scholarly journals Partitional Harmony: The Partitioning of Pitch Spaces

2020 ◽  
Vol IV (2) ◽  
pp. 01-27
Author(s):  
Marco Feitosa
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Preliminary Work ◽  
Theoretical Reflection

In this preliminary work, we seek to present a brief historical review of the use of partitions in music, to provide a concise introduction to the theory of partitions, and lastly, through an extensive bibliographic revision and a thoughtful theoretical reflection, to lay the foundations of what we call partitional harmony - a comprehensive harmonic conception which relates the theory of partitions to several fields of post-tonal music theory. At the end, some basic operations (pitch, transposition, inversion, and multiplication) are defined and an illustrative musical application is provided, followed by our research prospects.

The Perception of Frozen Intervals in Anton Webern’s Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24, Third Movement

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenine Brown
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Formal Training ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Twelve Tone ◽  
Passive Exposure

Abstract Many have described twelve-tone music as difficult to aurally comprehend (e.g., Huron, 2006; Meyer, 1967). This study addresses such claims by investigating what listeners can implicitly learn when hearing a recording of a twelve-tone composition. Krumhansl (1990) has argued that listeners unfamiliar with a musical style attune to the distribution of pitch occurrences, with the most frequent pitch providing a reference point. However, in Anton Webern’s Concerto for Nine Instruments, Op. 24/iii, each pitch occurs nearly the same number of times. Because the distribution of pitches in this twelve-tone work is flat, this study investigates whether listeners instead perceive its recurring intervals. After passive exposure to the composition, musician participants (n = 12) with no formal training in non-tonal music theory demonstrated learning of the frequent intervals (and pairs of intervals) in both forced-choice and ratings tasks. Nonmusicians (n = 13) did not. I then use these empirical findings to inform an interval-based analytical approach to Webern’s compositions.

scholarly journals Perceiving the Classical Cadence

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 397-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sears ◽  
William E. Caplin ◽  
Stephen McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Formal Context ◽  
Experimental Setting ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Classical Style ◽  
Keyboard Sonatas ◽  
Rhetorical Features ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

This study explores the underlying mechanisms responsible for the perception of cadential closure in Mozart’s keyboard sonatas. Previous investigations into the experience of closure have typically relied upon the use of abstract harmonic formulæ as stimuli. However, these formulæ often misrepresent the ways in which composers articulate phrase endings in tonal music. This study, on the contrary, examines a wide variety of cadential types typically found in the classical style, including evaded cadences, which have yet to be examined in an experimental setting. The present findings reveal that cadential categories play a pivotal role in the perception of closure, and for musicians especially, ratings of the cadential categories provide empirical support for a model of cadential strength proposed in music theory. A number of rhetorical features also affect participants' ratings of closure, such as formal context, the presence of a melodic dissonance at the cadential arrival, and the use of a trill within the penultimate dominant. Finally, the results indicate that expertise modulates attention, with musicians privileging bass-line motion and nonmusicians attending primarily to the soprano voice.

scholarly journals Analisis Schenkerian Pada Komposisi L’Armonia Opus 148.5 Gitar Klasik Karya Mauro Giuliani

PROMUSIKA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Adityo Legowo
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Music Analysis ◽  
Classical Guitar ◽  
Schenkerian Analysis ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Tonal Structure ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Repeated Structure ◽  
Made In

