In music,
unified field is often used to refer to the "unity of musical space" created by the free use of
melodicA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
as harmonic and
harmonicIn music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches, or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
as melodic
materialMaterial is synonymous with substance, and is anything made of matter hydrogen, air and water are all examples of materials. Sometimes the term "material" is used more narrowly to refer to substances or components with certain physical properties that are used as inputs to production or manufacturing...
.
The technique is most associated with the
twelve-tone techniqueTwelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
, created by its "total thematicism" where a tone-row (melody) generates all (harmonic) material. It was also used by
Alexander ScriabinAlexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a highly lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Chopin...
, though from a diametrically opposed direction, created by his use of extremely slow
harmonic rhythmIn music theory, harmonic rhythm, also known as harmonic tempo is the rate at which the chords change. According to Joseph Swain it "is simply that perception of rhythm that depends on changes in aspects of harmony." According to Walter Piston , "the rhythmic life contributed to music by means of...
which eventually led to his use of unordered pitch-class sets, usually
hexachordIn music, a hexachord is a collection of six pitch classes including six-note segments of a scale or tone row. The term was adopted in the Middle Ages and adapted in the twentieth-century in Milton Babbitt's serial theory.-Middle Ages:...
s (of six pitches) as harmony from which melody may also be created.
In music,
unified field is often used to refer to the "unity of musical space" created by the free use of
melodicA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
as harmonic and
harmonicIn music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches, or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
as melodic
materialMaterial is synonymous with substance, and is anything made of matter hydrogen, air and water are all examples of materials. Sometimes the term "material" is used more narrowly to refer to substances or components with certain physical properties that are used as inputs to production or manufacturing...
.
The technique is most associated with the
twelve-tone techniqueTwelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
, created by its "total thematicism" where a tone-row (melody) generates all (harmonic) material. It was also used by
Alexander ScriabinAlexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a highly lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Chopin...
, though from a diametrically opposed direction, created by his use of extremely slow
harmonic rhythmIn music theory, harmonic rhythm, also known as harmonic tempo is the rate at which the chords change. According to Joseph Swain it "is simply that perception of rhythm that depends on changes in aspects of harmony." According to Walter Piston , "the rhythmic life contributed to music by means of...
which eventually led to his use of unordered pitch-class sets, usually
hexachordIn music, a hexachord is a collection of six pitch classes including six-note segments of a scale or tone row. The term was adopted in the Middle Ages and adapted in the twentieth-century in Milton Babbitt's serial theory.-Middle Ages:...
s (of six pitches) as harmony from which melody may also be created. (Samson 1977)
It may also be observed in
Igor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor, widely acknowledged as one of the most important and influential composers of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially cosmopolitan Russian who was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of...
's Russian period, such as in
Les Noces, derived from his use of folk melodies as generating material and influenced by shorter pieces by
Claude DebussyAchille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, such as
Voiles, and
Modest MussorgskyModest Petrovich Mussorgsky , one of the Russian composers known as the Five, was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
.
Béla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, and regarded, along with Liszt, as his country's greatest composer...
's Bagatelles, and several of
Alfredo CasellaAlfredo Casella was an Italian composer.- Life :The Casella family included a good many musicians; his grandfather, a friend of Paganini's, was first cello in the San Carlo Theatre in Lisbon and eventually was soloist in the Royal Chapel in Turin...
's
Nine Piano Pieces such as No. 4 "In Modo Burlesco" the close intervallic relationship between motive and chord creates or justifies the great harmonic
dissonanceIn music, a consonance is a harmony, chord, or interval considered stable, as opposed to a dissonance — considered unstable...
. (Samson 1977)
Source
- Samson, Jim (1977). Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02193-9.