Acoustics & Sound For Musicians - Online Book

The Theory Of Sound Which Constitutes The Physical Basis Of The Art Of Music.

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	218                      EXTREME DISCORDS.              [X. § 117
	Minor Thirds bring in a greater variety of pitch in the resulting mass of sound than does the Fifth; but this can hardly he said of the Major and Minor Sixths compared with the Fourth. On the whole, I am inclined to attribute the predilection of the ear for Thirds and Sixths over the other concords to circumstances connected with its perception of relations, though I am not able to give a satisfactory account of them. The ear enjoys, in alternation with consonant chords, dissonances of so harsh a description as to be barely endurable when sustained by themselves. As passages containing such extreme discords take the following. The chord marked * should in each case be played first by itself, and then
	in the place assigned to it by the composer. The effect of the isolated discord is so intensely harsh,