Music is, like language, a system, in which infinitely many structures can be generated out of finite means.
The theoretical strand of the ERC project is devoted to the investigation of formal principles that govern musical syntax and structure building in Western and non-Western music. Our goal is to come up with concrete formalisms that characterize structures such as harmony, melody and voice-leading in overarching, coherent ways.
Main results
- A detailed model of the harmonic syntax of Jazz harmony (published as keynote article in Music Theory and Analysis)
- A first model of Protovoices – a New Model of Free Polyphony
- A first model of harmonic syntax in extended tonality
- A grammar model of tonal rhythm
- A formal model of melodic structure of Classical North Indian ragas
- A mathematical model of axiomatic scale theory
Showcase
A grammar theory of Jazz harmony
The regularities underlying the structure building of chord sequences, harmonic phrases, and combinations of phrases constitute a central research problem in music theory. This article proposes a formalization of Jazz harmony with a generative framework based on formal grammars, in which syntactic structure tightly corresponds with the functional interpretation of the sequence. It assumes that (…)
A Formal Model of Extended Tonality
Extended tonality is a central system that characterizes the music from the 19th up to the 21st century, including styles like popular music, film music or Jazz. Developing from classical major-minor tonality, the harmonic language of extended tonality forms its own set of rules and regularities, which are a result of the freer combinatoriality of (…)