Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

and

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

, diminution (from

Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...

''diminutio'', alteration of Latin ''deminutio'', decrease) has four distinct meanings. Diminution may be a form of

embellishment In sewing and crafts, an embellishment is anything that adds design interest to the piece. Examples in sewing and craft * appliqué can be made by sewing machine of decorative techniques and or * embroidery, done either by machine or by hand * ...

in which a long

note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...

is divided into a series of shorter, usually melodic, values (also called " coloration"; Ger. ''Kolorieren''). Diminution may also be the compositional device where a melody,

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

or motif is presented in shorter note-values than were previously used. Diminution is also the term for the proportional shortening of the

value Value or values may refer to: Ethics and social * Value (ethics) wherein said concept may be construed as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, associating value to them ** Values (Western philosophy) expands the notion of value beyo ...

of individual note-shapes in mensural notation, either by coloration or by a sign of proportion. A minor or perfect interval that is narrowed 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 ...

is a diminished interval, and the process may be referred to as diminution (this, too, was sometimes referred to as " coloration").

Diminution as embellishment

Diminution is a form of

or melodic variation in which a long note or a series of long notes is divided into shorter, usually melodic, values, as in the similar practices of ''breaking'' or ''

division Division or divider may refer to: Mathematics *Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication *Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division Military *Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...

'' in England, ''passaggio'' in Italy, ''double'' in France and ''glosas'' or ''diferencias'' in Spain. It is thoroughly documented in written sources of the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and enjoyed a remarkable flowering in Venice from about 1580–1620. It is an integral aspect of modern

performance practice Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of classical music, which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in which ...

; Donington describes the consequences of failing to add "necessary figuration" as "disastrous".

Italian literature of the sixteenth and early seventeenth century

Silvestro Ganassi Silvestro di Ganassi dal Fontego, also given as Sylvestro di Ganassi dal Fontego, Silvestro Ganasi dal Fontego, and Silvestro dal Fontego (1 January 1492 – 1565) was a Venetian musician and author of two important treatises on instrumental te ...

br>''Opera Intitulata Fontegara'' (Venice, 1535)
*

Diego Ortiz Diego Ortiz (c. 1510 – c. 1576) was a Spanish composer and music theorist in service to the viceroy of Naples ruled by the Spanish monarchs Charles V and Philip II. Ortiz published the first manual on ornamentation for bowed string ins ...

''Nel qual si tratta delle Glose'' (1553)
* Giovanni Maffei
''Delle lettere del Sr. Gio. Camillo Maffei da Solofra'' (1562)
*

Girolamo Dalla Casa __NOTOC__ Girolamo Dalla Casa (also known as Hieronymo de Udene, died 1601) was an Italian composer, instrumentalist, and writer of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Venetian School, and was perhaps more famous and influential as a p ...

''Il vero modo di diminuir'' (1584)
*

Giovanni Bassano Giovanni Bassano (c. 1561 – 3 September 1617) was an Italian composer associated with the Venetian School of composers and a cornettist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a key figure in the development of the instrumental en ...

''Ricercate, Passaggi et Cadentie'' (1585)
*

Giovanni Luca Conforti Giovanni Luca Conforti (1560 – May 11, 1608) was an Italian composer and prominent falsetto singerNutter, David. "Conforti, Giovanni Luca." ''Grove Music Online''. ed. L. Macy. (accessed 24 November 2008). who wrote an exercise book about Baroqu ...

''Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi a far passaggi'' (1593)
*

Riccardo Rogniono Riccardo Rognoni or Richardo Rogniono (ca. 1550 – before 20 April 1620) is the earliest known member of the Rognoni family which started one of the earliest of all violin schools, based in Milan. His treatise ''Passaggi per potersi esercita ...

''Passaggi per potersi essercitare nel diminuire terminatamente'' (1594)
*

Giovanni Battista Bovicelli Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...

''Regole, passaggi di musica'' (1594)
*

Aurelio Virgiliano Aurelio may refer to: People Politicians * Aurelio D. Gonzales Jr. (born 1964), congressman in the Philippines *Aurélio de Lira Tavares (1905–1998), President of Brazil *Aurelio Martínez, Honduran politician *Aurelio Mosquera (1883–1939), Pr ...

