Theory
Music written within the tonal system is generally analysed by defining a certain note as the primary or "Tonic" note and the derived triad is the "Tonic" chord. Other notes and chords are subservient to the Tonic and in a strict hierarchy: the "Dominant" note/chord is second in importance, others are lower down still. One example of this style of analysis is called Schenkerian analysis. However, this form of analysis cannot be applied to Atonal music since the very point is to make all the notes and chords equal: there is no hierarchy. Instead, notes/chords can be described in terms of their properties and relationships at any particular moment: whether one note is higher than another, whether one chord has more notes than another, whether one chord is more widely spaced than another, and so on. One can also compare and contrast different strings of notes as transpositions (change in pitch) or inversions (change in note order) of each other. These terms are also used compare chords. These methods of analysis have been used for centuries but became more important as music began to lose its tonal basis. One also needs to consider other aspects, such as how two or more simultaneous melodies relate to each other (counterpoint) and the same tools are used for this.
In the later 20th century, analysts started to adapt these tools to the yet more complex music being written. Musical set theory was first elaborated for tonal music but was quickly applied to atonal music since it simply provides concepts for categorizing musical objects (notes, chords, melodies and so on) and describing their relationship, without defining any particular note or chord as "primary". The later Transformational theory uses a similar approach but concentrates on the relationships themselves. There are also theories which attempt to relate pitch and rhythm.
Read more about this topic: Post-tonal Music Theory
Famous quotes containing the word theory:
“There is in him, hidden deep-down, a great instinctive artist, and hence the makings of an aristocrat. In his muddled way, held back by the manacles of his race and time, and his steps made uncertain by a guiding theory which too often eludes his own comprehension, he yet manages to produce works of unquestionable beauty and authority, and to interpret life in a manner that is poignant and illuminating.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“No one thinks anything silly is suitable when they are an adolescent. Such an enormous share of their own behavior is silly that they lose all proper perspective on silliness, like a baker who is nauseated by the sight of his own eclairs. This provides another good argument for the emerging theory that the best use of cryogenics is to freeze all human beings when they are between the ages of twelve and nineteen.”
—Anna Quindlen (20th century)
“... the first reason for psychology’s failure to understand what people are and how they act, is that clinicians and psychiatrists, who are generally the theoreticians on these matters, have essentially made up myths without any evidence to support them; the second reason for psychology’s failure is that personality theory has looked for inner traits when it should have been looking for social context.”
—Naomi Weisstein (b. 1939)