Practicality in Dmitri Tymoczko's Graphs

Today's music industry is made up, for the most part, by performers, composers and non-
musicians who deal with managerial aspects of what the rest of them require !usic theorists
ha"e the #oy of disco"ery what the others seems to o"erlook, not that it is any consequence of
laziness or obli"ion but rather that their area of e$pertise doesn't apply the insistent demand
for the music's e$istence % draw a thin line between composers and theorists partly because of
how they are percei"ed by the rest of the industry, most ob"iously by their output, not in the
amount but who their output reaches & composer's finished product can be heard by anyone
#ust as a theorists product can be e$amined by anyone 'f course, the aural element is much
more palatable to a wider audience than understanding a gamut of foreign equations and
terminology
"..it is possible that with extensive training ordinary listeners can sensitize themselves to the
sequences structure.."
Dmitri Tymoczko is one of those indi"iduals who has dug deep to disco"er new formations
(eing able to defending what composers ha"e gi"en us is an integral part of composing and
performing !usic of the future is influenced by studying music of the past %n Tymoczko's
research the details go far to #ustify his ideas but to often these ideas seem to be e$aggerated
%'m in no intellectual position to brush off Tymoczko's findings on grounds that there are too
many e$ceptions or that details don't matter !y hope is that by applying these tactics to some
familiar pieces in my standard repertoire % can better understand the conte$t of where his
constraints and graphs can impro"e my understanding of a musical genre, set of works or )at
the "ery least* an indi"idual piece of music
&s Tymoczko leads us through a redisco"ery of what is already known he first presents a
powerful statement whose only purpose is to completely confuse us, then he has the
opportunity to slowly rebuilding the concept %n our state of ignorance e$amples are pulled
from many different breeds, such as his reference of a +lementi sonata and some Debussy
when detailing his 'PT%+ system ,e are in no position to slow our rebuilding process by
questioning the significance of his methods and how they relate to the entire collection of
those composers' music The e$amples compliment his current argument well but may pro"e
unable to stand up to their claims when more is to be pro"ed
,e are taken through a maze of models and instances of the 'PT%+ application and its
importance of simplifying chords we encounter The pitch-class philosophy is not a comple$
item to iterate The lengths he goes to spell out the different ways to interpret distance seems
wasteful -uckily, if in the earlier chapters of his book % ha"e missed the boat captained by
Dmitri at least % ha"e his pardon .it is possible to understand the gist of later chapters e"en
while remaining somewhat fuzzy about the technical material in +hapters /01.
Pitch 2pace "s Pitch-+lass
3oice -eading is taken to a whole new le"el by Tymoczko &gain, the process remains the
same while our understanding of it is o"ershadowed by the elaborate attempt at e$posing new
ideas Trained musicians can already see these chordal relationships that the 'PT%+ system
represents 'ur theory 454 courses con"eyed "oice leading well enough to trust (ach,
+lementi, 6aydn and !ozart &s we witness in the following century we can see a slow
progression of creati"ity and risk taking of 47th century composers ,e had music that
foreshadowed ,agner such as the e$perimentation by (eetho"en in his late career, ,eber and
-iszt Tymoczko's "oice leading theories are so forgi"ing in that they allow a melody to
#ustify any harmonic progression %t's hard to conceptualize a ma#or chord being anything
more than ma#or Tymoczko lays out e"er relationship between standard chords in terms of
semi-tones and then retraces his steps claiming that more is to be seen in between the
notes The pitch-class system ultimately remo"es one problem we encounter when condensing
a chord for the purpose of identifying it8 which pitch will be the constant as the other "oices
are mo"ed to an appropriate octa"e within a 4/ semi-tone space near the constant note -arger
gaps within the newly arranged chord can be quickly eliminated by repositioning notes, one at
a time, from one end of the chord to the other until the smallest number of semitones e$ists
