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What Is Dissonance In Music?
Some intervals have simple frequency ratios, such as the major third (ratio of 5:4). Others have complex ratios, especially the augmented fourth (ratio of 45:32), the freakiest of them all.
In general, you get consonant intervals from the simplest frequency ratios, the ones with small numbers. You get dissonant intervals from complex frequency ratios, the ones with larger numbers.
Degree of perceived consonance vs dissonance in music is a function of pitch relationships among tones. Also, as discussed a bit later (Chapter 6), consonant intervals have overtones in common, or overlapping. Dissonant intervals tend not to.
Infants show clear preferences for consonant intervals, based on simple frequency ratios, such as fourths and fifths, and show a distinct aversion to dissonant intervals, such as the tritone. This indicates such preferences are wired in the brain at birth. It also underscores the futility of trying to build audiences for unpalatably dissonant music.
In an experiment comparing consonant-dissonant preferences of humans and cottontop tamarins, the monkeys showed no clear preference for consonant intervals over dissonant intervals. In the same experiment, humans showed a clear preference for consonant intervals, supporting the theory that music is a species-specific adaptation in humans only.