Originally Posted By: PeterGannon
To me, dissonance is a musical and subjective term, and it is in the ear of the beholder, rather than being explainable based on harmonics etc. I would define dissonance as a voicing of notes that sound unpleasant to the listener...


This discussion far exceeds my music technical knowledge. But Peter's remark causes me to think back (waaay back) when I studied and worked in psychology. If for some reason we had evolved to be hardwired to dislike dissonance (think bitter taste) then we would certainly "know" what dissonance is and we would all quickly agree upon it -- at least from a phenomenological perspective. But as Peter noted it is ultimately in the ear of the beholder. And in that case there are many variables that can play into why it sounds unpleasant...mostly related to our experiences, i.e., learning.

Pardon the ramble but it is a fascinating subject.

A big ole FWIW!

Bud

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