# The Dissonant thread



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Post some of the most dissonant (but mainstream) music you can think.

Of course, the first piece _must_ be Ligeti's Atmospheres...:






And this one is a special gift from my part to certain member of this forum... :devil::lol::

Ligeti's Volumina for organ!!:

(if you want an awesome listening experience, put the volume to the max before you watch the video :tiphat











Pierre Boulez: explosant-fixe


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Corelli: master of suspensions. Most incredible dissonances you will ever hear:





Bach: man those oboes have great dissonances in this one:





Mozart: for obvious reasons:


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

This renaissance piece that I have posted in another thread has some pretty interesting dissonances:


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Stravinsky has a rather good sense in using dissonance for tension build-up:






(listen to the section that starts at 1:59, masterfully done!)


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

You started off very avant-garde, but then moved right back to the Renaissance. And now you're posting Stravinsky.


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> You started off very avant-garde, but then moved right back to the Renaissance. And now you're posting Stravinsky.


yeah, what's the problem?.


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> You started off very avant-garde, but then moved right back to the Renaissance. And now you're posting Stravinsky.


And now I go back to the middle age :

Codex Calixtinus - Congaudeant catholici:


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

aleazk said:


> yeah, what's the problem?.


No problem. Just that you missed out heaps of amazing dissonant baroque, classical and romantic pieces and skipped back to the 20th century


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

The slow movement of Mozart's last two symphonies are full of dissonances:


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Carlo Gesualdo: "Aestimatus sum..."


----------



## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

nice thread, but i'm a bit confused, in what sense do you consider mainstream a piece for flutes of the renaissance?


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I've played this one on viola before:


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

An interesting key change in an organ concerto by Bach:






(at 1:29)

And with respect to the flutes thing, yes, maybe those kind of things are not entirely mainstream, but renaissance music is widely played now, and for bringing some diversity.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Beethoven / Chopin / Claudio Monteverdi

Fact is, unless a piece is one long unison, it is somehow 'relatively' dissonant.

... and dissonance is contextual.

I've reached a point where 'dissonant' and 'atonal' are both meaningless, other than either are appropriate in designating a piece which 'does not work.'

There's little point to the question, really.


----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Well, yes, you are right if we push the concept. But I don't want to convert this in an intellectual thread about the meaning of dissonance. The idea is to post whatever thing that you may consider "dissonant" intuitively and that's all. If you have abandoned those concepts, even for an informal purpose, well, don't post anything then.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

aleazk said:


> Well, yes, you are right if we push the concept. But I don't want to convert this in an intellectual thread about the meaning of dissonance. The idea is to post whatever thing that you may consider "dissonant" intuitively and that's all. If you have abandoned those concepts, even for an informal purpose, well, don't post anything then.


Lol. that's not pushing anything. Any 'interval' other than a perfect unison IS A Dissonance. Ergo, the rest is, as you say, context.

I'm happy to see other than 20th -21st century repertoire listed already - it's 'encouraging.'


----------



## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)




----------



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

"Fact is, unless a piece is one long unison, it is somehow 'relatively' dissonant."

Your definition is technically right and is used sometimes when talking about dissonance, and according with that definition every piece with a slight amount of tension, even if it follows the rules of traditional harmony, will be considered dissonant, as you point. But the term "dissonace", with the rising of modern music, is used sometimes to indicate deviations from the traditional rules of harmony. It's an informal, and somewhat vague if you want, terminology but it's enough for my purpose here, and the majority of the people here have an intuitive idea of what I'm saying. 
And when I talked about pushing the concepts, I was referring to your second statement, which is a personal opinion, with which I agree at some point.
I don't know why you want to push this to an intellectual debate, the theme of the thread is clear enough. As I said, if you think that this notion of dissonance is too vague for you, well, don't post and that's the end. For less sophisticated people like me it's a relatively fun topic and we will post some pieces.


----------



## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)




----------



## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

aleazk said:


> And this one is a special gift from my part to certain member of this forum...
> 
> Ligeti's Volumina for organ!!:


The Volumina was easier than Atmospheres I think because the dissonance was at a lower pitch. But what really struck me was a certain similarity between the two. The point in Volumina at 5:22 and your favorite part of Atmospheres at 4:24 have much in common. While listening to Volumina at 5:22, my first feeling was "Wow! that was cool" (too use the technical term). It was totally unexpected, and the feeling stayed with me for awhile. I guess it is magnified by the extent in time of the high dissonance. In fact I just replayed the movement starting at 5:17, and the sense was wholly different. No pain, no gain? 

Overall I am somewhat amazed at the actual level of dissonance in some earlier works. I obviously hear them, but they almost don't register as such.


----------



## humanbean (Mar 5, 2011)

It took me a while to get into the Bartok quartets, but once I broke through to those, I become an avid dissonance lover:


----------



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

Would Penderecki's Thenodies count as mainstream?


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I got something to contribute to this thread.  You all might hate it, but it qualifies.





I found this a couple weeks ago, I was ed.


----------



## Igneous01 (Jan 27, 2011)

Faust Cantata (which i posted in another thread)
:


----------

