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97
Proceedings SMC'07, 4th Sound and Music Computing Conference, 11-13 July 2007, Lefkada, Greece
monies, and encompasses properties of chord inversion Any generation can begin with a simple tonic harmony
(none, first, or second inversion) and added tones (like a t (rule 1); it specifies that the head of the phrase has to
7th). Scale degree level and functional level are assumed specify the key property, which realises the key property
not to coincide.2 The combination of all properties at for the entire phrase to be analysed. Rule 8 captures
the structural levels specifies a chord unambiguously on the replacement function of tonic parallels, which is, for
the surface level; however, chords on surface level may instance, important for deceptive cadences. The ‘’,‘’-
specify some structural properties but are generally not symbols denote the dependency of the generated harmony
sufficient to specify structural properties unambiguously from the generating harmony. Beginning from a single
(comp. Tab.III).Hence, the effective problem for (any) t symbol and specifying a key, these rewrite rules can
harmonic analysis is to deduce structural properties from be recursively applied to generate basic tonal phrases.
the given surface structure of chords. Some additional rules are required to cover particular
phenomena:
abstraction level property example
structure key level key:(tonic,mode) key: tonic=E
mode=major
functional level {t,d,s} d
I → I IV I (11)
scale degree level{(, , )I,. . . ,(, , )V II} x → V (x) x (12)
el ⊂ {1, . . . , 7} Vel=7
inv:{0, 1, 2} x → x V (x) (13)
surface chord level B7 IV → III IV (14)
TABLE II
Rule 11 accounts for the case of tonic prolongations
by an intermediate subdominant harmony. Rule 12 ac-
counts for the frequent case of secondary dominants,
surface level given chord: d∅7 F
3 dominant sequences and falling fifth sequences. Rising
structural level poss. key c-minor F ,B ,b ,C,d,a fifth sequences are covered by rule 13. Rule 14 covers a
poss. function s {t,d,s}
poss. scale degree IIel=7 I, V, IV, III, V I relatively rare use of scale degree III (as at the beginning
inv = 1 of Schubert’s song “Im Frühling”). Functional symbols
TABLE III are used in order to distinguish elementary relations in key
areas from the realisation of different scale degrees within
given key areas. This is necessary to account for harmonic
Building on the outlined element structure, it is pos- events which fall out of the diatonic frame work (such
sible to propose the following (provisional) context- as secondary dominants), tonicisations and modulations.
free/phrase-structure grammar formalisation based on the These cases are captured by the constraint that every
literature above.All rules capture fundamental harmonic structural property is carried down through all rewriting
relationships, and refer to manipulations on the structural steps unless specified otherwise. The sample analysis
levels outlined above. (Fig.2) illustrates this fact. In the case of tonicisation, the
key feature of an element is changed which may result
in a change of the other elements: IIIkey=t → t, Ikey=iii
t → tkey=x (1)
(denotes a tonicisation of scale degree III to the new key,
t → t t (2) resulting in the fact that the same event locally becomes
t → t d (3) the new t and I.)
t → d t (4) On the scale degree level, a number of adjustment rules
may be postulated to cover the various surface structures
d → s d (5) 6−5
of chords, and dissonance phenomena, e.g. V 4−3 which
translates into V → Vel=4,6 Vel=3,5 . The description
t → I (6) of the details of these (stylistic) rules will be a matter
t → tp (7) of fine-grained stylistic analysis or computational corpus
VI if key is major analysis.
tp → (8)
{V I, III} if key is minor The analysis completes with simple transformational
{V, V II} if key is major rules which transform a scale degree into a chord on sur-
d → (9) face level, given its key property. These rules follow the
{V, V II} if key is minor
s → {IV, II, V I, II(in minor)} (10) standard definition of scale degrees in a straightforward
way, for instance: Vel=7,key=E maj → B7 .3
These rules define a general (diatonic) cadential frame-
work. Rule 2 is an important rule for the prolongation III. S AMPLE A NALYSES
of tonic harmony which turns out to be of general In practice, it turns out that few rules suffice to cover
importance for the generation of larger harmonic contexts. a large number of cases. One example (Fig.2) shows
2 This refers to a music theoretical discussion which cannot be dealt 3 A full account of these transformational rules cannot be given here
with here. due to space limitations.
98
Proceedings SMC'07, 4th Sound and Music Computing Conference, 11-13 July 2007, Lefkada, Greece
V I V I V I 2
222
6−5
C7 F D7 G E7 a F0 G4−3 C
Fig. 3. Analysis of Bortnianski’s ‘Tibje Pajom’ from Fig.5
99
Proceedings SMC'07, 4th Sound and Music Computing Conference, 11-13 July 2007, Lefkada, Greece
as key changes that happen on higher levels in the
tree (and, therefore, do have impact on a larger number
of subordinated chords), whereas tonicisation might be
Fig. 5. from Bortnianski, Tibje Pajom, mm.9-16
treated as more local, low level passing key changes.
The presented approach is closely related to the GTTM
in various aspects. It is governed by recursive, hierarchical
3
principles and captures progressive and prolongational 3
3
dependency relationships between harmonic elements.
100