Diminution - Diminution of Intervals

Diminution of Intervals

An interval is diminished if a minor or perfect interval is narrowed by a chromatic semitone; the process may occasionally be referred to as diminution. A diminished fifth interval is a chromatic semitone narrower than the perfect fifth, and a diminished seventh interval is a chromatic semitone narrower than the minor seventh. Diminished intervals are often used in jazz, art and Heavy Metal music, but not as often in pop music.

**Diminished intervals on C**
Diminished second	Diminished third	Diminished fourth	Diminished fifth	Diminished sixth	Diminished seventh	Diminished octave

Play	Play	Play	Play	Play	Play	Play

a diminished unison is unthinkable, and the diminished 2d and 9th are of no practical use:... —Foote In the theory of harmony it is known that a diminished interval needs to be resolved inwards, and an augmented interval outwards. —Maria Renold (2004), p.15. Augmented intervals have a rather over-tense quality, while diminished intervals are experienced as rather cramped. Therefore, one may call the former luciferic in tendency and the latter ahrimanic. —Renold (2004), p.16 If a perfect or major interval is made one-half step larger (without changing its interval number) it becomes augmented. If a perfect or minor interval is made one-half step smaller (without changing its interval number) it becomes diminished. —Benward & Saker (2003), p.54. Most nonharmonic tones are dissonant and create intervals of a second, fourth, or seventh. Diminished or augmented intervals are also considered dissonant. —Benward & Saker (2003), p.92.

The standard abbreviations for diminished intervals are dX, such that a diminished third = d3.

Famous quotes containing the words diminution of, diminution and/or intervals:

“Every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives to individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members of our happy confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)

“Sin seen from the thought, is a diminution or less: seen from the conscience or will, it is pravity or bad. The intellect names it shade, absence of light, and no essence. The conscience must feel it as essence, essential evil. This it is not: it has an objective existence, but no subjective.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

“Fishermen, hunters, woodchoppers, and others, spending their lives in the fields and woods, in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves, are often in a more favorable mood for observing her, in the intervals of their pursuits, than philosophers or poets even, who approach her with expectation. She is not afraid to exhibit herself to them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)