Diminution
Encyclopedia
In Western
music
and music theory
, diminution (from Medieval Latin
diminutio, alteration of Latin deminutio, decrease) has four distinct meanings. Diminution may be a form of embellishment
in which a long note is divided into a series of shorter, usually melodic, values. Diminution may also be the compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in shorter note-values than were previously used. Diminution is also the term for the proportional shortening of the value
of individual note-shapes in mensural notation, either by coloration or by a sign of proportion. A minor or perfect interval
that is narrowed by a chromatic semitone is a diminished interval, and the process may be referred to as diminution.
in which a long note or a series of long notes is divided into shorter, usually melodic, values, as in the similar practices of breaking or division in England, passaggio in Italy, double in France and glosas or diferencias in Spain. Thoroughly documented in written sources of the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, with a remarkable flowering in Venice from about 1580–1620, diminution is an integral aspect of modern performance practice. Donington describes the consequences of failing to add "necessary figuration" as "disastrous".
The substantial Italian literature of the 16th and early 17th century begins with the Fontegara of Silvestro Ganassi (1535) and includes the treatises and compositions of Diego Ortiz
, Giovanni Maffei, Girolamo Dalla Casa
, Giovanni Bassano
, Riccardo Rogniono, Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Aurelio Virgiliano and Francesco Rognoni Taeggio
. Notable English works include The Division-Violist of Christopher Simpson
(1659), The Division-Violin (Playford, 1684) and The Division Flute (Walsh, c.1706). Der Fluyten Lust-hof of Jacob van Eyck
(Amsterdam, 1646) is a huge collection of diminutions.
In Schenkerian analysis
a diminution is a division, rather than a diminishing is a prolongation
or expansion, "the process by which an interval formed by notes of longer value is expressed in notes of smaller value," see nonchord tone
.
or series of notes is diminished if the lengths of the notes are shortened; diminution is thus the opposite of augmentation
, where the notes are lengthened. A melody originally consisting of four crotchets (quarter-notes) for example, is diminished if it later appears with four quavers (eighth-notes) instead. This technique is often used in contrapuntal
music, as in the "canon
by diminution" ("per diminutionem"), in which the notes in the following voice or voices are shorter than those in the leading voice, usually half the length.
, diminution of the duration of note shapes is the most common function of coloration. Diminution is most often by one-third of the note-value, so that three colored notes fit into the time of two uncolored notes of the same shape; it is thus often found in notation of triplet
or hemiola
figures.
Diminution may also be achieved by a sign of proportion. Thus a sign such as is in proportional notation not a modern time signature
, but a proportional signature indicating diminutio sesquialtera, that is, that after the sign each three notes of the basic note value integer valor occupy the time of two such notes elsewhere in the piece, either previously in the same voice, or simultaneously in another voice.
, 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
.
The standard abbreviations for diminished intervals are dX, such that a diminished third = d3.
s, and thus contains a diminished fifth. In classical repertoire the usual symbol is the degree, ° , as in vii°. In lead sheets and popular music books it is usually written Cdim or C°.
A diminished seventh chord
consists of three superposed minor thirds, and thus has all successive notes a minor third apart; it contains two diminished fifths. In jazz theory, a diminished seventh chord has four available tensions, each a major ninth above the chord tones, and thus forming a diminished seventh chord a whole tone (or major ninth) above the root chord. Because any chord tone of the diminished seventh can be heard as the root, the tensions are not numbered as ninth, eleventh and so on. The usual notation is Cdim7 or C°7, but some lead sheets or popular music books may omit the 7.
A diminished triad with a minor seventh is a half-diminished chord, usually notated either Cm7(5) or Cø7.
constructed from C°7 and its tensions (transposed into the same octave), which has alternating tone and semitone intervals.
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, diminution (from Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
diminutio, alteration of Latin deminutio, decrease) has four distinct meanings. Diminution may be a form of embellishment
Embellishment
In sewing and crafts an embellishment is anything that adds design interest to the piece.-Common examples of embellishment in sewing and crafts:* appliqué* embroidery, done either by machine or by hand...
in which a long note is divided into a series of shorter, usually melodic, values. Diminution may also be the compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in shorter note-values than were previously used. Diminution is also the term for the proportional shortening of the value
Note value
In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags/beams/hooks/tails....
of individual note-shapes in mensural notation, either by coloration or by a sign of proportion. A minor or perfect interval
Interval (music)
In music theory, an interval is a combination of two notes, or the ratio between their frequencies. Two-note combinations are also called dyads...
that is narrowed by a chromatic semitone is a diminished interval, and the process may be referred to as diminution.
