Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations
David Lewin
Abstract
This book is recognized as the seminal work paving the way for current studies in mathematical and systematic approaches to music analysis. The author, one of the 20th century’s most prominent figures in music theory, pushes the boundaries of the study of pitch-structure beyond its conception as a static system for classifying and inter-relating chords and sets. Known by most music theorists as “GMIT”, the book is by far the most significant contribution to the field of systematic music theory in the last half-century, generating the framework for the “transformational theory” movement. Appear ... More
This book is recognized as the seminal work paving the way for current studies in mathematical and systematic approaches to music analysis. The author, one of the 20th century’s most prominent figures in music theory, pushes the boundaries of the study of pitch-structure beyond its conception as a static system for classifying and inter-relating chords and sets. Known by most music theorists as “GMIT”, the book is by far the most significant contribution to the field of systematic music theory in the last half-century, generating the framework for the “transformational theory” movement. Appearing almost twenty years after GMIT’s initial publication, this Oxford University Press edition features a previously unpublished preface by the author, as well as a foreword by Edward Gollin contextualizing the work’s significance for the current field of music theory.
Keywords:
pitch-structure,
systematic music theory,
transformational theory,
music analysis,
mathematical approaches
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2007 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195317138 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2010 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195317138.001.0001 |