# In Search of Musical Truth



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

CP tonality is based on acoustic factors, because of the scale of consonance and dissonance in intervals (see chart in my blogs). It is a system _based _on these harmonic principles, but it takes these "vertical" intervals and _spreads them out over time horizontally, and gives functions to them._ This requires cognition and memory, applied over time. Thus, it is just as much a _"hidden system"_ as serialism or fractal composition, or any of the "pseudo-scientific" methods. For a listener to follow the harmonic scheme of a Beethoven symphony is just as arbitrary and cerebral as serial music. The only thing that makes CP tonality "seem" more "apparent" and comprehensible is the vertical sounding of harmonies and triads, along with rudimentary language-like phrasing. Debussy likewise seems comprehensible to many, because he uses "harmonic mechanisms" like triads based on thirds; there is no CP tonal function.

This is because the only harmonic "truth" which is intuitively and instantly comprehended by the ear/brain are intervals sounded simultaneously, as the harmonics of a "root" or fundamental note.

Therefore, if we are searching for "natural truth" in music, then North Indian raga is more "truthful, because it does not modulate, and is always in reference to a "drone" which is constant and always audible to the ear/brain. In fact, Schenkerian analysis is monotonal; the "truth" leads back to _one note and its harmonics.

_20th century music has its own logic and methods, much of it based on symmetry rather than being directly derived, as CP tonality is, to strictly vertical harmonic factors; _but music is more than the sensual vibrations of the eardrum; it involves cognition through time as well. 
_
If the insistence on "totally natural and apparent" music were really the case, then ET would not exist, and we'd all be listening to La Monte Young's perfectly-tuned pure intervals.


----------

