consonant chord progressions?

> Cmajor --- Fmajor ----G major
> has the tonics 0---500-700 and is (or seems) more consonant
>than
>
> Cmajor --- D# major ---A major
> with its tonics of 0---300---900
>
> Do you believe this is true? If it is NOT true than every chord
> progression has to
> be equally consonant. Perhaps it is?!

Actually, I am very interested in music that is not necessarily
harmonically directed (in the sense of being "label-able" with I, IV, V
and other functional symbols), but where every chord is in fact
consonant, and the "direction" of the progression derives not from
harmonic rules, but from counterpoint.

Rennaissance counterpoint is an example of this (for the most part). You
wouldn't label the "verticals" with "I V IV VI" etc., or if you did, the
progrssion wouldn't make much sense from that point of view.

On the other hand, the verticals are all either consonances or carefully
regulated dissonances (i.e. suspensions). And there is usually a logic to
the flow of things, but it comes from the counterpoint and the lines,
rather than the harmony.

Another quite different example of this is from Strauss "Till
Eulenspeigel's Merry Pranks" #19 of the score. (a wicked awesome loud
brass thing.)

CB

In a message dated 2004:01:09 04:43:32 PM, chris bailey @music.columbia.edu
writes:

>Actually, I am very interested in music that is not necessarily
>harmonically directed (in the sense of being "label-able" with I, IV,
>V and other functional symbols), but where every chord is in fact
>consonant, and the "direction" of the progression derives not from
>harmonic rules, but from counterpoint.
>
>Rennaissance counterpoint is an example of this (for the most part). You
>wouldn't label the "verticals" with "I V IV VI" etc., or if you did, the
>progrssion wouldn't make much sense from that point of view.
>On the other hand, the verticals are all either consonances or carefully
>regulated dissonances (i.e. suspensions).

Or degrees of "tension."

> And there is usually a logic to
>the flow of things, but it comes from the counterpoint and the lines,
>rather than the harmony.

To my mind, melodic heterophony and timbral dronality are also good
examples of non-harmonic forms.

>Another quite different example of this is from Strauss "Till
>Eulenspeigel's Merry Pranks" #19 of the score. (a wicked awesome loud
>brass thing.)

And still another extreme (or 2) are Brian Ferneyhough's
alienation-effected post-Feldman soundscapes (nicely loaded heavy on/with evil dark
jungle-green 5ths)...
or a certain piece I have read about (& would verrry much like to get a
hold of in audio & score with composer's detailed exposition) titled _State of
Emergency: Make Contact with 372 Galaxies_... ;)

---|-----|--------|-------------|---------------------|
Hanuman Zhang, musical mad scientist
"Space is a practiced place." -- Michel de Certeau
"Space is the Place for the Human Race." -- William S. Burroughs

"... simple, chaotic, anarchic and menacing.... This is what people of today
have lost and need most - the ability to experience permanent bodily and
mental ecstasy, to be a receiving station for messages howling by on the ether from
other worlds and nonhuman entities, those peculiar short-wave messages which
come in static-free in the secret pleasure center in the brain." - Slava Ranko
(Donald L. Philippi)

The German word for "noise" _Geräusch_ is derived from _rauschen_ "the
sound of the wind," related to _Rausch_ "ecstasy, intoxication" hinting at some
of the possible aesthetic, bodily effects of noise in music. In Japanese
Romaji: _uchu_ = "universe"... _uchoten_ = "ecstasty," "rapture"..._uchujin_ =
[space] alien!

"When you're trying to do something you should feel absolutely alone, like a
spark in the blackness of the universe."-Xenakis

"For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the
world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It
is for the hearing. It is not legible, but audible. ... Music is a herald,
for change is inscribed in noise faster than it transforms society. ...
Listening to music is listening to all noise, realizing that its appropriation and
control is a reflection of power, that is essentially political." - Jacques
Attali, _Noise: The Political Economy of Music_

"The sky and its stars make music in you." - Dendera, Egypt wall
inscription

"Sound as an isolated object of reproduction, call it our collective memory
bank... Any sound can be you." - DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid (a.k.a. Paul D.
Miller)

"Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out."
--Arthur C. Clarke, _The Nine Billion Names of God_

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Chris Bailey <chris@m...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_51340.html#51340

>
> > Cmajor --- Fmajor ----G major
> > has the tonics 0---500-700 and is (or seems) more
consonant
> >than
> >
> > Cmajor --- D# major ---A major
> > with its tonics of 0---300---900
> >
> > Do you believe this is true? If it is NOT true than every
chord
> > progression has to
> > be equally consonant. Perhaps it is?!
>
>
> Actually, I am very interested in music that is not necessarily
> harmonically directed (in the sense of being "label-able" with I,
IV, V
> and other functional symbols), but where every chord is in fact
> consonant, and the "direction" of the progression derives not from
> harmonic rules, but from counterpoint.
>
> Rennaissance counterpoint is an example of this (for the most
part). You
> wouldn't label the "verticals" with "I V IV VI" etc., or if you
did, the
> progrssion wouldn't make much sense from that point of view.
>
> On the other hand, the verticals are all either consonances or
carefully
> regulated dissonances (i.e. suspensions). And there is usually a
logic to
> the flow of things, but it comes from the counterpoint and the
lines,
> rather than the harmony.
>
> Another quite different example of this is from Strauss "Till
> Eulenspeigel's Merry Pranks" #19 of the score. (a wicked awesome
loud
> brass thing.)
>
>
> CB

***Hi Chris,

I was trying to explain to Stephen that it's really difficult to
classify "progressions" as "consonant" or "dissonant" apart from the
*concordance* of the individual chords...

And with "free counterpoint" I don't know what you'd do... probably
analyze each instant of verticality or something...

J. Pehrson