THE MAIN PRINCIPLES OF THE SET THEORY
Keywords:
set theory, musical analysis, atonal music, theory of phonemesAbstract
The musical set theory is a concept used for the characterization of the musical objects and their relationships. Not only is the set theory popular as a whole but also its separate elements, aspects and terms. Many of the basic axioms – sound set, intervallic vector, etc. – have been rooted in the western music theory so fundamentally, that are being used without special explanations and references to sound set theory as the first source. In the course of the article the historical development of the theory and its main developer Allen Forte is mentioned, whose work The Structures of Atonal Music (1977) is the most famous research of musical set theory. Today the set theory is used not only as a concept of musical analysis but also as an instrument for composing music. Several leading contemporary music composers – Magnus Lindberg, Hanspeter Kyburz and others – use the principles of the set theory in order to organize the parameters of harmony of their compositions.
Downloads
References
Forte, Allen. The Atonal Music of Anton Webern. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998
Forte, Allen. The Structure of Atonal Music. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1977
Hanson, Howard. Harmonic Materials of Modern Music: Resources of Tempered Scale. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1960
Lewin, David. Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987. Reprinted, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007
