"-cordance" vs "-sonance" (was Re: 'Tristan' chord)

monz wrote:
> just to remind all of you: this came up years ago, and is
> precisely the reason why i separated the definitions of
> sonance / consonance / dissonance from those of
> accordance / concordance / discordance in the Encyclopedia.
>
> i'm a strong advocate of using the "-cordance" terms to
> describe the precise psycho-acoustical perceptions, and
> leaving the "-sonance" terms for the ones dependent on
> musical context.

Dave Keenan replied:
Hmm. Unfortunately the other way 'round makes more sense to me since
"-sonance" means "sound" while "-cordance" has a more general meaning
of "agreement".

[Yahya]:
Dave, you and I are in accord on that! Unfortunate that
monz chose the alternative ...

Dave continued:
Perhaps better just to use an adjective as in "sensory
dissonance" versus "cadential dissonance" or some such.

[Yahya]:
I don't like this. Qualifying polysyllabic terms only
makes more noise, less light ... Simpler, shorter terms
are better. I'd stay with "-sonance" for acoustic
phenomena and "-cordance" for musical ones.

Dave continued:
Also, "unstable chord" has been used for the latter,
where "unstable" means "requiring resolution".

[Yahya]:
How about "unresolved" then. Are we resolved?

Dave finished with:
Tom, please note that on this list, the unqualified use of the terms
"consonant" or "dissonant" would usually be assumed to be indepenent
of traditional ideas of cadence, since this is after all a list
devoted to "alternate" tunings.

[Yahya]:
Still, many of these "alternate" tunings are quite
historical and traditional ones, including eg
1/6-comma meantone, and were arguably the vehicles
of many cadences that have thereby become traditional.

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--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Yahya Abdal-Aziz" <yahya@m...> wrote:
> Dave Keenan replied:
> Hmm. Unfortunately the other way 'round makes more sense to me since
> "-sonance" means "sound" while "-cordance" has a more general meaning
> of "agreement".
>
> [Yahya]:
> Dave, you and I are in accord on that! Unfortunate that
> monz chose the alternative ...

So Monz,

On what basis was it decided that "-cordance" should be
psycho-acoustic and "-sonance" should be contextual/traditional?

> Dave continued:
> Perhaps better just to use an adjective as in "sensory
> dissonance" versus "cadential dissonance" or some such.
>
> [Yahya]:
> I don't like this. Qualifying polysyllabic terms only
> makes more noise, less light ... Simpler, shorter terms
> are better. I'd stay with "-sonance" for acoustic
> phenomena and "-cordance" for musical ones.

Unfortunately the more I look the more evidence I find that they are
(in musical usage) synonymous, both carrying both possible meanings,
and any attempt to give them distinct meanings is probably futile. You
just need to explain which one you mean if it isn't otherwise clear
from the context.

> Dave continued:
> Also, "unstable chord" has been used for the latter,
> where "unstable" means "requiring resolution".
>
> [Yahya]:
> How about "unresolved" then. Are we resolved?

No we are unresolved. :-) Whether or not a chord is "resolved" is a
question of what happens next, not a property of the chord itself,
even in the context of a particular tradition. A chord may be unstable
and yet be allowed to remain unresolved in a particular passage.