Tone theory

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Tone theory is a science of audible tones . The teachings that are so called usually combine acoustics and perceptual psychology . For example, there are theory of tones in phonology that deal with spoken language.

In music theory, the theory of tone is sometimes differentiated from the theory of composition : It considers and systematizes the tones and interrelationships independently of musical contexts. So it's about the perception of intervals , chords , moods , timbres , but not about their meaning for melodies, cadences or modulations.

Early modern age

In medieval music theory, which discussed ancient ideas such as the harmony of the spheres , physics and ethics were closely linked: ideal proportions that are exemplary for humans are expressed in music and astronomy. Such considerations were independent of human music making. Even in the early Enlightenment , ideal images of a well-ordered nature were very attractive. However, with the restriction to the measurable in scientific methodology, as Isaac Newton successfully demonstrated, such value judgments faded.

Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wanted to counteract this development . Around 1810 he wrote the sketch for a tone theory , which, unlike his color theory , remained a fragment. Similar to the theory of colors, Goethe tried to grasp "the laws of the audible" not only quantitatively but qualitatively and emphasized the aspect of "sensual and moral enthusiasm" in sound. He differentiated such an “organic” conception of sound from a “mechanical” and a “mathematical” one.

Helmholtz and Stumpf

In 1863 Hermann von Helmholtz tried to combine physical and physiological acoustics with one another with his work The Doctrine of Sound Sensations as the physiological basis for the theory of music . This stimulated the music psychologist Carl Stumpf to get to the bottom of the perception of tone experimentally ( The pseudo-Aristotelian problems on music , 1897, consonance and concordance , 1910, On recent investigations on tone theory , 1914), which found its way into gestalt psychology .

Handschin

In addition to these empirical approaches, the music researcher Jacques Handschin again referred to ancient music theory in order to track down the “tone character” ( The tone character. An introduction to tone psychology, 1948). His approaches are historically related to a rediscovery of early music since around 1920.

literature

  • Ernst Grimsehl, Walter Schallreuter: Musikalische Tonlehre , in: Textbook of Physics, Vol. 1, pp. 273–275, Leipzig: Teubner 1957.
  • Claus Canisius: Goethe and the music , Munich: Piper 1999. ISBN 978-3492228510
  • Michael Maier: Jacques Handschin's “tone character”. On the conditions of its creation , Stuttgart: Steiner 1991. ISBN 978-3-515-05415-7