Ode to the Tritone - Piano Video by Miss Liz!

I was inspired the other day to share an original composition at a Chamber Jam that I wrote for my studio's Spooktacular Recital last fall.  Because I'm a nerd, I decided to write a piece about a Music Theory concept - the Tritone!  The distance between any two notes on the piano (or any instrument) are referred to as intervals.  Notes that are right next to each other are called a step or a 2nd (like C - D).  Once you start skipping notes, they can be a third apart (C - D - E) or bigger!  All the way up to an octave (8 notes apart - from C to the next highest C).  Here are the notes of the piano, with black notes in bold.

C       C#/Db       D       D#/Eb      E       F       F#/Gb       G       G#/Ab      A       A#/Bb       B       C

These notes have two names, depending on which note we came from.  This is called enharmonic: same sound, different note name (just like we have different names depending on who we are talking to - I'm a daughter, friend, sister, etc.).

A Tritone is very special because it is the furthest that two notes can get from each other, creating a very dissonant sound.  You'll notice that this list of notes starts and ends with C.  If you count in, it is an equal distance from either C to the F#/Gb.  So, I chose to write this composition in both F# Major and C Major.  You'll hear the dissonance between these two keys, I'm sure!

The other thing I like about the Tritone is that it used to be illegal to compose with it!  People used to think that it sounded too evil and called it Diabolus in Musica (or the Devil in Music)!  

What do you think?