Description
Book SynopsisWhere did the major scale come from? Why does most traditional non-Western music not share Western principles of harmony? What does the inner structure of a canon have to do with religious belief? Why, in historical terms, is J.S. Bach's music regarded as a perfect combination of melody and harmony? Why do clocks in church towers strike dominant-tonic-dominant-tonic? What do cathedrals have to do with monochords? How can the harmonic series be demonstrated with a rope tied to a doorknob, and how can it be heard by standing next to an electric fan? Why are the free ocean waves in Debussy's La Mer, the turbulent river waves in Smetana's Moldau, and the fountain ripples in Ravel's Jeux d'Eau pushed at times into four-bar phrases? Why is the metric system inherently unsuitable for organizing music and poetry? In what way does Plato's Timaeus resemble the prelude to Wagner's Das Rheingold? Just how does Beethoven's work perfectly illustrate fully functional tonality, and why were long-range
Table of ContentsPreface Chapter 1: Melody is Pure but Not So Simple Chapter 2: Harmony, Unlike Melody, is Pure Only in Theory Chapter 3: Our Usual Musical Menu is Melody with Subsidiary Accompaniment Chapter 4: Counterpoint is a Harmonious Marriage of Independent Melodies Chapter 5: Texture Chapter 6: Special Mixtures of Texture Chapter 7: East is East is Melody; West is West is Harmony Chapter 8: The Universal Patterns of Melody: Melody Types Chapter 9: Of the Earth, Earthy: Folk Music and its Role in Composition Chapter 10: Improvisation Forever Chapter 11: The Big Difference: Music Notation Chapter 12: Canon, Free Imitation, Fugue: A Path to Musical Meaning Chapter 13: Free Imitation: Canon with a Grain of Salt Chapter 14: Fugue: The Whole Contrapuntal Bag of Tricks Chapter 15: Harmony, the Governing Principle Chapter 16: Music in Architecture Chapter 17: Music in Astronomy Chapter 18: Vibration, the New Paradigm Chapter 19: The Harmonic Series Chapter 20: Mapping the New Tonal Territory Chapter 21: Tonality is Still Here Notes Suggest Further Reading About the Author
