Press Up to hear a tritone, then try the quiz!
Intervals · TT ·
Tritone
A tritone is six semitones, the distance from C up to F♯. It is the eerie pair of notes the solo violin plays together in Saint-Saëns’s Danse macabre.
Listen: C4 and F♯4
Quiz
Wormy plays one of these, up or down, from a different note each time. Can you tell which: perfect fourth, tritone, perfect fifth?
What it sounds like
Six keys apart, exactly half an octave. It sounds unsettled, like a question with no answer. Later theorists nicknamed it the devil in music.
In music theory
Fa up to ti is a tritone. It splits the octave in half, so upside down it is still a tritone. In a dominant seventh chord, the tritone between ti and fa is the tension that resolves home.
Where you've heard it
- Danse macabre: the solo violin’s A and E♭ played together, with its top string tuned down to E♭, played together.Published 1875. Camille Saint-Saëns, Danse macabre, Op. 40 (Paris: Durand, 1875).
Every tune named here is public domain in the US or traditional. Wormy names the spot; it never plays the song.