09 June 2015

On neotonality--the Wier version

I've identified as a "neotonalist" composer. That's a pretty broad term in itself, but in my case:
  1. I use what could be called "tonal serialism", where all twelve notes of the chromatic scale (or more!, in case of microtonality) are given a tonal center. Often, this means the first note of a row is established as the tonal center, and this note is repeated at the end as a thirteenth note of the row. An example of mine is the tone row leitmotif in the Hamlin Pond score, first heard against a D minor key. The D pitch class keeps "asserting" itself.
  2. Extended tonality: higher harmonics (for major keys) and lower subharmonics (for minor keys) than the classic triad (4:5:6) are incorporated into functional tonality. This requires the use of extra harmonics. For the seventh (sub)harmonic, the one-and-a-half flat (sharp) symbols are used; these would creat subminor and supermajor intervals. For the eleventh: neutral, semi-augmented and semi-diminished intervals, and thus half-sharps and half-flats.
  3. The use of non-Western scales: Arabic-Turkish maqams, Iranian dastgahs, Indian ragas, the scales of Thai piphat and Javanese-Balinese gamelan, and so on. Many of these could be considered mixed major-minor, such as the maqam Hijaz, which contains a minor second followed by a major third. (Tonal serialism would automatically mix major and minor.)
However, even in the radical twelve-tone music of mid-to-late Schoenberg, I hear at least "accidental tonality", which can't really be avoided. If a major or minor triad shows up in the interaction of rows and their permutations, that would force tonality upon the listener, albeit a transient tonality.