Is consonance discovered or constructed?
PAPER I — GENERAL · QUESTION 31 OF 32
In plain terms: The free founding book that tried to make consonance a fact about the ear rather than a matter of taste.
The question as set
Is consonance discovered or constructed? Locate it in the signal, in the ear, or in the culture, and say what evidence would decide.
The question in Paper I · Its section on the reference page
The question in context
This is question 31 of the 32 set in Paper I — General of The Truly Hardest Exam in the World, the examination of The College of All Minds. In the College’s subject index it is filed under Hearing and the ear and Music theory and tuning. Like every question of the College, it carries three references of record, verified live at publication and described twice — technically, and in plain terms — so the ground can be judged before it is walked. The response required is an argument, not a survey, of at most three thousand words, as technical as the question demands and no more.
The references of record
The signal-and-ear account at source: beating between partials proposed as the physical ground of roughness, and so of dissonance.
In plain terms: The free founding book that tried to make consonance a fact about the ear rather than a matter of taste.
A biological rationale for musical consonance
The nativist case restated: consonant intervals aligned with the harmonic structure of voiced speech, preference derived from exposure to conspecific sound.
In plain terms: The free paper arguing we like these intervals because they are the ones the human voice makes.
Indifference to dissonance in native Amazonians — and the lab’s papers
The decisive cross-cultural datum: Tsimane’ listeners rate consonant and dissonant chords alike while discriminating them, separating perception from preference.
In plain terms: The free lab archive of the study that found a people who hear the difference and do not prefer either — the culture side of the question, measured.
Background: Consonance and dissonance · Psychoacoustics