Dissonance and Resolution

1. Dissonance and Resolution Emily Trentacoste Math 5

2. Dissonance • Partials of two notes are too close • Critical bandwidth • Dissonant = partial within bandwidth • Consonant = partial outside bandwidth

3. Intervals and dissonance • Nonmusicians – major thirds, major sixths • Imperfect consonance • Musicians – major fourths, major fifths • Perfect consonance • I found musicians like upper fourths and fifths, not always lower • Nonmusicians prefer major sixths, nobody likes thirds

4. Major C intervals

5. Tritones • Tritone = augmented 4th/diminished 5th • Partials are too close • Galileo – frequencies should be proportionate • 1/√2 – not a simple ratio – complex = dissonance

6. CF#

7. Consonance by circumstance • Add minor third to bottom of tritone • Add minor third at top of tritone • More notes?

8. Relative dissonance • Does order of notes matter? • AbF#C, AbCF#, F#AbC, etc. • C is worst to start • “Priming chord” • Includes dissonant interval – less • Unrelated chord – more

9. Jazz Progression • Tritone substitution – two chords that share tritones can be substituted • ii-V-I progression – ex. Dmin7-G7-Cmaj7 • G7  Db7 (Db is tritone of G)

11. With A

12. Summary • Adding particular notes reduces dissonance • Order in which notes played matters • What you hear before matters • Tritone can be used to create more dynamic, interesting progressions