Harmonics up to the seventh drive perceived consonance of complex-tone chords

Evidence

Few musical instruments ever produce a sinusoidal acoustic wave­ form, and the results relating consonance and dissonance to pure tones can be extended to the perception of musical intervals heard when instru­ ments which produce complex periodic tones play together. For each note of the chord, each harmonic that would be resolved by the hearing system if the note were played alone, that is all harmonics up to about the sev­ enth, contributes to the overall perception of consonance or dissonance depending on its frequency proximity to a harmonic of another note in the chord. This contribution can be assessed based on the conclusions from Figure 3.16. The overall consonance (dissonance) of a chord is based on the total consonance (dissonance) contribution from each of these harmonics. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 957

Categorization

• XREF: Builds directly on the earlier pure-tone consonance/dissonance chapter — extends that framework to complex periodic tones, a core psychoacoustic concept.