dissonance in context

This might be true overall, but certainly it was recognized long ago
that
individual intervals could be consonant or dissonant depending on
context.
Example: the fourth, in traditional harmony, was considered dissonant
when
taken from the bass (i.e. in a six-four chord), but otherwise
consonant.

Also see Margo Schulter's article on the tritone in medieval music
(www.medieval.org/emfaq/harmony/tritone.html) where she cites the
medieval
term consonantia per accidens, which one could perhaps translate as
"consonance in context."

>i think it was not possible for anyone to
>notice a contextual meaning for "dissonance" until the
>variability of musical styles was consciously discerned.
>this only happened after the invention of long-playing record,
>early 1950s. i would not be surprised if Blackwood was
>the first to discuss it in depth.

Alan
(who just decided to join, having read the archives off and on for a
number of
years)
www.prosoidia.com