Tag: melodic cell

  • CONSTELLATIONS: Pitch Space, Arrays, Tonality

    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

    To read more, request a password from tc24@txstate.edu

    Mapping the Music Universe by Thomas S. Clark . . . CONTENTS