# Tonality and Intervals



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Western tonality is seen to be a system which is not primarily based on cognitive comparisons spread out over time, but an ultimately "natural" sensation of centricity, which all "centric" music is based on.

I will show that Western tonality, and its comparative functions, can be traced back to vertical factors, and the way we hear harmonics.

Thus, the "narrative" aspects of Western tonal progressions do not establish tonality; these 'narrative' excursions are based on the original vertical model of harmonics, only assisted by narrative procedures.

Western tonality is about establishing a key area, and this means we have to "move away" from the tonic chord (C) in order to "return" to it, and establish the tonality, unless we want to drone on in one chord. Western tonality likes to move around, unlike Indian raga music. So how is this "movement" away from, and back to, the key tonic station accomplished?

The main way that Western tonality establishes key areas is by root movement. These roots are the scale steps, and the functions assigned to them within that scale. 
But why do we hear (in the key of C Major) a G chord as being the "dominant" (V) function, as "subordinate" to I (C)? What is this perception based on, and why does it convince our ear that "G" needs to resolve, and that "C" is our home key?

Woodduck might say that this perception is based on various factors, which it is, such as repetition, phrasing, etc., but I'm saying that the main way tonality is "played with" is by root movement.

This "root movement" is really a harmonic interval. The progression from C major to G major is the interval of a fifth, just spread out over time. So all root movement can be traced back to our harmonic intervals, which is the source of all pitched sound.

What evidence do we have of this? Simply our ears, and the way we hear harmonics.

Let's say that the root movement from C to G is a fifth up. Harmonically, we hear a fifth with the "root" on the bottom note, so C-G is heard as being rooted on "C." Since Western tonality is largely based on root movements of a fifth, and the 'circle of fifths' is further evidence of this, then this explains much of tonal root movement.

Conversely, we hear a fourth (the inversion of a fifth) as having its "root" on the top note; so G up to C establishes the root as C.

This is all based on vertical factors; the way we hear the natural harmonic series. Root movement in Western tonality simply "spreads this out" over spans of time.

This can also show how the diatonic C major scale, the chosen scale for most of our music, is also inherently unstable as far as being "totally tonal." It's built for movement, for unrest.

The interval C-F is a fourth; if we hear this as "root on top," then F Major is established, subordinating C, supposedly the "home" key. All this is due to the fact of the tritone F-B in the C major scale. 
In this light, we can see the truth of George Russell's assertion that the Lydian scale is "more tonal" if one wants to establish the scale root as the key. The F lydian scale cycles through all 7 in fifths before it circles back around to F, its key note: F-C-G-D-A-E-B (F).

This is also why piano tuners start on F and tune by fifths. If we try to "stack fifths" starting on C, we get C-G-D-A-E-B-(F#?). It doesn't work for a C major scale, as it has an "F." 
As the Pebber Brown video on Youtube shows, when he sustains all the notes C-G-D-A-E-B, the consonance of perfect fifths falls apart when the clunker "F" is added on top.

The C major scale is structured so that there is a "leading tone" E-F (establishing F), as well as B-C (establishing C).
The C lydian scale has a leading tone F#-G (establishing the more closely related V step of G) and B-C (establishing the scale key).

I'm not criticizing the C major scale; it's perfectly suited for what it is used for: to travel to other key areas.


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