Editing Harmony (section)

=== Tonal fusion ===
Tonal fusion contributes to the perceived consonance of a chord,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Bidelman|first=Gavin M.|date=2013|title=The Role of the Auditory Brainstem in Processing Musically Relevant Pitch|journal=Frontiers in Psychology|volume=4|page=264|doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00264|issn=1664-1078|pmc=3651994|pmid=23717294|doi-access=free}}</ref> describing the degree to which multiple pitches are heard as a single, unitary tone.<ref name=":0" /> Chords which have more coinciding partials (frequency components) are perceived as more consonant, such as the [[octave]] and [[perfect fifth]]. The spectra of these intervals resemble that of a uniform tone. According to this definition, a [[major triad]] fuses better than a [[minor triad]] and a [[Dominant seventh chord|major-minor seventh chord]] fuses better than a [[Major seventh chord|major-major seventh]] or [[Minor seventh chord|minor-minor seventh]]. These differences may not be readily apparent in tempered contexts but can explain why major triads are generally more prevalent than minor triads and major-minor sevenths are generally more prevalent than other sevenths (in spite of the dissonance of the tritone interval) in mainstream tonal music.

In organ registers, certain harmonic interval combinations and chords are activated by a single key. The sounds produced fuse into one tone with a new timbre. This tonal fusion effect is also used in synthesizers and orchestral arrangements; for instance, in [[Ravel]]'s Bolero #5 the parallel parts of flutes, horn and celesta resemble the sound of an electric organ.<ref name="Tanguiane1993">{{Cite book|last=Tanguiane (Tangian) |first=Andranick |date=1993|title= Artificial Perception and Music Recognition|series= Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence|volume=746|publisher=Springer |location=Berlin-Heidelberg|isbn=978-3-540-57394-4}}</ref><ref name="Tangian1994">{{Cite journal |last=Tanguiane (Tangian)|first=Andranick  |year=1994|title= A principle of correlativity of perception and its application to music recognition|journal=  Music Perception|volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=465–502|doi= 10.2307/40285634 |jstor=40285634 }}</ref>