Abstract
Toward the end of his 2012 book, Audacious Euphony, Richard Cohn asks, "how does music that is heard to be organized by diatonic tonality [as in the age of Mozart] become music that is heard to be organized in some other way [as in the age of Webern]"? In the present article, a theory different from Cohn's is offered as answer. The theory's three sub-theories, harmonic hierarchy, within-key chromaticism, and "solar" key distance, lead to a distinction between four types of harmonic systems: The strictly diatonic, the first- and second-order chromatic, and the restricted twelve-tone system. As its name implies, the latter harmonic system allows for twelve-tone levels, though under a restriction (termed Principle of Diatonic Fusion) that holds "the Webern in Mozart" in check.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 173-192 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Music Theory Spectrum |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Chromatic harmony
- Harmonic hierarchy
- Neo-Riemannian theory
- Richard Cohn
- Schenker
- Solar key distance
- Within-key chromaticism