Tritones

This video by Adam Neely illustrates perfectly the point that I am making with a tritone. He articulates the idea that a tritone is not necessarily ‘The Devil’s note’..

The meaning added to tritones by humans

In his video Adam Neely makes a big number of points. One of these points being that the tritone is wrongfully called ‘the Devil’s note’ in the Middle Ages. He explained how this naming is just a metaphor to show how hard it is to sing it.

Composers took the semantic shift of this expression to make use of this interval in more sinister contexts.

I was taught in my classical theory classes that the tritone is a ‘no-no’.

Other uses of a tritone

The tritone can be ‘yearning and hopeful’ like in the song maria from west side story:

it can even be playful like in the of the Simpsons:

Blues actually explores the unresolved tension of a tritone.

Ending statement

He finished with a very interesting statement:

What will you do with a tritone?

Adam Neely

This question felt like a challenge I’d want to tackle.