A Language of Its Own

Preface

Introduction

The Guiding Conception of Western Art Music

Part I

The Structuring of a Self-Referential World

Chapter One

The Making of Musical Building Blocks

Preliminary Clarifications

The Development of Western Notation and Its Significance

                  Gregorian Chant Revisited

                  The Rise of Notation as an Autonomous System

                  Pitch

                  Duration

                  Concerning Notation: Concluding Remarks

Musical Frameworks as Referential Systems

                  The Greek Heritage: Music as an Organized Auditory Phenomenon

                  The Musical Heritage of the World That Gave Rise to Christianity

                  The Formal Organization of the Chant Repertoire

Chapter Two

Systematizing Musical Laws

The Self-Chosen Confines of Art

Horizontal and Vertical Elements: A Generating and Controlling Force, Respectively

                  Cementing the Relationships among Successively Composed Voices

                  The Function of Closures

                  From Imperfect to Perfect Consonance—Relating Voices and Sonorities by Interval Progressions

Bestowing a Semblance of “Oneness” on Particles

                  External Designs

                   The Development of Inner Cohesion

The Rise of Harmonic Tonality

                   The Move from Desired Coincidences among Voices to a “System of Chords”

                   The Systematization of Harmonic Tonality

                   Shifting Concerns—From Musical “Rules” to Music’s Communicative “Powers”

Part II

The Crafting of a “Shared Understanding”

Chapter Three

Separating ‘Sense’ from ‘Meaning’

Natural Languages: Some Relevant Points

The Power to Occasion an Atmosphere&/

Subjects

• History: History of Ideas
• Music: General Music
• Philosophy: Aesthetics

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