Murray Dineen
This paper sets forth a pedagogical model developed to teach students to interpret historical treatises and apply their interpretation to create theoretical models applicable to musical works. The paper draws primarily upon Schoenberg's writings on tonal music and the literature of his early songs, but it also considers recent theoretical studies - the study of interval cycles in particular. The pedagogical goal is to develop historians of early twentieth century theory engaged with new theoretical developments.
The foundation of the paper is a concept of pitch space proper to the early compositions of Arnold Schoenberg, but which may be applied to other contemporaneous works. The pitch space under consideration is a cyclic space built of tonal regions, a space which Schoenberg described in his writings on music theory by means of the familiar circle of fifths and his Chart of the Regions. Schoenberg's conception of cyclic space can be reinterpreted in light of recent literature on interval cycles so as to yield new, less cumbersome descriptive models in the form of lists and arrays that set forth the regions of a tonality as various interlocking cycles.
While Schoenberg's treatises and music, and recent thought about interval cycles serves as primary subject matter, the paper will conclude by considering other theorists, contemporary models, and literatures that might serve its pedagogical aim.