On 7 May 2011 11:23, Gary Digman <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't know what exactly you mean by "gratuitous". I assume you did not
Gratuitous dissonants are dissonants outside the frame of reference for the listener, and therefore without obvious meaning, or usefulness to him/her. The 'there's no point but to shock' reaction. A Medieval listener to organum would be shocked by thirds on strong beats, and no doubts think a third in a final chord outrageously gratuitous. What for Wagner was common harmonical language might be gratuitously dissonant to the casual Baroque listener. As a point in case: my classical guitar teacher didn't like jazz because of all those unresolved sevenths! ;-) David - who forgot to mention Wodehouse, Dogen and Milne, to whomever it was asking for his literary inspiration -- ******************************* David van Ooijen [email protected] www.davidvanooijen.nl ******************************* To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