Ada beragam jenis cara analisis musik namun yang selama ini lebih dikenal dan dipelajari di lingkungan penulis, adalah analisis bentuk musik. Ada cara lain dalam bidang analisis, salah satunya adalah analisis schenkerian. Melalui cara analisis tersebut maka akan didapatkan struktur tonal yang terdalam dari sebuah sistem musik tonal. Cara ini sama sekali belum umum di Indonesia untuk saat ini. Maka dari itu penulis ingin mempelajari lebih dalam mengenahi cara analisis schenkerian. Untuk materi pembahasan akan dibatasi pada karya Mauro Giuliani komposisi L’Armonia opus 148. 5 untuk gitar klasik. Adapun pertimbangan mengenahi objek pembahasan tersebut karena era keemasan musik tonal adalah jaman klasik. Karya tersebut dibuat pada waktu jaman klasik dan diciptakan oleh seorang komposer arus utama untuk musik instrumen gitar. Selain itu karya tersebut dimainkan dalam resital tugas akhir yang dilakukan oleh penulis. Sehingga harapan penulis dengan analisis karya Mauro Giuliani dapat melihat gambaran komponis gitar lainya pada era tersebut. Dgn menggunakan metode kualitatif desriptif dengan pendekatan musikologis, khususnya teori musik dapat disimpulkan bahwa bentuk background komposisi L’Armonia karya Mauro Giuliani adalah bentuk kedalaman yang merupakan hasil reduksi dari bentuk-bentuk sebelumnya. Di dalam bentuk ini terdapat interruption yang berfungsi sebagai penyela dan dikembalikan lagi ke kopfton 3 yang disebabkan oleh adanya struktur yang diulang. Bentuk tersebut dapat dilihat pada pembahasan background.There are various types of music analysis, but what has been better known and studied in the writer's environment, is the analysis of musical forms. There are other ways in the field of analysis, one of which is Schenkerian analysis. Through this method of analysis we will get the deepest tonal structure of a tonal music system. This method is not yet common in Indonesia at this time. Therefore the writer wants to learn more about the schenkerian analysis. For discussion material will be limited to the work of Mauro Giuliani the composition of L 'Armonia opus 148. 5 for classical guitar. The consideration of the object of discussion is because the golden era of tonal music is the classical era. The work was made in classical times and was created by a mainstream composer for guitar instrument music. In addition, the work is played in a final project recital carried out by the author. So the hope of the writer with the analysis of the work of Mauro Giuliani can see the picture of other guitar composers in that era. Using qualitative descriptive methods with a musicological approach, especially music theory, it can be concluded that the form of the background of L'AAmonia's composition by Mauro Giuliani is a form of depth that is the result of reduction from previous forms. In this form there is an interruption that functions as an interrupter and is returned again to Kopfton 3 caused by a repeated structure. This form can be seen in the background discussion.Keywords: schenkerian analysis; L'Oronia opus 148. 5.

scholarly journals "Chinese Harmony" and Contemporary Non-Tonal Music Theory

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Rahn
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
North America ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Chromatic Harmony

Twentieth-century Chinese theorists and composers have developed a distinctively indigenous approach to harmony, based in part on earlier pentatonic traditions. Mixed as it is with conventions of diatonic and chromatic harmony imported from Europe and North America, the resulting "Chinese harmony" poses music-theoretical problems of coordinating diatonic and pentatonic scales, and tertial and quartal chords. A survey of Chinese harmony as expounded by Kang Ou shows these difficulties to be theoretically intractable within solely Chinese or Euro-American frameworks, but soluble through recent formulations in atonal—or more appropriately, non-tonal-theory, as advanced by such writers as John Clough.

Recent Trends in Ethical Thought

Philosophy ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 14 (55) ◽  
pp. 299-312
Author(s):  
Rudolf Metz
Keyword(s):  
Historical Review ◽  
Ethical Thought ◽  
Ethical Research ◽  
New School ◽  
Preliminary Work ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
The Subject

In my book, A Hundred Years of British Philosophy, in connection with Cook Wilson and his Oxford followers I briefly mentioned a new line of ethical research that has made its mark within the last decade. Its representatives are differently labelled, as “Oxford Moralists,” “Intuitionists,” “Neo-Intuitionists,” “Objectivists,” and with other names as well. But I could not give more than a few very insufficient hints about the new school: a fuller treatment would have exceeded the compass of my book, and, further, at the time the book was written, things were not settled enough to be made the subject of a historical review. Even now the time has hardly come for a final appreciation. Nevertheless, the discussion is so far advanced that it may be worth while to take stock of it in order to exhibit not only the new tendency itself, but also the various cross-currents which have been called forth by its appearance. Such an attempt is greatly furthered by the fact that some preliminary work has already been done in this direction by writers who have taken part in the discussion.

scholarly journals Putting the Theory Back in 'Music Theory'

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Day-O'Connell
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Classroom Discussion ◽  
Elementary Music ◽  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Working Definition ◽  
Interactive Lessons ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Theoretical Issues

