source file: mills3.txt Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 17:06:16 +0200 Subject: more consonance and dissonance From: William Sethares Yesterday, Carl Lumma wrote: >I believe this makes a more useful definition of >Consonance than any other I've ever heard. >If somebody's got one they think >I havn't heard, please share. Probably the "definitive" work on consonance and dissonance is James Tenney's "A History of Consonance and Dissonance". In it, he outlines 5 different ways that the two words have been used throughout history: (1) melodic consonance and dissonance (pertaining to monophonic sources) (2) polyphonic consonance and dissonance (I think this is where the small integer ratio definition fits) (3) contrapuntal consonance and dissonance (as in the "rules" of counterpoint) (4) functional consonance and dissonance (like in Piston's "Harmony", the consonance and dissonance of an interval is defined by its use - for instance, the P4 can be soemtimes consonant and sometimes dissonant) (5) sensory consonance and dissonance (beginning with Helmholtz, the idea that consonance and dissonance are based on beating of relevant partials) Thus, much of the preceeding discussion can be viewed as an advocate of "polyphonic" consonance talking at cross purposes with an advocate of "sensory" consonance. In my opinion, each of the definitions makes sense in some arena, and fails to make sense in others. Perhaps we would do well to use one of Tenney's adjectives to modify our usages of consonance and dissonance - others might not agree - but at least we wouldnt be arguing about *the correct* meaning of the words. On the other hand, if we can't agree on what "microtone" means, how can we expect to agree on terms like consonance and dissonance, which have a two thousand year history? Bill Sethares SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: "Paul H. Erlich" Subject: reply to Carl Lumma PostedDate: 24-10-97 20:59:23 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 24-10-97 20:58:28-24-10-97 20:58:28,24-10-97 19:59:06-24-10-97 19:59:06 DeliveredDate: 24-10-97 19:59:06 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125653A.00683977; Fri, 24 Oct 1997 20:58:24 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA25832; Fri, 24 Oct 1997 20:59:23 +0200 Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 20:59:23 +0200 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA26735 Received: (qmail 16805 invoked from network); 24 Oct 1997 11:59:19 -0700 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 24 Oct 1997 11:59:19 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu