the Tristan chord
E483262
The Tristan chord is a famously ambiguous and harmonically innovative chord in Richard Wagner’s opera *Tristan und Isolde* that is often cited as a pivotal moment in the development of modern Western music.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| the Tristan chord canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4952063 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the Tristan chord Context triple: [Tristan und Isolde, notableFor, the Tristan chord]
-
A.
Toccata
Toccata is a virtuosic musical form, typically for keyboard instruments, characterized by fast-moving, improvisatory passages and dramatic display of technical skill.
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B.
Polyphony
Polyphony is a renowned British chamber choir acclaimed for its precise, expressive performances and extensive recordings of choral music, particularly on the Hyperion label.
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C.
Overtone
Overtone is a term commonly used in music and acoustics to refer to higher-frequency resonances that occur above a fundamental tone.
-
D.
Akordat
Akordat is a town in western Eritrea that serves as an important local center for trade and agriculture in the Gash-Barka region.
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E.
emancipation of the dissonance
Emancipation of the dissonance is a modernist musical concept that frees dissonant harmonies from the need to resolve, allowing them to function as independent, expressive sonorities.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the Tristan chord Target entity description: The Tristan chord is a famously ambiguous and harmonically innovative chord in Richard Wagner’s opera *Tristan und Isolde* that is often cited as a pivotal moment in the development of modern Western music.
-
A.
Toccata
Toccata is a virtuosic musical form, typically for keyboard instruments, characterized by fast-moving, improvisatory passages and dramatic display of technical skill.
-
B.
Polyphony
Polyphony is a renowned British chamber choir acclaimed for its precise, expressive performances and extensive recordings of choral music, particularly on the Hyperion label.
-
C.
Overtone
Overtone is a term commonly used in music and acoustics to refer to higher-frequency resonances that occur above a fundamental tone.
-
D.
Akordat
Akordat is a town in western Eritrea that serves as an important local center for trade and agriculture in the Gash-Barka region.
-
E.
emancipation of the dissonance
Emancipation of the dissonance is a modernist musical concept that frees dissonant harmonies from the need to resolve, allowing them to function as independent, expressive sonorities.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
harmonic sonority
ⓘ
musical chord ⓘ |
| associatedConcept |
Leitmotif technique
ⓘ
Wagnerian chromaticism ⓘ endless melody ⓘ post-tonal harmony ⓘ |
| characteristicFeature |
chromatic voice-leading
ⓘ
delayed resolution ⓘ suspension of tonal center ⓘ tonal ambiguity ⓘ |
| commonInterpretation |
F half-diminished seventh chord
ⓘ
French augmented sixth chord ⓘ altered subdominant chord ⓘ appoggiatura chord ⓘ |
| commonSpellingRelativeToA | F–B–D♯–G♯ ⓘ |
| composer | Richard Wagner NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceAct | Act I NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceIn | Tristan und Isolde NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceScene | Prelude NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceYear | 1865 ⓘ |
| harmonicFunction |
dominant preparation
ⓘ
pre-dominant ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
milestone in late Romantic chromaticism
ⓘ
pivotal moment in development of modern Western harmony ⓘ symbol of the breakdown of traditional tonality ⓘ |
| influenced |
Alban Berg
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Arnold Schoenberg NERFINISHED ⓘ Claude Debussy NERFINISHED ⓘ Gustav Mahler NERFINISHED ⓘ Richard Strauss NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| intervalFromBass |
augmented fourth
ⓘ
augmented ninth ⓘ augmented sixth ⓘ doubly augmented eleventh ⓘ |
| keyOfFirstAppearance | A minor ⓘ |
| musicTheoryDebate |
multiple competing analyses of harmonic function
ⓘ
question of whether it implies a key center ⓘ status as beginning of musical modernism ⓘ |
| namedAfter | opera Tristan und Isolde NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableAnalyst |
Allen Forte
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Carl Dahlhaus NERFINISHED ⓘ Heinrich Schenker NERFINISHED ⓘ Hugo Riemann NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| pitchContentInOriginalScore |
B
ⓘ
D♯ ⓘ F ⓘ G♯ ⓘ |
| resolutionBassNote | E ⓘ |
| resolutionInOpeningPhrase | E dominant seventh chord ⓘ |
| resolutionTendency | deceptive resolution ⓘ |
| scaleDegreeOfFirstAppearance | leading tone ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: the Tristan chord Description of subject: The Tristan chord is a famously ambiguous and harmonically innovative chord in Richard Wagner’s opera *Tristan und Isolde* that is often cited as a pivotal moment in the development of modern Western music.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.