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ISBN: 9780195058345

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Tonal Pitch Space

Fred Lerdahl

Building on the foundation of Lerdahl and Jackendoff's influential A Generative Theory of Tonal Music, this volume presents a multidimensional model of diatonic space that quantifies listeners' intuitions of the relative distances of pitches, chords, and keys from a given tonic. The model is employed to assign prolongational structure, represent paths through the space, and compute patterns of tension and attraction as musical events unfold, thereby providing a partial basis for understanding musical narration, expectation, and expression.

Fred Lerdahl
"Tonal Pitch Space is one of the most important books to come along in music theory and music cognition in a while. The degree of detail that Lerdahl builds into his model is extraordinary, and the consistency with which he references not only the research literature of cognitive psychology but also that of the full breadth of the history of music theory will ensure its importance to both groups of scholars for some time to come."--Computer Music Journal