Schemographe: Application for a new representation technique and methodology of analysis in tonal harmony

Abstract

A recent development of music theory focuses basically on neo-riemannian angle of harmonic analysis with the use of Tonnetz as a space for harmonic change representation. However the Tonnetz does not cover the functional relations between accords within tonality and is feebly suitable to capture the features of neo-tonal postmodern music based on a new use of tonal functionality. This work presents an alternative method for music harmony progressions representation and analysis which uses two levels of representation. The first level is represented as a system of horizontal and vertical triads of graphs where each graph is an exo-frame filled out by information of specified degree of the scale. The graph pattern in this system represents the specified segment of harmonic progression taken from harmonic analysis of the musical composition. The pattern is then schematized for the second level of representation which examines its structural resemblance to the other schemas received similarly from the segments of harmonic progression. In order to facilitate the understanding of a new methodology and encourage its use in tonal harmony analysis an Android application for tablets called Schemographe has been created. The application presents the possibilities of the system on the two described levels of representation on example of three vocal pieces by neo-tonal postmodern composer Valentin Silvestrov.