Widening partial near-coincidences by stretching lowers dissonance

Evidence

Note that 20 Hz beating is usually annoying, while 40 Hz beating is often less so. The point is that stretching all the frequencies present, in a chord for example, will necessarily widen all the near coincidences of partials. Unless they were under about 5 Hz and become, say, 10 or 15 Hz, this should lower the dissonance. Because all the partials of any complex tone are also stretched in this scheme, this form of stretching requires a computer or reprogrammed synthesizer. It is very difficult to build a physical object that will have uniformly stretched partials. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2412

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• Systematically stretching all partials in a chord can reduce its dissonance (similarity 0.93)
• Stretching partials while keeping fundamentals fixed sounds horrible due to partial collisions (similarity 0.90)
• Musical instruments are engineered to suppress higher partials to avoid dissonance (similarity 0.84)
• Dissonance arises from inconsistent stretch of notes versus partials (similarity 0.84)
• Inconsistent octave stretching that leaves partials linear is jarringly unpleasant (similarity 0.84)
• Narrower noise bandwidth raises pitch strength while higher center frequency also raises it (similarity 0.83)
• Perceived pitch persists even when the matching frequency partial is absent (similarity 0.82)
• Roughness between note partials determines perceived musical dissonance (similarity 0.82)
• Extra partials anchor complex-tone pitch against loudness-induced shift (similarity 0.82)
• Simple integer frequency ratios minimize partial interference and thus dissonance (similarity 0.82)
• Adding higher partials can drop the perceived pitch of a tone (similarity 0.82)
• Rapid beating between nearby partials causes perceived dissonance (similarity 0.82)
• Partial spacing determines whether coincidences cause beating, roughness, or fusion (similarity 0.82)
• Perceived musical dissonance reduces to roughness from beating partials. (similarity 0.81)
• Natural inharmonicity makes partial phases cycle continuously, so the ear ignores them (similarity 0.81)