth scale degrees (for example, from D to Ab in the key of C minor). The melodic minor scale, having two forms, presents a tritone in different locations when ascending and descending (when the scale ascends, the tritone appears between the third and sixth scale degrees and the fourth and seventh scale degrees, and when the scale descends, the tritone appears between the second and sixth scale degrees). Supertonic chords using the notes from the natural minor mode will thus contain a tritone, regardless of inversion. The dominant seventh chord contains a tritone within its tone construction. Thus, the tritone will occur between the Third and Seventh of the Dominant Seventh Chord (for example, G7 in the key of C major) or of any secondary dominant seventh chord (for example, D7 in the key of C major), because both of these chords are forms of the major-minor seventh sonority. Furthermore, the Italian augmented sixth chord (Ab, C, and F# in C major) and German augmented sixth chord (Ab, C, Eb, and F#) are enharmonic equivalents of the major-minor seventh sonority and also contain tritones. Unlike the similar German and Italian augmented chords, the French augmented sixth chord (Ab, C, D, and F# in C major) is unique in that it can be viewed as being constructed by a superimposition of ''two'' intervals of a tritone a whole step apart: a tritone between C and F#, and then a tritone between D and Ab. The diminished triad (for instance, B, D, and F) also contains a tritone in its construction, and from this fact is derived its name, for it contains a diminished fifth interval (i.e. a tritone). Furthermore, the fully diminished seventh sonority (for instance, B, D, F, and Ab) is made up of the superimposition two tritone intervals a minor third apart (from B to F, and then from D to Ab). In all of the sonorities mentioned above, the restless sound of the tritone serves as an important push towards resolution.
The tritone is also one of the defining features of the often neglected Locrian Mode . Compared to other commonly occurring intervals like the major second or the minor third, the augmented fourth and the diminished fifth (both two valid enharmonic interpretations of the tritone) are awkward intervals to sing. Western composers have traditionally avoided using it explicitly in their melody lines, often preferring to use passing tones or extra note skipping instead of using a direct leap of an augmented fourth or diminished fifth in their melodies. However, as time went by, composers have gradually used the tritone more and more in their music, disregarding its awkwardness and exploiting its expressiveness. (See ''Musical examples'' below). HISTORICAL USES The tritone is a restless interval, classed as a Dissonance in Western music from the early Middle Ages through the end of the Common Practice period. That interval was avoided in medieval ecclesiastical singing because of its dissonant quality. The first explicit prohibition of that interval seems to occur with ''"the development of Guido Of Arezzo 's Hexacordal system which made B flat a diatonic note, namely as the 4th degree of the hexachordal on F. From then until the end of Renaissance the tritone, nick name the "diabolus in musica" was regarded as an unstable interval and rejected as a consonance"'' Sadie, Stanley (1980). "Tritone " in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1st ed.). MacMillan, pp.154-155, ISBN 0-333-23111-2)The name ''diabolus in musica'' ("the Devil in music") has been applied to the interval from at least the early eighteenth century. Telemann in 1733 notes that "mi contra fa...welches die alten den satan in der music nenneten," ("Mi against Fa, which the ancients called 'Satan in music'") while Mattheson in 1739 writes that the "alten Solmisatores dieses angenehme Intervall mi contra fa oder den Teufel in der Music genannt haben." ("Older singers with solmization called this pleasant interval 'mi contra fa' or 'the devil in music'.") Reinhold Hammerstein, ''Diabolus in Musica: Studien zur Ikonographie der Musik im Mittelalter,'' Bern: Francke Verlag, 1974. p. 7. Although both of these authors cite the association with the devil as from the past, there are no known citations of this term from the Middle Ages, as is commonly asserted.F. J. Smith, "Some aspects of the tritone and the semitritone in the ''Speculum Musicae'': the non-emergence of the ''diabolus in music''," ''Journal of Musicological Research'' 3 (1979), pp. 63-74, at 70. However Denis Arnold, in the referential ''The New Oxford Companion to Music'', suggests that the nickname was already applied early in the medieval music itself: ''"It seems first to have been designated as a 'dangerous' interval when Guido Of Arezzo developed his system of hexachords and with the introduction of B flat as a diatonic note, at much the same time acquiring its nickname of 'Diabolus in Musica' ('the devil in music')''Arnold, Denis (1983) « Tritone » in ''The New Oxford Companion to Music, Volume 1: A-J'',Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-311316-3."Because of that original symbolic association with the devil and its avoidance, that interval came to be heard in Western cultural convention as suggesting "evil" connotative meaning in music. Today the interval continues to suggest an "oppressive," "scary," or "evil" sound. However suggestions that singers were Excommunicated or otherwise punished by the church for invoking this interval are likewise fanciful. At any rate, avoidance of the interval for musical reasons has a long history, stretching back to the parallel Organum of the Musica Enchiriadis . In all these expressions, including the commonly cited "mi contra fa est diablous in musica," the "mi" and "fa" refer to notes from two adjacent Hexachord s. For instance, in the tritone B-F, B would be "mi," that is the third scale degree in the "hard" hexachord beginning on G, while F would be "fa," that is the fourth scale degree in the "natural" hexachord beginning on C. Later in history with the rise of the Baroque and Classical music era, that interval came to be perfectly accepted, but yet was used in a specific controlled way, notably through the principle of the tension/release mechanism of the Tonal System . In that system (which is the fundamental musical grammar of Baroque and Classical music), the tritone is one of the defining intervals of the dominant-seventh chord and two tritones separated by a minor third give the fully-diminished seventh chord its characteristic sound. In minor, the diminished triad (comprising two minor thirds which together add up to a tritone) appears on the second scale degree, and thus features prominently in the progression iio-V-i. Often, the inversion iio6 is used to move the tritone to the inner voices as this allows for stepwise motion in the bass to the dominant root. In three-part counterpoint, free use of the diminished triad in first inversion is permitted, as this eliminates the tritone relation to the bass.Jeppesen, Knud: "The Polyphonic Style of the Sixteenth Century", Dover, 1992, ISBN 0-486-27036-X (pbk) It's only with the Romantic Music and Modern Classical Music that composers started to use it totally freely, without functional limitations notably in an expressive way to exploit the evil connotations which are culturally associated to it.(e.g. Liszt 's use of the tritone to suggest hell in his Dante Sonata ) The tritone was also exploited heavily in that period as an interval of Modulation for its ability to evoke a strong reaction by moving quickly to distantly related keys. Later on, in twelve-tone music, serialism, and other 20th century compositional idioms it came to be considered as a neutral interval.Persichetti, V., "Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice", W. W. Norton & Company, 1961, ISBN 0-393-09539-8 The equal-tempered tritone (a ratio of or 600 Cents ) is unique in being its own Octave Inversion . Note that in other Meantone tunings, the augmented fourth and the diminished fifth are distinct intervals because neither is exactly half an octave. In any meantone tuning near to 2/9 comma meantone the augmented fourth will be near to the ratio 7/5 and the diminished fifth to 10/7, which is what these intervals are taken to be in Septimal Meantone Temperament . In 31 Equal Temperament , for example, the diminished fifth, or tritone proper, is 580.6 cents, whereas a 7/5 is 582.5 cents. NOTABLE OCCURENCES OF THE TRITONE Although the tritone is a fundamental interval of Western music, certain pieces use the tritone in a notable way, perhaps in a prominent place or relating to its supposed diabolic character. The most notable users of the tritone are in the genre of Heavy Metal and in particular Black Metal where it appears almost endemically. Other specific pieces include:
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