What is music theory? This foundational question is scarcely even broached in textbooks and classrooms, and that fact has allowed naive views to persist among students and teachers alike. This state of affairs has also perpetuated an unfortunate disconnectedness in institutional and disciplinary conceptions of music theory, including through the devaluing of music theory "fundamentals." In this essay, I argue for a purposeful centering of theory as an intellectual enterprise; I describe a subtle reformulation of elementary music theory that celebrates its epistemological essence and methodological complexities; and I identify meta-theoretical issues that can be seamlessly introduced early in the music theory curriculum without compromising the delivery of content itself. I begin by describing a classroom discussion prompt that motivates a working definition of "theory" in general, which in turn can be leveraged throughout the music theory curriculum. I then describe several interactive lessons that highlight the theoretical underpinnings of certain venerable topics in tonal music. The study of music theory, even from the very first rudiments, is thus transformed from a stern rite of passage mired in dry technicalities, into an expansive intellectual endeavor—reminding students that they themselves are theorists, both in class and in life.

scholarly journals Hysteria at the Musical Surface

2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Mathew Grant
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Klumpenhouwer Networks ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
Future Work

The recent debate in Music Theory Online over the nature and efficacy of Klumpenhouwer Networks in the analysis of post-tonal music is representative of and, indeed, instructive in its engagement with methodological anxiety. In four short meditations, this commentary engages implicit ideological frameworks articulated by various positions in the K-net debate, problematizes their assumptions and proposes ways in which future work on K-nets might proceed.

The Tonic as Triad: Key Profiles as Pitch Salience Profiles of Tonic Triads

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Parncutt
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Western Music ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Music Psychology ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Composition ◽  
And Inversion ◽  
Tonic Triad

Major and minor triads emerged in western music in the 13th to 15th centuries. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, they increasingly appeared as final sonorities. In the 17th century, music-theoretical concepts of sonority, root, and inversion emerged. I propose that since then, the primary perceptual reference in tonal music has been the tonic triad sonority (not the tonic tone or chroma) in an experiential (not physical or notational) representation. This thesis is consistent with the correlation between the key profiles of Krumhansl and Kessler (1982; here called chroma stability profiles) and the chroma salience profiles of tonic triads (after Parncutt, 1988). Chroma stability profiles also correlate with chroma prevalence profiles (of notes in the score), suggesting an implication-realization relationship between the chroma prevalence profile of a passage and the chroma salience profile of its tonic triad. Convergent evidence from psychoacoustics, music psychology, the history of composition, and the history of music theory suggests that the chroma salience profile of the tonic triad guided the historical emergence of major-minor tonality and continues to influence its perception today.

Implicit Counterpoint in Gjerdingen's Schemata

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-50
Author(s):  
Gilad Rabinovitch
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Generative Theory ◽  
Music Theory And Analysis ◽  
Reductive Process ◽  
Metric Segment ◽  
Schema Analysis

Robert Gjerdingen has claimed that schema finding diverges from contrapuntal pitch reduction, Schenkerian or otherwise. Commentators have criticized his approach (see the reviews by Joel Lester in Journal of Music Theory [1990] and Kofi Agawu in Music Theory Spectrum [1991]) and have discussed intersections between schemata and contrapuntal reduction (see the articles by Folker Froebe and Oliver Schwab-Felisch in Music Theory and Analysis [2014] and by Stefan Rohringer in Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie [2015]). Here I address this conundrum from a different angle: I propose that schema analysis may be approximated by two heuristics, which are closely related to the issue identified in Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff's A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (1983) as finding the head of a time span. By giving the highest priority to tritone resolutions within a metric segment and otherwise realigning consonances with strong beats by removing dissonances, it is possible to approximate the reductive workings of schema analysis. This is demonstrated through a preliminary sample of two hundred tacit reductive decisions from Gjerdingen's Music in the Galant Style. I suggest the possibility that Gjerdingen's locally top-down search for complete patterns interacts with a more bottom-up, implicit reductive process, regardless of the identity of the emergent schema. I also discuss some of the potential implications of the heuristics for theory and analysis as well as for interdisciplinary work on schema finding.

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