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Posted

Going off on a tangent in one of my essays again, I found out about the Tristan chord. My first question:

Why is it called the Tristan chord? I thought it was created by Wagner as it is the first chord of his "Tristan und Isolde", but wikipedia corrected me and told me it was used by loads of other people like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin (as my next question will show:)).

Anyway, the question is, was it called the Tristan chord before Wagner wrote this piece, and it became famous through that and THAT is why it is called the "Tristan" chord today? Or did it have another name before this opera (if so, what was it:)?)

Secondly... I found out it should consist of, well to avoid my own mind confusing me I'll use direct quotes:

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, viz. (from the lowest note upward) an augmented fourth, a major third and a perfect fourth. It is so named as it is the very first chord heard in Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde[/i'],

Ok, and next it shows two musical examples, one from Chopin and one from Beethoven, except I'm having REAL trouble trying to pick out actually where this chord is (I've gone for years hearing and reading stuff like this and automatically just agreeing with it without actually being able to see it, and I'm sick of not being able to pick it out with my own eyes, so I am determined now!)

Here is the beethoven music (quoted from the same wikipedia page):

800px-Beethoven_Sonata_Op._31%2C_No._3_Tristan_chord.PNG

Can't see it here, here is a musical quote from Chopin:

550px-Tristanchopin2.PNG

I know I am probably retarded and it is obvious to you lot, but if you could explain and point to actually where this chord is in the two quotes, I'd really appriciate it.

Here is the article on it I have been refering to in this post .

Thanks!

Posted

Don't look so hard...in the first example, all those notes F, B(Cb), D#(Eb) and G#(Ab) are spelled right there in the half-notes at the beginning of the first two bars. The order of voicing doesn't really matter... I don't see it in the second example....it's close, C, F#, A#...

whatever.

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