Foundations of Modern Harmony

Karel Janeček, Anne Carothers Hall, Jana Skarecky

• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781771124706
• eBook ISBN:
  9781771126359
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Theory & Appreciation

Foundations of Modern Harmony, by composer and music theorist Karel Janec?ek, addresses the analysis and composition of music not based on the tonal harmony that was common language until the early 20th century.

Discussing this newer music requires a vocabulary in which all combinations of notes, or chords, can be named. Janec?ek developed his theory of modern harmony over many years. In this book, he classifies chords according to their intervallic structure, their possible arrangements, and then based on their consonance and dissonance. His focus on what we hear leads to a discussion of “imaginary” pitches, those that are still heard after they are no longer sounding.

Dealing with such issues as harmonizing a melody, resolving dissonant chords, and the formation and extinction of a sense of the tonic, Jane?ek’s work is an exciting complement to the theories of Schoenberg and Hindemith. His discussion of harmonic motion leads to the consideration of harmonic function, of establishing the tonic, of modulation, of atonal composition, and of static and kinetic conceptions of harmony. First published in 1965, and translated into English for the first time, Jane?ek’s concerns are of continuing importance to music theorists and composers.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Editor’s Preface
• Preface
• Chapter I – The Harmonic Material of the Tempered Chromatic System
• Chapter II – Sonic Characteristics of the Harmonic Material
• Chapter IIIa – Classification of the Harmonic Material
• Chapter IIIb – Triadic Combinations
• Chapter IV – Disposition of Chords
• Chapter V – Expression of Chords
• Chapter VIa – Harmonic Motion: Concepts and Principles
• Chapter VIb – Harmonic Motion: Functions and their Combinations
• Chapter VIc – Harmonic Motion: Function in Harmonic Progression
• Chapter VII – Problems
• Chapter VIII – Compositional Practice
• Chapter IX – Analytical Practice
• Tables and Overviews
• Bibliography
• Sources of Examples from Contemporary Music
• Zusammenfassung
• Karel Janeček: Additional Notes to Some Phenomena of Harmonic and Tonal Thinking
• Vladimír Tichý: Order, System, Structure, Function and Mutual Interplay of Theory and Practice
• Subject Index
• Name Index