Read complete books and articles on: Music Theory

At Questia, we offer:

Exclusive access to more than 67,000 books and 1.5 million articles.
Trusted resources from leading publishers.
Time saving tools to do better, faster research!

15 of the Best Books and Articles on: Music Theory

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis » Read Now
by Lawrence M. Zbikowski. 360 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

This book shows how recent work in cognitive science, especially that developed by cognitive linguists and cognitive psychologists, can be used to explain how we understand music. The book focuses on three cognitive processes--categorization, cross-domain mapping, and the use of conceptual...
Read More

This book shows how recent work in cognitive science, especially that developed by cognitive linguists and cognitive psychologists, can be used to explain how we understand music. The book focuses on three cognitive processes--categorization, cross-domain mapping, and the use of conceptual models--and explores the part these play in theories of musical organization. The first part of the book provides a detailed overview of the relevant work in cognitive science, framed around specific musical examples. The second part brings this perspective to bear on a number of issues with which music scholarship has often been occupied, including the emergence of musical syntax and its relationship to musical semiosis, the problem of musical ontology, the relationship between words and music in songs, and conceptions of musical form and musical hierarchy. The book will be of interest to music theorists, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists, as well as those with a professional or avocational interest in the application of work in cognitive science to humanistic principles.
Show less
2.

Teaching Approaches in Music Theory: An Overview of Pedagogical Philosophies » Read Now
by Michael R. Rogers. 254 pgs.

Collections: Education, Entire Library
3.

Thesaurus of Abstract Musical Properties: A Theoretical and Compositional Resource » Read Now
by Jeffrey Johnson. 336 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

The discovery and application of abstract musical properties has had a prominent role in compositional and theoretical literature during the past 40 years, and an accumulation of source material has been produced that makes a single cross-referenced source essential for standard working procedures...
Read More

The discovery and application of abstract musical properties has had a prominent role in compositional and theoretical literature during the past 40 years, and an accumulation of source material has been produced that makes a single cross-referenced source essential for standard working procedures. Abstract musical properties most often associated with specific analytical or compositional systems, are presented here in an unbiased context that allows the reader freedom of association and interpretation. This type of reference is an important tool for anyone who uses set-class analysis in coursework, or independent thesis research.
Show less
4.

Harmonic Rhythm: Analysis and Interpretation » Read Now
by Joseph P. Swain. 205 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

An accessible exploration of an important and understudied music theory topic, Swain's book examines the dimensional technique of analyzing harmonic rhythm. Simply defined, harmonic rhythm is the relationship between changes in harmony and perceived changes in rhythm. This phenomenon plays a large...
Read More

An accessible exploration of an important and understudied music theory topic, Swain's book examines the dimensional technique of analyzing harmonic rhythm. Simply defined, harmonic rhythm is the relationship between changes in harmony and perceived changes in rhythm. This phenomenon plays a large role in shaping the texture and style of much of Western music, from Renaissance polyphonic pieces to the works of Debussy. Swain provides a clear and thorough discussion of how harmonic theory works, using a small core of repeated musical examples.
Show less
5.

Janacek as Theorist » Read Now
by Michael Beckerman. 150 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Leos, 1854-1928--Contributions in music theory 2. Janacek, Leos, 1854-1928--Written works. 3. Music--Theory. I. Title. II. Series ML410.J18B4...numerous articles dealing...
6.

Schoenberg's Error » Read Now
by William Thomson. 220 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...Leonard B. Meyer. Style and Music: Theory, History, and Ideology . 1989...Criticism and interpretation. 2. Music -- Theory -- 20th century 3. Music -- Philosophy...65 7...
7.

Eighteenth-Century Music in Theory and Practice: Essays in Honor of Alfred Mann » Read Now
by Mary Ann Parker. 344 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Harmonologia: Studies in Music Theory The Juilliard Performance...references. ISBN 0-945193-11-4 Music--Theory. 2. Music--Performance practice...long-standing involvement...
8.

Tonality in Modern Music » Read Now
by Rudolph Reti. 192 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
9.

Tonality and Atonality in Sixteenth-Century Music » Read Now
by Edward E. Lowinsky, Igor Stravinsky. 101 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
10.

Introduction to Musicology: A Survey of the Fields, Systematic & Historical, of Musical Knowledge & Research (Chap. V "The Theory of Music Theory") » Read Now
by Glen Haydon. 338 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
11.

The Rational and Social Foundations of Music » Read Now
by Max Weber, Don Martindale, Johannes Riedel, Gertrude Neuwirth. 148 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...especially in chordal music, is not reducible...Indeed, Rameaus theory 4 that the fundamental...several times in theory and perhaps practically...Oriental-Arabian music but...
12.

The Berkeley Manuscript: University of California Music Library, Ms. 744 (Olim Phillipps 4450) » Read Now
by Oliver B. Ellsworth. 320 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...already revised the history of music theory and practice. The treatises collected...have appeared in the Journal of Music Theory, Viator , and other publications. Greek and...
13.

Syntagma Musicum III » Read Now
by Jeffery Kite-Powell, Michael Praetorius. 266 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library
14.

Hugo Riemann and the Birth of Modern Musical Thought » Read Now
by Alexander Rehding. 218 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Hugo Riemann (1849-1919) is generally acknowledged as the most important musicologist of his age. By analyzing his musical thought within the turn-of-the-century context of interest in the natural sciences, German nationhood and modern technology, this book reconstructs how Riemann's ideas not only...
Read More

Hugo Riemann (1849-1919) is generally acknowledged as the most important musicologist of his age. By analyzing his musical thought within the turn-of-the-century context of interest in the natural sciences, German nationhood and modern technology, this book reconstructs how Riemann's ideas not only "made sense" but advanced a belief of the tonal tradition as both natural and German. Riemann influenced the ideas of generations of music scholars because his work coincided with the institutionalization of academic musicology around the turn of the last century.
Show less
15.

Scientific Method in Ptolemy's Harmonics » Read Now
by Andrew Barker. 281 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

This book examines, for the first time, the scientific procedures devised by Ptolemy (second century AD) for investigating the structures underlying musical melody, a project that he conceived as closely related to astronomy. Ptolemy's account of his methods is unusually explicit, and he pursues...
Read More

This book examines, for the first time, the scientific procedures devised by Ptolemy (second century AD) for investigating the structures underlying musical melody, a project that he conceived as closely related to astronomy. Ptolemy's account of his methods is unusually explicit, and he pursues them faithfully. By providing an analysis of Ptolemy's sophisticated theoretical apparatus, his strategies for integrating theory with observation, and his meticulous instructions for the design and conduct of experimental tests, the book offers historians of science a new starting-point for wider studies of ancient scientific method.
Show less