Tonality: An Owner's Manual

A New Book
Crackpot Hymnal

I have just finished with a new book which sketches a new theory of Western music, both modal and functional, from the Renaissance to classic rock. One of the main ideas is that of the quadruple hierarchy, in which voices move along chords that move along scales that are themselves moving. For more information, go here. The goal is to describe the core techniques of earlier music in a completely general way, so that we can use them with any chords and scales, in any style. I make heavy use of the circular spaces that you can explore under "research." The book is in production with Oxford University Press and should be out in early 2023.

Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Rock music
Chapter 3: Voice leading
Chapter 4: Sequences
Chapter 5: Nonharmonic tones
Chapter 6: The development of functional harmony
Chapter 7: Functional harmony
Chapter 8: Modulation
Chapter 9: Long-term structure
Chapter 10: Beethoven