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Decaying in Sweet Dissonance

Topics: culture, music, physiology

2019-07-04

This[1] article is one of many that claim that consonance and dissonance are cultural traits. Exposure to western music has trained most of us to veer towards perfect fifths and similar rot. Perfect fifths have their place, of course, but just not in the helpings that I'm usually presented. This concept of **subjective** evaluation of music bothers some people, especially those of the fundamentalist strain. I'm using the word *fundamentalist* in a broader sense than usual, indicating any who have steadfast points of views not easily swayed by counter-evidence.

Our hearing apparati has jointly evolved in a uniform way, so on a physical level, we perceive sound equally. We differ in the way our brain interprets and *sorts* it. Brains love to categorize.

I grew up fully exposed to western music. Moreover, the *western music* I was mostly exposed to as a **youth** was a very narrow slice of all that was available in the occidental realm. The *western music* of **West Texas** was, as you might guess, **western music**! The plodding one two of country was my introduction to a universe that envelops most of my waking and dreaming thoughts. My uncle was the only *outsider* in this respect, as I got a good dose of Baroque and Renaissance classical when I was in his presence when no-one was complaining about the *racket*.

My penchance for outsider tonalities surely has its roots in the rejection of my upbringing and the atmosphere surrounding it, though I've never disgarded western tonality wholly and probably never will. Working within its vastness will satisfy me for epochs to come, for I can contintue to harvest the partially abandoned corners of its sonority. On that note, I shall add some B flatness over a percolating F#m6 arpeggio.

1: https://phys.org/news/2016-07-music-musical-cultural-hardwired-brain.html

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