Cross-checking and reflecting existing concepts of dissonance and consonance

Abstract

This study re-investigates existing concepts of dissonance and consonance, then reflects these concepts from a musical perspective, and finally searches for neuroscience evidence. First, as a result of careful study, the individual experiments of Stumpf in Halle and Prag allow for a much more differentiated conclusion than summarized by Stumpf himself. This study re-compiles the experiment’s outcome. Secondly, the prominent concepts of the 20th century, which are based on the critical bandwidth (Plomp & Levelt, 1965), on listening tests (Kameoka & Kuriyagawa, 1969), and on auto-correlation (Ebeling, 2008), are re-evaluated and compared by mutual swapping of parameters between models. The resulting rankings of interval consonance agree well with the earlier findings: octave, fifth, fourth, major third, tritone, minor third, major sixth, in most cases. In terms of reflection, thirdly, the past discussion on consonance and dissonance seems to be narrow. From today’s perspective they are ignoring some Gestalt aspects. This is particularly true when reflecting on early church music and on present Eastern European folk music, for instance. Finally, a brief review on recent findings in neuroscience seeks evidence for auto-correlation in the hearing physiology, the brain stem, and the cortex and subcortex.