What is "false relation"

False \False\, a. [Compar. Falser; superl. Falsest.] [L. falsus, p. p. of fallere to deceive; cf. OF. faus, fals, F. faux, and AS. fals fraud. See Fail, Fall.]

1. Uttering falsehood; unveracious; given to deceit; dishnest; as, a false witness.

2. Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.; untrue; treacherous; perfidious; as, a false friend, lover, or subject; false to promises.

   I to myself was false, ere thou to me.
   --Milton.

3. Not according with truth or reality; not true; fitted or likely to deceive or disappoint; as, a false statement.

4. Not genuine or real; assumed or designed to deceive; counterfeit; hypocritical; as, false tears; false modesty; false colors; false jewelry.

   False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
   --Shak.

5. Not well founded; not firm or trustworthy; erroneous; as, a false claim; a false conclusion; a false construction in grammar.

   Whose false foundation waves have swept away.
   --Spenser.

6. Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.

7. (Mus.) Not in tune.

   False arch (Arch.), a member having the appearance of an arch, though not of arch construction.

   False attic, an architectural erection above the main cornice, concealing a roof, but not having windows or inclosing rooms.

   False bearing, any bearing which is not directly upon a vertical support; thus, the weight carried by a corbel has a false bearing.

   False cadence, an imperfect or interrupted cadence.

   False conception (Med.), an abnormal conception in which a mole, or misshapen fleshy mass, is produced instead of a properly organized fetus.

   False croup (Med.), a spasmodic affection of the larynx attended with the symptoms of membranous croup, but unassociated with the deposit of a fibrinous membrane.

   False door or False window (Arch.), the representation of a door or window, inserted to complete a series of doors or windows or to give symmetry.

   False fire, a combustible carried by vessels of war, chiefly for signaling, but sometimes burned for the purpose of deceiving an enemy; also, a light on shore for decoying a vessel to destruction.

   False galena. See Blende.

   False imprisonment (Law), the arrest and imprisonment of a person without warrant or cause, or contrary to law; or the unlawful detaining of a person in custody.

   False keel (Naut.), the timber below the main keel, used to serve both as a protection and to increase the shio's lateral resistance.

   False key, a picklock.

   False leg. (Zo["o]l.) See Proleg.

   False membrane (Med.), the fibrinous deposit formed in croup and diphtheria, and resembling in appearance an animal membrane.

   False papers (Naut.), documents carried by a ship giving false representations respecting her cargo, destination, etc., for the purpose of deceiving.

   False passage (Surg.), an unnatural passage leading off from a natural canal, such as the urethra, and produced usually by the unskillful introduction of instruments.

   False personation (Law), the intentional false assumption of the name and personality of another.

   False pretenses (Law), false representations concerning past or present facts and events, for the purpose of defrauding another.

   False rail (Naut.), a thin piece of timber placed on top of the head rail to strengthen it.

   False relation (Mus.), a progression in harmony, in which a certain note in a chord appears in the next chord prefixed by a flat or sharp.

   False return (Law), an untrue return made to a process by the officer to whom it was delivered for execution.

   False ribs (Anat.), the asternal rebs, of which there are five pairs in man.

   False roof (Arch.), the space between the upper ceiling and the roof.
   --Oxford Gloss.

   False token, a false mark or other symbol, used for fraudulent purposes.

   False scorpion (Zo["o]l.), any arachnid of the genus Chelifer. See Book scorpion.

   False tack (Naut.), a coming up into the wind and filling away again on the same tack.

   False vampire (Zo["o]l.), the Vampyrus spectrum of South America, formerly erroneously supposed to have blood-sucking habits; -- called also vampire, and ghost vampire. The genuine blood-sucking bats belong to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. See Vampire.

   False window. (Arch.) See False door, above.

   False wing. (Zo["o]l.) See Alula, and Bastard wing, under Bastard.

   False works (Civil Engin.), construction works to facilitate the erection of the main work, as scaffolding, bridge centering, etc.

A false relation (also known as cross-relation, non-harmonic relation) is the name of a type of dissonance that sometimes occurs in polyphonic music, most commonly in vocal music of the Renaissance. The term describes i) a " chromatic contradiction" between two notes sounding simultaneously, (or in close proximity), in two different voices or parts or ii) in music written before 1600, the occurrence of a tritone between two notes of adjacent chords.

In the above example, a chromatic false relation occurs in two adjacent voices sounding at the same time (shown in red). The tenor voice sings G while the bass sings G momentarily beneath it, producing the clash of an augmented unison.

In this instance, the false relation is less pronounced: the contradicting E (soprano voice) and E (bass voice) ( diminished octave) do not sound simultaneously. Here the false relation occurs because the top voice is descending in a minor key, and therefore takes the notes of the melodic minor scale descending (the diatonic sixth degree). The bass voice ascends and therefore makes use of the ascending melodic minor scale (the raised sixth degree).

False relation is in this case desirable since this chromatic alteration follows a melodic idea, the rising 'melodic minor'. In such cases false relations must occur between different voices, as it follows that they cannot be produced by the semitones that occur diatonically in a mode or scale of any kind. This horizontal approach to polyphonic writing reflects the practices of composers in the Renaissance and Tudor periods, particularly in vocal composition, but it is also seen, for example, in the hexachord fantasies of William Byrd (for keyboard). Indeed, vocal music from this era does not often have these accidentals notated in the manuscript (see Musica ficta); experienced singers would have decided whether or not they were appropriate in a given musical context.

Many composers from the late 16th century onwards however began using the effect deliberately as an expressive device in their word setting. This practice continued well into the Romantic era, and can be heard in the music of Mozart and Chopin, for example.