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4.3
Interval
Dynamics
4.3.1
Note to Note: Interval Relationships
Recall that an interval is a relationship between two pitches. Why the stress on “relationship”? Because that’s where the “music” in tunes and harmony comes from. Each note in a scale, and, ultimately, in a tune, sounds restful or restless, relaxed or tense, depending on the note’s position with respect to the other notes in the scale or tune. These note-to-note relationships, the urges and forces your brain perceives when it hears a tune, are called interval dynamics.
The activity that goes on in your brain to process these interval relationships is your musical experience.
In general, if music contains a large amount of unrest as the tune (melody) moves from interval to interval and chord to chord, you have an emotionally charged musical experience.
Intervals perform like the characters in a novel, sit-com, movie, or play. You get interested and emotionally involved in a dramatic story only when you perceive tension and unrest among the characters. Similarly when you perceive tension and unrest among the intervals as the tune and chords progress, you experience emotional involvement.