The same can be done to the neighboring chords to see if the "oice-leading is effecti"e
"Thus when we say that an object is a major chord, we are neglecting an enormous number of
musical details, leaving behind something that is very abstractan ordered sequence of
cloc!wise distances around the pitch" class circle.#
The phrase .chord progression. seems to be equi"alent to cursing when Tymoczko uses it 6is
portrayal is that we don't see the mo"ement in the "oices from chord to chord 6is pitch-class
wheel does present a new "isual for following a particular "oice but forces us to completely
turn off our ears !usicians using the pitch-class system )that has already been set place by
pre"ious theorists, like 6oward 6ansen* know to use it only for brief isolation of a "oices
path Tymoczko's pitch space graph )or line* is less in"asi"e to our sensiti"ity toward "oice
motion 6ere there is an equally as simply layout with a "oice's path easy to distinct from its
colleagues 6is wording is so bold that you'd think he is defending a new standard for
notation ,e'"e always been able to mo"e from chord to chord in multiple ways, is he really
the first one to point out the shortest path9 :o one wishes to use a pitch system that forces us
to ignore "oice leading and settle for a .tunnel "ision. approach to chord analysis %n the case
of most other theories there is no need to lea"e out a reference to pitch on some sort of
"ertical gauge unless eliminating doubling on the staff pro"es to be far too cumbersome -
2piral piano
(ut back to the 'PT%+ system; Tonal music illustrates a state of aural homeostasis8 adhere
to the guidelines and you'll fit right in The procedures e$plained in $ %eometry of &usic are
quite broad 2o often Tymoczko walks us through a chord to chord modification showing our
current staff notation side-by-side to the graphs of the newly introduced pitch space and pitch-
class systems and then halts the discussion before relating any con"incing element of science
This book is all about using the math to #ustify "oice-leading paths but there is a significant
lack of mathematical equations The application of a combination of permutation, in"ersions
and the others operations can create endless potential in harmonic progression but the details
are missing that should include specific equations for creating the desired mo"ement
Tymoczko anticipated public connection to his book would be much impro"ed if a companion
manual containing these equations e$isted %t is unclear where the math and science are
in"ol"ed in the 'PT%+ symmetries
Tymoczko insinuates that "oice leading is incorrectly taught in regard to the size of the "oice-
leading %n a search for <reasonable= "oice-leading we naturally consider the distance between
all of the "oice motion and a consistent path for each "oice to follow 2ection /> of his book
encourages ha"ing a field day with "oice crossing !ore limitation should be enforced on this
topic for the sake of following "oices as we analyze multiple "oices together and for our ear
to capture the motion ,here possible, only two "oices leaping distances greater than a ma#or
third and any "oice crossing does not appear but a single instance per stationary chord as to
not disrupt an attenti"e listener )<stationary= is referring to a chord that is blocked or "ertical
as opposed to arpeggios in the harmonic structure* ?or instance, Tymoczko could recommend
for his readers to reser"e "oice leaping by more than a third to one distinct "oice that, more or
less, takes the role as a melody and the other "oice being the bass )assuming the style requires
the lowest "oice to pro"ide the root of the chord for the ma#ority of the time with the
e$ception of in"ersions* 6ere Tymoczko has an opportunity to demonstrate efficient "oice-
leading on his pitch-class <a$is of symmetry= and alongside it a staff containing a single clef
and the notes of the chord condensed within one octa"e %t seems that in a constant search for
a suitable "oice leading the first step should be disco"ering the absolute smallest path that all
of the "oices could follow collecti"ely and de"iating from it for the "oices that require greater
leaps The smallest series of "oice leading represents the constant that a science e$periment
would contain and remains in the shadow of the chord as reference
