I put "classical" in quotes for a reason - I meant baroque/romantic kinds of classical music. Mozart, if you will. Listen to Charles Ives, and you'll hear disso

I put "classical" in quotes for a reason - I meant baroque/romantic kinds of classical music. Mozart, if you will. Listen to Charles Ives, and you'll hear dissonance as challenging as anything in jazz. And yes, theoretical vs actual dissonance. All note combinations but unison are dissonant to some degree. C and G, played together, are more dissonant than C and C, but not as dissonant as, say, C and B together (which is also why there's some piquant clanginess in a maj7 chord, despite its lush sound). Also yes, in the right harmonic context, a major triad can sound really weird. But being major isn't itself proof against dissonance. If you're in D major, a D# major triad is going to sound very dissonant. "Perception of dissonance is cultural" is a generalization, I'll admit, but it's a good one. What sounds terrible to ears accustomed to Pachabel is merely juicy to ears that dig Ellington.