This is a really interesting post on Boing Boing about the Church's suppression of tritones in the Middle Ages. Maybe that's why church hymns are so dull...or maybe the church was right, and that's why today's society is so wicked!

A new documentary about heavy metal music history explores the musical phenomenon known as "The Devil's Interval," which was suppressed by church authorities during the Middle Ages. Snip:

On the surface there might appear to be no link between Black Sabbath, Wagner's Gotterdammerung, West Side Story and the theme tune to the Simpsons. But all of them rely heavily on tritones, a musical interval that spans three whole tones, like the diminished fifth or augmented fourth. This interval, the gap between two notes played in succession or simultaneously, was branded Diabolus in Musica or the Devil's Interval by medieval musicians.

A rich mythology has grown up around it. Many believe that the Church wanted to eradicate the sounds from its music because it invoked sexual feelings, or that it was genuinely the work of the Devil. It is a mythology much beloved of long-haired guitar wizards.

Link to BBC News story with audio examples. Link to movie website for "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey."

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