& topic that refuses to permeate my skull is the issue of di"iding the octa"e e"enly
Tymoczko@s tables poorly assist his in deli"ering his argument A"en and nearly e"en
di"isions distract from his ultimate point of why chords sound good &s found on the
Princeton music course website, Tymoczko@s 1
th
handout "ery basically e$plains the theory of
how the octa"e is di"ided e"enlyB
'The mathematical reason for this is slightly complicated. (ts related to the fact that, when
we thin! in terms of fundamental frequencies, the perfect fifth and the major triad divide the
octave exactly evenly) the note **+ ,z -./0 divides the octave between 11+ ,z -$*0 and //+
,z -$/0 into two equal -22+",z"sized0 parts. -3ote that ./ is a perfect fifth above $/.0
4imilarly, the $ major triad **+ ,z -./0, //+ ,z -$/0, and 55+ ,z -6s50 divides the octave
between **+ ,z -./0 and 77+ ,z -.50 into three equal -22+",z"sized pieces0. (t turns out that
when we go from fundamental frequencies to ordinary note labels, we transform perfectly
even divisions into nearly even divisions.#
%t@s good to know he is able to lay it out in a simple manner for his students &ctually, it is
comical how in his book chapter three seems to unfold smoothly lea"ing some readers
completely bewildered and feeling ignorant and then warns his freshmen class how
intellectual one must be to understand such theories but coddles them with an easy
e$planation of 6z di"ision The problems start when this theory is tested on an equal
tempered instrument with twel"e pitches and then looking at how the octa"e is di"ided on the
staff (y comparing wa"e length and our diatonic scale system we are decei"ed %n fact, when
understood through this process, augmented chords become the nearly e"en triads and ma#or
triads are perfectly e"en This makes more sense on paper before applying it to an instrument
%n the three dimensional chord theory, this replaces the augmented cubes with ma#or cubes
(y di"iding the scale like Tymoczko we ha"e not created greater or fewer possibilities for
harmonic progression but #ust changed where the central a$is appears 6e prefers the method
in his book because it applies so fairly to the (rahms Piano Cuartet he presents %f my
suggestions were e$plored the outer limits of the three dimensional tiles would be well suited
for the baroque and classical styles
%f ma#or chords act as the focal point then this three-dimensional space would translate easily
into representing mo"ement between scales )more appropriately modes* &s we mo"e from
the cube that represents the + ma#or scale one note is altered There are si$ options closely
related to the scale and then three for the one following %f working with baroque or classical
styles few scales will be utilized but, as Tymoczko e$plains, (rahms, 2hostako"ich and
Debussy will use many e$otic scales :o matter the way the octa"e is di"ided, chords with
doubled notes will still be found on the walls of the diagram, strongly suggesting that the
piece of music at hand is not tonal %f a composer were applying this system to a new piece of
music written in the late romantic style he would find it useful in finding desired "oice
leading on a chord-to-chord basis or at most the motion o"er a small phrase
% appreciate math@s presence in music and % use it as often as needed The circle of fifths is an
in"aluable tool for training and reading music by referencing the distance from one note to the
ne$t rather than resetting the brain for e"ery change The significance of using small distances
for "oice leading and harmonic progression is reawakened by the in-depth application of
Tymoczko@s symmetries (y bewildering and then con"incing the reader that these findings
are original encourages more credit than is due Pitch space and three-dimensional diagrams
assist in the redisco"ery of what we already ha"e understood ,ith the help of other theorists
such as Dulian 6ook
not enough math A$cuses it as science
Dulian 6ook, Eoger 2cruton
'riginal but e$aggerated
Ee"iew of Dmitri Tymoczko, & Geometry of !usicB 6armony and +ounterpoint in the
A$tended +ommon Practice )'$ford Fni"ersity Press, /544*

Dulian 6ook
httpBGGwwwmtosmtorgGissuesGmto444>HGmto444>Hhookhtml
Dmitri Tymoczko -6andouts 1 and /5
httpBGGdmitrimycpanelprincetoneduGfilesGpdfsG!F245Ihandoutspdf
2cruton The 2pace of !usic / review of The Geometry of !usic httpBGGwwwroger-
scrutoncomGwork-in-progressG47-booksGJ7-the-space-of-musichtml