Author

Galen Rydzik

Date of Award

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Fakhrtabatabaie, Ashkan

Area of Concentration

Humanities

Abstract

The notion of consonance and dissonance have evolved throughout history as a means of understanding how music is perceived by listeners. Consonance seeks to describe music that is perceived as pleasant, and various systems of music theory attempt to define rules regarding which intervals are perceived as consonant. The justification for these systems has been reinforced over the past century through the study of musical waveforms and perceptual studies. Thus, it is possible to form an intuitive sense of why certain intervals sound consonant to listeners. These results have interesting implications in studying the relative consonance of structures found in Xenharmonic (non-12 tone) and non-Western music.

Share

COinS