Music theory
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. The Oxford Companion to Music describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (key signatures, time signatures, and rhythmic notation); the second is learning scholars' views on music from antiquity to the present; the third is a sub-topic of musicology that "seeks to define processes and general principles in music". The musicological approach to theory differs from music analysis "in that it takes as its starting-point not the individual work or performance but the fundamental materials from which it is built."[1]
Music theory is frequently concerned with describing how musicians and composers make music, including tuning systems and composition methods among other topics. Because of the ever-expanding conception of what constitutes music, a more inclusive definition could be the consideration of any sonic phenomena, including silence. This is not an absolute guideline, however; for example, the study of "music" in the Quadrivium liberal arts university curriculum, that was common in medieval Europe, was an abstract system of proportions that was carefully studied at a distance from actual musical practice.[n 1] But this medieval discipline became the basis for tuning systems in later centuries and is generally included in modern scholarship on the history of music theory.[n 2]
Music theory as a practical discipline encompasses the methods and concepts that composers and other musicians use in creating and performing music. The development, preservation, and transmission of music theory in this sense may be found in oral and written music-making traditions,
In modern academia, music theory is a subfield of musicology, the wider study of musical cultures and history. Music theory is often concerned with abstract musical aspects such as tuning and tonal systems, scales, consonance and dissonance, and rhythmic relationships. In addition, there is also a body of theory concerning practical aspects, such as the creation or the performance of music, orchestration, ornamentation, improvisation, and electronic sound production.[3] A person who researches or teaches music theory is a music theorist. University study, typically to the MA or PhD level, is required to teach as a tenure-track music theorist in a US or Canadian university. Methods of analysis include mathematics, graphic analysis, and especially analysis enabled by western music notation. Comparative, descriptive, statistical, and other methods are also used. Music theory textbooks, especially in the United States of America, often include elements of musical acoustics, considerations of musical notation, and techniques of tonal composition (harmony and counterpoint), among other topics.
History
Antiquity
Mesopotamia
Several surviving Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets include musical information of a theoretical nature, mainly lists of intervals and tunings.[4] The scholar Sam Mirelman reports that the earliest of these texts dates from before 1500 BCE, a millennium earlier than surviving evidence from any other culture of comparable musical thought. Further, "All the Mesopotamian texts [about music] are united by the use of a terminology for music that, according to the approximate dating of the texts, was in use for over 1,000 years."[5]
China
Much of Chinese music history and theory remains unclear.[6]
Chinese theory starts from numbers, the main musical numbers being twelve, five and eight. Twelve refers to the number of pitches on which the scales can be constructed. The
Apart from technical and structural aspects, ancient Chinese music theory also discusses topics such as the nature and functions of music. The Yueji ("Record of music", c1st and 2nd centuries BCE), for example, manifests Confucian moral theories of understanding music in its social context. Studied and implemented by Confucian scholar-officials [...], these theories helped form a musical Confucianism that overshadowed but did not erase rival approaches. These include the assertion of Mozi (c. 468 – c. 376 BCE) that music wasted human and material resources, and Laozi's claim that the greatest music had no sounds. [...] Even the music of the qin zither, a genre closely affiliated with Confucian scholar-officials, includes many works with Daoist references, such as Tianfeng huanpei ("Heavenly Breeze and Sounds of Jade Pendants").[6]
India
The Samaveda and Yajurveda (c. 1200 – 1000 BCE) are among the earliest testimonies of Indian music, but properly speaking, they contain no theory. The Natya Shastra, written between 200 BCE to 200 CE, discusses intervals (Śrutis), scales (Grāmas), consonances and dissonances, classes of melodic structure (Mūrchanās, modes?), melodic types (Jātis), instruments, etc.[8]
Greece
Early preserved Greek writings on music theory include two types of works:[9]
- technical manuals describing the Greek musical system including notation, scales, consonance and dissonance, rhythm, and types of musical compositions;
- treatises on the way in which music reveals universal patterns of order leading to the highest levels of knowledge and understanding.
Several names of theorists are known before these works, including Pythagoras (c. 570 ~ c. 495 BCE), Philolaus (c. 470 ~ (c. 385 BCE), Archytas (428–347 BCE), and others.
