Tuesday, September 30, 2003

Avoid the Tritones!

My wife is taking an advanced course in Medieval Music Theory & Aesthetics (T&A as it's called). Every week, I need to quiz her for her weekly, uh, quiz. The course started with Greek Musical Theory and is now in deep Medieval - which means that the quizzes are about absolutely deranged material in a weird language.

Yet, quiz her I must! Except that I don't know what the questions, or answers, mean.

An actual question: "What musical process is the figure 'que vocatur sinemenon' and why might one need one?"

Answer: "A fictal, adding accidentals, to avoid the tritones."

And, by gum, it does!

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