dissonancemusic
Main
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
Assorted References
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main reference
( in consonance and dissonance )
in music, the impression of stability and repose (consonance) in relation to the impression of tension or clash (dissonance) experienced by a listener when certain combinations of tones or notes are sounded together. In certain musical styles, movement to and from consonance and dissonance gives shape and a sense of direction, for example, through increases and decreases in harmonic tension.
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counterpoint
( in counterpoint )
...consideration, dealing with melody). Musical theorists have tended to emphasize the vertical aspects of counterpoint, defining the combinations of notes that are consonances and dissonances, and prescribing where consonances and dissonances should occur in the strong and weak beats of musical metre. In contrast, composers, especially the great ones, have shown more interest...
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harmony development ( in harmony: Harmony before the common practice period
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...In free organum they were used at the principal points of articulation: the beginnings and ends of phrases and at key words in the text. In between occurred other intervals that were relatively dissonant; i.e., they implied less repose and more tension. In the following example of free organum, dissonances are marked by asterisks.
in harmony: Avant-garde conceptions of harmony )...result of the combination of melodic lines. New experiments with unusual harmonies (such as tone clusters, functionless in the traditional sense), the lessening of the tension between consonance and dissonance, and the creation of unprecedented harmonies by the use of computers have been the result of a search for new methods of musical organization. This in turn was the natural outgrowth of the...
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Indian music
( in South Asian arts: Qualities of the scales )
...to the Western term sonant, meaning “having sound”; saṃvādī, to the Western consonant (concordant; reposeful); vivāẖī, to dissonant (discordant; lacking repose); and anuvāẖī, to assonant (neither consonant nor dissonant). As in the ancient Greek Pythagorean system, which influenced Western...
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theory of musical tuning
( in tuning and temperament )
Two concepts fundamental to the theory of tuning are those of frequency ratio and of consonance and dissonance. A given musical pitch is determined by the frequency of vibration of the sound wave that produces it, as a′ = 440 cycles per second. An interval, or distance between two pitches, can thus be mathematically described as the ratio of the frequency of the first pitch to the...
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Western pitch system
( in musical sound: Consonance and dissonance )
Until the 20th century, music theorists were prone to concoct tables that showed an “objective” classification of intervals into the two opposing camps of consonant and dissonant. But only the person who utters these terms can know with assurance what he means by them, although many attempts have been made to link consonant with pleasant, smooth, stable, beautiful and dissonant with...
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main reference consonance and dissonance
in music, the impression of stability and repose (consonance) in relation to the impression of tension or clash (dissonance) experienced by a listener when certain combinations of tones or notes are sounded together. In certain musical styles, movement to and from consonance and dissonance gives shape and a sense of direction, for example, through increases and decreases in harmonic tension.
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counterpoint counterpoint
...consideration, dealing with melody). Musical theorists have tended to emphasize the vertical aspects of counterpoint, defining the combinations of notes that are consonances and dissonances, and prescribing where consonances and dissonances should occur in the strong and weak beats of musical metre. In contrast, composers, especially the great ones, have shown more interest...
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harmony development ( in harmony: Harmony before the common practice period
)
...In free organum they were used at the principal points of articulation: the beginnings and ends of phrases and at key words in the text. In between occurred other intervals that were relatively dissonant; i.e., they implied less repose and more tension. In the following example of free organum, dissonances are marked by asterisks.
in harmony: Avant-garde conceptions of harmony )...result of the combination of melodic lines. New experiments with unusual harmonies (such as tone clusters, functionless in the traditional sense), the lessening of the tension between consonance and dissonance, and the creation of unprecedented harmonies by the use of computers have been the result of a search for new methods of musical organization. This in turn was the natural outgrowth of the...
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Indian music South Asian arts
...to the Western term sonant, meaning “having sound”; saṃvādī, to the Western consonant (concordant;...
in music, the impression of stability and repose (consonance) in relation to the impression of tension or clash (dissonance) experienced by a listener when certain combinations of tones or notes are sounded together. In certain musical styles, movement to and from consonance and dissonance gives shape and a sense of direction, for example, through increases and decreases in harmonic tension.
Perception of individual chords and intervals as consonant or dissonant has varied through the centuries, as well as with individual composers. Before about 1300 the interval of the third (as C to E) was heard as dissonant and in theory, if not in practice, remained an “imperfect” consonance well into modern times. The interval of the second, on the other hand, dissonant by definition in the Western art tradition, appears to have no such connotations for Istrian folk singers. By and large, however, concepts of consonance and dissonance have remained fairly constant and can be discussed in terms of the physics of musical sound.
Intervals can be described as ratios of the frequency of vibration of one sound wave to that of another: the octave a–a′, for example, has the ratio of 220 to 440 cycles per second, which equals 1:2 (all octaves have the ratio 1:2, whatever their particular frequencies). Relatively consonant intervals, such as the octave, have frequency ratios using small numbers (e.g., 1:2). The more dissonant major seventh interval (e.g., C–B) has the ratio 8:15, which uses larger numbers. Thus, the subjective gradation from consonance to dissonance corresponds to a gradation of sound-frequency ratios from simple ratios to more complex ones.
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counterpoint counterpoint
...(a “horizontal” consideration, dealing with melody). Musical theorists have tended to emphasize...
the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. The unease or tension that the conflict arouses in a person is relieved by one of several defensive maneuvers: the person rejects, explains away, or avoids the new information, persuades himself that no conflict really exists, reconciles the differences, or resorts to any other defensive means of preserving stability or order in his conception of the world and of himself. The concept, first introduced in the 1950s, has become a major point of discussion and research.
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communication communication
Some of the suggestions that emerged from the work of certain modern psychologists may be subsumed under a theory of what is called “cognitive dissonance,” which is based upon the observation that most people cannot tolerate more than a specific degree of inconsistency in the environments they perceive. An example of cognitive dissonance may involve a person who considers himself a...
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motivation motivation
One of the most popular cognitive approaches to the study of motivation has been the theory of cognitive dissonance, first systematically studied by the American psychologist Leon Festinger. This theory proposed that people attempt to maintain consistency among their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. According to this theory, a motivational state termed cognitive dissonance is produced...
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persuasion persuasion
Other theories view the person confronted with persuasive communication as being in the vexing role of finding some reasonable compromise among many conflicting forces—e.g., individual desires, existing attitudes, new information, and the social pressures originating from sources outside the individual. Those who stress this...
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consumers marketing
Dissonance-reducing buying behaviour occurs when the consumer is highly involved but sees little difference between brands. This is likely to be the case with the purchase of a lawn mower or a diamond ring. After making a purchase under such circumstances, a consumer is likely to experience the dissonance that comes from noticing that other brands would have been just as good, if not slightly...
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harmonic dissonance after Wagner harmony
...and fifth, the ancient cornerstones of harmony, do not exist. Because the chords to which dissonances traditionally resolve are impossible with this scale, a work built upon it—e.g., “Voiles” (“Sails”), from the first book of preludes for piano—can be said to exist without harmonic resolution and, therefore, without traditional tonality. Other...
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