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If you've ever felt unsettled by a piece of music, chances are the forbidden chord just worked its dark magic on you. Also known as the Devil's Interval, guitarists use it to add tension and atmosphere to their tunes, often creating songs that sound genuinely creepy. Be that as it may, the forbidden chord isn't inherently sinister or scary — even if history has conditioned some listeners to believe it is.
The guitar's forbidden chord is a tritone, a musical interval encompassing two notes and three tones found in diminished and flatted-fifth chords. It was designed to sound dissonant since our brains crave the type of resolution the tritone rebels against. This makes it an effective tool for musically manipulating our emotions.
Tritones have been employed by everyone from Jimi Hendrix to blues artists, but their role in the history of heavy metal cannot be understated. Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album – often credited as the band who spawned metal as an art form — opens with Tony Iommi busting out a tritone that sounds deliciously evil, so the forbidden chord is integral to the genre's roots. Heavy metal also contributed to the real-life Satanic Panic epidemic, which saw numerous tritone-loving rockers accused of worshipping the dark lord. With that said, tritones and religious conflict go back centuries — if you believe the stories.
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Was the tritone banned by the church?
The tritone's association with Lucifer is rooted in history. During the medieval ages, it was allegedly banned by the Roman Catholic Church out of fear of summoning the forces of darkness. Performing the Devil's Interval was supposedly grounds for excommunication, but these reports should be taken with a pinch of salt.
There is no substantive evidence to prove that the tritone was outlawed by religious institutions because they were worried about a visit from Satan. However, the forbidden chord's dissonant qualities don't exactly align with the style of church hymns, which are designed to inspire faith and worship. Meanwhile, a sound like the tritone, known for creating tension and unease, would have been counterproductive to accomplishing these goals.
The tritone's reputation as the Devil's favorite sound means it will forever be tied to concepts like rebellion and menace — and that's appealing to artists who like to stick it to the establishment. Like other musical techniques, though, the forbidden chord is far too versatile and storied to be synonymous with just one thing.
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