On Jul 14, 2004, at 1:11 PM, Christopher BJ Smith wrote:
if you consider that atonal means with no discernable key centre at all, then there is a big gap between tonal and atonal, which includes a lot of modal music (like a lot of rock and pop, and jazz, too!)
The word "atonal" was coined at a time when it was widely believed that functional tonality was a law of nature, and that early music and world music merely represented primitive states of it. We now no longer think this way, but the word "atonal" still keeps its original meaning. To define tonal as "not atonal" is deeply ironic, because it assigns to atonality a breadth and depth of influence that it never had. Imagine if instead one were to divide all music into Impressionist and Non-impressionist! See what I mean?
There is a similar confusion in the art world, where laypeople confuse "abstract" with "non-objective" and think that both are the opposite of "realistic."
Why is modal music not functional harmony?
Because a mode is a mode and harmony is harmony. It's like asking "why is time not measurable in centimeters?" If by "modal music" you mean the music of the Renaissance and Middle Ages, you shd. note that none of this music was composed by assembling chords, but by following rules of counterpoint that apply to individual pairs of voices only, never to full chordal entities. In functional harmony (i.e., tonal harmony), every chord has a function (it can only appear in certain contexts and serves a particular, fixed purpose in driving the harmony forward) and the whole thrust of the music is driven by the relationships between chords. Mediaeval and Renaissance music is not even *about* chords, and though it contains chords, they are secondary to melodic and contrapuntal concerns, and do not drive the music.
An ordinary plagal cadence is still tonal, isn't it?
Only in a tonal context. Before 1600 or so, no, it isn't tonal.
Is a Landini cadence tonal?
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/
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