The dissonances of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps were not well received at its premiere in 1913. It was not representing the Paganism that they knew and loved. It was noise.
Later, however:
Composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, in his Six Talks at Harvard that he called The Unanswered Question, said of one passage, "That page is sixty years old, but it's never been topped for sophisticated handling of primitive rhythms...", and of the work as a whole, "...it's also got the best dissonances anyone ever thought up, and the best asymmetries and polytonalities and polyrhythms and whatever else you care to name."
I am not convinced that dissonance somehow does us physiological harm. It doesn't release those painkillers in the brain that rhythm, harmony and melody can release. We don't know what biochemicals dissonance might cause to be released. Perhaps its been studied - but I've never seen it referenced in my perusal of the area. Just because dissonance doesn't make us feel good, there is no reason that say it's bad.
And many of us spend all day with dissonances of different kinds. It is useful to be able to deal with the increasing dissonances. If communications in the Old Unconnected World were a belt, today's environment is Lycra. All over containment. What we need is dissonance training ;-) You can't be me, I'm taken
Sven Triloqvist:
it is a useful skill to be able to tune out unpleasant or annoying sounds one cannot control, but not all have the talent!
maybe in some there is no collateral damage, but i suspect for the majority this is not so.
./mediateletipos))) / aural culture
Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson investigates the man-made noise pollution which is becoming increasingly invasive in our lives and in our environment, affecting both humans and wildlife. He explores what noise is, the impact of man-made noise and the possible long-term consequences if we don't turn the volume down. In the oceans, increasing levels of background noise is disrupting long-distance communication among whales. On land, studies of Great Tits have revealed how birds near busy roads sing at higher frequencies than those in nearby quieter woodlands. In 1996 the European Commission issued a Green Paper which stated that an estimated 20 per cent of all EU citizens were exposed to noise levels that scientists and health experts considered to be unacceptable, at which most people become annoyed, sleep is disturbed and health may be at risk. Noise is a health issue as well as a nuisance. Recent studies have demonstrated excessive risks of hypertension in people living near airports, even when asleep. Following the Green Paper, the European Commission issued a directive for member states to map noise levels of major cities. Today, noise, like air and water pollution, is an environmental issue which governments and policy makers cannot ignore.
Wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson investigates the man-made noise pollution which is becoming increasingly invasive in our lives and in our environment, affecting both humans and wildlife. He explores what noise is, the impact of man-made noise and the possible long-term consequences if we don't turn the volume down.
In the oceans, increasing levels of background noise is disrupting long-distance communication among whales. On land, studies of Great Tits have revealed how birds near busy roads sing at higher frequencies than those in nearby quieter woodlands.
In 1996 the European Commission issued a Green Paper which stated that an estimated 20 per cent of all EU citizens were exposed to noise levels that scientists and health experts considered to be unacceptable, at which most people become annoyed, sleep is disturbed and health may be at risk. Noise is a health issue as well as a nuisance. Recent studies have demonstrated excessive risks of hypertension in people living near airports, even when asleep.
Following the Green Paper, the European Commission issued a directive for member states to map noise levels of major cities. Today, noise, like air and water pollution, is an environmental issue which governments and policy makers cannot ignore.
i think it dumbs people down, leave alone the aesthetic issue.
If communications in the Old Unconnected World were a belt, today's environment is Lycra.
more like velcro!
put a perfumier in a slaughterhouse, you think his art will improve?
as for dissonance, o yeah, there is sooo too damn much of it, people do it for its own sake, a weird desire to push the envelope i guess.
the jewel in the mud is consonance/resonance, imo, and dissonance is just unresolved chaos. as in anything even too much consonant resonance, musical over-literalness, would be soon dull, like a melody with only octaves for harmony.
so, more mud...
as we evolve we take on more adventurous games, look how long it took for the flattened fifth to be accepted in yurp! centuries, wasn't it?
so what seems like discontinuous unpatterned chaos now to my culturally entrained sensibilities may one day entrance me with its beauty. i can't help being a product of my musical environment, in fact i love it...
i always thought you were visiting from the future, sven, lol.
:) ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
