Music Theory IV with Paul Dell Aquila

Assigned Reading, Homework Schedule, and Class Agenda (PDF)

Semester Topics

Tonal Harmony Review

Review of Music Theory III Topics

Enharmonicism

Enharmonic Spelling for Convenience
Enharmonic Reinterpretation
Enharmonic Modulation Using Major-Minor Seventh Chords
Enharmonic Modulation Using Diminished-Seventh Chords

Cross Rhythms

Two against Three
Three against Four

Altered Dominant Chords

The Dominant with a Substituted 6th
The Dominant with a Raised 5th

Extended Chords and the Common-Tone Diminished 7th

Extended Tertian Sonorities (9th, 11th, and 13th Chords)
The Common-Tone Diminished 7th Chord

Nontraditional Use of Traditional Sonorities

Ecclesiastical Modes

Diatonic Church Modes

Other Pitch Collections

Pentatonic Scales
Octatonic (Diminished) Scale
Whole-Tone Scale
Hybrid Scales

Chromatic Sequence

Review of Diatonic Sequence
Chromatic Sequence
Omnibus Sequence

Twentieth-Century Chord Structures and Polytonality

Polyharmony
Split-Third Sonorities
Quartal and Quintal Harmony
Secundal Harmony and Tone Clusters
Polytonality

Twentieth-Century Rhythmic Techniques

Asymmetric and Composite Meters
Mixed Meters
Displaced Accent
Polyrhythm and Polymeter
Metric Modulation
Additive Rhythm

Parallelism

Diatonic Planing
Chromatic Planing

Pitch-Class Set Theory

Integer Notation
Pitch Class Sets and Segmentation
Normal Order
Checking the Inversion
Best Normal Order
Prime Form
Interval Class Vectors

Serialism

Twelve-Tone Serialism
Transposition, Inversion, and Retrograde
The 12×12 Matrix
Total Serialization

New Ways to Articulate Musical Form

Sectional Forms
Form and Register
Substitutes for Tonal Function
Repetition Forms in Non-tonal Music
Canon and Imitation
Moment Form and Mobile Form
Indeterminacy and Chance

The Composer's Materials Today