Works of the first type (technical manuals) include
- Anonymous (erroneously attributed to Euclid) (1989) [4th–3rd century BCE]. Barker, Andrew (ed.). Κατατομή κανόνος [Division of the Canon]. Greek Musical Writings. Vol. 2: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 191–208. English trans.
- Theon of Smyrna. Τωv κατά τό μαθηματικόν χρησίμων είς τήν Πλάτωνος άνάγνωσις [On the Mathematics Useful for Understanding Plato] (in Greek). 115–140 CE.
- Nicomachus of Gerasa. Άρμονικόν έγχειρίδιον [Manual of Harmonics]. 100–150 CE.
- Cleonides. Είσαγωγή άρμονική [Introduction to Harmonics] (in Greek). 2nd century CE.
- Gaudentius. Άρμονική είσαγωγή [Harmonic Introduction] (in Greek). 3rd or 4th century CE.
- Bacchius Geron. Είσαγωγή τέχνης μουσικής [Introduction to the Art of Music]. 4th century CE or later.
- Alypius of Alexandria. Είσαγωγή μουσική [Introduction to Music] (in Greek). 4th–5th century CE.
More philosophical treatises of the second type include
- Aristoxenus. Άρμονικά στοιχεία [Harmonic Elements] (in Greek). 375~360 BCE, before 320 BCE.
- Aristoxenus. Ρυθμικά στοιχεία [Rhythmic Elements] (in Greek).
- Ptolemaios (Πτολεμαίος), Claudius. Άρμονικά [Harmonics] (in Greek). 127–148 CE.
- Porphyrius. Είς τά άρμονικά Πτολεμαίον ύπόμνημα [On Ptolemy's Harmonics] (in Greek). c. 232~233 – c. 305 CE.
Post-classical
China
The pipa instrument carried with it a theory of musical modes that subsequently led to the Sui and Tang theory of 84 musical modes.[6]
Arabic countries / Persian countries
Medieval Arabic music theorists include:[n 3]
- Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb al-Kindi (Bagdad, 873 CE), who uses the first twelve letters of the alphabet to describe the twelve frets on five strings of the oud, producing a chromatic scale of 25 degrees.[10]
- [Yaḥyā ibn] al-Munajjim (Baghdad, 856–912), author of Risāla fī al-mūsīqī ("Treatise on music", MS GB-Lbl Oriental 2361) which describes a Pythagorean tuning of the oud and a system of eight modes perhaps inspired by Ishaq al-Mawsili (767–850).[11]
- Abū n-Nașr Muḥammad al-Fārābi (Persia, 872? – Damas, 950 or 951 CE), author of Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir ("The Great Book of Music").[12]
- 'Ali ibn al-Husayn ul-Isfahānī (897–967), known as Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, author of Kitāb al-Aghānī ("The Book of Songs").
- Abū 'Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Sīnā, known as Avicenna (c. 980 – 1037), whose contribution to music theory consists mainly in Chapter 12 of the section on mathematics of his Kitab Al-Shifa ("The Book of Healing").[13]
- al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn 'Ali al-Kātib, author of Kamāl adab al Ghinā' ("The Perfection of Musical Knowledge"), copied in 1225 (Istanbul, Topkapi Museum, Ms 1727).[14]
- Safi al-Din al-Urmawi (1216–1294 CE), author of the Kitabu al-Adwār ("Treatise of musical cycles") and ar-Risālah aš-Šarafiyyah ("Epistle to Šaraf").[15]
- Mubārak Šāh, commentator of Safi al-Din's Kitāb al-Adwār (British Museum, Ms 823).[16]
- Anon. LXI, Anonymous commentary on Safi al-Din's Kitāb al-Adwār.[17]
- Shams al-dῑn al-Saydᾱwῑ Al-Dhahabῑ (14th century CE (?)), music theorist. Author of Urjῡza fi'l-mῡsῑqᾱ ("A Didactic Poem on Music").[18]
Europe
The Latin treatise De institutione musica by the Roman philosopher
During the thirteenth century, a new rhythm system called
Modern
Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries
- Bāqiyā Nāyinῑ (Uzbekistan, 17th century CE), Uzbek author and music theorist. Author of Zamzama e wahdat-i-mῡsῑqῑ ["The Chanting of Unity in Music"].[18]
- Baron Francois Rodolphe d'Erlanger (Tunis, Tunisia, 1910–1932 CE), French musicologist. Author of La musique arabe and Ta'rῑkh al-mῡsῑqᾱ al-arabiyya wa-usῡluha wa-tatawwurᾱtuha ["A History of Arabian Music, its principles and its Development"]
D'Erlanger divulges that the Arabic music scale is derived from the Greek music scale, and that Arabic music is connected to certain features of Arabic culture, such as astrology.[18]
Europe
- Renaissance
- Baroque
- 1750–1900
- As Western musical influence spread throughout the world in the 1800s, musicians adopted Western theory as an international standard—but other theoretical traditions in both textual and oral traditions remain in use. For example, the long and rich musical traditions unique to ancient and current cultures of Africa are primarily oral, but describe specific forms, genres, performance practices, tunings, and other aspects of music theory.[22][23]
