Everyday Tonality II

by Philip Tagg

Dominant, subdominant, perfect cadence, etc. —handy terms when studying the standard euroclassical and jazz repertoires but not much use if you want to understand the tonal idioms of rock, rebetiko, flamenco, son-bolero, traditional music from the British Isles or the Balkans, news jingles, and all those other musics in which final cadences (if any) don’t have to be ‘perfect’, where ‘interrupted cadences’ (if any) can be final, and where a ‘subdominant’ (if any) has no dominant to which it can be ‘sub’.

This book replaces the ethnocentric confusion of conventional music theory with concepts that make sense of everyday tonality —like the melodic hexatonicism of It’s Not Unusual, unusual in music theory, not in real life. The quartal sounds of mountain banjo tuning, corporate jingles, Bartók quartets, TV themes and folk-rock accompaniment are another focus of attention, as are the functions of modal harmony’s chord loops and shuttles, ‘flat two modes’, bimodal reversibility, tonal counterpoise, etc.

“‘Come out of the nineteenth-century music theory closet’, writes Tagg. With his inimitable wit and... attention to detail, he rewrites the rule book and makes you question commonly held assumptions about music theory... In a chapter on ‘one-chord harmony’ Tagg demonstrates tonal elaboration and its relationship to groove and style using sixteen different popular music examples showing how a single chord on a lead sheet does not imply harmonic impoverishment. He also shows how chord shuttles are ongoing tonal states, not the narrative processes that traditional theory would have us believe to be of prime importance. I recommend you get inside Tagg’s terminology, try out his ideas with musical examples of your own and make up your own mind.” (Sue Miller, Senior Lecturer in Music, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge)

This book contains 289 music examples, and 113 figures and tables, including complete chord charts and explanations of both lead-sheet and roman-numeral chord symbols. It’s for anyone who can read staff notation and who wants to hear the music of everyday life with open ears and an unprejudiced mind.

Genres: Music

600 pages, ebook

First published October 8, 2014

Reviews

[Ashanti · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best music books I've ever read. Not because I find every single one of Tagg's arguments compelling, but because of the strong analytical tools he presents that can be used to analyze music. If I had to sum up one major takeaway from this book, it's that, when analyzing music, I should prioritize *how I actually hear the music* and figure out the analytical tools that describe why I hear it the way they do. That may sound basic, but in runs counter to how many of us are taught music in schools. For example, that V7 ones *need* a resolution even if, being honest with myself, I hear it as a totally stable sound. This book has reframed my understanding of my music and made me better at discussing it.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book and the topics it addresses desperately need more attention, and it is an especially important read for music educators. Everyday Tonality is, by the author's admission, far from exhaustive or fully satisfactory, but it is one of the most important books about music I have ever read. From musical exoticism and its effects on Western musical idioms, to permanent Picardy thirds in minor-mode chord progressions, to semiotic analysis of an Obama-era song about hope, and much much more, this book will change the way you hear and engage with all kinds of music if you are willing to let it challenge your preconceptions. Philip Tagg was and is a genuine treasure and his passion for taking seriously the musics that billions of people worldwide hear as theirs shines through his analyses brilliantly.