Axis System - Introduction

Introduction

In classical and common-practice systems of harmony, certain chord substitutions are recognised and are commonly made use of by composers and arrangers: "certain chords have been able to act as substitutes for others; for example, the submediant chord ... can replace the tonic, most familiarly in an interrupted cadence." In his analyses of Bartók's music, Lendvaï identifies a novel set of tonal substitutions; substitutions that relate chords and keys in a flat mediant relation to one another, and also those related by the tritone, a tonal relationship "normally regarded as the most remote pitch/chord/key area from the tonic." Lendvaï argued that these relationships had a naturalistic basis (that is, were not merely an analytical or compositional contrivance), and argued that many of Bartók's compositions made essential use tonal substitutability he described. By establishing the veracity of this novel set of relationships, Lendvaï "attempts to 'explain' Bartók's chromaticism within a tonally functional model."

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