- Sacred harp music uses a different kind of scale and theory in practice. The music focuses on the solfege "fa, sol, la" on the music scale. Sacred Harp also employs a different notation involving "shape notes", or notes that are shaped to correspond to a certain solfege syllable on the music scale. Sacred Harp music and its music theory originated with Reverend Thomas Symmes in 1720, where he developed a system for "singing by note" to help his church members with note accuracy.[24]
Contemporary
Fundamentals of music
Music is composed of
Pitch
Pitch is the lowness or highness of a
Specific frequencies are often assigned letter names. Today most orchestras assign
The difference in pitch between two notes is called an interval. The most basic interval is the unison, which is simply two notes of the same pitch. The octave interval is two pitches that are either double or half the frequency of one another. The unique characteristics of octaves gave rise to the concept of pitch class: pitches of the same letter name that occur in different octaves may be grouped into a single "class" by ignoring the difference in octave. For example, a high C and a low C are members of the same pitch class—the class that contains all C's. [27]
Musical tuning systems, or temperaments, determine the precise size of intervals. Tuning systems vary widely within and between world cultures. In Western culture, there have long been several competing tuning systems, all with different qualities. Internationally, the system known as equal temperament is most commonly used today because it is considered the most satisfactory compromise that allows instruments of fixed tuning (e.g. the piano) to sound acceptably in tune in all keys.
Scales and modes
Notes can be arranged in a variety of
The most commonly encountered scales are the seven-toned
In traditional Western notation, the scale used for a composition is usually indicated by a
The interrelationship of the keys most commonly used in Western tonal music is conveniently shown by the circle of fifths. Unique key signatures are also sometimes devised for a particular composition. During the Baroque period, emotional associations with specific keys, known as the doctrine of the affections, were an important topic in music theory, but the unique tonal colorings of keys that gave rise to that doctrine were largely erased with the adoption of equal temperament. However, many musicians continue to feel that certain keys are more appropriate to certain emotions than others. Indian classical music theory continues to strongly associate keys with emotional states, times of day, and other extra-musical concepts and notably, does not employ equal temperament.
Consonance and dissonance
Consonance and dissonance are subjective qualities of the sonority of intervals that vary widely in different cultures and over the ages. Consonance (or concord) is the quality of an interval or chord that seems stable and complete in itself. Dissonance (or discord) is the opposite in that it feels incomplete and "wants to" resolve to a consonant interval. Dissonant intervals seem to clash. Consonant intervals seem to sound comfortable together. Commonly, perfect fourths, fifths, and octaves and all major and minor thirds and sixths are considered consonant. All others are dissonant to a greater or lesser degree.[30]
Context and many other aspects can affect apparent dissonance and consonance. For example, in a Debussy prelude, a major second may sound stable and consonant, while the same interval may sound dissonant in a Bach fugue. In the Common practice era, the perfect fourth is considered dissonant when not supported by a lower third or fifth. Since the early 20th century, Arnold Schoenberg's concept of "emancipated" dissonance, in which traditionally dissonant intervals can be treated as "higher," more remote consonances, has become more widely accepted.[30]
Rhythm
Rhythm is produced by the sequential arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter measures music in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars. The time signature or meter signature specifies how many beats are in a measure, and which value of written note is counted or felt as a single beat.
