Research of Musical System Planes and System Levels
Jenö Keuler · Studia Musicologica · 1998
1.1 First of all I have to explain that the notions in the title of my paper ('system plane', and 'system level') are used according to Gerd Pawelzig's definition given in his book: entitled Dialectics of Objective Systems 'Development (Pawelzig 1974 and 1970).' 1.2 Pawelzig, forming his idea about the notion of 'system', stated: .. every system consists of elements, which ... belong together having one or more mutual relations (connections) to one another. (Pawelzig 1974: 25)2 According to this, the simplest system possible has two elements and one connection. (Pawelzig 1974: 27).3 1.3 From the statement that every system consists of elements such a conclusion may not be drawn that the elements should be things existing by themselves. For a musical example, the presence of a system can be revealed even in the appearance of a sine tone, considering, that it is characterized by its timbre, pitch and loudness that have some kind of relations to one another, though none of them can exist without the others. In Pawelzig's book there are no musical examples. He has explained this problem by the case of the opposing sides of a dialectic contradiction, where the opposing sides a) exclude each other, b) require each other,