Why compose with clashing notes?

Secondly, its not too difficult. Just finger a pitch and then roll your finger forward or backward a bit. Its once you get to 12th tones that it gets tricky. ;)

That may be so, but I already find half step intervals to be cramped at times (especially in higher positions), and it just feels wrong to have to slide up to a pitch rather than hitting it straight on, and attempting to adjust my fingering would be a nightmare...

Every single possible combination of pitches in combinations of rhythm is representative of a single emotion or expression.

It all depends on the context.

Listen to what you like until it bores you. Then, find something else. There's plenty of music out there to go around... maybe you don't like those 'discordant' works now, Bruno, but perhaps one day you will. Who knows?

Probably the best advice you can give. Also one of the least pointless things in this thread. Though I also enjoyed:

Speaking of which, how do I get it to say "Composition is sexy." under my avatar?

Yeah! You big toopyhead!

Do you know that movie? It stars harrison ford.

... and everything regarding Mars and Bach-based weaponry

Why? Mood. Colour. Interest. Why not?

That may be so, but I already find half step intervals to be cramped at times (especially in higher positions), and it just feels wrong to have to slide up to a pitch rather than hitting it straight on, and attempting to adjust my fingering would be a nightmare...

Well, by rolling your finger and sliding into it, you'll get an idea of where it is and how it sounds. Then you'll be able to just hit the pitch.

will this subsequently lead us to find extra, even more subtle tones between quarter tones or 12th tones? and does this mean eventually we'll live in a world(s) where a Major scale is 200 notes within an octave?

Not to burst your bubble or anything... but, beyond 12th tones, 16th tones were being used and performed in the 1910s and 20s. And to the 200 notes in an octave, 205tET has been used a fair amount recently. :whistling:

-_- it was a typo. I meant 2 billion notes in an octave.

-_- it was a typo. I meant 2 billion notes in an octave.

Haha, well then the intervals are so small that they're beyond human pitch change perception!

For the record, that gives you an interval of 0.0000006 cents... (unless I don't know how many zeros are in "billion").

Which is why our ears will evolve! Don't you know anything about Martian immigration?

Which is why our ears will evolve! Don't you know anything about Martian immigration?

I do now! :laugh:

@composerorganist:

That's a great YouTube playlist - I like it a lot.

@composerorganist:

That's a great YouTube playlist - I like it a lot.

Agreed. Wonderful choice with the Chopin A minor prelude.

thanks guys it was fun to assemble - especially as I had a chance to pair Gesualdo with Boy George! Plus I am surprised how well the pieces flow - I didn't go through every piece.

It all depends on the context.

That was my point. That even for one person, interpretation changes over time, or over context.

Because... it's cool... :D and I actually like the sound... :innocent: nothing better than a little C C sharp D action :)

And also, as Nicola said, we don't live in 1754 anymore... what can you expect? C E G?? No.:D

I can't believe I didn't get to this before 7 pages had passed.

To answer Bruno ... I think I had similar thoughts at 14, too. Keep in mind that the people who make a living writing that music (probably the crazy dissonant music you have in mind) have spent their lifetimes composing, probably from around your age, and have moved beyond the phase of tonal harmony... "pretty" chords. It's okay to like Mozart harmony when you're just starting out. As a matter of fact, it's quite okay to like Mozart harmony when you're old and gray. I predict, however, that you will open up to music with discords in time. I still think my professor's music is absurd and I don't care for it at all, and maybe that will also change with time. If you and I maintain that view throughout our lives, that's okay too. "The less you know about it, the sweeter you like it" is a gross generalization; don't pay attention to it.

Dissonance, resolved or not, can be about expression of pain or sorrow and whatnot, it can be about color and timbre - evoking a mood, it can be about writing things no one has written before. Like consonance, dissonance is just a tool, and it can be very effective in the right hands.

I'd say that one of my "musical signatures" is using dissonance in a melodic way. It creates, in my opinion, an underlying menace or tension. I love it.

Discord can be beautiful!

Discord can be beautiful!

Seconded.

try to hear this one

eww... this is NOT the best dissonant version of it... check:

I will agree the VocalEssence is the best MUSICALLY, but I think if you are trying to freak people at dissonance, the UST singers is the most dissonant on Youtube. They tend to be a LITTLE more messy and hit chords a little harder, so it's more crunchy. lol. or... crunchier. lol.

HOWEVER... the dissonance in this is the COOLEST. I cry every time. lol.

I will agree the VocalEssence is the best MUSICALLY, but I think if you are trying to freak people at dissonance, the UST singers is the most dissonant on Youtube. They tend to be a LITTLE more messy and hit chords a little harder, so it's more crunchy. lol. or... crunchier. lol.

That's why the BYU Singers are my favorite. I like to actually be able to HEAR the chord, thank you very much. It's hard to discern notes when they're buried under a mile of vibrato. Not that that's a bad thing necessarily, I just like the other style better.

If you REALLY want to be freaked out, look up John Rutter's "Hymn to the Creator of Light" (don't have a link handy, the UST Singers do it on Youtube), Whitacre's "

", and the end of Whitacre's "Her Sacred Spirit Soars".

I wonder how the panscale in "When David Heard" would sound if the UST Singers did it. I think that the BYU Singers' version is absolutely perfect, but it'd be interesting to hear that chord with vibrato.

I will say something again-

Dissonance, atonal... beautiful!!!

What I personally often wonder about is how so many people can find bird calls beautiful and "atonal music"/"dissonance"/whatever ugly at the same time. Birds don't usually tweet in major triads, do they? Fair enough, maybe those people don't actually find the sounds of the birds beautiful, but just the connotation to nature etc. - but this only goes to show that quite often it's such very "unmusical" preconceptions that make us like something or dislike it.

It's kind of similar with colours too. People often have such strong ideas about what colours "shouldn't be combined" in a painting because they "clash" - but they usually have no issues when a flower does this very thing in extreme, just because a flower is "supposed to be beautiful".

People are still convinced that "tonality" was exhausted after the 19th century. No one really has any idea what "tonality" is. People are insecure about the unstable placement of Classical music as "high art" that only middle aged upper middle class white people bother with.

As a result, people avoid consonance so that when their music is not appreciated, it is only because the audience isnt educated enough.

People are still convinced that "tonality" was exhausted after the 19th century. No one really has any idea what "tonality" is. People are insecure about the unstable placement of Classical music as "high art" that only middle aged upper middle class white people bother with.

As a result, people avoid consonance so that when their music is not appreciated, it is only because the audience isnt educated enough.

How can you make that generalization?

People are still convinced that "tonality" was exhausted after the 19th century. No one really has any idea what "tonality" is. People are insecure about the unstable placement of Classical music as "high art" that only middle aged upper middle class white people bother with.

As a result, people avoid consonance so that when their music is not appreciated, it is only because the audience isnt educated enough.

You've nailed it.

I know that's how I justify my music.

You've nailed it.

I know that's how I justify my music.

Are you being serious? You use dissonance precisely so your music won't appeal to any but educated people?