Through increased stress, or variations in duration or articulation, particular tones may be accented. There are conventions in most musical traditions for regular and hierarchical accentuation of beats to reinforce a given meter. Syncopated rhythms contradict those conventions by accenting unexpected parts of the beat.[31] Playing simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature is called polyrhythm.[32]
In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. The most highly cited of these recent scholars are Maury Yeston,[33] Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff,[34] Jonathan Kramer,[35] and Justin London.[36]
Melody
A melody is a group of musical sounds in agreeable succession or arrangement.[38] Because melody is such a prominent aspect in so much music, its construction and other qualities are a primary interest of music theory.
The basic elements of melody are pitch, duration, rhythm, and tempo. The tones of a melody are usually drawn from pitch systems such as
Chord
A chord, in music, is any harmonic set of three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously.[40]: pp. 67, 359 [41]: p. 63 These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may, for many practical and theoretical purposes, constitute chords. Chords and sequences of chords are frequently used in modern Western, West African,[42] and Oceanian[43] music, whereas they are absent from the music of many other parts of the world.[44]: p. 15
The most frequently encountered chords are
A series of chords is called a
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous
In
Timbre
Timbre, sometimes called "color", or "tone color," is the principal phenomenon that allows us to distinguish one instrument from another when both play at the same pitch and volume, a quality of a voice or instrument often described in terms like bright, dull, shrill, etc. It is of considerable interest in music theory, especially because it is one component of music that has as yet, no standardized nomenclature. It has been called "... the psychoacoustician's multidimensional waste-basket category for everything that cannot be labeled pitch or loudness,"[51] but can be accurately described and analyzed by Fourier analysis and other methods[52] because it results from the combination of all sound frequencies, attack and release envelopes, and other qualities that a tone comprises.
A voice can change its timbre by the way the performer manipulates their vocal apparatus, (e.g. the shape of the vocal cavity or mouth). Musical notation frequently specifies alteration in timbre by changes in sounding technique, volume, accent, and other means. These are indicated variously by symbolic and verbal instruction. For example, the word dolce (sweetly) indicates a non-specific, but commonly understood soft and "sweet" timbre. Sul tasto instructs a string player to bow near or over the fingerboard to produce a less brilliant sound. Cuivre instructs a brass player to produce a forced and stridently brassy sound. Accent symbols like marcato (^) and dynamic indications (pp) can also indicate changes in timbre.[53]
Dynamics
In music, "
The conventional indications of dynamics are abbreviations for Italian words like forte (f) for loud and piano (p) for soft. These two basic notations are modified by indications including mezzo piano (mp) for moderately soft (literally "half soft") and mezzo forte (mf) for moderately loud, sforzando or sforzato (sfz) for a surging or "pushed" attack, or fortepiano (fp) for a loud attack with a sudden decrease to a soft level. The full span of these markings usually range from a nearly inaudible pianissississimo (pppp) to a loud-as-possible fortissississimo (ffff).
Greater extremes of pppppp and fffff and nuances such as p+ or più piano are sometimes found. Other systems of indicating volume are also used in both notation and analysis: dB (decibels), numerical scales, colored or different sized notes, words in languages other than Italian, and symbols such as those for progressively increasing volume (crescendo) or decreasing volume (diminuendo or decrescendo), often called "hairpins" when indicated with diverging or converging lines as shown in the graphic above.
Articulation
Articulation is the way the performer sounds notes. For example, staccato is the shortening of duration compared to the written note value, legato performs the notes in a smoothly joined sequence with no separation. Articulation is often described rather than quantified, therefore there is room to interpret how to execute precisely each articulation.
For example, staccato is often referred to as "separated" or "detached" rather than having a defined or numbered amount by which to reduce the notated duration. Violin players use a variety of techniques to perform different qualities of staccato. The manner in which a performer decides to execute a given articulation is usually based on the context of the piece or phrase, but many articulation symbols and verbal instructions depend on the instrument and musical period (e.g. viol, wind; classical, baroque; etc.).
There is a set of articulations that most instruments and voices perform in common. They are—from long to short: legato (smooth, connected); tenuto (pressed or played to full notated duration); marcato (accented and detached); staccato ("separated", "detached"); martelé (heavily accented or "hammered").[contradictory] Many of these can be combined to create certain "in-between" articulations. For example, portato is the combination of tenuto and staccato. Some instruments have unique methods by which to produce sounds, such as spiccato for bowed strings, where the bow bounces off the string.
