On Feb 4, 2005, at 9:28 AM, dhbailey wrote:
Christopher Smith wrote:There are other ways to build and release tension than harmonically. Volume is one. Marcelo Perticone mentioned another couple of very good examples from conventional repertoire. Schoenberg's opus 16 (I think that is the right number) uses pretty much only orchestration to advance the "harmonic progression", if you could call it that, and the result is quite comprehensible. Steve Reich's and John Cage's percussion music are two other fantastic (and eminently listenable) examples which are completely free of harmony in any conventional form.
I would also question the audience's need to have all dissonance released in the end to "feel good." There are many, many works (mostly from the 20th century, granted) that are very successful without resolving harmonically at the end. Just for one broad example, it is very common to end big band pieces on a chord with MORE tension than the rest of the piece, not less, starting with Stan Kenton, and including most of Sammy Nestico's classic work for Count Basie, whose music hardly lacks the "feel good" element.
Christopher
I never said that dissonance/consonance was the only way to build tension/release, but it has been a major means to that end throughout music history.
And now it doesn't have to be. Not invariably, anyway, but we ARE living in a different world now. Avoiding perfect fifths in parallel has also been a major element of most common-practice era music, and now it isn't anymore.
As for the big bands, most of those tension chords at the end are resolved with a non-tuned drum-kick at the end, which sort of cleanses the palette.
Non-harmonic release of tension. Thank you for ceding that point, though I'm not sure I agree with the example.
But the tension/release through dissonance and consonance, while the tension might be heightened at the final chord, throughout the compositions, even most of Kenton's, remains important to the flow of the music.
Absolutely. But what about the percussion works I mentioned? Or for that matter, African drumming, which I feel is esthetically closely related to modern techno and other dance club music? One chord, or no chord, for minutes on end, and only small variations in timbre and subdivision to create form. And wildly popular in their cultures.
Christopher
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