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It’s been used by composers and musicians from JS Bach<\/a><\/strong> to Jimi Hendrix. It creates an atmosphere of tension, drama and mystery. It’s one of the most intriguing elements in the musical universe. But what exactly is the tritone? Read on as we dissect the so-called ‘devil in music’.<\/p> The tritone is a musical interval spanning three whole tones (hence the name). In Western music, the tritone is one of the most distinctive and tension-filled intervals, often associated with dissonance and instability. Its unique, eerie sound has made it a subject of fascination for theorists, performers and composers for centuries.<\/p> Once feared for its unsettling sound, the tritone was often avoided in Medieval religious music<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p> A tritone is exactly half an octave, consisting of six half steps. For example, in the key<\/a><\/strong> of C major, the tritone would be the interval between C and F sharp (or G flat).<\/p> The tritone can also be called an augmented fourth (A4) or diminished fifth (d5), depending on its context in harmony. The sound this creates is often described as unsettling, ambiguous, or even eerie due to its tension and tendency to resolve. It crops up a lot during Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns<\/a><\/strong>‘s famous Danse Macabre<\/em>, adding to the ghostly, haunting soundwolrd of that piece:<\/p> What is a tritone?<\/h2>
Let’s get technical<\/h2>