rigorousintuition.ca

Probably the wrong place for it, and it's bound to have been posted before, but for anybody who's still thinking of voting for Devo Max or Indie-Lite (should such an option be offered):

.

• Rob Powers | film composer in the studio
  — 1 of 2
  
  
  — 2 of 2
  

.
Backatcha, brainpanhandler. Interesting read, your post, and I thought it better to respond about the Devil’s chord the evil chord the tritone and other assorted chordal relationships in here.

What the author, Dan Green, unfortunately doesn’t give readers are examples of the intervallic sounds he’s talking about with regard to Lincoln Cathedral and Rosslyn Chapel; subsequently, I think Mr. Green isn’t a musician yet a writer of what to most well practiced musicians I know would be innocuous hyperbole. On the other hand, many cathedrals and chapels built of granite, marble, tile and various woods are incomparably exciting spaces in which to listen to the music best suited for those particular interiors.

To expand upon the examples brainpanhandler offered in his post, here are a few more to listen to along with some notes that might be helpful. Definitions: tritone; augmented seventh chord; diminished seventh chord; augmented ninth chord, to name a few. Here’s more about music theory of the Common-Practice Period.

_________________

• Maria
  — 1957, from West Side Story, the musical | Leonard Bernstein, composer
  
  ^ The tritone is heard when the main theme begins with the word “Maria” sung as phonetically spelled: “Mah-ree-ah.” The first interval is the tritone, that is, the first two tones, sung with the syllables “Mah-ree,” and its resolution sung with the syllable “ah,” thus, the tritone and its resolution complete that musical phrase. Notice the melody sung with “Mah-ree-ah” ascends, therefore the tritone would be commonly noted an augmented fourth. (The meaning of that tritone would distinguish for some readers a foreshadowing of the burden of love lost presented in West Side Story, the musical.)

_________________

• From Wikipedia: George Harrison uses tritones on the downbeats of the opening phrases of the Beatles songs: The Inner Light, Blue Jay Way and Within You Without You, creating a prolonged sense of suspended resolution. REFER Diminished fifth.
  
  The Inner Light | George Harrison
  — 1968
  
  
  Within Without You | George Harrison
  — 1967
  
  
  Blue Jay Way | George Harrison
  — 1967
  

_________________

• Play That Funky Music | Wild Cherry
  — 1976
  
  The third paragraph in this Wiki entry needs a correction, so I’ve put the paragraph with its correction for you, right here.
  
  • Examples of the extended chords used as tonic harmonies include White Wild Cherry’s “Play That Funky Music” (either a dominant ninth or dominant thirteenth).

_________________

• When We Dance | Sting
  — 1994
  
  ^ In Sting’s melody line, we hear both major sevenths as well as tritones, both with graceful resolutions make for an unusually captivating piece of pop music, imo.

~ A.

.

• Experiment | Mabel Mercer
  — The Mabel Mercer Foundation