. . . in Life
In my last post about incorporating music into your homeschool curriculum, we looked at how music needs some consonance and some dissonance in order to move forward. Too much consonance, and the music will not move – or will need another musical element, such as rhythm, to do so. Too much dissonance, and the listener will likely become agitated, edgy, upset, or stop listening!
Our living and learning must have some of each as well, and indeed, in our home, we experience many kinds of dissonance every day! Some are mere grace notes or passing tones, such as an adverse reaction to the breakfast menu or dismay over the weather. But others are loud chords with dissonant harmonies, sustained for several beats or measures (or months or years) at a time. It’s interesting to note that, in general, notes which are closer together are more dissonant . . . often true of relationships as well!
In music, dissonance, artfully interspersed with just the right amount of consonance, creates beauty. A gifted composer can take a dissonant chord and craft a place for it in a piece of music, giving the music motion and beauty.
Hundreds of moments in our lives illustrate this. And so do hundreds of pieces throughout music history. Some of my favorite examples include Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (the linked performance played and conducted by high school students). Listen carefully from the outset. That unsettled sense of foreboding you get comes from a very quiet but dissonance interval sustained for a full thirty-one seconds before it resolves and moves on again. Or Maurice Ravel’s First Piano Concerto. At 2:50, this piece is very much like the Barber as the flute joins the solo piano by holding a quiet but dissonant interval. At 5:06-5:44, however, the piece surges forward on the momentum of dissonance chords. These pieces endlessly search for rest, yearning forward because of dissonance and consonance.
The first movement of Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto Grosso Opus 3, No 10, played by young musicians here, appeals to me regardless of my mood. Despite its minor key, it never fails to push me forward using a tumbling sequence of key changes achieved with dissonance and consonance (1:47 or 2:21).
Whether your homeschool student is currently engaged in the Discovering Music curriculum or not, you just need to listen carefully to your favorite music of the season. What role does the clashing of sounds (dissonance) play in the pieces you enjoy most? Consider as well the “piece of music” you’re living. Are there dissonances out of which music might be crafted? Sounded alone, dissonant chords are not beautiful. They may even very ugly. Only as the music moves forward do they yield beauty.
It seems to me that most times in music and life, the dissonance comes to the consonance. Two things can happen: 1. the consonance prevails and the dissonance changes to a consonance; 2. the consonance resolves and the dissonance loses its power of being dissonant. Both instances yield beauty! Discerning when to prevail and when to resolve–requires great wisdom. Great post! Thanks for sharing.