3 ms·
I understand dissonance to be how big the numbers are when you express an interval as a reduced frequency ratio. By that metric it's pretty dissonant. How can
by recursive 2y ago
I understand dissonance to be how big the numbers are when you express an interval as a reduced frequency ratio. By that metric it's pretty dissonant. How can it be considered moderately dissonant?
- bongodongobob 2y agoFor me, I don't think it's meaningful to think of two notes in a vacuum as anything. The logical part of me wants to think about it with math like you're suggesting, but 2 notes lack any context to give them meaning. Add another two to the chord or add other notes around it temporally, and now they don't sound bad at all. The idea of consonance and dissonance only makes sense to me within the framework of tension and release.
- recursive 2y ago> now they don't sound bad at all I didn't mean to suggest that dissonance has any correlation with good/bad.
- zarzavat 2y agoYes, a tritone is dissonant because it isn’t close to any simple ratio of frequencies. It has a spiciness that makes the music sound interesting without it being overly unpleasant. Avoiding dissonance entirely can also be unpleasant. e.g. barbershop harmony can sound saccharine because the human voice can hit those simple ratios much closer than 12TET can. 12TET gives us some dissonance for free, which people have learned to appreciate. Like spice tolerance, dissonance tolerance is learned not inate. A minor second is very dissonant, you can hear pronounced beating between the tones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(acoustics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_(acoustics). This makes it stick out more than a tritone, so it has to be balanced more carefully.