Il Dolcimelo (ms, c. 1600; first publication 1979)
*

Francesco Rognoni Taeggio Francesco Rognoni fTaeggio (born in Milan second half of the 16th century – died after 1626) was an Italian composer. He was the son of Riccardo Rognoni and brother of Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio, both prominent Italian composers and m ...

''Selve de varii passaggi'' (1620 )
*

Giovanni Battista Spadi Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * '' Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend ...

''Libro de passaggi ascendenti et descendenti'' (1624)

Spanish literature

''Trattado de Glosas'' (1553)

English literature

Christopher Simpson Christopher Simpson (1602/1606–1669) was an English musician and composer, particularly associated with music for the viola da gamba. Life Simpson was born between 1602 and 1606, probably at Egton, North Yorkshire. He was the eldest so ...

''The Division-Violist'' (1659)''The Division-Violin'' (Playford, 1684)''The Division Flute'' (Walsh, c. 1706)

German literature

* Adrianus Petit Coclico
''Compendium Musices'' (Nuremberg, 1552)
*

Michael Praetorius Michael Praetorius (probably 28 September 1571 – 15 February 1621) was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms ba ...

''Syntagma Musicum'', book 3 (1618)
* Johann Andreas Herbst
''Musica practica'' (1642)

Dutch literature

* Jacob van Eyck
''Der Fluyten Lust-hof'' (Amsterdam, 1646)
is a huge collection of diminutions. For

Heinrich Schenker Heinrich Schenker (19 June 1868 – 14 January 1935) was a Galician-born Austrian music theorist whose writings have had a profound influence on subsequent musical analysis. His approach, now termed Schenkerian analysis, was most fully ex ...

, "all foreground is diminution". "All diminution must be secured firmly to the total work by means which are precisely demonstrable and organically verified by the inner necessities of the voice-leading". This conception has been essential to Schenker's theory from some of his earliest writings. In Schenkerian analysis a diminution is an elaboration by which an event formed of notes of longer value is expressed in notes of smaller value. See nonchord tone.

Diminution in composition

A melody or series of notes is diminished if the lengths of the notes are shortened; diminution is thus the opposite of augmentation, where the notes are lengthened. A melody originally consisting of four crotchets (

quarter-note A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem us ...

s) for example, is diminished if it later appears with four quavers (

eighth-note 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note (American) or a quaver (British) is a musical note play ...

s) instead. In the following theme from Beethoven’s Leonora no. 3 Overture, the melodic ideas in bars 3 and 5 recur at twice the speed in bars 7-8: This technique is often used in

contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

music, as in the "

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

by diminution" ("''per diminutionem''"), in which the notes in the following voice or voices are shorter than those in the leading voice, usually half the length.Jeppesen, Knud. ''Counterpoint: The Polyphonic Vocal Style of the Sixteenth Century''. trans. Glen Haydon. New York: Dover Publications. 1992. p. 235 In

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...

’s composition “

Brilliant Corners ''Brilliant Corners'' is a studio album by American jazz musician Thelonious Monk. It was his third album for Riverside Records, and the first, for this label, to include his own compositions. The complex title track required over a dozen take ...

” consists of
theme
that is repeated at twice the speed, an effect known as “

double time In popular music, half-time is a type of meter and tempo that alters the rhythmic feel by essentially ''doubling the tempo resolution'' or metric division/level in comparison to common-time. Thus, two measures of approximate a single measure o ...

.”

Diminution of note values

mensural notation Mensural notation is the musical notation system used for European vocal polyphonic music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600. The term "mensural" refers to the ability of this system to describe precisely measured rhythmi ...

, diminution of the duration of note shapes is the most common function of coloration. Diminution is most often by one-third of the note-value, so that three colored notes fit into the time of two uncolored notes of the same shape; it is thus often found in notation of triplet or

hemiola In music, hemiola (also hemiolia) is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In rhythm, ''hemiola'' refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats. In pitch, ''hemiola'' refers to the interval of ...

figures. Diminution may also be achieved by a sign of proportion. Thus a sign such as is in proportional notation not a modern

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value ...

