Why did Bernstein build West Side Story around 'The Devil's Interval'?
West Side Story is based on a very unusual interval. Picture: Getty Images By Sofia Rizzi , ClassicFM London 0 West Side Story is one of the world's most famous musicals. It's packed with great tunes and catchy rhythms, but there's an interval with a dark history at its heart. Leonard Bernstein 's West Side Story is based on and built around music's most unsettling interval, the ‘Devil's Interval’. Why would a composer do that? First things first: What is the Devil's Interval? If you're a classical music buff, you'll know that ‘The Devil's Interval’ is a nickname for a musical interval called a tritone. What is a tritone? Picture: Classic FM In a nutshell, a tritone is an augmented fourth interval (between C and F sharp). It's an interval between two notes separated by three whole tones. For an in-depth explanation, have a look at our tritone analysis: What is a tritone and why ...