Challenge #2 July22 07 -- Clash of the Triton(e)s

[Chris Alpiar]

OK Most of us are well aware that the tritone is a music interval 6 half-steps apart, an augmented 4th, a diminished 5th, flat 5th, #11, the 4th note in a whole tone scale, etc etc

We also mostly know that it was illegal in Europe back in the day as the Church declared it was the devil's sound (and hence we were stuck with drab tonality of Gregorian chant and such [ugh i had study of Gregorian chant at 830 am at Berklee always on mornings after a gig till 330am pffff])

Modern times however we realize that it is one of the most crucial dissonances that establishes the tonality of modern dominant-driven music as that interval also makes up the Major 3rd and flat 7th in a dominant chord (ie C7 the third is E, flat 7 is Bb, the interval between them is... tritone ta da). It also is used in lots of other ways, for example *as* the flat 5 in the blues scale or as the #11 in a lydian E.T. type of score

OK the challenge for this week is to write, as simple or as complex as you like, a phrase, piece, song, motif, symphony, etc using the tritone. I would like to see it used in the melody as a main idea, but if you have something that really demonstrates the tritone in the harmony that is ok as well (like descending tritones in half steps with root motion in circle of 5ths or somthing like that)

Post your score, mp3, midi file, whatever you can here for review. the best way for everyone to be able to check out your stuff is if you can at least post an audio version to hear and a notation/midi version to look at. Good luck! This weeks winner gets... an imaginary trophy and an imaginary check for a bizillion clams (exchangable for dollars at the bank in Greater Alpiaria)

[phil Kelly]

Okaay ..heres one to diddle with:

I've been fooling with this tune for my next CD project for about six months . My original intent was tot try to employ as few actual triadic sonorities as possible while still trying to achieve musical cohesion.

Any comments will be helpful ..

vomiting will be dimviewed as impolite! :)

[Chris Alpiar]

Very interesting Phil, I am assuming the voicings will be horns of some kind? Its hard to actualize the piece from a sequence like that but I LOVE the line writing you are doing, but I love crunchy dark stuff so not sure if I am the guy to *critique* this piece hah. Can you explain in more detail how your piece is related to the tritone other then you are trying to stay away from triadic harmony? I look forward to hear other opinions on this too :)

[Chris Merritt]

Here's my piece. TryTone. I just wrote it for this. This is experimenting with a simple tritone (Lydian) as ONLY present in the harmony base (that bouncy synth part.) This is the kind of true tonal center that I love. The tritone is only for that uplifing, Lydian flavor. It's also an exercise in texture versus repetition. (No loops, all parts programmed.) Thanks for the weekly challenge, Chris!

[Chris Alpiar]

haha good stuff, you make me crack up man the 16th note kick drum and little part of the melody sounding like I been workin on the railroad. I love the crash roll ending in the glass droplets, great effect, i do that often in my non-orchestral stuff. Its overall a little too loop oriented to keep me satiated but all the pieces of your puzzle are quality =)

[Chris Alpiar]

very nice themes man! I finally got this to play and it has some great parts to it. Tritone city!

[Mike Patti]

Hi guys, first post... I saw this thread, and had to reply. I wrote a bunch of pieces back in college based on various intervals. Here is me playing one of them... aptly titled "Tritone"