Music and Twentieth-Century Tonality

This book explores the web of pitch relations that generates the musical language of non-serialized twelve-tone music and supplies both the analytical materials and methods necessary for analyses of a vast proportion of the 20th century musical repertoire. It does so in a simple, clear, and systematic manner to promote an easily accessible and global understanding of this music. Since the chromatic scale is the primary source for the pitch materials of 20th-century music, common sub-collections of the various modes and interval cycles serve as the basis for their mutual transformation. It is precisely this peculiarity of the non-serialized twelve-tone system that allows for an array of pitch relations and modal techniques hitherto perceived difficult if not impossible to analyze. Susanni and Antokoletz present the principles, concepts, and materials employed for analysis using a unique theoretic-analytical approach to the new musical language. The book contains a large number of original analyses that explore a host of composers including Ives, Stravinsky, Bartók, Messiaen, Cage, Debussy, Copland, and many more, providing insight into the music of the tonal revolution of the twentieth century and contributing an important perspective to how music works in general.

Paolo Susanni is Assistant Professor at Yasar University, Turkey. Elliott Antokoletz is Professor of Musicology at the University of Texas, Austin.

Selected Contents: 1. General Concepts 2. Interval Cycles 3. Compound Cyclic Collections 4. Inversional Symmetry and the Axis Concept 5. Modes 6. Modal/Cyclic Relationships 7. Harmonic Structures, Pitch Cells, and Cyclic Tetrachords