Wikipedia

Macroharmony

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MONTENSEM (talk | contribs) at 06:32, 26 September 2024 (→Relation to other concepts: ce more careful). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In music analysis, the macroharmony comprises the discrete pitch classes within a given (structural) duration of time.[1]

Tymoczko's definition and project

Ciro Scotto suggested the term to Dmitri Tymoczko, who introduced and defined it in A Geometry of Music (2011).[2] Tymoczko wanted to discuss "music that is neither classically tonal nor completely atonal" (see chromaticism and nonchord tones).[3] He defined macroharmony as "the total collection of notes used over small stretches of time".[4][a]

Tymoczko observed that relatively limited macroharmonies, of between five and eight pitch classes, tended to contribute to a sense of tonality.[7] He observed limited macroharmonies as one of five general (universal) features of "virtually all human music". The others were conjunct melodic motion, acoustic consonance, harmonic consistency, and pitch centricity. He considered their (non-)interaction, relative importance, and mutual reinforcement.[8]

Of macroharmonies specifically, he asked:[9]

He proposed to show:[9]

  • the rate at which pitch classes are used with graphs ("pitch-class circulation graphs"), and
  • the number and relative proportion of pitch classes on a large scale ("global macroharmonic profiles").

Relation to other concepts

Macroharmony has some relation to the concept of a musical scale.[10] Theoretically, the pitch-class content of tonal music may be that of the chromatic scale.[10] Practically, it is often limited to that of modes, especially the major or minor diatonic scales, as subsets of the chromatic scale.[10][c] Though scales may in fact constitute the entire pitch-class content of a given tuning system or the macroharmony of at least some portion of a composition, they are nonetheless defined as subsets of the macroharmony within the context of Tymoczko's project.[11]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Neil Newton defined it as "the collection of pitches from which harmonies are sourced".[5] Scotto wrote that it is "a large harmony that subsumes the individual chords", but she wrote that she used it more specifically to denote pitch-class subsets.[6]
  2. ^ Cf. harmonic rhythm.
  3. ^ In the music of many cultures, the pitch-class content is that of the pentatonic scale.[10]

Citations

  1. ^ Gelbart 2019, 98n22; Newton 2019, 235; Scotto 2019, 262n3; Tymoczko 2011, 154.
  2. ^ Scotto 2019, 262n3; Tymoczko 2011, 6n8.
  3. ^ Tymoczko 2011, 3.
  4. ^ Newton 2019, 235, 247n4; Tymoczko 2011, 15.
  5. ^ Newton 2019, 235.
  6. ^ Scotto 2019, 262n3.
  7. ^ Tymoczko 2011, 4.
  8. ^ Tymoczko 2011, 3–5.
  9. ^ a b Tymoczko 2011, 154.
  10. ^ a b c d Gelbart 2019, 85, 98n22.
  11. ^ Gelbart 2019, 98n22; Tymoczko 2011, 15, 121.

Bibliography

  • Gelbart, Matthew. 2019. "Scale". The Oxford Handbook of Critical Concepts in Music Theory, eds. and intro. Alexander Rehding and Steven Rings, 78–105. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-045474-6 (hbk).
  • Newton, Neil. 2019. "Chromatic Linear Progressions in Popular Music". The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis: Expanding Approaches, eds. and intro. Ciro Scotto, Kenneth Smith, and John Brackett, 235–248. New York and London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-68311-2 (hbk). ISBN 978-1-315-54470-0 (ebk).
  • Scotto, Ciro. 2019. "System 7". The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis: Expanding Approaches, eds. and intro. Ciro Scotto, Kenneth Smith, and John Brackett, 249–264. New York and London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-68311-2 (hbk). ISBN 978-1-315-54470-0 (ebk).
  • Tymoczko, Dmitri. 2011. A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice. Oxford Studies in Music Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ed. Richard Cohn. ISBN 978-0-19-533667-2.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Macroharmony&oldid=1247825784"