2002 M.T.S.N.Y.S. Emerging Scholar Award: A Classification Scheme for Harmonic Sequences
Adam Ricci · 2016
Music theorists classify the harmonic sequences of tonal music in various ways, according to root motion, contrapuntal patterns, harmonic function, or some combination of these. Unfortunately, as Richard Bass put it in a 1996 article, There is neither a consistent, established terminology adequate for in-depth analyses of sequential passages nor general agreement as to classification of sequence or even about what constitutes a proper sequence.2 Even among the modern-day standard types, there is wide variance and curious inconsistency in labelling. In addition, current and past classification systems generally limit themselves to a repertory of common sequences; some musical passages that are clearly sequential have no corresponding label in these systems. In the present paper, I propose a model that leads to a comprehensive classification of sequences by their 1) constituent root motions and 2) degree of voice-leading smoothness. The paper falls into five parts: part I briefly surveys selected sequence labels by previous authors; part II defines the sequence in terms of an interaction between pitchand pitch-class transposition; part III enumerates the family of sequences to which the familiar sequences belong twochord sequences, modulo 7; part IV develops a way to classify sequences based on voice-leading smoothness; and part V returns to the family of two-chord diatonic sequences, illustrating some unfamiliar sequences within that family.