A Generative Theory of Tonal Music, reissue, with a new preface

by Fred Lerdahl, Ray S. Jackendoff

This work, which has become a classic in music theory since its publication in 1983, models music understanding from the perspective of cognitive science. The point of departure is a search for a grammar of music with the aid of generative linguistics. The theory, which is illustrated with numerous examples from Western classical music, relates the aural surface of a piece to the musical structure unconsciously inferred by the experienced listener. From the viewpoint of traditional music theory, it offers many innovations in notation as well as in the substance of rhythmic and reductional theory.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Linguistics

384 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1982

Reviews

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

We take the goal of a theory of music to be a formal description of the musical intuitions of a listener who is experienced in a musical idiom.

The result is a theory formulated in terms of rules of musical grammar. Like the rules of linguistic theory, these are not meant to be prescriptions telling the reader how one should hear pieces of music or how music may be organized according to some abstract mathematical schema. Rather, it is evident that a listener perceives music as more than a mere sequence of notes with different pitches and durations; one hears music in organized patterns.

[Ronald Lett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not only a good reduction of the surface of musical perception to a language amenable to further study, the language it develops is also useful to musicians who frequently reduce or rearrange pieces for different instruments, or want to produce different effects. The chapter on the relationship to linguistics is also an interesting opening for further study.