Consonance and Dissonance
"Stable" versus "needs resolving" — with a border that moves with history
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Consonance and dissonance describe whether an interval or chord sounds "stable" or "needs to resolve". Octaves, perfect fifths and major thirds are usually heard as consonant; minor seconds, tritones and major sevenths as dissonant. Acoustically this relates to the frequency ratio of the two notes and whether their overtones line up.
But the border moves with history: the Middle Ages treated the third as dissonant, the Renaissance made it the most common consonance; jazz treats seventh chords as ordinary, while the Classical style treated them as dissonances to be prepared and resolved. Consonance is not a law of physics but a habit of hearing.
Read deeper → Consonance and Dissonance
Sources
- 协和与不协和的声学解释及历史变迁，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Consonance" 与 "Dissonance"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.