Chapter 33 - Pitch Class/Scales Flashcards
Collection
group of pitch classes, serve as source of musical material for a whole/section of a work (usually 5+)
Nontonal/Atonal/Post-tonal
music that doesn’t establish a tonic or tonal hierarchy, emerged after the era of tonal music
Tonal Music Characteristics
- Melodies built from M/m scales, scale degree functions point toward tonic
- harmonies that relate to each other in functional progressions leading toward a tonic harmony
- identifiable embellishing tones that resolve or imply a resolution
Center
Pitch or pitch class that appears pervasively in a work and establishes a sense of hierarchy (technically tonal music)
Ostinato
rhythmic or melodic motive that is repeated successively, to tie a passage together
Focal Pitches
pitches or pitch class that are emphasized through repetition/ motive use but don’t establish a functional hierarchy
Set
group of pitches (pset)
group of pitch classes (pcset)
Cardinality
number of elements
Interval/Dyad
two elements
Trichord
three elements
Tetrachord
four elements
Pentachord
five elements
Hexachord
six elements
Heptachord or Heptad
seven elements
Octachord or Octad
eight elements
Nonachord or Nonad
nine elements
Split-Third Chord/Major-Minor Tetrachord
sounds like a triad with a major and minor third above the root
Bimodal
use of two modes in two different layers of music
Polymodality
music with several modes sounding in different layers of music at the same time
Pitch Class
pitches that sound one or more octave apart, the same note (ex: C4, C5, B#2, Dbb5)
