A Generative Theory of Tonal Music

Music Theory as Psychology

We take the goal of a theory of music to be a formal description of the musical intuitions of a listener who is experienced in a

musical idiom. To explicate this assertion, let us begin with some general remarks about music theory.

Music can be discussed in a number of ways. First, one can talk informally about individual pieces of music, seeking to

illuminate their interesting facets. This sort of explanation often can capture musical insights of considerable subtlety, despiteor

sometimes because ofits unrigorous nature. Alternatively, one can attempt to create a systematic mode of description within

which to discuss individual pieces. Here one addresses a musical idiom by means of an analytic method, be it as straightforward

as classifying pieces by their forms or putting Roman numerals under chords, or as elaborate as constructing linear graphs. An

analytic method is of value insofar as it enables one to express insights into particular pieces. The many different analytic

methods in the literature differ in large part because of the nature and scope of the insights they are intended to convey.

At a further level of generality, one can seek to define the principles underlying an analytic system; this, in our view, constitutes

a theory of music. Such a theory can be viewed as a hypothesis about how music or a particular musical idiom is organized,

couched in terms of some set of theoretical constructs; one can have a theory of Roman numerals, or musical forms, or linear

graphs.

Given a theory of music, one can then inquire as to the status of its theoretical constructs. Medieval theorists justified their

constructs partly on theological grounds. A number of theorists, such as Rameau and Hindemith, have based aspects of music

theory on the physical principle of the overtone series. There have also been philosophical bases for music theory, for instance

Hauptmann's use of Hegelian dialectic.