Simplifying Complexity What makes music sound ‘good’?
Jun 10, 2024
Professor Dmitri Tymoczko from Princeton University discusses the principles that make music sound 'good'. Topics include the evolution of music composition, creating tonal sounds, harmonic choices, technical aspects of pianos, mathematical rules in music generation, and the factors contributing to musical stability and centricity.
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Short Movement in Melody
- Music tends to move by short distances on the piano keyboard rather than large leaps.
- This principle reflects the physics and biology underlying how we perceive music.
Consistency in Harmonic Vocabulary
- Notes sounding together in music usually form chords that are mutually consistent and similar.
- Composers avoid mixing chords from entirely different harmonic worlds as it sounds jarring to listeners.
Macro Harmony by Scale Limitation
- Limiting notes to a smaller set, like the white keys on a piano, creates a sense of harmony that integrates over time.
- This ‘macro harmony’ is a large stability or sonority beyond just instant chords.