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Book Reviews

Book Reviews Music Perception Winter 2002, Vol. 20, No. 2, 195­218 © 2002 BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. William Thomson, Tonality in Music: A General Theory. San Marino, CA: Everett Books, 1999. 358 pp., ISBN 0-940459-19-1, $42.50 (hard cover). William Thomson makes it clear at the outset that the book's title is not just publisher's hype. His intention is to propose nothing less than a single theory of tonality in music, covering a breathtakingly broad musical expanse: My frame of reference . . . includes that "significant body of literature" encompassed by nothing less than the whole of history. My stylistic interest is the repertory of Homo sapiens sapientiae, my goal is understanding that embraces as much music as possible . . . (p. 10) My principal goal is to lay bare the perceptual conditions and causes of a most basic pitch phenomenon, one that has coerced humanity's play with sound patterns for many thousands of years in many places. (p. 13) Through the remainder of Chapter 1, the reader encounters a lucid, sometimes-droll account of the complex and often tautological nature of many leading definitions of tonality. The tight linkage of harmony, scale, http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Music Perception University of California Press

Book Reviews

Music Perception , Volume 20 (2) – Jan 1, 2002
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Publisher
University of California Press
Copyright
Copyright © by the University of California Press
Subject
Book Review
ISSN
0730-7829
eISSN
1533-8312
DOI
10.1525/mp.2002.20.2.195
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Music Perception Winter 2002, Vol. 20, No. 2, 195­218 © 2002 BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. William Thomson, Tonality in Music: A General Theory. San Marino, CA: Everett Books, 1999. 358 pp., ISBN 0-940459-19-1, $42.50 (hard cover). William Thomson makes it clear at the outset that the book's title is not just publisher's hype. His intention is to propose nothing less than a single theory of tonality in music, covering a breathtakingly broad musical expanse: My frame of reference . . . includes that "significant body of literature" encompassed by nothing less than the whole of history. My stylistic interest is the repertory of Homo sapiens sapientiae, my goal is understanding that embraces as much music as possible . . . (p. 10) My principal goal is to lay bare the perceptual conditions and causes of a most basic pitch phenomenon, one that has coerced humanity's play with sound patterns for many thousands of years in many places. (p. 13) Through the remainder of Chapter 1, the reader encounters a lucid, sometimes-droll account of the complex and often tautological nature of many leading definitions of tonality. The tight linkage of harmony, scale,

Journal

Music Perception – University of California Press

Published: Jan 1, 2002

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