On 4 Feb 2005 at 14:41, Andrew Stiller wrote: [I wrote:] > >How do you tell the difference between the consonance and the > >dissonance, then? > > > >Without reference to other music or a system of rules not reflected > >in the musical text where the dissonance is never resolved, the two > >terms are simply meaningless. > > > >At least, so it seems to *me*. > > Such a statement is supportable only if you believe that musical > perception is a purely cultural phenonmenon without any biological > basis.
I tend to that point of view, mostly because the people who argue for the acoustic basis for tonality are complete idiots who stretch their evidence well beyond the bounds of what can be proven. Acoustics *do* prejudice us towards certain kinds of sounds, but in different musical cultures, those sounds are used differently and mean different things. > I would agree that there is no hard-and-fast natural boundary between > the dissonant and the consonant, and that culture plays a big role in > drawing such arbitrary boundaries. . . . In *Schoenberg's* musical culture, if you eliminate dissonance, you eliminate consonance. That's the only culture to the discussion. > . . . However, I would think that anyone, > ever, from anywhere, would agree that a minor second is much more > dissonant than a perfect fifth, and that those two extreme intervals > are absolutely dissonant and absolutely consonant respectively, and > without regard to musical context. You've not met many of my Elements of Music students! -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
