The unholy tones of emergency sirens
“diabolus in musica”
The Augmented 4th, or Tritonus, which spans three whole steps in the scale, is one of the most dissonant musical intervals around. It was considered unpleasant and ugly, and was named "diabolus in musica" - "the devil in music" - and you wouldn't use anything diabolical to praise the Lord, would you? [Lars Fahlin, Anderton, near Chorley, Lancs.]
There are churchgoers talking in terms of music when they are really talking about something else that is not in tune or not in harmony with nature or with nature’s God. It is a similar manner of men at the barbershop talking in terms of having their hair cut when they are really talking about something else, such as going to war.
The augmented fourth, sometimes called "the devil's interval", is created by sounding ti (or si) over fa, which notes are in the proportion 45:32. Looked at in conventional terms, the inversion of this harmony, fa over ti (the diminished fifth), ought to be identical to the augmented fourth - but its numerical proportions turn out to be 64:45. Either way, it sounds pretty ugly, though it can work musically in the right context - and it is very successfully employed in emergency sirens. This interval is fiendishly difficult to sing. The further we depart from 1, the more we move away from harmony and into dissonance. [David Goymour, Battersea, London SW11.]
That's more like screeching than singing, or intentionally singing so far out of tune. The choir is out of tune. So, the devilish singers pass the hat, collect donations in church, and shunt the money off to FEMA — at least, in America — or whatever other equivalent government-mandated or coerced “emergency” population control and martial law services are offered in Europe or Greenland or Ukraine or Israel or Iran or other parts of the world.
- American Red Cross // First Responders // Train to a Higher Standard and Improve Outcomes
- American Red Cross // Disaster Relief // Disaster Mental Health
- FEMA // Training and Education // First Responders and Emergency Managers
- FEMA // Glossary // “Whole Community”
THIS chord was banned because it was very hard to sing. [Rachel Bates, Glasgow.]
Bust the dirty cop shop bosses. They don’t deserve our church donations. The trouble with “first responders” is that when they become professionals at that unseemly business, they are highly paid professionals at being something between boys who cried wolf and careless undertakers. Red Cross appears to be shunting private donations away from religion toward government and training aggressive and dominant individuals to be highly paid “professionals” at something of which we as a society cannot believe it is healthy to cultivate such a large and profitable “profession” where it’s always deemed a “mental health” crisis of some sort which is highly profitable to them in the absence of any actual emergency.
THE augmented 4th (the interval between the two tones of a fire-engine klaxon) exerts its unsettling effect even when the notes are sounded in succession and in conventional harmony and counterpoint, its use is still subject to rules and regulations. While the interval, used judiciously, gives vigour and interest to what would otherwise be rather anodyne melody, the churchmen thought its disturbing effect "apt to provoke lewd and libidinous thoughts". Naturally the ban ensured that the augmented fourth became a favourite device of church composers, and much later it was re-invented, labelled "flattened fifth" and somewhat overused by young jazz players anxious to dissociate themselves from traditional styles. [Robin Dow, Audley, Cheshire]
That sounds like too many lewd and libidinous blue-pilled “first responders” answering a vulgar prostitution and protection racket “call of duty” from below the belt, and their musician flattened his thumb with a hammer.