illustrates of Move 14 — The arrival is sweeter for the tension the compromise leaves humming inside it.
Sheet music: Cadence Home, key C, 3/4 time
The Ratio and the Ear
Harmony begins as arithmetic and ends as compromise. A dialogue on why a perfectly tuned instrument cannot play in every key.
concludes of Move 1 — From the monochord's clean ratio to the living, slightly out-of-tune chord.
Harmony, then, is not the absence of dissonance but its skillful placement: arithmetic that agreed to bend a little, so that the music could move.
The dialogue is concluded
A perfectly tuned instrument can play one key flawlessly; we chose, instead, to play them all.