# What is "natural?"



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

What is "natural" is harmonic centricity, and this should not be exactly equated with Western tonality. Harmonic centricity can loosely and generally be called "tonality," but this tends to confuse the issue, so I'll call it what it is: _harmonic centricity, which_ _can be the perception of one note only, _or more.

Western CP tonality is based on harmonic centricity. The C major scale is the given, and triads are built on each of the scale steps. These triads are then ranked in order of their relation to the tonic triad (I), in terms of consonance/dissonance. G major is the next most important triad, being related to the most prominent harmonic, the fifth.

Each of these triads are harmonic centricities in themselves; each has a fifth, a third, and so on. Thus, _triads_ are the device which creates a centricity on the scale steps, each triad being a small "harmonic model" of the natural overtones which occur in any pitch. Theoretically, and practically, each of these triads can become its own centric/root station, but in Western tonality, all the other triads on the scale steps are subordinated to I (C major), which is the tonic station. 
In jazz, any scale step in any scale can become a main root station, thus "modal" jazz in dorian mode, mixolydian mode, and so on.

In Western CP tonality, this is not so; unless there is definite modulation to a new root station (scale step triad), all of these other triads are subservient to the home key of C. Thus, when a progression goes from C to, say, G major, G major is heard as a centricity or new station, but there is "expectation" that it will return us to the home key of C. Thus, "expectation" and "anticipation" of the G triad is _not_ based solely on the ear's perception of centricity, but on a _cognitive_ process which occurs over the span of the progression. This system of expectation and anticipation is learned by repetition, by recognizable procedures of resolution and tension, and is based on the style of the music which is produced using this system.

The fact that all of these subordinate steps "away" from the home key are based on triads, with fifths reinforcing their centric identity, is the way the ear is "convinced" that the subordinate triad _might_ be a new root station; but _tension_ and _resolution_ are the ways the ear's natural tendency to hear harmonic centricity is _"overcome;"_ tension and resolution are the _cognitive_ devices, which require ear/_brain_ perception of progressions and events over spans of time. 
Thus, the 'natural' tendency of the ear to hear harmonic centricity is "overcome" by cognitive, narrative sequences of events which we call "Western tonality."

So to say atonal music, like Anton Webern's, is "unnatural" because it does not refer every centricity which occurs to a root or key area, is mistaken. All music (using pitch) has tone centricity, even when it is melodic. Centricity becomes more obvious and compelling when there is more than one note occurring, since we tend to hear sequences of pitches as "melody" rather than harmony.


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