the cambridge

history of
WESTERN
M U S I C T H E O RY
*

edited by
THOMAS CHRISTENSEN

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

 published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridge
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Cambridge University Press 2002

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2002

Third printing 2006

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeface Renard Beta 9/12.5 pt System QuarkXPress [se]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

The Cambridge history of Western music theory / edited by Thomas Christensen.

p. cm. (The Cambridge history of music)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0 521 62371 5 (hardback)
1. Music theory History. i. Christensen, Thomas Street. ii. Series.
ml3800.c165 2001
781.09dc21 00-050366

isbn 0 521 62371 5 hardback

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

 Contents

List of plates xi
List of gures xiii
Notes on contributors xvi
Acknowledgments xxi
List of abbreviations xxii

Introduction 1
thomas christensen

part i
disciplining music theory

1 . Mapping the terrain 27

leslie blasius

2 . Musica practica: music theory as pedagogy 46

r o b e r t w. w a s o n

3 . Epistemologies of music theory 78

nicholas cook

part ii
speculative traditions

4 . Greek music theory 109

thomas j. mathiesen

5 . The transmission of ancient music theory into the Middle Ages 136
calvin m. bower

6 . Medieval canonics 168

jan herlinger

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

viii Contents

7 . Tuning and temperament 193

rudolf rasch

8 . The role of harmonics in the scientic revolution 223

penelope gouk

9 . From acoustics to Tonpsychologie 246

burdette green and david butler

10 . Music theory and mathematics 272

catherine nolan

part iii
regulative traditions

A Mapping tonal spaces

11 . Notes, scales, and modes in the earlier Middle Ages 307

david e. cohen

12 . Renaissance modal theory: theoretical, compositional, and

editorial perspectives 364
cristle collins judd

13 . Tonal organization in seventeenth-century music theory 407

gregory barnett

14 . Dualist tonal space and transformation in nineteenth-century

musical thought 456
henry klumpenhouwer

B Compositional Theory

15 . Organum discantus contrapunctus in the Middle Ages 477

sarah fuller

16 . Counterpoint pedagogy in the Renaissance 503

peter schubert

17 . Performance theory 534

albert cohen

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

 Contents ix

18 . Steps to Parnassus: contrapuntal theory in 1725

precursors and successors 554
ian bent

19 . Twelve-tone theory 603

john covach

C Time

20 . The evolution of rhythmic notation 628

anna maria busse berger

21 . Theories of musical rhythm in the eighteenth and

nineteenth centuries 657
william e. caplin

22 . Rhythm in twentieth-century theory 695

justin london

D Tonality

23 . Tonality 726
brian hyer

24 . Rameau and eighteenth-century harmonic theory 753

joel lester

25 . Nineteenth-century harmonic theory: the Austro-German legacy 778

d a v i d w. b e r n s t e i n

26 . Heinrich Schenker 812

william drabkin

part iv
descriptive traditions

A Models of music analysis

27 . Music and rhetoric 847

patrick mccreless

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008

x Contents

28 . Form 880
scott burnham

29 . Thematic and motivic analysis 907

jonathan dunsby

B Music psychology

30 . Energetics 927
lee rothfarb

31 . The psychology of music 956

robert gjerdingen

Index of authors 982

Index of subjects 993

Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008