Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 May 22

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May 22[edit]

Does the more autistic/left-brained half of the population have a higher dissonance tolerance?[edit]

I've heard anything smaller than a minor third being called dissonant and I'm like what? What's wrong with semitones and seconds? There are things besides 6:5, 5:4, 4:3, 3:2 and 2:1 that don't sound out-of-tune. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 16:30, 22 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]

While there is some Lateralization of brain function, the concept of being "left brained" or "right brained" in terms of personality is bullshit pop-psychology with no basis in reality. Regarding music dissonance and autism, this seems to have some promising leads. --Jayron32 16:59, 22 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It depends in part on what the individual listener is used to hearing. To quote a passage from our article Consonance and dissonance:
"In music, even if the opposition [between consonance and dissonance] often is founded on the preceding, objective distinction, it more often is subjective, conventional, cultural, and style- and/or period-dependent. Dissonance can then be defined as a combination of sounds that does not belong to the style under consideration . . . ."
{The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.60.183 (talk) 18:23, 22 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It is important to note that the effect of consonance and dissonance is not limited to intervals (there can also be dissonant tonalities), and indeed can be divorced from harmony and moved to other musical parameters such as texture. Double sharp (talk) 14:08, 23 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Courtesy links: Texture (music) & Consonance and dissonance2606:A000:4C0C:E200:0:0:0:2 (talk) 15:33, 25 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that, 2606: I thought I'd linked C&d in my post, but obviously forgot. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.60.183 (talk) 21:24, 25 May 2017 (UTC)[reply]