Tristan chord

The Tristan chord is a chord made up of the notes F, B, D# and G#. More generally, it can be any chord that consists of these same intervals (from the bottom up, an augmented fourth, a major third, and a perfect fourth).

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The chord is named after the very first motif that is heard in Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, tempo langsam und schmachtend (slowly and languishing):

Related Topics:
Motif - Richard Wagner - Tristan and Isolde

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Sound samples

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• (MIDI file)
• (Ogg Vorbis file)

The motif also appears in measures 6, 10, and 12, several times later in the work and at the end of the last act. Much has been written about its possible harmonic functions or voice leading (melodic function), and the motif has been interpreted in various ways. For instance, Vogel (1962, p. 12) points out the "chord" in earlier works by Guillaume de Machaut, Carlo Gesualdo, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, or Louis Spohr (Vogel 1962: 12), as in the following example from Beethoven, tempo allegro:

Related Topics:
Guillaume de Machaut - Carlo Gesualdo - Bach - Mozart - Beethoven - Louis Spohr

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What makes the Tristan motif different in the eyes of many analysts is its duration; in the Beethoven example the Eb resolves to D in approximately a quarter of the time it takes the G# to "resolve" to the A in the Wagner. In Beethoven the simultaneity may be considered to consist partly of nonchord tones and is not a chord or harmonic entity in itself. Traditional theory does not or is not able to classify the pitches as a chord. Thus the Tristan chord is often taken to be of great significance in the move away from traditional tonal harmony and even towards atonality; with this chord, Wagner actually provoked the sound or structure of musical harmony to become more predominant than its function, a notion which was soon after to be explored by Debussy and others. "The Tristan chord is," in the words of Robert Erickson (1975, p.18), "among other things, an identifiable sound, an entity beyond its functional qualities in a tonal organization."

Related Topics:
Tonal - Harmony - Atonality - Sound - Music - Debussy - Robert Erickson

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