Texture
In music, texture is how the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a composition, thus determining the overall quality of the sound in a piece. Texture is often described in regard to the density, or thickness, and range, or width, between lowest and highest pitches, in relative terms as well as more specifically distinguished according to the number of voices, or parts, and the relationship between these voices. For example, a thick texture contains many "layers" of instruments. One of these layers could be a string section, or another brass.
The thickness also is affected by the number and the richness of the instruments playing the piece. The thickness varies from light to thick. A lightly textured piece will have light, sparse scoring. A thickly or heavily textured piece will be scored for many instruments. A piece's texture may be affected by the number and character of parts playing at once, the
Common types included
Form or structure
The term musical form (or musical architecture) refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections.
Expression
Musical expression is the art of playing or singing music with emotional communication. The elements of music that comprise expression include dynamic indications, such as forte or piano, phrasing, differing qualities of timbre and articulation, color, intensity, energy and excitement. All of these devices can be incorporated by the performer. A performer aims to elicit responses of sympathetic feeling in the audience, and to excite, calm or otherwise sway the audience's physical and emotional responses. Musical expression is sometimes thought to be produced by a combination of other parameters, and sometimes described as a transcendent quality that is more than the sum of measurable quantities such as pitch or duration.
Expression on instruments can be closely related to the role of the breath in singing, and the voice's natural ability to express feelings, sentiment and deep emotions.[clarification needed] Whether these can somehow be categorized is perhaps the realm of academics, who view expression as an element of musical performance that embodies a consistently recognizable emotion, ideally causing a sympathetic emotional response in its listeners.[61] The emotional content of musical expression is distinct from the emotional content of specific sounds (e.g., a startlingly-loud 'bang') and of learned associations (e.g., a national anthem), but can rarely be completely separated from its context.[citation needed]
The components of musical expression continue to be the subject of extensive and unresolved dispute.[62][63][64][65][66][67]
Notation
Musical notation is the written or symbolized representation of music. This is most often achieved by the use of commonly understood graphic symbols and written verbal instructions and their abbreviations. There are many systems of music notation from different cultures and different ages. Traditional Western notation evolved during the Middle Ages and remains an area of experimentation and innovation.
In standard Western music notation, tones are represented graphically by symbols (notes) placed on a staff or staves, the vertical axis corresponding to pitch and the horizontal axis corresponding to time. Note head shapes, stems, flags, ties and dots are used to indicate duration. Additional symbols indicate keys, dynamics, accents, rests, etc. Verbal instructions from the conductor are often used to indicate tempo, technique, and other aspects.
In Western music, a range of different music notation systems are used. In Western Classical music, conductors use printed scores that show all of the instruments' parts and orchestra members read parts with their musical lines written out. In popular styles of music, much less of the music may be notated. A rock band may go into a recording session with just a handwritten chord chart indicating the song's chord progression using chord names (e.g., C major, D minor, G7, etc.). All of the chord voicings, rhythms and accompaniment figures are improvised by the band members.
As academic discipline
The scholarly study of music theory in the twentieth century has a number of different subfields, each of which takes a different perspective on what are the primary phenomenon of interest and the most useful methods for investigation.
Analysis
Musical analysis is the attempt to answer the question how does this music work? The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst, and according to the purpose of the analysis. According to
Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935). The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work and to help reading the score according to that structure. The theory's basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music. A Schenkerian analysis of a passage of music shows hierarchical relationships among its pitches, and draws conclusions about the structure of the passage from this hierarchy. The analysis makes use of a specialized symbolic form of musical notation that Schenker devised to demonstrate various techniques of elaboration. The most fundamental concept of Schenker's theory of tonality may be that of tonal space.[72] The intervals between the notes of the tonic triad form a tonal space that is filled with passing and neighbour notes, producing new triads and new tonal spaces, open for further elaborations until the surface of the work (the score) is reached.
