A Quote by Igor Stravinsky

Consonance, says the dictionary, is the combination of several tones into a harmonic unit. Dissonance results from the deranging of this harmony by the addition of tones foreign to it. One must admit that all this is not clear. Ever since it appeared in our vocabulary, the word 'dissonance' has carried with it a certain odor of sinfulness. Let us light our lantern: in textbook language, dissonance is an element of transition, a complex or interval of tones that is not complete in itself and that must be resolved to the ear's satisfaction into a perfect consonance.

Igor Stravinsky

Quote Topics

Addition Admit Appeared Carried Certain Clear Combination Complete Complex Consonance Dictionary Dissonance Ear Element Ever Foreign Harmonic Harmony Interval Itself Language Lantern Let Us Light Must Odor Our Perfect Resolved Results Satisfaction Says Several Since Sinfulness Textbook Tones Transition Unit Us Vocabulary Word

Quote Author

Igor Stravinsky
Russian - Composer
June 17, 1882 - April 6, 1971

Music needs the juxtaposition of opposites to achieve its drama, so harshness and dissonance are simply part of the material a musician can use to create a musical work. All one thing is a bore - all dissonance, or all fatuous consonance. George Winston and Guns and Roses are two sides of the same worthless coin in my esthetic world.

Chuck Israels

Music in movies is all about dissonance and consonance, tension and release.

Quincy Jones

When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance.

Leon Festinger

I came up with a 'forecasting cell,' which is basically a mixed intention cell or chord that is a complete hybrid of a consonance and a dissonance, and what that does when you are improvising is lead you to where you are supposed to go.

Christian Scott

If a person plays dissonance long enough, it will sound like consonance. It's a language that was alien and then it's less and less alien as it continues to live.

Keith Jarrett

There is no one part of the brain which recognizes or responds emotionally to music. Instead, there are many different parts responding to different aspects of music: to pitch, to frequency, to timbre, to tonal intervals, to consonance, to dissonance, to rhythm, to melodic contour, to harmony.

Oliver Sacks

Of course I have used dissonance in my time, but there has been too much dissonance. Bach used dissonance as good salt for his music. Others applied pepper, seasoned the dishes more and more highly, till all healthy appetites were sick and until the music was nothing but pepper.

Sergei Prokofiev

I was under twenty when I deliberately put it to myself one night after good conversation that there are moments when we actually touch in talk what the best writing can only come near. The curse of our book language is not so much that it keeps forever to the same set phrases . . . but that it sounds forever with the same reading tones. We must go out into the vernacular for tones that haven't been brought to book.

Robert Frost

I'm always surprised to hear or read my work described, "In angry tones, she says." No! In truthful tones! Does truth have a tone? I don't know.

Jamaica Kincaid

I played to 20,000 people every day because people were walking on 5th Ave going to and from their jobs, and my sounds were bathing them in all kinds of dissonance, consonance, resonance, and things like that.

Charlemagne Palestine

I love the tones of browns and grays - I love more neutral tones. That's why I like going to the desert and working in the desert. I find that green trees and things like that have a tendency to lock us into a certain way of seeing.

Edward Burtynsky

I would like to have people hear dissonance, but I don't want it to be so off-putting that they never get there to begin with. That's actually how I hear it; that's what's pleasant to me. I don't like dense, chaotic dissonance. My brain gets lost. I need something to hang onto.

Patricia Barber

One of the color combos that I really love is the tones of technicolor, which older movies would have, these tones of blue and red in them.

Reed Morano

The cognitive dissonance, the denial and cowardice that spare us painful truths and prevent us from acting in defense of innocent victims while allowing 'beloved' individuals to continue their heinous behavior must be jettisoned from the bottom of our souls.