Music

Musical Searches - Diminuitta - VII-7 of Elasson

(Konstantina Botou)

Chords are that blending of sounds with harmonic matching that forms each small building block in polyphonic music, in all the magical auditory experiences of works for orchestras – choirs – solo instruments, in the immortal works as well as those born in every musical creation.

Major – minor chords, augmented, with 7th, with 9th, with 11th, 13th...

What role do they play, what unique auditory experiences do they produce, how do they function!!!

But let's focus now on an exceptionally unique chord that transforms and reshapes the sonic dynamic. It is the VII with diminished 7th of the minor scale, the well-known Diminuitta.

This is a diminished chord with a diminished 7th. Due to the small intervals created between its notes, its sound gives the impression of self-compression, gathering and intensely concentrating all the sad – dramatic internal, I would say, human emotions, so that immediately after its resolution, there can be a "redemption" explosion of balance, whether followed by the I degree of the minor or even that of the Major.

Listen: "Lacrimosa" from Mozart's Requiem.

Another unexpected auditory effect is created by consecutive Diminuittas, like a torrent of emotions until they resolve into the final resolution chord. Like an anguished path of searching that leads to a clearing.

This emotional whirlwind exists in works by many composers, such as Beethoven – Mozart, but also in contemporary composers who urge us to discover all this musical treasure by searching in their own as well as in our existence. We thank them.

Thank you.

Listen to Mozart's Lacrimosa here and the Dies Irae, also by Mozart here.