Tagg argues that in order to understand the cyclical ambiance of groove-based harmony, we need a theory of “the extended present” (p. “La Bamba” has no “direction” it’s one continuous mood. ![]() Tagg points out that trying to explain this song in terms of tonic, subdominant and dominant doesn’t make sense, because they assume that these harmonies have linear direction. The song isn’t a linear narrative it feels like one continuous mood. The chords go by too fast and with too many repetitions for that. A classical theorist looks at that and says, it’s tonic, subdominant, dominant, repeat.īut “La Bamba” doesn’t feel like a narrative of being at rest, then mild tension, then more extreme tension, then being at rest again. Tagg gives the example of “La Bamba.” On its face, the chord progression to “La Bamba” couldn’t be any simpler: I, IV and V, over and over. Euroclassical tonal theory is fine for explain large-scale linear harmonic structure over the course of sections and movements of classical works, but it fails when you try to apply it to the static, loop-oriented harmonies structures of most of the music that people currently listen to. The problem is that the academy teaches this theory of a particular aspect of the music of a certain time and place as if it were the foundation for understanding any kind of music. Tagg’s model of harmony is less tidy than the standard classical theory text, but then, so is the world he’s describing.Ĭommon-practice tonal theory was invented to explain the harmonies in the European classical canon, not in every kind of music in the world. Rather than starting with a particular theoretical approach and trying to fit it to different kinds of music, he looks for patterns across different kinds of music as they are practiced, and generalizes from there. Tagg brings an ethnomusicological approach to music theory. The book is the single best resource I know of for how harmony works across a broad spectrum of the world’s music. Don’t be put off by the DIY look of the web site. ![]() One such is Everyday Tonality by Philip Tagg. ![]() Fortunately, there are some alternatives out there. I complain a lot on this blog about traditional approaches to teaching music theory.
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