, but a proportional signature indicating ''diminutio sesquialtera'', that is, that after the sign each three notes of the basic note value '' integer valor'' occupy the time of two such notes elsewhere in the piece, either previously in the same voice, or simultaneously in another voice.

Diminution of intervals

A diminished interval is an interval obtained from a minor interval or perfect interval by narrowing it by a

, meaning that the interval is narrowed by a semitone, but the staff positions are not changed (only an accidental is changed); the process may occasionally be referred to as diminution For example, an

diminished fifth Diminished may refer to: *Diminution In Western music and music theory, diminution (from Medieval Latin ''diminutio'', alteration of Latin ''deminutio'', decrease) has four distinct meanings. Diminution may be a form of embellishment in which ...

is a chromatic semitone narrower than the

perfect fifth In music theory, a perfect fifth is the Interval (music), musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitch (music), pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so. In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval fro ...

: starting with the interval from C to G, which is a perfect fifth, seven semitones wide, both the intervals from C to G, and from C to G are diminished fifths, spanning six semitones, but the same staff lines. By contrast, the interval from D to G is not an diminished fifth (it is an augmented fourth): even though it is six semitones wide, it spans four staff positions, and is thus a fourth, not a fifth; it is a

diatonic semitone A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone, is the smallest interval (music), musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, and it is considered the most Consonance and dissonance#Dissonance, dissonant when sounded harmonically ...

narrower than a perfect fifth. The standard abbreviations for diminished intervals are dX, such that a diminished third = d3. The diminished fifth (d5) is the only diminished interval that appears in diatonic scales (in C major it occurs between B and F).

Diminished chords

diminished triad In music theory, a diminished triad (also known as the minor flatted fifth) is a triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root. It is a minor triad with a lowered ( flattened) fifth. When using chord symbols, it may be indicated by the s ...

consists of two superposed

minor third In music theory, a minor third is a musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval number). The minor third is one of two com ...

s, and thus contains a

. In classical repertoire the usual symbol is the degree, °, as in vii°. In lead sheets and popular music books it is usually written Cdim or C°. A

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 ...

consists of three superposed minor thirds, and thus has all successive notes a minor third apart; it contains two diminished fifths. In jazz theory, a diminished seventh chord has four available tensions, each a major ninth above the chord tones, and thus forming a diminished seventh chord a whole tone (or major ninth) above the root chord. Because any chord tone of the diminished seventh can be heard as the root, the tensions are not numbered as ninth, eleventh and so on. The usual notation is Cdim⁷ or C°⁷, but some lead sheets or popular music books may omit the 7. A diminished triad with a minor seventh is a half-diminished chord, usually notated either Cm⁷⁽⁵⁾ or C^ø7. A diminished triad played over a root a major third away creates a Dominant 7th chord, notated C⁷, with a C Major triad on the bottom, and an E° from the chord third of C (C E G B). A minor third below would give a fully diminished 7th chord which is made entirely of minor thirds that evenly divide an octave. This even division of the octave leaves us with only three unique diminished 7th chords: C E G B, C E G B, and D F A C, as all other diminished 7th chords are inversions of one of those three. Diminishedchords

Diminished scales

Several scales may be referred to as diminished. One of the more common is the

Octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight- note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetric ...

constructed from C°⁷ and its tensions (transposed into the same octave), which has alternating tone and semitone intervals.

References

{{reflist, 35em, refs= Roger Bowers (2001)
Proportional notation
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online. Accessed August 2011. {{doi, 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.22424. {{subscription required. Robert Donington, Peter Wright (2001)
Coloration
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online. Accessed August 2011. {{doi, 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.06153. {{subscription required. Robert Donington (1989)
''The Interpretation of Early Music''
(new revised edition). London: Faber and Faber. pp. 152–188. {{isbn, 0571150403. Greer Garden, Robert Donington (2001)
Diminution
''Grove Music Online''. Oxford Music Online. Accessed August 2011. {{doi, 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.42071. {{subscription required. Giovanni Luca Conforto, Giancarlo Rostirolla (editor) (1986). ''Breve et facile maniera d'essercitarsi a far passaggi, Roma 1593'' (in Italian). Roma: Società Italiana del Flauto Dolce. Music theory Ornamentation