Atonality, Information, and the Politics of Perception

http://thinkingapplied.com/tonality_folder/tonality.htm

--- In crazy_music@y..., "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...> wrote:

/crazy_music/topicId_820.html#820

> http://thinkingapplied.com/tonality_folder/tonality.htm

>Musical relationships arise from a succession of events unfolding in
>time. Since these events are not physically simultaneous, the
>relationships that they create are perceived when we associate the
events in short term memory.8 It then follows that to perceive a
collection of tones as tonal, we must be able to maintain that
collection in short term memory—an inability to recall the
collection
precludes our detecting any relationships within it. When unprocessed
data is continuously crowded out of short term memory, we perceive
atonality.

I dunno. This seems pretty "simplistic" to me. In other words, if
we are perceiving the patterns "correctly" in short-term memory we
are always hearing "tonality," otherwise "atonality" as
a "deficiency."

How does that explain the perception of atonal patterns that are
integral units of a composition where no tonality is either desired
or part of the linguistic framework?

Atonality, it seems, is an *entirely* different language that is set
up by cultural acceptance of certain intervallic patterns *outside*
of any tonal framework.

This is why, to a novice, atonality can sometimes seem unappealing,
but after further exposure to the language, it begins to make sense...

There's nothing "lacking" in it, or outside of the capabilities of
perception...

>In the case of modern music, no perceptual model has yet won the
>general acceptance of the musical establishment—although models
>powerful enough to accommodate contemporary styles have been
formulated.14 This being so, we can attribute the continued
perception of atonality not only to the public's insufficient
exposure to contemporary music (exposure too limited to reveal the
tonality that exists in complex music), but also to the institutional
rejection of conceptual frameworks which, if applied, could bring
about a revolution in musical perception.

Huh?? How about the 12-tone system? It seems that such models have
been *more* than adequately formulated!

So then, *everything* relates to some kind of "tonality." I guess
that was Schoenberg's idea, but it is somewhat stretching a point...

It all rests on definitions... but, to me, "tonality" has something
to do with an organization related to the overtone system
and "atonality" to set organization of pitches perceived, perhaps, by
their relationship to one another... not necessarily related so
directly to the overtone series as a "deficiency."

Both procedures can be used in the same piece of music, but saying
that one is a "deficiency" or "lack of processing power" I believe is
inaccurate...

__________ ________ _____
Joseph Pehrson