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I would be interested in their reaction to two notes being played which are just slightly out of tune. Because it definitely seems like something which can be
by Sylos 10y ago
I would be interested in their reaction to two notes being played which are just slightly out of tune.
Because it definitely seems like something which can be trained - professional musicians often have a pain-like reaction to it, while your Average Joe just notices that it sounds bad.
But at the same time, your Average Joe still notices that it sounds bad, and yeah, just like with dissonances, it's hard to imagine someone who doesn't.
Personally I do think that they would dislike it, because I have this theory, which is somewhat similar to / a generalization of the Uncanny Valley theory [0]. That theory is that we fundamentally dislike anything which is not similar enough to something else to be perceived as the same thing, but neither different enough from it to be clearly distinguishable as something different.
So, no matter if that's two tones which are slightly out of tune, a painting with bright blue right next to baby blue, a shadow in the dark, or rice with noodles.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
- gardano 10y agoTake a gander at an actual 17th century composer playing with that idea in a most audacious way [0]. The section of the piece I'm referring to begins around 3:26. The idea seems to be, keys that are foreign to the piece should sound dissonant. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbrrMtWICs4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbrrMtWICs4
- tprice7 10y agoThat's an interesting idea and piece, thanks for sharing.
- pYQAJ6Zm 10y agoI am not a musician and, after listening to the piece, I was left with a question. To me, that part does sound playfully dissonant, yet it’s enjoyable. But I wonder, is this dissonance just a product of its key being foreign to the piece, as you say, or is there any chord in use that would be considered dissonant by music theory?
- gardano 10y agoIt's got more to do with the tuning system. Think of it as '6 degrees of separation'. The further away I am away from the starting point, the more alien the tuning would be, and therefore the more startling the sound. During this period in music, the ideal was to make the 'home base' key to be as perfectly in tune as possible (making adjustments of course). Michelangelo Rossi is playing with this, and is pushing the boundaries of those assumptions. William Byrd did much the same in England at pretty much the same time. It makes me wonder if the hyper-specialised quarter-tone composers of our day might have had a better time of it if we had never adopted equal temperament as the standard…
- leephillips 10y agoThat is wild. Thanks for sharing.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]