4-2 Background

Music is continuously referred to as "an art" which inspires and soothes emotions. The meaning or mood of the music we hear is determined by the composer's choice of melody, consonance, dissonance, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, and scale. As each individual perceives the music and creates a connection to the song, they are personalizing the experience the music gives them. This is what makes music subjective despite it's concrete features.

So far we have learned that physics can measure the frequency of the sound waves in music, but the individual perceives the actual pitch that is heard. (This is what causes missing fundamentals and combination tones to be heard even though they don't exist. This is also why some people can be called "tone deaf" because they aren't skilled at recognizing the pitches that are heard.) Furthermore, the intensity of a sound wave can be measured but the individual perceives how loud the sound is.

Continue: #REDIRECT 4-3 Consonance and Dissonance

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