The Surprising Musical Preferences of an Amazon Tribe
Scientists have claimed that humans have an innate, universal preference for some chords over others—but a study of remote villagers suggests otherwise.
.. Five years ago, he and his colleagues started working with the Tsimané(pronounced ‘chee-mah-nay’)—an Amazonian society with barely any exposure to Western music. And they, to McDermott’s surprise, don’t care about consonance or dissonance. They can tell the difference between the two kinds of sounds, but they rate both as being equally pleasant.
.. “The Greeks were really into ratios,” says McDermott. “All their theories of aesthetics related to ratios. It’s possible they started making music that way and we’ve been stuck with it ever since.”“The Greeks were really into ratios,” says McDermott. “All their theories of aesthetics related to ratios. It’s possible they started making music that way and we’ve been stuck with it ever since.”