Episode 8
Evolution of Consonance and Dissonance, Meaning through music, and Music as a language
Introduction
This week, I’ve been thinking more on the idea of music as an analogy to life, how it evokes the emotional reactions it does, the concept of musical sounds as being a language in and of itself, and about if music evolution started again from scratch what would hypothetically be the same and what would be different.
Meaning through Music
When you start thinking about music as being analogous to reality (life) you start to realize some stunning similarities. For one, both music and life have a beginning and an end. And between these points, something meaningful tends to happen, something that when it’s over, or as it’s approaching the end, you are changed in some sort of way. In a similar vein of thought, the adage ‘you can’t step in the same river twice’ applies to music and the listener. Just as you yourself aren’t the same one moment to the next, as the properties of the river are never the same at any given point of time; music can never be heard the same way time to time, you undergo change and with this so does the music. Art is a strain of experience, it is intangible and forever in a state of flux.
So, between the beginning and end something meaningful happens, but how exactly can this be? I should start briefly by explaining how I am using the word meaningful. Meaning is established when something significant happens, something that broadens your outlook on life; gives rise to a new perspective. It shouldn’t be used exclusively in a positive connotation, for plenty of meaning can be gathered from negative events. But, how could music/sound have the power to install meaning in ones life? Well, to examine this I want to make the analogy between music and life a little more clear. In music, there are varying levels of consonance and dissonance, as displayed in figure 1.
Consonance and Dissonance
What’s important to understand here is that no one note itself is consonant or dissonant, only when a note is introduced to another can we then analyze what kind of relationship is established. This is just as true to the fact that the same note can have a completely different function depending on the context it is in. It is less about what notes are being played, its more about the relationships exhibited between them. So with regards to meaning, consonance and dissonance can sway the listener between harmony and discord; order and chaos if you will. This pendulum swing observed in music is what makes life as well as stories so interesting, its why we give a damn about reading fiction. It is only through the fight with adversity (disorder) that causes success (harmony) when achieved to hold any value. Only out of context can harmony/discord and order/disorder mean anything. The path, that is the navigation between order and chaos (harmony and discord), is what gives rise to meaning. So in a nut shell, music is comparable to life in that they both beginning and end, sway between harmony and discord, and in result, both give rise to emotional reactions. And its through this that meaning is established.
So up to now, I’ve started to take a look at the relationship between order/chaos in life as being similar to the relationship between harmony and discord in music, all this, being determined by the context of the music (without chaos you can’t have order; without discord you can’t can’t have harmony, conceptually speaking). Now I want to take some time to think about music as a language.
Music as a Language
The conventional definition of language is ‘the principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a structured and conventional way’, for the purpose of the following paragraph I would like to expand this definition by making one simple alteration; replacing words for sounds. Reread the definition with this change.
For isn’t the basis of language (words) built upon specific sounds at it’s most basic level. Words mean what they do because we all could agree on what certain sounds represent. So once again, we see this series of nested relationships within music and language both exhibiting reciprocal causality (the situation where two events influence each other simultaneously).
Groups of letters form sounds, groups of sounds (syllables) form words, and a series of words conveys thought. Thought is altogether possible because of the structured relationship established between sound and meaning and between words themselves.
Notes combined form phrases, phrases together with other phrases create passages (or movements), a collection of movements together creates a song. Songs are a series of structured relationships between each note, phrase, and movement. Each note, phrase, and, movements influence, reciprocally cause the other to hold value. Kind of like a puzzle, in the sense, that every piece matters to form the whole picture.
Really what we are hitting upon is the omnipresence of sound as meaning, particularly the depth of dimension made possible due to our auditory sense. Between music and language, sound is the common denominator. Honestly, it’s a real amazing thing.
Evolution of Consonance and Dissonance
Moving on, I want to consider and think about the evolution of music, mainly about the rules of consonance and dissonance and ponder about if it were to happen again what would be the same and what could be different, all hypothetically of course.
I think a good place to start would be at the emergence of the 12-tone scale, particularly its consonances. The tonic and octaves frequencies together form a 2:1 ratio; double any frequency and you’ll get an octave, this is called an absolute consonance. This makes sense to, because the shape of the sound waves when overlaid fit together show a pattern of rising and falling. Figure 2 shows us this.
Conclusion
This article is getting quite long already, so next week I will pick up the trail of thought and continue to examine the evolution of consonance and dissonance, sorry to keep you hanging. Hope to see you then, thanks for reading.
About the Author
Isaiah Grip is a 21 year old multi-instrumentalist composer (guitar, piano, violin, and voice) out of Longmont, Colorado who records and studies music independently under the name Tetra Veda, as well as collaborating with Ghostwrite Inc, and playing guitar in the progressive metal band Cloud Temple. His personal repertoire can be found on Bandcamp and YouTube under the name Tetra Veda.
Excellent commentary. My collegiate music theory profs never explained it that clearly.
Looking forward to the continuation next week. What you say makes a person really think.