The Tristan Chord
One chord opens Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, refuses to resolve, and changed harmony forever. Hear the opening note by note on the staff, find the tritone F-B inside F B D# G#, respell it as a half-diminished seventh (Fø7), follow its move to E7, and hear the A minor that never comes. Then build half-diminished chords on any root and write a tension that delays its own resolution.
In this lesson you'll
- Play the Tristan chord (F3 B3 D#4 G#4), name the tritone F-B at its bottom and respell it as F Ab Cb Eb, a half-diminished seventh (Fm7b5 = Fø7).
- Build a half-diminished seventh on any root with minor 3rd + minor 3rd + major 3rd (Bø7 = B D F A, Eø7 = E G Bb D).
- Hear Tristan chord - E7 - A minor (resolved) against Tristan chord - E7 - silence (open), and write four bars that delay the home chord.
Music in this lesson
- Tristan und Isolde (opening)Richard Wagner · 1865
Remember
The Tristan chord's two lowest notes, F and B, form a tritone; its notes sound like a half-diminished seventh, but it behaves differently, so the ear can't tell where it's going.
It moves to E7, a dominant chord that wants A minor, and gets silence instead: in an opera about longing, the full resolution is held back for hours, until the very end.
Delaying a resolution creates longing; musicians have debated this chord for over 150 years, and it is often seen as a gateway to modern harmony.