Twilight of the Tonal System

1
Twilight of the Tonal System

• The Beginning of the End

2
Tonality

• Around 1600 the intervallic modal system started
  giving way to a new emphasis on triadic
  major/minor tonality.
• Similarly, around 1900, this system of triadic
  tonality became so strained by chromaticism and
  the desire for originality that man thought it
  would be impossible to develop it further.

3
Tonality

• Some composers clung to the older styles while
  others pressed forward developing new systems of
  musical organization.
• There is still a lot of music that uses triadic
  tonality as an organizing force -- jazz, pop,
  television, movie music, etc.

4
Diatonic Tonal Music

• Diatonic music does not lack accidentals or
  altered tones but is essentially diatonic on all
  levels.
• There is a clear sense of being in a key.
• The difference between diatonic and altered tones
  is clear.
• The function of altered tones is immediately
  understood.

5
Diatonic Tonal Music

• Diatonic relationships are also used at the
  background levels.
• All the secondary tonalities are closely related
  to the primary tonality.
• Secondary keys are represented by the diatonic
  major minor triads of the primary keys --
  Major ii iii IV V vi minor III iv v VI VII.

6
Diatonic Tonal Music

• Diatonic key relationships were primarily used a
  the highest levels -- movements.
• The movements of Baroque suites are usually all
  in one key.
• Multimovement works in classical start and end in
  the same key (key of the composition), with one
  interior movement in a closely related key.
• The main exception is the chromatic mediant
  relationship.

7
Chromatic Tonal Music

• The difference is a matter of emphasis
• So much chromaticism that the diatonic basis is
  not apparent.
• Sometimes called ultrachromaticism.
• Where the circle of 5ths and diatonic mediant
  progressions are important in Diatonic Tonal
  music, they are increasingly replaced with new
  relationships.

8
Chromatic Harmony

• Triads or keys are considered to be chromatic
  mediants if they are the same quality and their
  roots are a M3 or m3 apart.
• Chromatic mediant chords share one pitch class.
• The relationships can be enharmonically spelled.
• Third-related chords of opposite quality that
  share no pitch classes are in a doubly chromatic
  mediant relationship.

9
Chromatic Harmony

• Tritone relationships are also used.
• A real sequence is one in which the exact
  intervallic relationships are maintained as
  opposed to the diatonic sequence which maintains
  the shape but uses only diatonic pitches.
• Real sequences quickly take the music out of one
  key and put it into another.
• The real sequence is often used in the brief
  tonicizations that are common in chromatic
  harmony.

10
Chromatic Harmony

• Suspended tonality refers to passages that are
  tonally ambiguous.
• Enharmonicism is also commonly used in chromatic
  music.
• Parallel voice leading refers to keeping the
  chord type constant.
• A nonfunctional chord succession does not
  progress in the ways that are common to diatonic
  tonal harmony.

11
Chromatic Harmony

• Voice-leading chords are the result of
  goal-directed motion in the individual voices
  instead of trying to form traditional harmonic
  progressions.
• The motion is usually stepwise, chromatic, and
  can be in either similar or contrary motion.
• The verticalities are usually tertian, but form
  nonfunctional successions or brief tonicizations.
• Unresolved dissonances are typical in the late
  19th century.
• Often they are the result of the juxtaposition of
  independent musical ideas and no attempt is made
  to put the dissonances into context.
• They contribute to a feeling of suspended
  tonality.

12
Chromatic Harmony

• Instead of the asymmetrical division of the
  Dominant-Tonic relationship, composers begin to
  use the equal division of the octave.
• Augmented triads and diminished-diminished
  seventh chords both divide the octave equally.
• Real sequences divide the octave into equal parts
  by transposing the pattern by a third.

13
Chromaticism and Form

• Beethoven was an early experimenter with
  chromatic relationships.
• The two main key areas of the first movement of
  the Waldstien Sonata, Op. 53, are C major and E
  major -- a chromatic mediant.
• Symphony No. 1 begins with V7/IV.
• Eventually composers begin to write works that
  pass through several important key areas -- none
  of which seem to govern the key of the
  composition as a whole -- or multimovement works
  that begin and end in different keys.

14
Suspended Tonality and Atonality

• Suspended tonality refers to a passage that is
  tonally unclear or ambiguous, but within the
  context of a tonal composition.
• Atonality -- not to be confused with chromatic
  tonal music -- refers to a composition that
  systematically avoids most materials and
  processes that define a tonal center. Such as
• Diatonic pitch material
• Tertian harmonies
• Dominanttonic bass lines and harmonic
  progressions
• Resolution of the leading tone to tonic
• Resolution of dissonances to consonant
  sonorities
• Pedal points.