2. What are Consonance and Dissonance?

  • In music, the relationship between two tones (an interval) is either consonant or dissonant.

  • Like ligands binding with cell receptors, they refer to the differing levels of compatibility between any two tones.
 
 

    
 When an interval is consonant, it has a pleasant,
 “finished” sounding quality.
 




 When an interval is dissonant, it sounds uglier,
 as though it needs to be “resolved” to something 
 consonant.