Re: Albert's "explanation" of diatonic tendency

Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:28:14 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.theory
Size: 2,266 bytes

On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 05:29:21 GMT, email-address-deleted
(Dr.Matt) wrote:
>In article <email-address-deleted>,
>paramucho <email-address-deleted> wrote:
>
>>I think he senses inadequacies in the current system, and I feel that
>
>No, he doesn't know any of the current systems.
>
>>way as well. I think have been fundamental paradigm shifts between
>>C.P. and *some* areas of what-might-be-called chord based music.
>
>Certainly. We've discussed these here.
>
>>There is a tendency to in RMT to see everything through the C.P.
>>prism, so I'd also agree it's pretty useless to talk about new ideas
>>here -- it's not a blue-sky sort of place.
>
>Actually, the majority of postings I've seen here have looked at
>music through jazz theory, which is quite different Common Practice.
Jazz theory -- what's that?
>>Albert clearly has a basic knowledge of music and he's obviously using
>>his *ears* to observe and measure music. He's not just writing random
>>notes on a page but is following a fairly well developed pattern of
>>thought in some areas.
>
>This last piece is the part about which I have the greatest
>doubts. The person who assigned a progression of 8 different chords to
>the second bar of Erlkoenig does not seem to have a basic knowledge
>of music and does not seem to be using his ears; the person who
>puts the subdominant 12 fifths above the tonic does not have a
>well-developed pattern of thought in an area pertaining to music.
>There's still no evidence that he has ever even heard any music,
>much less participated in it.
Well, I do think he's hearing it differently, but it's certainly not a
topic to be dignified with too much debate. It occurred to me the
other day that perhaps one reason why the approach to music theory can
be seen to be changing at a fairly constant rate might be because the
way we listen to music changes. Thus, even when we take into account
Prout's over zealousness, what we might be seeing in the rest of it is
just a different way of listening to the music. I can't help but feel
that Tovey heard Beethoven much more intensely than I do (not that he
appears bland to me).
>[some other valid observations snipped]
That might make a decent epitaph.
--
Ian
Impressive If Haughty - Q Magazine