Parallel Octaves

[mcgillcomposer]

Do the parallels at the end of this example bother anyone? If so, why?

http://www.listeningarts.com/music/general_theory/species/5thexx1.mov

[faulty_damper]

I don't hear anything that sounds funny or out of place or "wrong".

What most bothers me is the leap of a 4th in m1-2 in the Alto and the skip down of a 3rd in m6-7 - which sounds like it should really be moving to F, not C.

[term]

I've had a music teacher who would cringe every time he heard a parallel (fifth or octave).^^
But it's learned.
So why should their mere presence bother anyone? Depends on your use of counterpoint, doesn't it?

[faulty_damper]

It sounds bad because there is a sudden gap of information that your mind notices.  It's not something that is learned.  There is a real information basis for bad sounds.

However, that isn't to say that after conditioning, your mind anticipates this bad information and then it doesn't sound as bad.  And once there is a good alternative to this bad one, everything falls back in line as it was before: it sounds bad but even more so because it's being compared to something that sounds good.

[term]

It sounds bad because there is a sudden gap of information that your mind notices.

Which gap are you referring to? And what 'information'?
Medieval and later counterpoint used  parallels, in fact counterpoint started out like that with the early parallel organum.
It is not bad as such, it depends on taste and, foremost, the style of the music and what it expresses.
A teacher once made an experiment and played the same piece first with and then without parallels (ie 'corrected'). The untrained, i.e. unprejudiced ear doesn't care. It's learned.