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In classical music from
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“What is a powerful surprise, and further evidence of Bach’s unique imaginative boldness, is the specific form the obbligato pedal part takes in this chorale setting: almost nothing but dissonant drops of a seventh – Adam’s fall made audible! And not just the fall, but also the attendant pain and suffering are depicted (and in a way evoked), since so many of those sevenths are diminished.”
The expressive potential of the interval was not lost on Mozart, especially when, as Dennis Matthews (1971, p. iii) puts it, “Mozart reserved a minor home-key for his most disquieting utterances.” The opening theme of the Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart), Piano Concerto in C minor K491, features rising diminished sevenths:
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More startling is the finale of Symphony No. 40 (Mozart), Mozart's G minor Symphony No. 40, K550, which critic 
The dramatic clout of the interval was further exploited by operatic composers during the nineteenth century. Robert Donington (1963, p. 175) heard the dark, atmospheric Prelude to 
]
In classical music from Western culture
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, a diminished seventh () is an interval produced by narrowing a minor seventh
In music theory, a minor seventh is one of two musical intervals that span seven staff positions. It is ''minor'' because it is the smaller of the two sevenths, spanning ten semitones. The major seventh spans eleven. For example, the interval fr ...
by a chromatic semitone
In modern Western tonal music theory an augmented unison or augmented prime is the interval between two notes on the same staff position, or denoted by the same note letter, whose alterations cause them, in ordinary equal temperament, to be one ...
.Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.54. . Specific example of an d7 not given but general example of minor intervals described. For instance, the interval from A to G is a minor seventh, ten semitones wide, and both the intervals from A to G, and from A to G are diminished sevenths, spanning nine semitones. Being diminished, it is considered a dissonant
In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive Sound, sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness ...
interval.
The diminished seventh is enharmonically equivalent to a major sixth
In music from Western culture, a sixth is a musical interval encompassing six note letter names or staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the major sixth is one of two commonly occurring sixths. It is qualified as ''major ...
. Its inversion
Inversion or inversions may refer to:
Arts
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* ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas
* Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory
* ...
is the augmented second
In classical music from Western culture, an augmented second is an interval that, in equal temperament, is sonically equivalent to a minor third, spanning three semitones, and is created by widening a major second by a chromatic semitone.Ben ...
.
The diminished seventh is used quite readily in the minor key
In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor.
Intervals
Some intervals ...
, where it is present in the harmonic minor
In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...
scale between the seventh scale step and the sixth scale step in the octave above.
In an equal tempered tuning, a diminished seventh is equal to nine semitones, a ratio of 29/12:1 (approximately 1.682), or 900 cents. There is no standard just tuning of this interval, but one possibility, assuming the flat submediant is a perfect (5:4) major third below the octave, and the leading tone to be 15:16, would lead to an interval of 128:75, about 925 cents; another interval is 216:125, which is three minor thirds.
The 128:75 just diminished seventh arises in the C harmonic minor scale
In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which al ...
between B and A by combining B-D, D, F, F-A.
Usage in musical expression
Since the Baroque era, Western European composers have used the diminished seventh as a melodic interval to convey intense, sometimes troubled emotion.Richard Taruskin
Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as ...
(2010, p. 258) draws attention to the falling melodic figures in the bass (pedal) part of J. S. Bach's organ chorale prelude from the ''Orgelbüchlein
The ''Orgelbüchlein'' (''Little Organ Book'') BWV 599−644 is a set of 46 chorale preludes for organ — one of them is given in two versions — by Johann Sebastian Bach. All but three were written between 1708 and 1717 when Bach served as org ...
'', "Durch Adam's Fall":]
“What is a powerful surprise, and further evidence of Bach’s unique imaginative boldness, is the specific form the obbligato pedal part takes in this chorale setting: almost nothing but dissonant drops of a seventh – Adam’s fall made audible! And not just the fall, but also the attendant pain and suffering are depicted (and in a way evoked), since so many of those sevenths are diminished.”
The expressive potential of the interval was not lost on Mozart, especially when, as Dennis Matthews (1971, p. iii) puts it, “Mozart reserved a minor home-key for his most disquieting utterances.” The opening theme of the Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart), Piano Concerto in C minor K491, features rising diminished sevenths:]
More startling is the finale of Symphony No. 40 (Mozart), Mozart's G minor Symphony No. 40, K550, which critic Charles Rosen
Charles Welles Rosen (May 5, 1927December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music. He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notable among them the book ''The Classical Sty ...
(1971, p324) calls "a work of passion, violence and grief." The development section features a disorienting sequence of diminished sevenths:
The dramatic clout of the interval was further exploited by operatic composers during the nineteenth century. Robert Donington (1963, p. 175) heard the dark, atmospheric Prelude to Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
’s opera ''Siegfried
Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace".
The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...
'' as “a kind of elemental brooding…Its material is an uneasy sequence of thirds low in the bass, and separated by a diminished seventh.”:Donington, R. (1963) ''Wagner’s Ring and its Symbols''. London Faber.]
See also
*Diminished seventh chord
The diminished seventh chord is a four-note chord (a seventh chord) composed of a root note, together with a minor third, a diminished fifth, and a diminished seventh above the root: (1, 3, 5, 7). For example, the diminished seve ...
References