[maemre]

> Pick any three musical notes, even on a microtonal scale, and they form a pleasing chord.

I cannot speak to the color part, but the music part doesn't ring true to me (pun intended). For example, if I pick the first, the second and the seventh of the Phyrigian scale, it sounds pretty jarring to me (like, playing E, F, and D at the same time). And, this is staying pretty much within the scales in western classical music (although I doubt anybody would play it, I bet somebody made it context). Also, extended chords with > 3 notes sound pretty fun and has been the staple of western music for a while (blues, jazz for easy-to-reach examples).

[dhosek]

If you play those notes in a close voicing they can be jarring (although I went through a phase of composing with close clusters of tones just like that in my 20s), but if you instead play D, F up a minor third and then put the E a major seventh above the F, you end up with a chord that functions like Dmin9 (or more accurately DminAdd9). The missing fifth gets added psychoacoustically (jazz pianists have taken advantage of this for ages by playing the 3-7 of a chord in their left hand and the melody in the right hand, letting the bass cover the root and the brain of the listener add the 5).

[hammock]

D-E-F and its relatives are used everywhere. Examples

Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb First chord of verse

Eye of the Tiger (Survivor) First chord of verse (“Rising up” lyric)

You can say it’s a different bass note, and so it is. There is something about the chocolate-dill-cayenne example as well that if the harmony was 90% cayenne it probably wouldn’t work. Dill, it would work a bit better. Chocolate, it would work the best.

Same with the foyer. Dominant brass might be tougher than dominant evergreen or mint.