Politics, Feminism, and Contemporary Music Theory

1991 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter C. van den Toorn
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Contemporary Music

The Oxford Handbook of Critical Concepts in Music Theory

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Panoramic View ◽  
Teaching And Research ◽  
New Concepts ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
English Speaking World ◽  
Technical Terms ◽  
Guiding Questions

Music Theory operates with a host of technical terms for concepts that appear straightforward but that conceal layers of complexity. This collection uncovers some of the richness and intricacy of these terms. Using a range of methods, from philosophical and historical contextualizations to cognitive and systematic approaches, and across a range of repertories, these essays aim to convey a fuller understanding of the terms music theorists employ every day in teaching and research. In so doing, the collection provides a panoramic view of the contemporary music-theoretical landscape, offering new perspectives on established concepts, seeking to expanding their purview to new repertories, and adding new concepts to the theorist’s toolkit. Taken as a whole, the concepts collected in this volume spotlight some of the guiding questions of music theory as it is currently practiced in the English-speaking world; they seek to broaden its foundational conversations to underline the ways in which music theory itself is evolving.

Ende der Neuen Musik

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-213
Author(s):  
Christoph Von Blumröder
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
The Political ◽  
German Language ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
A Current

The term "Neue Musik" was coined for a special concept of fundamental musical innovation within Austro-German music theory of the early 20th century, and it found no terminological equivalent beyond the German language. Established by Paul Bekker with his lecture “Neue Musik” in 1919, composers such as Stockhausen or Ligeti embraced the term with its emphatic claim to innovation and new departures. However, one hundred years on the term "Neue Musik" is often used mainly as a synonym for any type of contemporary music. This article questions whether the term "Neue Musik" is still an appropriate framework for a current theory of musical composition. Not only have the specific musical circumstances changed within the course of the 20th century, but also the political and social conditions have altered drastically after two world wars which had given special impulses to those composers who strove for a new foundation of music after 1918 and 1945 respectively. This article argues that the age of "Neue Musik" has come to an end in the late 20th century, and thus it is now necessary to introduce alternative terminological concepts and methodical directions for music historiography.

Harmonic Dualism as Historical and Structural Imperative

2011 ◽  
pp. 193-217
Author(s):  
Henry Klumpenhouwer
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
American Music ◽  
Methodological Challenge ◽  
Argumentative Strategies ◽  
Anglo American

This article aims to provide more sympathetic readings and accounts of harmonic dualism. It makes two claims in particular: first, that the traditional attacks on harmonic dualism that focus on putative structural contradictions in the system are entirely unjustified; and second, that harmonic dualism is a good, legitimate, and useful perspective which can generate enlightening accounts of tonal pieces of music. The argument in this article is part of a broader methodological challenge that questions the means of determining the “correctness” of a music theory. The defense of dualism presented in this article is highly conscious of the modalities of Anglo-American music-theoretical discourse and makes the renewed case for dualism in the context of current argumentative strategies; in the sense, by rehabilitating Riemann's dualism, the article is also holding up the mirror to contemporary music-theoretical practices. There are three parts in this article: the first section focuses on the characteristics of the dualist theory of harmony; the second section defends the first claim presented above (that the traditional attacks on harmonic dualism that focus on putative structural contradictions in the system are entirely unjustified); and the last section defend by way of analysis the second claim—that harmonic dualism is a good, legitimate, and useful perspective which can generate enlightening accounts of tonal pieces of music.

An Overview of Optical Music Recognition in China

2011 ◽  
Vol 225-226 ◽  
pp. 223-227
Author(s):  
Gen Fang Chen ◽  
Wen Jun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Image Processing ◽  
Pattern Recognition ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Digital Music ◽  
Musical Score ◽  
Optical Music Recognition ◽  
Research Status ◽  
Music Recognition

OMR (Optical Music Recognition) is a technology for digital musical score image processing and recognition by computer, which has broad applications in the digital music library, contemporary music education, music theory, music automatic classification, music and audio sync dissemination and etc. This paper first has a brief description of OMR research and focuses on describing the research of Chinese OMR literature, it represents the research status and results in China, then the paper pointes out that the target of OMR research in China must tend to Chinese traditional musical score image processing and pattern recognition.

scholarly journals Topology of Networks in Generalized Musical Spaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
Marco Buongiorno Nardelli
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Network Topology ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Topology Analysis ◽  
Musical Structures ◽  
Compositional Design ◽  
Emergent Behaviors

The abstraction of musical structures as mathematical objects in a geometrical space is one of the major accomplishments of contemporary music theory. The author generalizes the concept of musical spaces as networks and derives compositional design principles via network topology analysis. This approach provides a framework for analysis and quantification of similarity of musical objects and structures and suggests a way to relate such measures to human perception of different musical entities. Finally, network analysis provides alternative ways of interpreting the compositional process by quantifying emergent behaviors with well-established statistical mechanics. Interpreting the latter as probabilistic randomness in the network, the author develops novel compositional design frameworks.

scholarly journals Tone and Voice: A Derivation of the Rules of Voice-Leading from Perceptual Principles

2001 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Huron
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Formal System ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
The Core ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Aesthetic

The traditional rules of voice-leading in Western music are explicated using experimentally established perceptual principles. Six core principles are shown to account for the majority of voice-leading rules given in historical and contemporary music theory tracts. These principles are treated in a manner akin to axioms in a formal system from which the traditional rules of voice-leading are derived. Nontraditional rules arising from the derivation are shown to predict formerly unnoticed aspects of voice-leading practice. In addition to the core perceptual principles, several auxiliary principles are described. These auxiliary principles are occasionally linked to voice-leading practice and may be regarded as compositional "options" that shape the music-making in perceptually unique ways. It is suggested that these auxiliary principles distinguish different types of part writing, such as polyphony, homophony, and close harmony. A theory is proposed to account for the aesthetic origin of voice-leading practices.

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