Musical Forces and Agential Energies
Robert S. Hatten · Music Theory Online · 2012
Building on Steve Larson’s theory of musical forces (gravity, magnetism, and inertia), I develop a distinction between environmental forces and agential energies, and explore musical analogues to momentum, friction, and repulsion. I demonstrate how we may infer a virtual agent as constrained by environmental forces, but also as contributing its own energy, and even encountering potential friction or repulsion by other, contextually inferred agents (which may or may not be animate). My examples include short excerpts from Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schoenberg, as well as a brief composition of my own, dedicated to Steve Larson.