From the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, Western ‘art’ music has grown out of, and drawn on, popular models. This book traces this recurring process. Again and again simple patterns have been refined and elaborated, eventually to the point of decadence, whereupon the search begins anew for further raw folk-stuff. A remarkable instance is the evolution of classical tonality, beginning with the tonic-and-dominant patterns of Italian dance music of about 1500, and ending with the extreme chromaticism of 1900. Other topics discussed in this book are: the Oriental influence on Western music; ... More

From the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, Western ‘art’ music has grown out of, and drawn on, popular models. This book traces this recurring process. Again and again simple patterns have been refined and elaborated, eventually to the point of decadence, whereupon the search begins anew for further raw folk-stuff. A remarkable instance is the evolution of classical tonality, beginning with the tonic-and-dominant patterns of Italian dance music of about 1500, and ending with the extreme chromaticism of 1900. Other topics discussed in this book are: the Oriental influence on Western music; the waltz and other 19th-century dances; Italian opera and other popular genres; Wagner and early Modernism; and the roots of the 20th-century popular idiom. Throughout, the focus is on the simple, the commonplace, and even the hackneyed. Though due attention is paid to the historical and cultural background, this is mainly a study of musical patterns (generally melodic or harmonic, sometimes rhythmic or formal). It is as much theoretical as historical, the basis of the theory being melodic dissonance, essentially the tension between notes of different pitch. This explains both modes and scales (extensively discussed) and harmony, regarded as simultaneous melody. Other important concepts are self-similarity (maximised in classical tonality); musical ambiguity, in the sense of multiplicity of meaning; and tonal counterpoint, or the counterpoint between tonalities rather than melodies.