Cletus McBone
(Formerly: R.G.)
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Putting to rest the myth of the tritone ban...
- Thread starter Cletus McBone
- Start date
Because he used this blog as a source, Neely slightly fluffs it: http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/tritone.html
The earliest well-known written reference to the diabolus mnemonic wasn't by Fux, it was Herr Temperament Andreas Werckmeister a couple of decades earlier in Harmonologia Musica and he clearly implies it's a lot older:
page 6/§12:
I'd also take issue with the semantic-shift notion. As there's plenty of evidence of the tritone being used to spice up cadences long before the notion of the ecclesiastical ban kicked in courtesy of George Grove mentioning it in his dictionary and the blues (the primary influence on early heavy metal) using the tritone extensively, which has its own roots in gospel, it's more just Neely conjecturing based on a few select examples written in the wake of the "Moral Majority's" crusade against rock from the 1970s onwards.
The earliest well-known written reference to the diabolus mnemonic wasn't by Fux, it was Herr Temperament Andreas Werckmeister a couple of decades earlier in Harmonologia Musica and he clearly implies it's a lot older:
page 6/§12:
I'd also take issue with the semantic-shift notion. As there's plenty of evidence of the tritone being used to spice up cadences long before the notion of the ecclesiastical ban kicked in courtesy of George Grove mentioning it in his dictionary and the blues (the primary influence on early heavy metal) using the tritone extensively, which has its own roots in gospel, it's more just Neely conjecturing based on a few select examples written in the wake of the "Moral Majority's" crusade against rock from the 1970s onwards.
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Saccobakunin
Member
Yeah, lots of dumb crap about this. My understanding is that the "devil in music" was just a way of talking about the difficulty of intoning it.
Interesting thing about the TT and blues is that the "Blue Note" is not on your fretboard or keyboard. You have to bend up to it because it can be 4:7 or 8:11. Those ratios do not appear on an instrument keyed or fretted to 12ED2.
Anyhow, I do hope this sends some people down the tuning and temperament rabbit holes.
Interesting thing about the TT and blues is that the "Blue Note" is not on your fretboard or keyboard. You have to bend up to it because it can be 4:7 or 8:11. Those ratios do not appear on an instrument keyed or fretted to 12ED2.
Anyhow, I do hope this sends some people down the tuning and temperament rabbit holes.
Bollen
Vintage Member
This has always been my understanding as well... For me, a tritone sounds as beautiful and smooth as 3rds and 6ths in counterpoint.
Maybe it should have been originally spelled "try"-tone.
