Ideas for a Study "On the Imagination of Tone"
Hugo Riemann · Journal of Music Theory · 1992
A guiding principle that extends throughout my music-theoretic and music-aesthetic work from the time of my dissertation (Musikalische Logik, Leipzig, C. F. Kahnt, 1873)1 is that music listening is not merely a passive processing of sound effects in the ear but, on the contrary, a highly developed manifestation of the logical functions of the human intellect. Without being absolutely clear myself of that which I really sought and to which I aspired, I have gradually developed a kind of musical grammar in my new system of notation for harmony (Skizze einer neuen Methode der Harmonielehre, [Leipzig] 1880) in its various stages of development up to the formulation of the Lehre von den tonalen Funktionen der Harmonie (Vereinfachte Harmonielehre, 1893), and likewise in the labelling of rhythmic elements in music (phrase markings) from the very first articles to raise the question in Musikalisches Wochenblatt (1882)2 up to the formulation of a System der musikalischen Rhythmik und Metrik (1904).3 In the harmonic concepts tonic, dominant, subdominant, and the rhythmic concepts heavy and light beats, heavy and light measures, antecedent, consequent, etc., this grammar points to the