Peter Westergaard's tonal theory

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Peter Westergaard's tonal theory is the theory of tonal music developed by Peter Westergaard and outlined in Westergaard's 1975 book An Introduction to Tonal Theory. Based on ideas of Heinrich Schenker (see Schenkerian analysis), Westergaard's theory is notable for:

  • explicit treatment of the relationship between rhythmic structures and pitch structures in tonal music; and
  • elimination of "harmony" as a conceptually independent element of musical structure (in Westergaard's theory, traditional "harmonic" principles follow as by-products, or epiphenomena, of more fundamental contrapuntal principles, so that discussion of chord progressions as such becomes superfluous).

[edit] References

  • Peles, Stephen. "An Introduction to Westergaard's Tonal Theory". In Theory Only, vol 13 no. 1-4 (1997).
  • Westergaard, Peter. An Introduction to Tonal Theory. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.

[edit] External links