source file: m1569.txt
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 04:33:32 -0500

Subject: Consonance definitions

From: Daniel Wolf <DJWOLF_MATERIAL@compuserve.com>

I second Larry Polansky. James Tenney's _A History of Consonance and
Dissonance_ is a good source of orientation.

Paul Erlich wrote:

<Consonance is not a mathematical phenomenon, it is a
<psychoacoustic one.

This is also incorrect. Consonance is a music-theoretic phenomenon,
culturally or individually determined, and a highly contextual one at tha=
t.
Parallels in the physical and psychophysical domains are extremely useful=

in discourse about consonance, but relationships between the domains have=

very interesting instabilities.

Klarenc Barlowe's _Bus Journey to Parametron (all about
_COGLUOTOBU"SISLETMESI)_ (Feedback Papers 21-23, available from Frog Peak=
)
is the best -- and most entertaining -- account I know of a composer
sorting through all of this and more.  =


Daniel Wolf
Frankfurt