Tonality

Wide-ranging in scope, and with almost 700 musical examples from the Middle Ages to the present day, Tonality: An Owner's Manual weaves philosophy, mathematics, statistics, and computational analysis into a new and truly twenty-first century theory of music. It proposes a sweeping reformulation of the basic concepts of Western music theory, revealing simple structures underlying a wide range of practices from the Renaissance to contemporary pop. Each of its central chapters re-examines a basic music-theoretical concept such as voice leading, repetition, nonharmonic tones, the origins of tonal harmony, the grammar of tonal harmony, modulation, and melody.

Dmitri Tymoczko is a composer and music theorist who teaches at Princeton University. Widely recognized as one of the world's leading music theorists, his music has been performed all over the world.

- Preface and Acknowledgements - 1. Implicit musical knowledge - 1. Gesualdo's trick - 2. The quadruple hierarchy - 3. Philosophy - 4. Statistics - 5. Schema - 6. Outline - Prelude: transposition along a collection - 2. Rock logic - 1. A melodic principle - 2. A harmonic principle - 3. A first chord-loop family - 4. Two more families - 5. Shepard-tone passacaglias - 6. Minor triads and other trichords - 7. A fourth family - 8. Other modalities - 9. Function and retrofunction - 10. Continuity or reinvention? - Prelude: the Tinctoris transform - 3. Line and configuration - 1. The imperfect system - 2. Voice exchanges - 3. Other intervals - 4. The circle of diatonic triads - 5. Voice exchanges and multiple chord types - 6. Four-voice triadic counterpoint - 7. Counterpoint within the chord - 8. Seventh chords - 9. Harmony and counterpoint - Prelude: sequence and function - 4. Repetition - 1. Repetition reimagined - 2. Repeating contrapuntal patterns - 3. The geometry of two-voice sequences - 4. Three voices and the circle of triads - 5. Three voices arranged 2+1 - 6. Four voices - 7. Contrary-motion sequences - 8. Melodic sequences and near sequences - 9. Near sequences - 10. Sequences as reductional targets - Prelude: three varieties of analytical reduction - 5. Nonharmonic tones - 1. The first practice and the SNAP system - 2. Schoenberg's critique - 3. Monteverdi's "Ohimè" - 4. The standardized second practice - 5. A loophole - 6. After nonharmonicity - Prelude: functional and scale-degree analysis - 6. The origins of functional harmony - 1. The logical structure of protofunctionality - 2. Similarities and differences - 3. Origin and meaning - 4. Harmony and polyphony - 5. The Pope Marcellus Kyrie - 6. A broader perspective - 7. "I Cannot Follow" - Prelude: could the Martians understand our music? - 7. Functional progressions - 1. A theory of harmonic cycles - 2. A more principled view - 3. Rameau and Bach - 4. Functional melody, functional harmony - 5. Fauxbourdon and linear idioms - 6. Sequences - 7. Bach the dualist - Prelude: chromatic or diatonic? - 8. Modulation - 1. Two models of key distance - 2. Enharmonicism and loops in scale space - 3. Minor keys - 4. Modulatory schemas - 5. Up and down the ladder - 6. Modal homogenization and scalar voice leading - 7. Generalized set theory - Prelude: hearing and hearing-as - 9. Melodic strategies - 1. Strategy and reduction - 2. Two models of the phrase - 3. Chopin and the Prime Directive - 4. An expanded vocabulary of melodic templates - 5. Simple harmonic hierarchy - 6. The four-part phrase - 7. Grouping, melody, harmony - 8. Beyond the phrase: hierarchy at the level of the piece - Prelude: why Beethoven? - 10. Beethoven theorist - 1. Meet the Ludwig - 2. From schema to flow - 3. The Tempest - 4. The Fifth Symphony - 5. The "Pastorale" sonata, op. 28 - 6. Schubert's Quartettsatz - 7. The prelude to Lohengrin - 11. Conclusion - 12. Appendix 1: Fundamentals - 13. Appendix 2: Deriving the spiral diagrams - 14. Appendix 3: From sequence to transformation - 15. Appendix 4: Music theory and corpus analysis - Terms and Abbreviations - Bibliography