Immunity to Dissonance

I watched a video talking about becoming immune to dissonance, and it's something I can easily identified with.

Here there are only two chords / scales: Cmaj and Dbmaj. But always superimposed.

When Db is under C, intervals are natural 7 and the sound is softer. When C is under Db, it's heavier because the b9 intervals. But nothing sounds bad to me. Also, there is a part where everything is "inverted".

 INMUNE - SCORE.pdf

Yes, I totally agree with you Luis.  Also brief dissonances are important to create the opportunity for 'resolution'..  very satisfying.,  The dissonances kind of fall into the background and instead we are presented with an emotional mood, (perfect to set a film scene) Here I imagine a half eaten meal on a perfectly set table.. some one knocked the wind glass over, it makes a small concise stream across the table cloth, and down the side..  The place of food is cracked and slightly separated.. a small amount of food has been knocked off the plate...   and the front door is open..  That is the scene I see in my mind..  

Becoming immune to dissonance  does seem to be an occurrence our brain adjusts too..  I quite like adding a dissonant note an octave or two above..  I also vary the duration, and velocity of the dissonant note. or advance it forward in time so it becomes a 'smudge'.  I think our brain 'automatically' smooths some of these things out.  I had an accomplished jazz pianist, who liked to do this, he called them 'artifacts' of the music.. 

Very good example of your premise... 

Nothing sounded bad to me either Luis, In fact it sounds really beautiful. 

Do you think though that there are dissonances and dissonances?  By that I mean that here, the dissonance is used to great effect and with  planning and care, even what you call the hard dissonance of flat9th, when used in this way (a piece almost completely dissonant and relying on that dissonance for the mood it creates), it still seems right, but then there is the dissonances of someone playing a bum note, or trying to use it constructively without really understanding how to build it properly.

For me, this is so cool because it is well executed. The difference between dissonance that makes me lean forward in anticipation and dissonance that makes me cringe is its execution. You have executed yours quite well. I don't always love tonalities that are a half step apart (i.e. C and D Flat), but I like them best when they are voiced not in thirds. Either way I like your concept and your execution :)

Gustav Johnson

Beautiful, especially the scales in mm. 19 - 22 and mm. 33 - 36!
I like how you have contrast in the music: smooth, fluent melodies versus static chords.

For me the dissonances you use are not interfering at all. This is probably because I use many dissonances in my music too. 
Since one month, I have been experimenting with building chords (or rather clusters) of major and minor seconds and major sevenths.
In my opinion dissonances are not to be feared. The trick is to find a balance between consonance and dissonance: too many consonances causes dullness, but too many dissonances has the same effect.

You have created a fine balance. Well done!

Where did you find the video? Could you please share the link, because I am quite curious.

Mesmerizing, Luis. I really enjoy it. I do think that it's possible to become immune to dissonance is possible to some extent, especially in a world that's been through impressionism, jazz, modernism etc. A well-adjusted pair of ears can appreciate extremely dissonant music, I think, as long as the composer is discriminating in how he chooses to use their dissonances. I doubt I could write anything that handled b9s and similarly dissonant intervals as well as you do here, but that's the kind of wisdom that a composer gains as he refine his craft.

Some interesting polytonal/polychordal harmonies you create here.  I love the melodic parts.  From a standpoint of my personal taste the quadruplets don't add anything musically to the piece - they actually take away from my impression because it seems like they're just filler designed to oversaturate the ear with the somewhat dissonant harmonies which I guess to some degree was your intention (to cause the immunity to dissonance that you speak of).  Overall though it was enjoyable.

Did you know also, that if you separated the C chord (in the really low bass) and the Db chord (in the really high range) in an instrument that doesn't use stretch tuning, 8 octaves apart they would actually sound like the same chord?  It's an aural illusion mentioned in this video as the "Consonance Calibration Effect":

On 3/22/2022 at 4:03 AM, PeterthePapercomPoser said:

Did you know also, that if you separated the C chord (in the really low bass) and the Db chord (in the really high range) in an instrument that doesn't use stretch tuning, 8 octaves apart they would actually sound like the same chord?  It's an aural illusion mentioned in this video as the "Consonance Calibration Effect"

Yes, I knew that. At least in terms of harmony and orchestration. But that separation so wide between two instruments makes a huge void in the middle, in my opinion.