Although Schenker himself usually presents his analyses in the generative direction, starting from the fundamental structure (Ursatz) to reach the score, the practice of Schenkerian analysis more often is reductive, starting from the score and showing how it can be reduced to its fundamental structure. The graph of the Ursatz is arrhythmic, as is a strict-counterpoint cantus firmus exercise.[73] Even at intermediate levels of the reduction, rhythmic notation (open and closed noteheads, beams and flags) shows not rhythm but the hierarchical relationships between the pitch-events. Schenkerian analysis is subjective. There is no mechanical procedure involved and the analysis reflects the musical intuitions of the analyst.[74] The analysis represents a way of hearing (and reading) a piece of music.
Transformational theory is a branch of music theory developed by
Music perception and cognition
Music psychology or the psychology of music may be regarded as a branch of both
Music psychology can shed light on non-psychological aspects of
Genre and technique
A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions.[78] It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably.[79][failed verification]
Music can be divided into different
Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state that genre and style are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres.[82] A music genre or subgenre may also be defined by the musical techniques, the style, the cultural context, and the content and spirit of the themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of subgenres. Timothy Laurie argues that "since the early 1980s, genre has graduated from being a subset of popular music studies to being an almost ubiquitous framework for constituting and evaluating musical research objects".[83]
Musical technique is the ability of
Heinrich Schenker argued that musical technique's "most striking and distinctive characteristic" is repetition.[84] Works known as études (meaning "study") are also frequently used for the improvement of technique.
Mathematics
Music theorists sometimes use mathematics to understand music, and although music has no
In the modern era, musical
Serial composition and set theory
In music theory, serialism is a method or technique of
"Integral serialism" or "total serialism" is the use of series for aspects such as duration, dynamics, and register as well as pitch. [92] Other terms, used especially in Europe to distinguish post-World War II serial music from twelve-tone music and its American extensions, are "general serialism" and "multiple serialism".[93]
Musical set theory provides concepts for categorizing musical objects and describing their relationships. Many of the notions were first elaborated by Howard Hanson (1960) in connection with tonal music, and then mostly developed in connection with atonal music by theorists such as Allen Forte (1973), drawing on the work in twelve-tone theory of Milton Babbitt. The concepts of set theory are very general and can be applied to tonal and atonal styles in any equally tempered tuning system, and to some extent more generally than that.[citation needed]
One branch of musical set theory deals with collections (sets and permutations) of pitches and pitch classes (pitch-class set theory), which may be ordered or unordered, and can be related by musical operations such as
Musical semiotics
Music semiology (
- "There are strong arguments that music inhabits a semiological realm which, on both incomplete short citation][clarification needed]
Writers on music semiology include Kofi Agawu (on topical theory,[citation needed] Heinrich Schenker,[102][103] Robert Hatten (on topic, gesture)[citation needed], Raymond Monelle (on topic, musical meaning)[citation needed], Jean-Jacques Nattiez (on introversive taxonomic analysis and ethnomusicological applications)[citation needed], Anthony Newcomb (on narrativity)[citation needed], and Eero Tarasti[citation needed].
Roland Barthes, himself a semiotician and skilled amateur pianist, wrote about music in Image-Music-Text,[full citation needed] The Responsibilities of Form,[full citation needed] and Eiffel Tower,[full citation needed] though he did not consider music to be a semiotic system[citation needed].
Signs, meanings in music, happen essentially through the connotations of sounds, and through the social construction, appropriation and amplification of certain meanings associated with these connotations. The work of Philip Tagg (Ten Little Tunes,[full citation needed] Fernando the Flute,[full citation needed] Music's Meanings[full citation needed]) provides one of the most complete and systematic analysis of the relation between musical structures and connotations in western and especially popular, television and film music. The work of Leonard B. Meyer in Style and Music[full citation needed] theorizes the relationship between ideologies and musical structures and the phenomena of style change, and focuses on romanticism as a case study.
