Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Music An interval composed of three whole tones.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In music, an interval composed of three whole steps or “tones”—that is, an augmented fourth, as between the fourth and seventh tones of a scale. The older harmonists regarded this interval, even when only suggested, as peculiarly objectionable, whence the proverb “mi contra fa diabolus est.” See
mi .
Wiktionary
- n. music An interval of three whole tones.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Mus.), rare A superfluous or augmented fourth.
Etymologies
- tri- + tone (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin tritonus, from Greek tritonos, having three tones : tri-, three; see trei- in Indo-European roots + tonos, tone; see tone. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The tritone is a singularly active interval -- maybe what we mean when we say it's the most dissonant -- which is why the medieval church probably banned it.”
“David Evans’ photographic essay laid out at the press and printed in tritone by Western Printers with captions digitally set.”
“The medieval Catholic Church banned the musical interval of an augmented fourth, the distance between C and F-sharp and also known as a tritone (the interval in Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story when Tony sings the name "Maria").”
“This then leads to the eerie E flat and A chords also known as a tritone or the "Devil's chord" played by a solo violin, representing death on his fiddle...”
“The tritone is a great musical motif and can work brilliantly, but when I was taking my music O level 30 years ago we were banned from using it because it was 'wrong'.”
“The song's unusual melody included a "tritone" interval (an augmented fourth), which many listeners found hard to accept in a pop song.”
Chris McGowan: Two Musical Giants Left Us On December 8: Lennon & Jobim
“Start impressively small, football soccer the encoded message of an Aztec prince in the shadow of ogd, diminished tritone splendour.”
“This is the tritone, an interval so unstable and harsh that it has been known for centuries as "the devil in music.”
The Washington Post: Discord and democracy: What we can learn about Cairo from Puccini's 'Tosca'
“What would happen if the initial interval picked was not a whole-step, but something else not appearing in a pentatonic scale: a half-step, or a tritone?”
World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale on Vimeo
“The two anomalies in our data with respect to just intonation concern the minor second and the tritone.”
Arguments, agreements, advice, answers, articulate announcements
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tritone’.
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MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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Music
sackbut, quaternion, carillon, luthier, pizzicato, purfling, jig, ditty, tritone, blue note, ostinato, mellifluent and 13 more...
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Musical Intervals
I'm trying to memorize melodic intervals by tagging common songs that start with them. For example Happy Birthday is a good way to remember a major second, and so on. Feel free to suggest weird old...
unison, minor second, major second, minor third, major third, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, minor sixth, major sixth, minor seventh, major seventh, octave and 15 more...
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tonka's Words
congee, tritone, flageolet, parritch, muckle, putresce, darnel, loll, pistil, boon, dagnab, vouchsafe and 12 more...
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trinity words
triumvir, tierce, sesterce, trinity, trammel, trephine, tercel, tercet, tertian, tricrotic, tritone, triad and 58 more...
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Baroque spokes
cine phone need, regular canon, brook street broo..., churrigueresque, churrigueresco, cured fresco, allemande, toccata, bourree, chaconne, galliard, putto and 20 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tritone.
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