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Help me find this book

In Episode #110 of This American Life, "Mapping", one of the segments is about a guy who mapped the tones created by different objects around him (e.g., his computer, his space heater) onto different musical modes depending on the "chords" the sounds created. In the episode, it mentions a book by "critic Derek Cooke" that re-thinks the thematic feel of different musical intervals.

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OK, while I was writing this I realized that I hadn't done any amount of googling for the book. The task was made a little more difficult since the author's name is spelled "Deryck Cooke". The book is called The Language of Music, and it was actually published in 1959. The show made it sound like it was a more recent work.

It should be an interesting read, since it re-examines the territory tread by the Catholic Church that brought us the concept of the diabolus in musica ("Devil in music") chord, now just plainly called a tritone. Most references site the "creepy" or "scary" sound of the chord for it's "Satan's Chord" monicker, and describe its banishment from the ecclesiastical music of the time. It's much more commonly used now, as it is of course the backbone to many heavier heavy metal songs.

I can only hope the story behind more musical intervals is just as interesting.

Comments closed due to comment spam

Posted by Rob at November 28, 2007 03:51 PM