C1C | Diminished 7^th and half diminished 7^th chords

Diminished 7^th chords

In Germany, during the eighteenth century, a literary movement came about called Sturm und Drang. (Storm and Stress.). It also touched musical developments during the same period. The aim of this movement was to bring some excitement and a descriptive element to the abstract nature of Classical absolute music. It included many diminished 7^th chords.

• Diminished 7^th chords were popular when composers needed to include or describe tension in their music.
• The diminished 7^th was also included as musical accompaniment to the first black and white films at the beginning of the twentieth century. When a musical chord was needed to describe the baddie, or to create an atmosphere of tension, horror or general excitement, this was the chord used.
• There are no inversions in a diminished 7^th chord. It may appear so, but even with ENHARMONIC changes, the note remains the same.

Keeping to the rule of a minor 3^rd between each note, notice how the chord and notes become complicated. In the final example, the Gb has turned to an F^# making it easier to understand and read!

• Beethoven came under the influence of the Sturm und Drang movement. His Sonata no.8 in C minor op.13 bears the title Grande sonate pathétique. Some say that it was Beethoven himself who gave this title to his work, others think it might have been his music publisher.
• The work releases extreme emotion and tension and includes a myriad of diminished 7^th chords throughout the slow introduction.

Diminished 7^th and half diminished 7^th chords

1. The diminished 7^th is a chord created from a series of min.3^rd intervals. Some have described it as a tritone upon another tritone (tritone being a dim.5^th interval).
2. A half-diminished chord is similar but it has a major 3^rd interval upon a diminished triad. It has been also described as a dominant 9^th chord without its root.

Half diminished 7^th chord. What kind of emotion does this chord create?