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tags:musicy2025
In music, tension is the anticipation music creates in a listener’s mind for relaxation or release. The balance between tension and repose are explored in musical analysis—determined by contrasts that are, “…of great interest to the style analyst,” and can be analyzed in several, even conflicting layers—as different musical elements such as harmony may create different levels of tension than rhythm and melody.
Tension and Release can be exposed via:
- Dynamics - contrasts in loudness.
- Anticipation and Suspense - presenting chord tones of the next tone before you play it.
- Repetition - returning to a segment, or expected return to a segment.
- Dissonance - which might be expected to resolve.
- Modulations - shifts in the tonality or key
- Rhythm - syncopation and irregular beat patterns.
Cultural Tension1
Composers can use what they know about the audience’s expectations to create tension.
rel:Spaces in Song and Saturation
One famous example of a composer playing with the audience’s expectations is John Cage’s 4’33” which consists of 4 minutes and 33 seconds during which the performers do not play anything. One expectation that I think we all have when going to a concert is for the performers to actually play something. You can imagine the premiere and the tension that this expectation caused. Cage’s idea was that the sounds that the audience makes are the material of the piece. He wanted us to listen to the ambient noises. Now that we know that, performances of this piece can be a lot less stressful, but I’m sure the first performances were not.