Dissonance
Classical music enthusiasts, this one's for you. Pandora classical music analyst Russell Johnson drops by to investigate the onward march toward atonality throughout the history of Western art music. From Renaissance times through Classical and Romantic periods onto Stravinsky and Schoenberg, the slider on the consonant-to-dissonant spectrum has edged ever more toward the dissonant. He plays examples on guitar and piano of different intervals, and talks about the frequency ratios attached to those intervals as well. (9 mins.)MUSICAL TERMS INCLUDED IN THIS PODCAST
| Dissonance | Pitch | Harmony | Resolution |
| Consonance | Major chord | Diatonic | Harmonic systems |
| Major third (M3) | Minor second (m2) | Classical era | Tonality |
| Sharp ninth (sharp nine) | Chromatic | Romantic era | Microtonal |
| Perfect fifth (P5) | Perfect fourth (P4) | Major third (M3) | Minor third (m3) |
| Perfect consonance | Imperfect consonance | Stepwise motion | Leap |
| Triad | Diad | Unstressed beats | Dominant seventh |
| Tension | Atonality | Functional tonality |
RENAISSANCE MUSIC: CONSONANT VOCAL MOTION
by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina |
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by Johannes Ockeghem |
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by Carlo Gesualdo |
BAROQUE MUSIC: STILL VERY CONSONANT
by Claudio Monteverdi |
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by Johann Sebastian Bach |
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by Antonio Vivaldi |
THE CLASSICAL ERA: POLYPHONY AND COUNTERPOINT
by Johann Christian Bach |
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by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart |
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by Antonio Salieri |
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by Franz Schubert |
THE ROMANTIC ERA: EXPRESSIVE TENSION
by Ludwig van Beethoven |
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by Fryderyk Chopin |
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by Richard Wagner |
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by Giuseppe Verdi |
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by Sergey Rachmaninov |
20th CENTURY ATONALITY: EXTREME DISSONANCE
by Alban Berg |
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by Arnold Schoenberg |
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by Anton Webern |
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Comments
congratulations on adding to my young but growing knowledge of the history of music.
I am a product of behavioral influences and "meter" is my latest anchor, as a term, to guide me through this world of musicology.
With harmony, melody, and rhythm in mind- your great and purposeful expose on dissonance-consonance helps me under stand the history of accepted behaviors, memes, and meter(basic "groups" of rhythms within).
Was Mozrt in the right place at the right time? Why is his brilliant grasp of harmony, melody, and rhythm still motivational to us today?
Congratulations on a job well done guys!
Posted by: 37suns at August 15, 2008 01:26 PM
Thanks! It's very gratifying to hear that you enjoyed it. I'll let Russ and Eric know, too.
For Mozart, in my opinion, it was a combination of luck (as you mentioned, timing and location), inspiration, tenacious labor, and unmitigated genius.
Agreed that those compositions are sublime and awe-inducing.
Posted by: Kevin Seal at August 19, 2008 03:46 PM
This is great. I just found out about the podcast and saw one on dissonance. When I just learning about dissonance I was told that dissonance was just notes that are not supposed to go together being put into a chord, or a chord that just is messed up. Now that I have studied it more intensively, I have heard its sheer beauty. My favorite use of dissonance is in vocal harmony. Some GREAT examples of this are Eric Whitacre's pieces "Sleep," and "Lux Arumque."
Posted by: John at September 1, 2008 04:59 PM
It's great to see a feature like this on such a popular site. I study contemporary composition and am constantly fighting with the esoteric issues of the genre and the dying popularity of classical music. It's nice to hear some informed discussion on musicology and theory. I hope this inspires more people to become interested in more deeply understanding music. Thanks!
Posted by: Doug at February 4, 2009 10:07 PM
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