Dissonance depends on musical interval, not a fixed beat rate across frequencies

Evidence

A clear connection between psychoacoustics and music has been shown. Roughness is closely related to consonance and dissonance perceived between two or more musical notes; the more the partials of the notes generate roughness, the higher the perceived dissonance is. This leads directly to basic melodic and harmonic structures in music. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1350 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Listeners with no musical training were asked to indicate the consonance, or pleasantness, of two sine waves played together. (Musicians were not used in the experiment since they would have preconceived ideas about musical intervals which are con­ sonant.) The result is the continuous pattern of response shown in the fig­ ure, with no particular musical interval being prominent in its degree of perceived consonance. Intervals greater than a minor third were judged to be consonant for all frequency ratios. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 951 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Clashing tones within one critical band produce roughness that underlies dissonance; Dissonance depends on proportional separation falling inside the critical bandwidth, not absolute frequency difference; The same musical interval’s dissonance changes with pitch register (+13 more)

Related

• Dissonance arises from inconsistent stretch of notes versus partials (similarity 0.94)
• Interval dissonance increases with position higher in the harmonic series (similarity 0.93)
• Clashing tones within one critical band produce roughness that underlies dissonance (similarity 0.92)
• The rate of beating between close partials determines whether they sound consonant or rough (similarity 0.91)
• Perceived musical dissonance reduces to roughness from beating partials. (similarity 0.91)
• Consonance perception is continuous and not tied to musical intervals (similarity 0.90)
• Equal tempered intervals stay consonant because mistuning falls within critical bandwidth (similarity 0.90)
• The same musical interval’s dissonance changes with pitch register (similarity 0.89)
• Untrained listeners judge two-tone consonance continuously without musical interval prominence (similarity 0.89)
• Consonance perception depends on harmonics up to about the seventh (similarity 0.88)
• Simple integer frequency ratios minimize partial interference and thus dissonance (similarity 0.88)
• Roughness between note partials determines perceived musical dissonance (similarity 0.88)
• Consonance judgments rest on psychoacoustic critical bandwidth (similarity 0.88)
• Chord dissonance rises as harmonic number increases and interval shrinks (similarity 0.88)
• Consonance is a continuous sensation while dissonance is an intermittent one (similarity 0.88)

Broader Connections

• The same musical interval’s dissonance changes with pitch register #expands (0.82)
• Perceived musical dissonance reduces to roughness from beating partials. #complicates (0.80) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1350
• Consonance perception is continuous and not tied to musical intervals #contradicts (0.80) — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 951
• Sensory consonance depends on roughness, sharpness, and tonalness #corroborates (0.78) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 2040
• Chord dissonance rises as harmonic number increases and interval shrinks #expands (0.75) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 998
• Perceived dissonance arises when nearby harmonics fall within critical bandwidth #complicates (0.75)
• Interval dissonance increases with position higher in the harmonic series #expands (0.75) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 1294
• Instrument timbre determines how dissonant the same two-note interval sounds #qualifies (0.72)
• Musical intervals trace directly to harmonic-series frequency ratios #expands (0.72)