The Tristan Chord | Wagner's Epic Chord Hack | tritone substitution | phrygian chord

#epicchords #cinematiccomposing #tritonesubstitution
Richard Wagner's spooky sonority from Tristan and Isolde was a game changer. Here's a sound that keeps showing up in film & tv music you can use yourself.
00:00 intro
00:19 Tristan Chord
00:52 harmonic frame
02:26 Minor7 flat5
03:10 tritone substitution
04:01 modified tritone substitution
04:45 use in jazz
05:26 phrygian dominants
06:30 conclusions

[DanGabrieldS]

This is such a treat! Thank you for sharing!

[KSOLTS]

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Herr Wagner!

[Markrspooner]

I had no idea the Tristan Chord was basically a tritone substitution, and that is part of the reason it works so well.

[milancvetanovic]

Many chord progressions played in this video are present in David Sylvian's songs. An interesting video!

[cinemagraphymahivara]

3:55 khovanschina by Mussorgsky. Marfa's aria

[Pooter-ityg]

Sadly too many adoring people talk of THE chord and completely miss the point that the important thing is the progression and the way it's used. A deliberately unresolved cadence, not reaching the tonic, expressing the unresolved yearning between the principal characters. The chord itself wasn't even revolutionary back in the day - in the classical analysis, a sixth chord predominant (well known and used at the time). With the added structural element that the top voice moves through alterations/suspensions by rising semitones through the progression (more yearning). F7#9#11 (or Fhalfdim, same thing) F7#11 E7#11 E7. In jazz thinking it's a minor blues cadence, bVI V without the i. Any jazz musician who's suffered through thousands of choruses of Summertime has at some point played something very close to this. Perhaps out of experimentation through sheer boredom...
For further consideration of Wagner's context, this figure is repeated through different harmonic "regions" - giving us basically F7 E7 then no A, Ab7 G7 then no C, C7 B7 then no E. The unplayed resolutions spell out the triad of the missing tonic A minor. So not only can the poor longing lovers not reach their desired erm tonic note, they can't even reach any of its constituent triad notes either. In case you don't know the story, Act I sees the loyal knight Tristan tasked with escorting the dutiful princess Isolde to be married to a foreign king but they fall in love during the sea voyage. This gesture opens Act II and isn't life unfair? It's not going to end well...
I'd also point out that while Wagner and Strauss get the adulation for expanding harmony, many others had been doing it for years. Not least Liszt - the B minor sonata is pretty much a textbook for all chromatic harmony after about 1850.