Musical syntax: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:57, 15 September 2010

Revision as of 19:58, 15 September 2010

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Considering the multi layered organization of music, three levels of [[pitch organization]] can be found in music.

=====Scale degrees=====

The lowest level are [[musical scales]], which consist of seven tones or “scale degrees” per [[octave]] and have an asymmetric pattern of [[interval (music)|intervals]] between them (for example the C-major scale). They are built up out of the 12 possible [[pitch classes]] per octave (A, A♯,B, C, C♯, D, D♯, E, F, F♯, G, G♯) and the different scale tones are not equal in there structural stability. Empirical evidence indicates that there is a hierarchy concerning the stability of the single tones. The most stable one is called the "[[“tonic”tonic (music)|tonic]]" and embodies the tonal centre of the scale. The most unstable tones were the ones closest to the tonic (scale degrees 2 and 7) which are called the "[[“supertonic”supertonic]]" and the "[[“leadingleading tone”tone]]". In studies scale degrees 1, 3 and 5 have been judged as closely related. It was also shown that an implicit knowledge of scale structure has to be learned and developed in childhood and is not inborn.

=====Chord structure=====

The next superordinate level of pitch organization is the [[chord (music)|chord]] structure which means that three scale tones with a distance of two scale steps each are played simultaneously and are therefore combined into chords. When building up chords on the basis of a musical scale there are three different kinds of chords resulting, namely “major”(e.g. C-E-G), “minor” (e.g. D-F-A) and “diminished” (e.g. B-D-F) triads. This is due to the asymmetric intervals between the scale tones. These asymmetric intervals effect, that a distance of two scale steps can comprise either three or four semitones and therefore be an interval of a minor (with three semitones) or a major (with four semitones) third. A [[major triad]] consists of a major third followed by a minor third and is built on scale degrees 1, 3 and 5. A [[minor triad]] consists of a minor third followed by a major third and is built on scale degrees 2, 4 and 6. Only on scale degree 7 the triad consists of to minor thirds and is therefore defined as a [[diminished triad]].