- Hardcover: 480 pages
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press; 2nd edition (1 Dec 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0226568458
- ISBN-13: 978-0226568454
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.1 x 3.3 cm
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
53,537 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17 in Books > Science & Nature > Physics > Applied Physics > Sound & Waves
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Product Description
Product Description
Eugene Narmour formulates a comprehensive theory of melodic syntax to explain cognitive relations between melodic tones at their most basic level. Expanding on the theories of Leonard B. Meyer, the author develops one parsimonious, scaled set of rules modeling implication and realization in all the primary parameters of music. Through an elaborate and original analytic symbology, he shows that a kind of "genetic code" governs the perception and cognition of melody. One is an automatic, "brute" system operating on stylistic primitives from the bottom up. The other constitutes a learned system of schemata impinging on style structures from the top down. The theoretical constants Narmour uses are context-free and, therefore, applicable to all styles of melody. He places considerable emphasis on the listener's cognitive performance (that is, fundamental melodic perception as opposed to acquired musical competence). He concentrates almost exclusively on low-level, note-to-note relations. The result is a highly generalized theory useful in researching all manner of psychological and music-theoretic problems concerned with the analysis and cognition of melody. "In this innovative, landmark book, a distinguished music theorist draws extensively from a variety of disciplines, in particular from cognitive psychology and music theory, to develop an elegant and persuasive framework for the understanding of melody. This book should be read by all scholars with a serious interest in music."--Diana Deutsch, Editor, Music Perception
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Science developed only when men began to refrain from asking general questions, such as: What is matter made of? Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Science developed only when men began to refrain from asking general questions, such as: What is matter made of? Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
As a composer, this work influenced me tremendously
22 May 2010
Format:Hardcover
I was fortunate to be at the University of Pennsylvania from 1986-89, when Dr. Narmour was working on this book. He was extraordinarily generous with his graduate students, in that he included us in the process of working out the ideas in this book. Penn has always been an iconoclastic school where music theory is concerned -- rejecting Schenker's religious and racist views of how "superior" music is structured ("superior" meaning that it reflected the "trinity" and the ideals of Nazi culture) -- and this work takes that view to the opposite extreme, arguing that while cognitive understanding of what is happening in a piece of music is universal, the true understanding of a piece of music requires an understanding of both cultural and chronological placement.
While Schenker argued that any piece of music could be boiled down to the same background structure ("three blind mice", in essence), Narmour agues that the value in any piece of music is how it differs from others. This cultural and chronological neutrality of the theory -- that is, it argues no superiority of one culture or period over another -- is what makes this approach to analysis so attractive -- and is also the reason that Narmour has been so disparaged by the musical establishment at Yale, Columbia, and the like, who still teach Schenker as if it were gospel.
This is NOT easy stuff. But I believe that it will stand the test of time.
While Schenker argued that any piece of music could be boiled down to the same background structure ("three blind mice", in essence), Narmour agues that the value in any piece of music is how it differs from others. This cultural and chronological neutrality of the theory -- that is, it argues no superiority of one culture or period over another -- is what makes this approach to analysis so attractive -- and is also the reason that Narmour has been so disparaged by the musical establishment at Yale, Columbia, and the like, who still teach Schenker as if it were gospel.
This is NOT easy stuff. But I believe that it will stand the test of time.
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