[Smt-talk] whether to laugh or cry?

[nancygarniez at tonalrefraction.com]

Try "The Sense of Music" by Viktor Zuckerkandl, published by Princeton Univ. Press. This was used as the text for the music course at St. John's College in Maryland. Though in some respects dated its distilled descriptions of some musical elements are not only accurate but also dynamic.

I liken it to Ezra Pound's "ABC of Reading." 

Nancy Garniez

http://nancygarniez.blogspot.com 
www.tonalrefraction.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Bonds [mailto:chbonds1 at willy.wsc.edu]
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2013 10:02 PM
To: smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org
Subject: Re: [Smt-talk] whether to laugh or cry?



 On 2/21/2013 6:39 PM, Richard Cohn wrote: David Byrne's best-selling book "How Music Works", on the front-table in many book-stores, has a quasi-learned discourse, with dutiful refs. to Pythagoras etc., on "diachronic scales." 

My best guess: 
^1 sounds in the 14th century; 
^2 sounds in the 15th century
.....the 20th century has the leading tone
and here we are now on the tonic. Finally.


Which makes them maximally even, as they should be.


 If someone knows of an intelligently-written book on "how music works" that the lay person can learn from, and yet will not be an embarrassment to the professional, let me know!

 Christopher Bonds
 Wayne State College, Emeritus


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