Incidentally, according to Howard Goodall on a recent TV series, intervals that we would find very discordant were regarded as examples of high musical class in Elizabethan times.

That's often the way with "class" and "Cool":

"Look at how smart and sophisticated I am! I really like things that are difficult, and take some getting used to!"*

Just the very fact that they called the resulting chord: "false relations" hints that those notes sounded as uncomfortable together to them as they do to us. On the other hand, I can also see how a discordant note here or there could really punctuate a melody, and give it interest, as long as it wasn't overdone.


*This is why I'm convinced that so much "Modern Classical" music is so highly touted, even though most of it doesn't even sound like music to me, at all...