When Functions Collide: Aspects of Plural Function in Chromatic Music (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sound Ambiguity, 2016
The works of the contemporary harmonic theorists and analysts intriguingly lack the consensus about when the traditional tonality broke down, or at least, when it began to dissolve. According to one group of researchers, the dissolution happened as early as in the mid-19th century, when “any chord could follow any other chord”. The claims that the tonality virtually ceased to exist at the moment when the contemporaries still did not have a clear definition of this term seem very bold. They, however, did not appear without a reason. The traditional definitions of tonality (that explain it as a hierarchy of the pitches) were called into question in the music of the second half of the 19th century, which (according to many sources) undoubtedly had its influence on the listeners’ perception. Additionally, the theories of the diffusion of tonality are not recent, and they were discussed by numerous researchers in the mid-19th century (with François-Joseph Fétis being among the most important ones). César Franck (1822-1890) is one of the composers in whose oeuvre the diversity of this term is quite obvious. One of the main characteristics of his mature works is the deliberate substitution of the traditional tonality with the new system, in many instances within the same composition. Using different analytical methods on Franck`s music, in this paper we will try to offer an explanation for the reason why the breakdown of tonality on the turn of the centuries was perceived as something shocking, despite its being a decades-long evolutionary process.
Functional Harmony and Its Relationship to Schoenberg's Early Post-Tonal Music
University of Auckland, 2012
This thesis argues that harmonic function did not disappear entirely the day that Schoenberg ‘freed music from the shackles of tonality.’It is rather easy to assume that harmonic function cannot exist without tonality. However, within this thesis I aim to demonstrate a system of functional harmony that can operate independently of tonality, and to show how it can suggest form in early post-tonal music. With a focus on voice-leading, this thesis suggests there are continuities with preceding harmonic practice that current analytical methods, such as set theory and transformation theory, while making other relevant observations, miss. The approach used is built on the observation that not all interval classes are treated equally by Schoenberg. The most significant is his treatment of ic6, which still functions as we would expect it to in tonal music: by resolving in contrary motion by semitone to ic4. The ic6 can be a subset of a larger set, and, likewise, so can the ic4. The other vertical sonority that Schoenberg takes specific care with is pcset 3-12 (the augmented triad), which again functions in a way reminiscent of tonal voice-leading. One pitch class will remain in the following set, while the pitch class an ic4 higher will resolve up chromatically. Again, the initial pcset 3-12 can belong to a larger set and so can the resultant set.
The Functional Extravagance of Chromatic Chords
Music Theory Spectrum, 1986
Most late=19th-century chromatic masterpieces manifest a tonality that is still intimately related to particular chordal sonorities. Unfortunately, the two analytical strategies that seem to promise the most detailed attention to harmony, namely chordal and linear analysis, have failed to lead to much insight about the functions of most chromatic chords. This paper proposes an amalgamation of these two strategies, and its application to some problematic chromatic passages.
Music Theory Online, 2016
Carl Schachter is widely admired as a leader in the field of music theory and analysis, largely on the basis of his celebrated textbooks, published essays, and conference presentations. However, many of those who have been fortunate to study with him have long felt that it is within the classroom setting that Schachter's skills as a musician and scholar shine the brightest. The transcribed classroom lectures that make up The Art of Tonal Analysis now allow others to share in the experience of Schachter's classes as well. [2] I considered recusing myself from reviewing this book, since I am far from a disinterested judge of it. I have taken or audited around fifteen semesters of Schachter's seminars over the course of more than thirty years, including the class in 2012 that formed the basis of this book, and owing to my attendance in the class I was invited by Oxford University Press to write a blurb that appears on the book jacket. I nonetheless decided to participate in this review colloquium for reasons similar to ones that Carl Schachter offered in his own review of Ernst Oster's translation of Heinrich Schenker's Free Composition (Schachter 1981), for I feel I can offer a special perspective on this text and its approach. [3] The Art of Tonal Analysis is divided into twelve chapters or "lessons," each roughly corresponding to a class session. An appendix offers Schachter's answers to general questions posed by students, followed by a glossary of basic Schenkerian terminology and a bibliography of works cited. Most chapters are devoted to analyzing one or two pieces; the two exceptions are Lesson One, which examines the use of linear progressions and neighbor notes in a handful of compositions, and Lesson Ten, which focuses on issues of rhythm, hypermeter, and phrase structure. The composers Schachter discusses at length are the same ones favored by Schenker: J.
2015
This paper presents a series of theoretical definitions and explanations that serve as grounds for the proposal of an analytical methodology for 19th-century Tonality, in the context of a preview of central topics taken from a larger research work. It presents proposals for a taxonomical review of the Theory of Modulation in two parallel systems of classification, according to the criteria of modulatory impact and modulatory facture. The paper tries to demonstrate the historical grounds of the analytical propositions made, specially highlighting their ability to graph the harmonic language of the 19th-century Extended Tonality, by means of a few analytical examples taken from repertoire.
ICONEA PUBLICATIONS ISBN 978-1-716-47825-3, 2020
Relative and absolute pitches Dating the texts Systemic duplicity Span and system The nature of intervals Simultaneous intervals and polarity How can dichords fit in with text U.7/80 More philology Allocation of relative pitches Enneatonic pitch-set construction from U.3011 Tridecachord or heptachord The nature of the intervals of the tridecachord Provisional analysis of the intervals terms in CBS 10996 What was the purpose of text CBS 10996 Memory tuning Conclusions Text CBS 1766 First conclusions Heptatonic construction Interlude