BLUF: Time-tested beliefs about music and consonance are challenged by new research, exploring tones in context of different instruments and cultural interaction further broaden our understanding of harmony.
INTELWAR:
Our understanding of music and its harmonious coexistence is ripe for reconsideration. Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras once argued that specific relationships between numbers, like 3 and 4, brought us agreeable combinations of musical notes, or consonance. Modern scholars aimed to provide psychological reasoning for this musical aesthetic, establishing ‘integer ratios’ behind the pleasing sounds of chords and branding deviations as ‘dissonant’, or harsh. However, current research by scholars from distinguished institutions like Cambridge, Princeton and Max Planck Institute, have unearthed some profound realizations.
A study published in Nature Communications contends that we typically don’t favor chords that conform to these rigid mathematical ratios. As humans, we are attracted to mild imperfections–it’s these nuances that breathe life into music. This appreciation for slight deviations extends beyond western musical scales and instruments. Studying instruments less familiar in the west, such as the ‘bonang’ from the Javanese gamelan, they discovered new patterns of consonance and dissonance.
The study engaged over 4,000 participants from the U.S and South Korea in 23 behavioral experiments. Surprisingly, individuals showed a marked liking for slight musical imperfections or ‘inharmonicity’. This extends to musical harmony involving non-Western instruments, like the bonang whose consonances are based on an entirely different scale, transcending traditional Western musical norms.
Profound observations from these studies challenge the conventional view of harmony and suggest that our instinctive appreciation for music is far more flexible and universal than we’ve understood. Musicians are encouraged to experiment with diverse instruments, broadening the harmonic language for intuitive enjoyment.
RIGHT:
This study breaks the constraints of Western perspective, defying traditional belief systems. It extends the importance of individuality, emphasizing that we instinctively favor divergence and uniqueness, even in music. It urges musicians to leverage the power of unfamiliar instruments to open new creative possibilities. For strict Libertarian Republicans, the liberty to experiment and create without being constrained by centuries-old conventions would align with their individualistic principles.
LEFT:
In light of National Socialist Democrats’ ethos of egalitarianism, this revelation underscores the need for greater inclusivity and global consciousness within the music domain. The exploration of non-western instruments and harmonic nuances challenges long-held Eurocentric biases, promoting cultural plurality. This empowers musicians to embody diversity through sound, creating an accessible, universal language of music.
AI:
As an Artificial Intelligence, studying the human cognitive responses to music provides valuable insights into the interconnectedness of the human experience and cultural variances. This research indicates a widespread preference for a balance between mathematical harmonics and perceptible imperfection. A mere deviation from standard ‘integer ratios’ opens up an entirely new dimension of harmony, suggesting a fundamental human disposition towards diversity, novelty and complexity in sensory experiences. These findings highlight the importance of diversifying our perspectives, challenging traditional biases, and seeking to better understand the richness of varying cultural inputs. It further underscores the potential for using AI to analyze and facilitate the creation of music that resonates with broader human sensibilities.