
Introduction
Galileo revolutionized astronomy, in part by using a new tool: the telescope. Schoenberg revolutionized harmony by evolving an existing concept, the chromatic scale, into a new tool: the 12-tone scale. (He also devised the compositional tool of the 12-tone row — but that’s another story.) Allen Forte took Schoenberg’s ideas to another level of abstraction: defining Pitch Class and applying basic math to the 12-tone universe. Christman focused on intervallic essence of pitch patterns: defining the “successive interval array.” I am merely another explorer using their maps but choosing my own creative path. In doing so, I will define some of my own terms, while adapting and clarifying some established terms that fit what I’m thinking and expressing.
Topics
- Tuning
- Constellations
- Interval Arrays
- Scales
- Scale prototypes
- Scale patterns and set classes
- Harmonic complexity
- Constellation streams
- Constreams and 12-tone sets
- Progressive alterations of arrays
- Clusters
- Cells – melodic molecules
- Cell class
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Mapping the Music Universe by Thomas S. Clark . . . CONTENTS