Consonance |

French consonance, from lat. consonantia – continuous, consonant sound, consonance, harmony

Merging in the perception of simultaneously sounding tones, as well as consonance, perceived as a merging of tones. The concept of K. is opposite to the concept of dissonance. K. includes pure prima, octave, fifth, fourth, major and minor thirds and sixths (a pure fourth, taken in relation to bass, is interpreted as dissonance) and chords composed of these intervals without the participation of dissonant ones (major and minor triads with their appeals). The difference between K. and dissonance is considered in 4 aspects: mathematical., physical. (acoustic), musical and physiological and muz.-psychological.

Mathematically, K. is a simpler numerical relation than dissonance (the most ancient point of view of the Pythagoreans). For example, natural intervals are characterized by the following ratios of vibration numbers or string lengths: pure prima – 1:1, pure octave – 1:2, pure fifth – 2:3, pure fourth – 3:4, major sixth – 3:5, major the third is 4:5, the minor third is 5:6, the minor sixth is 5:8. Acoustically, K. is such a consonance of tones, with Krom (according to G. Helmholtz) overtones do not produce beats or beats are heard weakly, in contrast to dissonances with their strong beats. From these points of view, the difference between coherence and dissonance is purely quantitative, and the boundary between them is arbitrary. As a musical-physiological the phenomenon of K. is a calm, soft sound, pleasantly acting on the nerve centers of the perceiver. According to G. Helmholtz, K. gives “a pleasant kind of gentle and uniform excitation of the auditory nerves.”

For harmony in polyphonic music, a smooth transition from dissonance to K. as its resolution is especially important. The discharge of tension associated with this transition gives a special feeling of satisfaction. This is one of the most powerful expresses. means of harmony, music. Periodic alternation of dissonant rises and consonant recessions of harmonics. voltage forms, as it were, “harmonic. breath” of music, partly similar to certain biological. rhythms (systole and diastole in contractions of the heart, etc.).

Musically and psychologically, harmony, in comparison with dissonance, is an expression of stability, peace, absence of aspiration, excitation, and resolution of gravitation; within the framework of the major-minor tonal system, the difference between K. and dissonance is qualitative, it reaches a degree of sharp opposition, contrast, and has its own identity. aesthetic value.

The problem of K. is the first important department of music theory, concerning the doctrine of intervals, modes, muses. systems, music instruments, as well as the doctrine of the polyphonic warehouse (in the broad sense – counterpoint), chord, harmony, ultimately extending even to the history of music. The historical period of the evolution of music (covering about 2800 years), with all its complexity, can still be understood as something relatively unified, as a natural development of the muses. consciousness, one of the fundamental ideas of which has always been the idea of ​​​​an unshakable support – the consonant core of the muses. structures. The prehistory of K. in music is muses. mastering the ratio of pure prima 1 : 1 in the form of a return to the sound (or to two, three sounds), understood as an identity equal to itself (as opposed to the original glissanding, the pre-tone form of sound expression). Associated with K. 1:1, the principle of harmony is stable. The next stage in mastering the k. was the intonation of the fourth 4:3 and the fifth 3:2, and the fourth, as a smaller interval, historically preceded the fifth, which was simpler in terms of acoustics (the so-called epoch of the fourth). A quart, a quint and an octave that develops from them become regulators of mode formation, controlling the movement of a melody. This stage of the development of K. represents, for example, the art of antique. Greece (a typical example is the Skoliya Seikila, 1st century BC). In the early Middle Ages (starting in the ninth century), polyphonic genres arose (organum, gimel, and fauburdon), where the former dispersed in time genres became simultaneous (parallel organum in Musica enchiriadis, c. 9th century). In the era of the late Middle Ages, the development of thirds and sixths (9: 5, 4: 6, 5: 5, 3: 8) began as K.; in Nar. music (for example, in England, Scotland), this transition took place, apparently, earlier than in the professional, more connected church. tradition. The conquests of the Renaissance (5th-14th centuries) – the universal approval of thirds and sixths as K.; gradual internal reorganization as melodic. types, and all polyphonic writing; promotion of a consonant triad as a generalizing main. consonance type. Modern times (16-17 centuries) – the highest flowering of the three-sound consonant complex (K. is understood primarily as a fused consonant triad, and not as an association of consonant two-tones). From con. 19th century in Europe dissonance is becoming increasingly important in music; the sharpness, strength, brilliance of the sound of the latter, the great complexity of sound relations typical of it, turned out to be properties, the attractiveness of which changed the previous relationship between K. and dissonance.