Diminution as embellishment
Diminution is a form of embellishment or melodic variationVariation
- Physics :* Magnetic variation, difference between magnetic north and true north, measured as an angle* Variation , any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon- Mathematics :* Bounded variation...
in which a long note or a series of long notes is divided into shorter, usually melodic, values, as in the similar practices of breaking or division in England, passaggio in Italy, double in France and glosas or diferencias in Spain. Thoroughly documented in written sources of the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, with a remarkable flowering in Venice from about 1580–1620, diminution is an integral aspect of modern performance practice. Donington describes the consequences of failing to add "necessary figuration" as "disastrous".
The substantial Italian literature of the 16th and early 17th century begins with the Fontegara of Silvestro Ganassi (1535) and includes the treatises and compositions of Diego Ortiz
Diego Ortiz
Diego Ortiz was a Spanish composer and musicologist, in service to the Spanish viceroy in Naples and later to Philip II of Spain. Ortiz published influential treatises on both instrumental and vocal performance....
, Giovanni Maffei, Girolamo Dalla Casa
Girolamo Dalla Casa
Girolamo Dalla Casa was an Italian composer, instrumentalist, and writer of the late Renaissance. He was a member of the Venetian School, and was perhaps more famous and influential as a performer than as a composer....
, Giovanni Bassano
Giovanni Bassano
Giovanni Bassano was an Italian Venetian School composer and cornettist of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was a key figure in the development of the instrumental ensemble at St. Mark's basilica, and left a detailed book on instrumental ornamentation, which is a rich resource for...
, Riccardo Rogniono, Giovanni Battista Bovicelli, Aurelio Virgiliano and Francesco Rognoni Taeggio
Francesco Rognoni Taeggio
Francesco Rognoni [of] Taeggio was an Italian composer. He was the son of Riccardo Rognoni and brother of Giovanni Domenico Rognoni Taeggio, both prominent Italian composers and musicians...
. Notable English works include The Division-Violist of Christopher Simpson
Christopher Simpson
Christopher Simpson was an English musician and composer, particularly associated with music for the viola da gamba.-Life:Simpson was born between 1602 and 1606, probably at Egton, Yorkshire...
(1659), The Division-Violin (Playford, 1684) and The Division Flute (Walsh, c.1706). Der Fluyten Lust-hof of Jacob van Eyck
Jacob van Eyck
Jonkheer Jacob van Eyck was a Dutch nobleman and musician. He was one of the best-known musicians in The Netherlands in the seventeenth century as a carillon player, expert in bell casting and tuning, organist, recorder virtuoso, and composer.Van Eyck was born blind into a noble family in the...
(Amsterdam, 1646) is a huge collection of diminutions.
In Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker. The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work. The theory's basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music...
a diminution is a division, rather than a diminishing is a prolongation
Prolongation
In music theory, prolongation refers to the process in tonal music through which a pitch, interval, or consonant triad is able to govern spans of music when not physically sounding...
or expansion, "the process by which an interval formed by notes of longer value is expressed in notes of smaller value," see nonchord tone
Nonchord tone
A nonchord tone, nonharmonic tone, or non-harmony note is a note in a piece of music which is not a part of the implied harmony that is described by the other notes sounding at the time...
.
Diminution in composition
A melodyMelody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
or series of notes is diminished if the lengths of the notes are shortened; diminution is thus the opposite of augmentation
Augmentation (music)
In Western music and music theory, the word augmentation has three distinct meanings. Augmentation is a compositional device where a melody, theme or motif is presented in longer note-values than were previously used...
, where the notes are lengthened. A melody originally consisting of four crotchets (quarter-notes) for example, is diminished if it later appears with four quavers (eighth-notes) instead. This technique is often used in contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
music, as in the "canon
Canon (music)
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
by diminution" ("per diminutionem"), in which the notes in the following voice or voices are shorter than those in the leading voice, usually half the length.
Diminution of note values
In mensural notationMensural notation
Mensural notation is the musical notation system which was used in European music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600."Mensural" refers to the ability of this system to notate complex rhythms with great exactness and flexibility...
