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As a music student, I was always amazed at the irony of Schoenberg's thesis about the "Liberation of the Dissonance", when 12 tone Equal Temperament is an arbit

by zengid 7y ago

As a music student, I was always amazed at the irony of Schoenberg's thesis about the "Liberation of the Dissonance", when 12 tone Equal Temperament is an arbitrary intonation system that limits the actual potential for freedom when creating harmony. Ben Johnston, an American composer who studied with Harry Partch, used extended Just Intonation, which is a system of unlimited harmonic capabilities, for several serialist pieces [1][2]. I feel like he was able to achieve striking dissonance unlike anything capable within the confines of Equal Temperament. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ujeXlFP7p0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ujeXlFP7p0 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5HIPRuYdjA&list=OLAK5uy_mn3eBJYDso4Hth49IZySEWnEv2itGSYmE&index=7&t=0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5HIPRuYdjA&list=OLAK5uy_mn3...

odyssey7 7y ago
Schoenberg gave the scale some decent discussion in his Harmonielehre in the section on the major mode and diatonic chords. Overall, he was liberal and encouraging about the directions that music could go, and he led by example in producing his own compositions in his own way. "And above all; this scale is not the last word, the ultimate goal of music, but rather a provisional stopping place. ... Whether there will then be quarter tones, eighth, third, or (as Busoni thinks) sixth tones, or whether we will move directly to a 53-tone scale that Dr. Robert Neumann has calculated, we cannot foretell. Perhaps this new division of the octave will even be untempered and will not have much left over in common with our scale. ... Probably, whenever the ear and imagination have matured enough for such music, the scale and the instruments will all at once be available." I'd say that last prediction was very prescient!
- zengid 7y ago
  Great quote, thanks for sharing! Maybe I have misplaced my frustration on Schoenberg, when he doesn't deserve it. The hordes of academic composers who came after him and pumped out soulless 12-tone serialist pieces probably do deserve the scorn, though. :)

by zengid 7y ago

odyssey7 7y ago

Schoenberg gave the scale some decent discussion in his Harmonielehre in the section on the major mode and diatonic chords. Overall, he was liberal and encouraging about the directions that music could go, and he led by example in producing his own compositions in his own way. "And above all; this scale is not the last word, the ultimate goal of music, but rather a provisional stopping place. ... Whether there will then be quarter tones, eighth, third, or (as Busoni thinks) sixth tones, or whether we will move directly to a 53-tone scale that Dr. Robert Neumann has calculated, we cannot foretell. Perhaps this new division of the octave will even be untempered and will not have much left over in common with our scale. ... Probably, whenever the ear and imagination have matured enough for such music, the scale and the instruments will all at once be available." I'd say that last prediction was very prescient!

zengid 7y ago
Great quote, thanks for sharing! Maybe I have misplaced my frustration on Schoenberg, when he doesn't deserve it. The hordes of academic composers who came after him and pumped out soulless 12-tone serialist pieces probably do deserve the scorn, though. :)