The
Microcosm of Music
JOURNALIST: What is dissonance?
PETER HÜBNER: Dissonance – like disharmony – is recognised
spontaneously by the plain human being. The sound physically disturbs him,
he physically feels unwell. Fundamentally, what the listener perceives as
dissonance, is also part of the harmonical, but in the microcosm of music,
this part is pushed far away by nature into the hardly audible and right into
the inaudible.
Each tone fundamentally consists of many, theoretically of a boundless number
of tones. The unpractised listener thinks that he only hears one tone, and
the practised listener can hear more tones – meaning a kind of sound.
In our electronic age, with the help of special technical equipment, quite
a number of tones can be filtered out of this so-called one tone, and amplified
– so they really exist and are not just imaginary.
These tones in a tone are usually called overtones. And all these tones relate
to each other in certain mathematical ratios. As a rule, one assumes that
the ratios are made up of whole numbers, i.e. 1:2:3:4:5:6 etc.. From these
ratios then follow the intervals, i.e. the distance of the tones to each other,
and the numbers the frequency and/or pitch proportions.
The first to investigate these ratios in the microcosm of music in our cultural
area, was the great physician, musicologist and mathematician Pythagoras 2500
ago.
The first impression that is given with the insight into the microcosm of
music, is that one tone consists of many tones, that, in reality, it is a
chord where the distance of the tones – taking the fundamental tone as
a starting-point – becomes closer and closer, and that, in general, starting
from the fundamental tone, they become quieter and quieter, until you no longer
hear anything.
So, if i.e., you play a tone on the piano, then, in reality, you hear many
tones on this side, and these tones swinging in one after the other, and their
volume proportions give us the impression of tone colour.
If, i.e., with the help of electronic equipment, I stretch the process of
the piano swinging in, we get the impression that it is a different instrument
– for instance, a woodwind instrument or, with further stretching, a
string instrument or, with even further stretching, a brass instrument.
As already said, these are sort of the initial inaccurate impressions which
we gain with the insight into the microcosm of music. Upon closer examination,
we also come across a diversity of modulations between the different tones
of the microcosm of music and, of course, processes of swinging out.
In a way, it is like with the atom – where, first of all. we think we
are dealing with a particle, and upon closer examination find out that these
“particles” are composed of further particles, and that these “particles”
are again composed of different particles etc. etc.. In the end, one doesn’t
speak so much of particles any longer, but of spatial and temporal structures,
and then of spatial time structures etc., etc..
When you have reached these levels of observation in the microcosm of music,
then you realise that the initial insight into this sounding field of creation
– with that fundamental tone and the overtones – were still very
inaccurate after all, well – almost deceptions.
Today’s official insight into the microcosm of music, as it exists at
music academies, is extremely limited, and in physics, for example, might
be compared to the mechanical age.
Therefore, it is only understandable that official experts show no special
interest in the microcosm of music, as this can only develop from a profound
insight into this harmonical field of creation. In comparison, official experts
would have to advance into the field of nuclear physics – not to mention
the sub-nuclear fields.
Well, that was a short digression into the possibilities which the music experts
are provided with, but with a little more insight into the microcosm of music
one can indeed realise that the outlying areas of the microcosm of music,
i.e. the tonal areas which are further away from the fundamental tone present
themselves subjectively to us more and more as dissonances, whilst we feel
that everything close to the fundamental tone is a consonance or harmonious.
But the subjective feeling of perception of dissonance or consonance depends
on quite a number of other factors. It would take too long to explain them
at this point.
The existence of dissonance makes perfect sense, because it increases the
listener’s alertness.
© A A R E D I T I O N I N T E R N A T I O N A L 2001