On 5 Feb 2005 at 9:56, Christopher Smith wrote: > On Feb 4, 2005, at 7:06 PM, David W. Fenton wrote: > > > On 4 Feb 2005 at 8:23, Christopher Smith wrote: > >> > >> Right. No dissonance, no consonance. It's not about that any more. > >> > >> You have correctly understood, grasshopper! > > > > Well, then, you disagree with Andrew, who said (still included in > > the quotes above): > > > >>>>> On 3 Feb 2005 at 12:07, Andrew Stiller wrote: > >>>>>> In any event, "emancipation of the dissonance" certainly does > >>>>>> not imply elimination of the consonant. > > > > I was disagreeing with that, as not resolving dissonance means it's > > no different from consonance, which means there is no longer a > > distinction that can be maintained except by external reference to > > rules that are not themselves demonstrated in the way the music > > itself behaves. > > It looks like all of us are in agreement from where I'm sitting. > Harmonic dissonance and consonance may be quantifiable and measurable > (ratios of frequencies and all that) but there are other factors > affecting how we react to it, such as culture, experience, and > context.
My point is simply that we can explain why "consonant" intervals (Q: why do these discussions always ignore chords of 3, 4, 5, 6 notes? A: because the simplistic explanation breaks down when you get away from pure 2-note intervals) differ from "dissonant" (more shared lower harmonics), but what happens after that is culturally (and contextually) defined. That is, different musical cultures respond to the acoustic characteristics of the dyads differently. And when you eliminate the concept of dissonance in the musical text (i.e., the dissonances are never resolved), then you no longer have a distinction between the two types of intervals beyond the culturally defined meanings the listeners bring to the table. -- 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
