To Heinz Bohlen: Tonality and Infilling

Heinz Bohlen wrote:

**Alright, that sounds rather mechanistic, but
doesn't already the choice of the triad introduce tonality into this
process?**

My understanding of tonality is that it is not determined by a single
static entity - the triad - but rather by establishing relationships
between pitches. The two basic procedures in doing this are repetition and
contrast. A monody can be _tonal_, for example, without outlining chords,
but but establishing - through repetition - fixed reference pitches and
contrasting them with other pitches.

Schenker demonstrated one way (or a complex of ways) in which voice leading
created contrast to a basic triad. The tones of the triad were contrasted
with neighbor and or passing tones. The particulars of his voice leading
were observed in late 18th and early nineteenth century european musics; I
have no doubt that alternative particulars could be observed in other
musics. Bohlen's method of scale construction appears to be in the same
spirit - if not derived specifically from voice leading in a particular
repertoire. Great minds think alike...

What still appears the be curious to me about both infill methods of scale
construction is why a triadic infill of the octave (4,5,6,8) should be
preferred to, for example, the tetrad (4,5,6,7,8), and why the harmonic
infills are preferred over subharmonic or neutral divisions. (And why
should a harmonic triadic infill (4,5,6,8) be itself infilled in a
non-harmonic way (i.e. the diatonic scale and not harmonics 8 through 16).
Are these preferences innate or acquired, and if acquired (my own
suspicion), what is the range of possible variation?

Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 14:37 +0100
Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA23095; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 14:39:36 +0100
Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA23064
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id FAA06191; Wed, 11 Dec 1996 05:39:33 -0800
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 05:39:33 -0800
Message-Id: <01BBE73D.AF0FF320@ashcraac.sct.ucarb.com>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu