Hypermetrical Irregularities in Expanded Phrases

This chapter deals with hypermetrical irregularities in phrases expanded by means of parenthesis, repetition, and appendix. All these means of phrase expansion were recognized by eighteenth-century authors. The discussion of parenthesis reveals an uncharacteristically careless treatment of this concept by Heinrich Christoph Koch. It outlines its further development by Hugo Riemann and Heinrich Schenker and deconstructs the concept of parenthesis developed by William Rothstein (1989), thus restoring it to eighteenth-century perspective. The discussion of repetition engages with Rothstein’s discussion of this technique of phrase expansion and its effect upon hypermeter. The discussion of appendix compares Koch’s account of this concept to Rothstein’s concept of “suffix.”

‘False Relations’: Hermann von Helmholtz's Study of Music and the Delineation of Nineteenth-Century Physiology

This article discusses the delineation between physiology and music theory in Hermann von Helmholtz's On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music (1863). It takes the phenomenon of ‘false relations’ as a point of departure to question the methodology Helmholtz devised to study music and hearing. The key to understanding this experimental method is the concept of ‘controlled deviation’, which is substantiated in two main sections. After providing some background information on the history of music theory, the first section explores ‘false relations’ within the context of physiological experimentation and hydrodynamics, the two most important areas of Helmholtz's scientific research. The second section of the article is centred on the experimental methods of Helmholtz as used in his investigation of vision and hearing. More specifically, it introduces notions of distortion, defamiliarization and deviation to distinguish levels of physiology that relate to the body and to cognition. As it turns out, music posed specific problems for the researcher. Beyond the ephemerality of sound, the malleability of hearing and of musical aesthetics proved even more of an obstacle for controlled experimentation. The article concludes with a discussion of Hugo Riemann, who continued to explore the central finding of Helmholtz, namely that the rules of music change due to the habits of the listener.

A Linguistic Theory of Chromatic Harmonic Substitution and Progression in the Diatonic Unconscious

The chapter constructs an energetic model of harmonic progression in which tense chords are signifiers of tonal functions (Riemann’s T, S, and D functions). The paradigm adopts the linguistic axes that Lacan mapped as metaphor and metonymy, which were crucial to the formation of a human subject at whose center lies désir. The theoretical claims build on the recent work of David Lewin (2007), Richard Cohn (2012a), Steven Rings (2011a), Dmitri Tymoczko (2011a), Brian Hyer (2011), and others but also reevaluate the earlier work of Ernest Kurth (1920), Hugo Riemann (1893), and Ernö Lendvai (1993). The chapter seeks to account for voice leading, modulation, and tonal diversity in a broad range of works

“Dynamic Dualism”: Kurth and Riemann on Music Theory and the Mind

This article examines Ernst Kurth’s critical engagement with the ideas of Hugo Riemann and his eventual reformulation of harmonic dualism in dynamic terms. The principle of “dynamic dualism” appears most cogently in Musikpsychologie ([1931] 1947). After discussing the broader psychological movement within which this book emerged, I outline the aims and audience of Musikpsychologie and provide a detailed discussion of the dynamic dualism Kurth articulates therein. I then return to the origin of Kurth’s fascination with dualism, namely to Riemann, tracing points of intersection between the two figures across several decades. I suggest that Kurth’s displeasure with Riemann’s theories is symptomatic of a broader philosophical disagreement over the explanatory power of music theory and its relation to psychology at the time.

Uma Análise Neoriemanniana da Primeira Cena do Artémis de Nepomuceno

Da extensa obra teórica de Hugo Riemann, sua teoria das funções harmônicas permanece sendo a contribuição mais difundida. Menos conhecidos, os escritos da última fase sugerem novos modelos de compreensão do campo harmônico tonal que abandonam os paradigmas funcionalistas. Desde as últimas décadas do século XX, esse testamento de Riemann tem sido reavaliado por uma nova geração de teóricos, denominados neo-riemannianos, dentre os quais se destacam Lewin, Hyer, Richard Cohn e David Kopp, que propuseram suas próprias teorias a partir do modelo de Riemann. O foco deste trabalho é fazer uma breve consolidação da teoria da harmonia transformacional neo-riemanniana, adotando finalmente o modelo proposto por David Kopp (2002) para apresentar uma análise transformacional da Cena I da ópera Artémis de Alberto Nepomuceno.