From Che Sent Tue, Oct 27th 1998, 05:09
From Che Sent Tue, Oct 27th 1998, 05:09
At 04:52 PM 10/26/98 -0800, eric wrote: >it's recognized. the music you grew up on is the most likely culprit for providing the affliction of >sensitivity to sonic-asymmetry and dissonance. since there is no necessary training involved in acquiring >this sensitivity, we can assume that people who experience it do so to varying degrees, and can be said >to express their sensitivity to out-of-tune-ness as a preference for 'in-tune' music. viewed as having a >preference for 'in-tune' music, the musically-untrained listener has no reference to any musical science >other than their own history of music listening, and in addition to noticing the harmonic qualities >within the piece they're listening, they are also comparing it to all of the harmonic preferences they've >built up over the years. "does this piece of music violate any of my harmonic sensibilities?" the >listener asks himself imperceptibly, "yes, that bass sample is a minor 3rd (or whatever, if they have >training) flat. time to add this to the weekly fs/ft posting." or, "eeew, that sounds out of place, i >don't like it." you pays your money, you takes your chance. in light of the structures of western pop >music, especially in the recent past that all of us have grown up in, it's surprising that more than >a third don't share your intolerance. I hate to get dragged into this again, but when I get a queasy feeling from listening to something especially out-of-tune, the physical effect is immediate, suggesting that it's not a brain generated phenomenon. It's certainly not a conscious question of "does this piece of music violate any of my harmonic sensibilities", and I strongly suspect it's not an unconscious question either. In fact, it took a lot of paying attention to music & learning a bit about musical theory to have a rational explanation for what was going on - the tail is not wagging the dog here! I believe that enough people on this list have expressed that they feel physical discomfort that it cannot be discounted as an isolated or imagined trait. I resent being told that I don't feel it and I resent being told that I feel it because I "think too much about music". I'll say it again - if you could feel it, you would not be writing what you're writing, you'd be scratching your head over why a bunch of tone deaf people are attacking you for something you can't control. Given that the attacks have come from those less sensitive (in more ways than one, I might add), I can't help but wonder if these attacks aren't driven by feelings of insecurity. No one has attacked tonedeafness (it can't be helped anymore than tonal-hypersensitivity), but you'd think it would swing both ways, wouldn't you? Che