But back in the day, the devil was said to exist in a particular musical tone. For centuries, it was called the devil's interval — or, in Latin, diabolus in musica. In music theory, it's called the "tritone" because it's made of three whole steps.
One such example of the devil's tritone is in the classic Black Sabbath tune, “ Black Sabbath .” One might listen to this and think that it is precisely what the Church was trying to ban all those centuries ago! In this example, the tritone occurs in the top two notes of the G7 chord.
There's a tale behind that moniker: In those pious days of the Middle Ages, the tritone was so unpleasing that it was considered the work of the devil, leading church authorities ban its use in ecclesiastical music.
The reason why tritones sound so dissonant is because they sit in between a perfect fourth and fifth, which conventionally are two of the most familiar sounding intervals in western tonal harmony. The tritone's nature is often thought of as unstable and disturbing.
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.”
Like the Beast, it goes by many names: Diabolus in musica (devil in music), the devil's interval, the tritone, the triad and the flatted fifth. As its Latin moniker suggests, it's an evil sounding combination of notes that's designed to create a chilling or foreboding atmosphere.
The musical interval referred to as the minor third is generally thought to convey sadness. We reveal that the minor third also occurs in the pitch contour of speech conveying sadness.
To them, rock's ''savage rhythms,'' and the thinly concealed sexual double entendre of many rock-and-roll lyrics, made it ''the Devil's music. '' A number of churches encouraged their younger members to participate in record burnings, in which quantities of rock-and-roll disks were dutifully tossed into bonfires.
For police cruisers, the standard siren call is set to a tritone, which in classical music is used as a harmonic and melodic dissonance intended to be jarring and to catch the listener's attention.
Opening sequence. This opening phrase is based on the tritone (an augmented 4th interval), otherwise known as The Devil's Interval. It's actually nicknamed The Devil's Interval due to its discordant sound.
In the case of the C major scale, the flattened fifth would be G flat (Gb). The distance from C to Gb is now six half steps, or three whole steps. Since this interval is three whole steps, the flatted fifth is very often called the tritone.
But back in the day, the devil was said to exist in a particular musical tone. For centuries, it was called the devil's interval — or, in Latin, diabolus in musica. In music theory, it's called the "tritone" because it's made of three whole steps.
Analysis: The primary riff used in “Black Sabbath” is based on (and begins with) the tritone interval, which is significant for several reasons. First of all, Black Sabbath guitarist Tommy Iommi here uses the tritone interval, which occurs in the blues scale, showing Iommi's connections in playing blues music.
TIL: The Tritone was never banned in the Middle Ages or by the Catholic Church. I'm sure you've heard it before. It's a myth stating that the Tritone was "banned in the Middle ages" or "banned by the Catholic Church".
The results were scaled to fit within 1 to 100. “True Love Waits” won the designation of saddest song with a Gloom Index score of 1.
In short: the key of D minor have historically been regarded as the saddest, darkest and most melancholic key in music. However, with our modern 12 tone equal temperament tuning system, the difference in “sadness” is more about the tone and tuning of the instruments themselves, not the key.
Eb minor – D diminished – F diminished – Eb minor
The diminished chord is the darkest chord in music. This is because it's constructed with stacked minor third intervals.
The term “forbidden chord” came from the Middle Ages when the Church influenced societal norms, including music. The dissonant sound of the tritone was seen as inappropriate, hence it became “forbidden”.
The 'secret chord' is a biblical reference. David was a King from the Hebrew bible, and although we all mostly remember him for being the underdog who defeated Goliath, he was, first and foremost, a musician. So we know David played a 'secret chord', whatever that may be.