At-Oddness
There is little point in at-oddness which is not reconciled within some overriding matrix.—Peter van der Merwe
For me, predictable audible patterns provide frameworks—frameworks that can then be disrupted by various elements of the texture, placing them at-odds with the framework. When I listen to music, the presence of framing patterns makes me hope for the pleasure of hearing temporary at-oddness be artfully introduced and reconciled. The relative absence of either framing matrices or artful disruptions quickly creates a sense of monotony.
For example, the greatest and most affecting sensations of dissonance that I have experienced have come in passages of music in which sensations of relative consonance were used to frame that dissonance. (Mahler’s works, for example, have many such moments.)
Rhythmic syncopation provides another example. We can only perceive a rhythm as syncopated when we have a regular pulse on which to base our rhythmic perceptions. And the addition of a perceptible metric frame adds even more opportunities for at-oddness. Likewise the sense of coloration that gave “chromaticism” its name seems to me most pungent when experienced as a disruptive element relative to a matrix of diatonic patterns.