The word `rhythms' is too consonant...
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2014 at 4:10 PM From: "Mike Stay" <metaweta@gmail.com> To: math-fun <math-fun@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: [math-fun] Too-consonant music sounds bad
three ears NeilB: "Do you mind if I turn this off? That composer doesn't know anything about chord progressions." --rwg I think that was kind of the point with this piece; it was showing that no matter what arbitrary chord you throw at it, that particular chord sounds OK. Musically, however, I think that using a key sets up certain expectations which increase the dissonance when they're violated, and any particular chord can be consonant given the right context, somewhat like Delacroix' claim "I can paint you the skin of Venus with mud, provided you let me surround it as I will."
On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 12:32 AM, Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
This piece dynamically adjusts the timbre of the instrument to make each chord sound consonant.http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/mp3s/three_ears.html
He's got lots of other "weird" music, including non-12-tet scales and other things:http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/otherperson/all_mp3s.html I particularly enjoyed "Truth on a Bus", written in a 19-tet scale.
-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.comhttp://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mikehttp://reperiendi.wordpress.com
--interesting. I found "three ears" to be not very good to my taste. Locally it sounds good, but the global impression is unsatisfying and too "sappy happy elevator music." My music theory -- well, actually Rameau's "tension" music theory in this case -- contends that an overdose of consonance is not a good thing and makes music sound worse. You want cons+dissonance both. That theory is confirmed by my subjective impression of this piece. What think you all?
NeilB: "Do you mind if I turn this off? That composer doesn't
know anything about chord progressions."
--rwg
http://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/mp3s/truthonabus.html is not trying for a consonance overdose, it is merely trying to be normal music but using a nontraditional 19-note scale. I find it better. But 19 is not a very good scale size, and as a result the whole piece sounds overall a bit too dissonant to me. _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Mike Stay - metaweta@gmail.com http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~mike http://reperiendi.wordpress.com
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