dissonance

This dissonance between text and presentation might be immaterial if the cast brought enough heat to the material to keep us tightly focused on the drama.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

In Mr. Lee’s masterly orchestration, it is stalked by a deep and unshakeable dissonance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

He understands how to use his innate magnetism to charm his way through even the silliest scripts, occasionally creating a dissonance between the film and his performances that makes even the duds memorable.

From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026

The overall picture is one of serious cognitive dissonance.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

If a keyboard played its Gt while the violin played an F# it produced an unpleasant, headache-inducing dissonance.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

The man who created “The Rite of Spring”—a ballet whose pounding dissonances and unconventional rhythms caused pandemonium at its 1913 Paris premiere—now insisted that the bolder the creative ambition, the tighter the frame must be.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026

Although León’s language is different from decade to decade, her ear for slightly bent phrases in the early works can help prepare a listener for the way she later learned to make starker dissonances dance.

From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2022

Q: I love the beauty of the dissonances in the Carl Ruggles piece you’ve selected.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 6, 2022

Everything about it, from the spare, enveloping details of Grant Major’s production design to the nerve-shredding dissonances of Jonny Greenwood’s score, directs our focus inward.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 16, 2021

As the music, enlivened by unscored dissonances, swelled to a raucous climax, she gripped the wooden sides of her chair, closed her eyes.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan