"Consonant" and "dissonant" are words that are indeed a bit too specific to the European music pedagogy as a whole. But I would argue that the "whole integer ra

"Consonant" and "dissonant" are words that are indeed a bit too specific to the European music pedagogy as a whole. But I would argue that the "whole integer ratio" principle does actually extend a fair bit beyond Western classical. The lowest whole integer frequency ratios -- using Pythagorean terms and the ratios, octaves (2:1) and perfect fifths (3:2) -- seem to be present in the music systems of many music cultures, at least the ones I'm aware of. Perfect fourths (4:3) are also decently common in many music scales, although not quite as common as the other ratios. Beyond that, there is much variety and I'm not sure I can conclude anything (especially since my knowledge of scales and modes outside Western music is fairly limited). It just seems like most music systems in the world are aware of these core ratios at least. One other curiosity: I would say a huge percentage of music scales throughout the world tend to feature either seven or five notes (five notes actually is probably the more common one, if I had to take a guess). Unlike harmony, I'm honestly not sure why this is the case. Even gamelan scales are seven notes.