This question is way out of my league. I tried looking up answers. There seems to be some company called Discord which makes musical bots - but I could only get circular definitions which made no sense to me. I looked up musical theory, but it only says why a discord is a discord - and assumes that no one in their right mind would deliberately use one.
But I imagine that when a composer wants a piece to sound cacophonous and awful, to invoke negative emotions, he or she might deliberately use discords and unsyncopated rhythms. I can imagine writers like Stockhausen and Bartok using such techniques. Hollywood soundtracks could use discords to heighten fear.
Some are very subtle. For some reason, which I have no clue why, I am able to discern such things. I was listening to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" about an hour ago, and there was a bit in Bernstein's piano solos. The example I gave was a reflection of the discord in the politics of the time, and Vietnam. "Meet the new boss...Same as the old boss." says it all. Yeah, once and a while I have a serious question. Listen to the organ solo (6:30) and you will hear it.
I tried to listen. Unfortunately, my hearing is not great, and on top of that, I've had very little musical education. I couldn't discern the discord in the solo - though I don't doubt that it is there. The only thing I could detect was that at certain points it made me feel uncomfortable and want to shift away.
Where I grew up was on a hill in the far outer suburbs of Sydney (Whale Beach) surrounded by nature. I could hear the sea crashing on the rocks at the foot of the cliffs at all times. I could hear magpies and butcherbirds carolling at dawn and dusk, and kookaburras laughing. I could hear bull koalas grunting at night and mopoke owls. But music was rarely a part of my home life.
Neither parent could sing or play a musical instrument.
Mum listened to the radio a lot: sometimes pop songs like Lemon Tree or Winchester Cathedral, but mostly the news, current affairs and polemics.
We had a gramophone. The record collection was minute: 12 albums of Learn to Speak Italian, three albums of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy stories, Ravel's Bolero, and Belafonte Sings of the Carribean. I think there was also something by the Brazilian Bombshell, Carmen Miranda. Mum had been very fond of dancing the Samba with American sailors on leave during WWII. I seem to remember she had an extraordinary range of octaves.
At primary school, there were rudimentary music classes once a week.
In ballet classes, the teacher told my mother there was no point in continuing because I couldn't respond in time to the music.
My sister developed an interest in guitar at around 9 years. No idea what prompted it - maybe other kids at school. Mum paid for her to have lessons. (The practising was no fun to hear.) She eventually became a musician with professional aspirations - but as far as I know, did not really succeed. I think she probably had some talent - but maybe other issues got in the way.
At boarding school, I was forced to do musical hearing tests. The blind music teacher, Mr Cooper, would play a note on the piano and I had to name it. I couldn't name one. He forced me to guess - and even at that, I failed. Then I was asked to sing the notes, and couldn't. Almost every other girl did well. The school had a magnificent choir, 23 pianos, a full organ, and many other instruments. Wherever I walked I could hear girls practising.
It was a source of great shame to me. I believed I was tone-deaf - and didn't learn til much later that it's a learned skill - that one has to grow up exposed to music from a young age.
I'm a little better now, thanks to Ari who has an excellent musical ear. But I'm still very far from having a refined ear. :(
What was your musical education like, Element? Did you learn an instrument?
This post was edited by inky at November 16, 2019 11:23 PM MST
But I'd bet you've done a lot of listening, yes? And they say that musical and mathematical intelligence are closely paired. You would have needed good maths to study science.
Pattern recognition. Somehow, when the brain becomes agile with numbers, it also becomes better able to discern rhythm and pitch. Studies by psychologists have shown high correlations. No causative proof as yet, but the theory is that unconsciously there is cross over between differing skills, some more than others. People who are musical, artistic and physically active often have higher intelligence generally. It has also been shown that these practices can prevent or slow the progress of dementia.
inky 