• The Inner Work of Music: Lerdahl and Jackendoff 's 'Generative Theory'

    Author(s):
    Lodewijk Muns (see profile)
    Date:
    2015
    Group(s):
    Society for Music Theory (SMT)
    Subject(s):
    Music, Cognition, Music theory
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Fred Lerdahl, heinrich schenker, music cognition and perception, Ray Jackendoff, Music cognition
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/c3nw-zn77
    Abstract:
    Lerdahl and Jackendoff's Generative Theory of Tonal Music (1983) is an attempt to transform music theory into a theory of musical understanding by adopting the formal method and psychological premises of Generative Grammar, along with some Schenkerian elements. It has failed to fulfil its promise mainly because, like Schenker theory, it is compromised by what Leonard Meyer (1967) has called the ‘fallacy of hierarchic uniformity’. Considering the authors’ reluctance to compare music and language, it is paradoxical that its basic premise, the conception of a theory of music as a grammar, implies a stronger linguistic analogy than should be conceded.
    Notes:
    Chapter 4 of Classical Music and the Language Analogy (Dissertation Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2014), in a slightly revised form.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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