, diminution of the duration of note shapes is the most common function of coloration. Diminution is most often by one-third of the note-value, so that three colored notes fit into the time of two uncolored notes of the same shape; it is thus often found in notation of triplet
Triplet
-Science:* A series of three nucleotide bases that form Genetic code* J-coupling as part of NMR spectroscopy* Opal in preparation to be a gemstone* Spin triplet in quantum mechanics — as in triplet oxygen, or simply triplet state in general....
or hemiola
Hemiola
In modern musical parlance, a hemiola is a metrical pattern in which two bars in simple triple time are articulated as if they were three bars in simple duple time...
figures.
Diminution may also be achieved by a sign of proportion. Thus a sign such as is in proportional notation not a modern time signature
Time signature
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes one beat....
, but a proportional signature indicating diminutio sesquialtera, that is, that after the sign each three notes of the basic note value integer valor occupy the time of two such notes elsewhere in the piece, either previously in the same voice, or simultaneously in another voice.
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 fifthPerfect fifth
In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is a musical interval encompassing five staff positions , and the perfect fifth is a fifth spanning seven semitones, or in meantone, four diatonic semitones and three chromatic semitones...
, and a diminished seventh
Diminished seventh
In classical music from Western culture, a diminished seventh is an interval produced by narrowing a minor seventh by a chromatic semitone. For instance, the interval from A to G is a minor seventh, ten semitones wide, and both the intervals from A to G, and from A to G are diminished sevenths,...
interval is a chromatic semitone narrower than the minor seventh. Diminished intervals are often used in jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, art
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
and Heavy Metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
music, but not as often in pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
.
| Diminished second Diminished second In modern Western tonal music theory a diminished second is the interval between notes on two adjacent staff positions, or having adjacent note letters, whose alterations cause them, in ordinary equal temperament, to have no pitch difference, such as B and C or B and C... |
Diminished third Diminished third In classical music from Western culture, a diminished third is the musical interval produced by narrowing a minor third by a chromatic semitone. For instance, the interval from A to C is a minor third, three semitones wide, and both the intervals from A to C, and from A to C are diminished thirds,... |
Diminished fourth Diminished fourth In classical music from Western culture, a diminished fourth is an interval produced by narrowing a perfect fourth by a chromatic semitone. For example, the interval from C to F is a perfect fourth, five semitones wide, and both the intervals from C to F, and from C to F are diminished fourths,... |
Diminished fifth | Diminished sixth Diminished sixth In classical music from Western culture, a diminished sixth is an interval produced by narrowing a minor sixth by a chromatic semitone. For example, the interval from A to F is a minor sixth, eight semitones wide, and both the intervals from A to F, and from A to F are diminished sixths, spanning... |
Diminished seventh Diminished seventh In classical music from Western culture, a diminished seventh is an interval produced by narrowing a minor seventh by a chromatic semitone. For instance, the interval from A to G is a minor seventh, ten semitones wide, and both the intervals from A to G, and from A to G are diminished sevenths,... |
Diminished octave Diminished octave In classical music from Western culture, a diminished octave is an interval produced by narrowing a perfect octave by a chromatic semitone. As such, the two notes are denoted by the same letter but have different accidentals... |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The standard abbreviations for diminished intervals are dX, such that a diminished third = d3.
Diminished chords
A diminished triad consists of two superposed minor thirdMinor third
In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...
s, and thus contains a diminished fifth. In classical repertoire the usual symbol is the degree, ° , as in vii°. In lead sheets and popular music books it is usually written Cdim or C°.
A diminished seventh chord
Diminished seventh chord
A diminished seventh chord is a four note chord that comprises a diminished triad plus the interval of a diminished seventh above the root. Thus it is , or enharmonically , of any major scale; for example, C diminished-seventh would be , or enharmonically...
consists of three superposed minor thirds, and thus has all successive notes a minor third apart; it contains two diminished fifths. In jazz theory, a diminished seventh chord has four available tensions, each a major ninth above the chord tones, and thus forming a diminished seventh chord a whole tone (or major ninth) above the root chord. Because any chord tone of the diminished seventh can be heard as the root, the tensions are not numbered as ninth, eleventh and so on. The usual notation is Cdim7 or C°7, but some lead sheets or popular music books may omit the 7.
A diminished triad with a minor seventh is a half-diminished chord, usually notated either Cm7(5) or Cø7.
Diminished scales
Several scales may be referred to as diminished. One of the more common is the Octatonic scaleOctatonic scale
An octatonic scale is any eight-note musical scale. Among the most famous of these is a scale in which the notes ascend in alternating intervals of a whole step and a half step, creating a symmetric scale...
constructed from C°7 and its tensions (transposed into the same octave), which has alternating tone and semitone intervals.