Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [consonance-and-dissonance]

Dissonance is the cultural perception of two or more pitches sounded harmonically that form intervals not expected within the current musical context. These intervals typically occur higher in the harmonic series than other intervals considered to be "consonant".

Dissonance is the experience of hearing multiple pitches sounded harmonically that form intervals that are unexpected in the surrounding musical context. These intervals commonly create musical tension, and can be found farther up in the harmonic series than intervals considered to be "consonant".

108 questions
84
votes
12 answers

Is there a way to measure the consonance or dissonance of a chord?

I know that if I played C and B together they would be very dissonant compared to if I played a G or C one octave up. Is there a quantitative way to describe that sort dissonance? Edit: I understand that smaller ratios between the frequencies of the…
Alex
  • 994
  • 1
  • 7
  • 7
45
votes
8 answers

Does the difference in harmonic series between instruments have a significant effect on the consonance of the sound?

We all know that an instrument's timbre is uniquely determined by its harmonic series. Harmonic series are also very effective in describing whether an interval is consonant or not. For example, the perfect fifth (say C to G) is consonant because…
Ma Joad
  • 1,144
  • 10
  • 18
20
votes
7 answers

Is there a known point in history where dissonance became acceptable?

So, I'm not a scholar of music history, but I have a basic timeline. The evolution of Western music theory had several times in which certain chords and intervals were considered too "jarring" or "dissonant", but eventually became acceptable as…
KeithS
  • 8,085
  • 27
  • 43
17
votes
6 answers

avoiding thirds at lower frequencies

From Plomp & Levelt 1965, Tonal Consonance and Critical Bandwidth: "The critical frequency is lower for more consonant intervals. This behavior reflects the musical practice to avoid thirds at low frequencies and to use mostly octaves or wider…
Kevin Yin
  • 311
  • 2
  • 8
16
votes
4 answers

Is the tritone (A4 / d5 / DA3 / Dd6) still banned in Roman Catholic music?

The tritone is one of the most dissonant intervals in music. It is also known as the "Augmented 4th", "Diminished 5th", "Doubly Augmented 3rd" or "Doubly Diminished 6th", and it is composed of three adjacent whole tones. The tritone was banned in…
user53472
13
votes
6 answers

Are there objective criteria for classifying consonance v. dissonance?

There has been a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing regarding consonance and dissonance lately here. What I cannot understand is that the two terms seem to encompass rather subjective opinions. Looking at a recent list, I find myself disagreeing with…
Tim
  • 183,051
  • 16
  • 181
  • 444
13
votes
4 answers

A♭ major 9th chord in Bach is unexpectedly dissonant/jazzy

Measures 21-24 in Prelude VII from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier I I was looking at the Prelude VII by Bach and noticed that on the measure 23 Bach ended that phrase with a A♭ maj9 chord. I was wondering how often do extended chords show up in…
Diego Alvarez
  • 131
  • 1
  • 3
12
votes
4 answers

Dissonance across different octaves

When I play to keys that form a dissonant interval (for example a major second using C and D) in the lower octave, I perceive the dissonance to be very strong. But, when I move up to higher C's and D's the dissonance intensity seems to diminish. …
hauptstadt
  • 123
  • 5
12
votes
3 answers

Why are tritones not consonant, confusion with the definition of a perfect fifth

A fifth is a ratio of 1.5, and 1.5 is the middle between 1 and 2. A tritone is exactly in the center of my 12 notes. Stacking two tritones leads to an octave. Adding 1 + 0.5 + 0.5 leads me to the next octave as well. So why are tritones and fifths…
sezanzeb
  • 362
  • 2
  • 9
11
votes
8 answers

Why is a major third considered more consonant than a perfect fourth?

The "perfect" quality implies it should be as consonant as a perfect fifth, but that doesn't seem to be true. Moreover, a perfect fourth has the slightly nicer ratio of 4:3 compared to a major thirds 5:4. Is the naming just for historical reasons?
gardenhead
  • 219
  • 2
  • 5
11
votes
3 answers

Are all pure tones that are separated by intervals of greater than a minor third equally consonant?

In this Quora answer Why do certain musical notes sound good together? the answerer claims it is important to distinguish between pure tones, that is, simple sine waves, and real tones, such as those produced by a musical instrument or human…
Stan Shunpike
  • 2,737
  • 1
  • 16
  • 32
10
votes
5 answers

Do sine waves (pure tones) have overtones?

I was told in my music theory lessons that most sounds we hear in our everyday life contain partials which make up the timbral quality of that sound, whilst the sound musical instruments generate contain partials that occur at integer values to the…
user11845919
  • 383
  • 2
  • 7
10
votes
5 answers

What is the list of intervals in order of dissonance

I understand that some intervals are considered dissonant (minor second) and some intervals are consonant (perfect fourths). However whenever I see intervals listed, they are always listed from smallest to largest. What would the list of intervals…
David Kethel
  • 491
  • 1
  • 5
  • 7
10
votes
3 answers

Dissonant notes extremely panned - what is that I hear?

I was studying the musical theory and an idea came to me - what happens if I play dissonant chords at the same time, but one of them being panned to the extreme left and the other one - to the extreme right? I tried that in my DAW, setting one piano…
noncom
  • 261
  • 1
  • 8
10
votes
4 answers

“Tritone” intervals in n-tone equal temperament

In 12-tone equal temperament, the tritone interval is made of three whole tones (six semitones) and is considered, if I am not mistaken totally, as the most dissonant interval. I have two questions: Is there an explanation why tritone interval…
Samuele Giraudo
  • 305
  • 3
  • 10
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8