Education and careers
Music theory in the practical sense has been a part of education at conservatories and music schools for centuries, but the status music theory currently has within academic institutions is relatively recent. In the 1970s, few universities had dedicated music theory programs, many music theorists had been trained as composers or historians, and there was a belief among theorists that the teaching of music theory was inadequate and that the subject was not properly recognised as a scholarly discipline in its own right.[104] A growing number of scholars began promoting the idea that music theory should be taught by theorists, rather than composers, performers or music historians.[104] This led to the founding of the Society for Music Theory in the United States in 1977. In Europe, the French Société d'Analyse musicale was founded in 1985. It called the First European Conference of Music Analysis for 1989, which resulted in the foundation of the Société belge d'Analyse musicale in Belgium and the Gruppo analisi e teoria musicale in Italy the same year, the Society for Music Analysis in the UK in 1991, the Vereniging voor Muziektheorie in the Netherlands in 1999 and the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie in Germany in 2000.[105] They were later followed by the Russian Society for Music Theory in 2013, the Polish Society for Music Analysis in 2015 and the Sociedad de Análisis y Teoría Musical in Spain in 2020, and others are in construction. These societies coordinate the publication of music theory scholarship and support the professional development of music theory researchers. They formed in 2018 a network of European societies for Theory and/or Analysis of Music, the EuroT&AM
As part of their initial training, music theorists will typically complete a
Most music theorists work as instructors, lecturers or professors in colleges, universities or
See also
Notes
- ^ See Boethius's De institutione musica,[2] in which he disdains "musica instrumentalis" as beneath the "true" musician who studies music in the abstract: Multo enim est maius atque auctius scire, quod quisque faciat, quam ipsum illud efficere, quod sciat ("It is much better to know what one does than to do what one knows").
- ^ See, for example, chapters 4–7 of Christensen, Thomas (2002). The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ See the List of music theorists#7th–14th centuries, which includes several Arabic theorists; see also d'Erlanger 1930–56, 1:xv-xxiv.
References
- ISBN 978-0199579037.
- ^ a b Boethius 1989.
- ^ Palisca and Bent n.d., Theory, theorists. 1. Definitions.
- ^ Mirelman 2010; Mirelman 2013; Wulstan 1968; Kümmel 1970; Kilmer 1971; Kilmer and Mirelman n.d.
- ^ Mirelman 2013, 43–44.
- ^ a b c Lam
- ^ Service 2013.
- ^ The Nāțyaśāstra, A Treatise on Hindu Dramaturgy and Histrionics, attributed to Bharata Muni, translated from the Sanskrit with introduction and notes by Manomohan Ghosh, vol. II, Calcutta, The Asiatic Society, 1961. See particularly pp. 5–19 of the Introduction, The Ancient Indian Theory and Practice of Music.
- ^ Mathiesen, T.J. (2002). "Greek music theory". In Christensen, T. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 112–113.
- ^ Manik 1969, 24–33.
- ^ Wright 2001a; Wright 2001b; Manik 1969, 22–24.
- ^ Rodolphe d'Erlanger, La Musique arabe, vol. I, pp. 1–306; vol. II, pp. 1–101.
- ^ d'Erlanger 1930–56, 2:103–245.
- ^ Shiloah 1964.
- ^ d'Erlanger 1930–56, 3:1–182.
- ^ Anon. LXII in Amnon Shiloah, The Theory of Music in Arabic Writings (c. 900–1900): Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts in Libraries of Europe and the U.S.A., RISM, München, G. Henle Verlag, 1979. See d'Erlanger 1930–56, 3:183–566
- ^ Ghrab 2009.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8203-0426-7.
- ^ a b Palisca and Bent n.d., §5 Early Middle Ages.
- ^ Palisca and Bent n.d., Theory, theorists §5 Early Middle Ages: "Boethius could provide a model only for that part of theory which underlies but does not give rules for composition or performance. The first surviving strictly musical treatise of Carolingian times is directed towards musical practice, the Musica disciplina of Aurelian of Réôme (9th century)."
- ^ "Guy Aretini's letter to the unknown : modern translation of the letter". Hs-augsburg.de. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
- ^ Kubik 2010, passim.
- ^ Ekwueme 1974, passim.
- ISBN 978-0-8203-0426-7.
- ^ Palisca and Bent n.d.
- ^ Hartmann 2005, [page needed].
- ^ Bartlette and Laitz 2010, [page needed].
- ^ a b Touma 1996, [page needed].
- ^ Forsyth 1935, 73–74.
- ^ a b Latham 2002, [page needed].
- ISBN 978-0199578108.
Syncopation is achieved by accenting a weak instead of a strong beat, by putting rests on strong beats, by holding on over strong beats, and by introducing a sudden change of time‐signature.