The first known theory of K. was put forward by Antich. music theorists. The Pythagorean school (6th-4th centuries BC) established a classification of consonances, which on the whole remained until the end of antiquity and had an impact on the Middle Ages for a long time. Europe (via Boethius). According to the Pythagoreans, K. is the simplest numerical relation. Reflecting typical Greek music. practice, the Pythagoreans established 6 “symphonies” (lit. – “consonances”, i.e. K.): a quart, a fifth, an octave and their octave repetitions. All other intervals were classified as “diaphonies” (dissonances), incl. thirds and sixths. K. were justified mathematically (by the ratio of the lengths of the string on a monochord). Dr. the point of view on K. comes from Aristoxenus and his school, who argued that K. is a more pleasant attitude. Both antique. concepts essentially complement each other, laying the foundations of physical and mathematical. and music-psychological. theoretical branches. musicology. The theorists of the early Middle Ages shared the views of the ancients. Only in the 13th century, in the late Middle Ages, was the consonance of thirds first recorded by science (concordantia imperfecta by Johannes de Garlandia the Elder and Franco of Cologne). This boundary between consonants (sixths were soon included among them) and dissonances has been formally preserved in theory right up to our time. The triad as a type of triad was gradually conquered by music theory (the combination of perfect and imperfect triads by W. Odington, c. 1300; the recognition of triads as a special kind of unity by Tsarlino, 1558). Consistent the interpretation of triads as k. is given only in the teachings on the harmony of the new time (where the k. of chords replaced the former k. of intervals). J. F. Rameau was the first to give a broad justification for the triad-K. as the foundation of music. According to the functional theory (M. Hauptmann, G. Helmholtz, X. Riemann), K. is conditioned by nature. the laws of merging several sounds into a unity, and only two forms of consonance (Klang) are possible: 1) main. tone, upper fifth and upper major third (major triad) and 2) main. tone, lower fifth and lower major third (minor triad). The sounds of a major or minor triad form K. only when they are thought of as belonging to the same consonance – either T, or D, or S. Acoustically consonant, but belonging to different consonances sounds (for example, d1 – f1 in C-dur) , according to Riemann, constitute only “imaginary consonances” (here, with complete clarity, the discrepancy between the physical and physiological aspects of K., on the one hand, and the psychological, on the other, is revealed). Mn. theorists of the 20th century, reflecting the modern. them muses. practice, transferred to dissonance the most important functions of art — the right of free (without preparation and permission) application, the ability to conclude the construction and the whole work. A. Schoenberg affirms the relativity of the boundary between K. and dissonance; the same idea was developed in detail by P. Hindemith. B. L. Yavorsky was one of the first to completely deny this boundary. B. V. Asafiev sharply criticized the distinction between K. and dissonance.

References: Diletsky N.P., Musician Grammar (1681), ed. S. Smolensky, St. Petersburg, 1910; his own, Musical Grammar (1723; facsimile ed., Kipv, 1970); Tchaikovsky P.I., Guide to the practical study of harmony, M., 1872, reprinted. in Full. coll. soch., vol. III-a, M., 1957; Rimsky-Korsakov HA, Practical textbook of harmony, St. Petersburg, 1886, reprinted. in Full. coll. soch., vol. IV, M., 1960; Yavorsky B. L., The structure of musical speech, parts I-III, M., 1908; his own, Several thoughts in connection with the anniversary of Liszt, “Music”, 1911, No 45; Taneev S.I., Mobile counterpoint of strict writing, Leipzig, 1909; Schlozer V., Consonance and dissonance, “Apollo”, 1911, No l; Garbuzov N. A., On consonant and dissonant intervals, “Musical Education”, 1930, No 4-5; Asafiev B. V., Musical form as a process, book. I-II, M., 1930-47, L., 1971; Mazel L. A., Ryzhkin I. Ya., Essays on the history of theoretical musicology, vol. I-II, M., 1934-39; Tyulin Yu. N., Teaching about harmony, L., 1937; Musical acoustics. Sat. articles ed. Edited by N. A. Garbuzova. Moscow, 1940. Kleshchov S. V., On the issue of distinguishing between dissonant and consonant consonances, “Proceedings of physiological laboratories of academician I. P. Pavlov”, vol. 10, M.-L., 1941; Medushevsky V. V., Consonance and dissonance as elements of a musical system, “VI All-Union Acoustic Conference”, M., 1968 (Section K.).

Yu. N. Kholopov