source file: mills2.txt Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 23:58:24 -0800 Subject: To Heinz Bohlen: Tonality and Infilling From: Daniel Wolf <106232.3266@compuserve.com> Heinz Bohlen wrote: **Alright, that sounds rather mechanistic, but doesn't already the choice of the triad introduce tonality into this process?** My understanding of tonality is that it is not determined by a single static entity - the triad - but rather by establishing relationships between pitches. The two basic procedures in doing this are repetition and contrast. A monody can be _tonal_, for example, without outlining chords, but but establishing - through repetition - fixed reference pitches and contrasting them with other pitches. Schenker demonstrated one way (or a complex of ways) in which voice leading created contrast to a basic triad. The tones of the triad were contrasted with neighbor and or passing tones. The particulars of his voice leading were observed in late 18th and early nineteenth century european musics; I have no doubt that alternative particulars could be observed in other musics. Bohlen's method of scale construction appears to be in the same spirit - if not derived specifically from voice leading in a particular repertoire. Great minds think alike... What still appears the be curious to me about both infill methods of scale construction is why a triadic infill of the octave (4,5,6,8) should be preferred to, for example, the tetrad (4,5,6,7,8), and why the harmonic infills are preferred over subharmonic or neutral divisions. (And why should a harmonic triadic infill (4,5,6,8) be itself infilled in a non-harmonic way (i.e. the diatonic scale and not harmonics 8 through 16). Are these preferences innate or acquired, and if acquired (my own suspicion), what is the range of possible variation? Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 14:37 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA23095; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 14:39:36 +0100 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA23064 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id FAA06191; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 05:39:33 -0800 Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 05:39:33 -0800 Message-Id: <01BBE73D.AF0FF320@ashcraac.sct.ucarb.com> Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu