The significance of the acoustic component of consonance in Western triads

The acoustically based formalism, previously developed by the authors to quantify the consonance and dissonance of dyadic musical intervals, is extended to encompass musical triads. Quantitative measures of the dissonance properties of triads, including four‐voiced spacings of a major triad, are found to be consistent with the gradations of consonance and dissonance for triads found in common practice musical theory, stylistic analysis and pedagogy. The significance of these findings is discussed with respect to other explanations of consonance and dissonance, including explanations of historical and interdisciplinary origins.