- ^ "Polyrhythm". Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
The superposition of different rhythms or metres.
- ^ Yeston 1976.
- ^ Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1985.
- ^ Kramer 1988.
- ^ London 2004.
- ^ Kliewer 1975, [page needed].
- ^ "Definition of melody | Dictionary.com". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ Stein 1979, 3–47.
- ^ Benward and Saker 2003.
- ^ Károlyi 1965.
- ^ Mitchell 2008.
- ^ Linkels n.d., [page needed].
- ^ a b Malm 1996.
- ^ Schoenberg 1983, 1–2.
- ^ Benward and Saker 2003, 77.
- ^ Dahlhaus 2009.
- ^ Jamini 2005, 147.
- ^ Faculty of Arts & Sciences. "Pitch Structure: Harmony and Counterpoint". Theory of Music – Pitch Structure: The Chromatic Scale. Harvard University. Retrieved 2 October 2020.
- ^ "Chapter 2 Elements and concepts of music (With reference to Hindustani and Jazz music)" (PDF). Shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
- ^ McAdams and Bregman 1979, 34.
- ^ Mannell n.d.
- ^ "How Loud? How Soft?" (PDF). Sheffield-Sheffield Lake City Schools.
- ^ Benward and Saker 2003, p. 133.
- ^ Benward and Saker 2003, [page needed].
- ^ Isaac and Russell 2003, 136.
- ^ "Canon: music". Britannica.com. 11 April 2022.
- ^ Brandt 2007.
- ^ Scholes 1977.
- ^ Middleton 1999, [page needed].
- ^ London n.d.
- ^ Avison 1752, [page needed].
- ^ Christiani 1885, [page needed].
- ^ Lussy 1892, [page needed].
- ^ Darwin 1913, [page needed].
- ^ Sorantin 1932, [page needed].
- ^ Davies 1994, [page needed].
- ^ Read 1969, [page needed]; Stone 1980, [page needed].
- ^ Castan 2009.
- ^ Bent 1987, 6.
- ^ Quoted in Bernard 1981, 1
- ^ Schenker described the concept in a paper titled Erläuterungen ("Elucidations"), which he published four times between 1924 and 1926: Der Tonwille (Vienna, Tonwille Verlag, 1924) vol. 8–9, pp. 49–51, vol. 10, pp. 40–42; Das Meisterwerk in der Musik (München, Drei Masken Verlag), vol. 1 (1925), pp. 201–05; 2 (1926), pp. 193–97. English translation, Der Tonwille, Oxford University Press, vol. 2, pp. 117–18 (the translation, although made from vols. 8–9 of the German original, gives as original pagination that of Das Meisterwerk 1; the text is the same). The concept of tonal space is still present in Schenker (1979, especially p. 14, § 13), but less clearly than in the earlier presentation.
- ^ Schenker 1979, p. 15, § 21.
- ^ Snarrenberg 1997, [page needed].
- ^ Lewin 1987, 159.
- ^ Tan, Peter, and Rom 2010, 2.
- ^ Thompson n.d., 320.
- ^ Samson n.d.
- ^ Wong 2011.
- ^ Green 1979, 1.
- ^ van der Merwe 1989, 3.
- ^ Moore 2001, 432–33.
- ^ Laurie 2014, 284.
- ^ Kivy 1993, 327.
- ^ Smith Brindle 1987, 42–43.
- ^ Smith Brindle 1987, chapter 6, passim.
- ^ Garland and Kahn 1995, [page needed].
- ^ Smith Brindle 1987, 42.
- ^ Purwins 2005, 22–24.
- ^ Wohl 2005.
- ^ Bandur 2001, 5, 12, 74; Gerstner 1964, passim
- ^ Whittall 2008, 273.
- ^ Grant 2001, 5–6.
- ^ Middleton 1990, 172.
- ^ Nattiez 1976.
- ^ Nattiez 1990.
- ^ Nattiez1989.
- ^ Stefani 1973.
- ^ Stefani 1976.
- ^ Baroni 1983.
- ^ Semiotica 1987, 66:1–3.
- ^ Dunsby & Stopford 1981, 49–53.
- ^ Meeùs 2017, 81–96.
- ^ a b McCreless n.d.
- ^ Meeùs 2015, 111.
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