That mid-to-late nineteenth-century chromatic tonality challenges diatonic-based prolongational models of tonality is a well-known assertion. Recently, the field has embraced alternative frameworks, especially neo-Riemannian and transformational approaches, to account for coherence in the works of composers such as Richard Wagner or Richard Strauss. These approaches, however, only occasionally capture the extent to which this repertoire exhibits the prolongational procedures operative in classical tonality despite the unfamiliarity of the chromatic syntax. My dissertation investigates how this chromatic syntax can be approached as an extension of familiar diatonic models. My broader theoretic basis involves recognizing a proliferation of harmonic polysemy, whereby chords that have commonplace sonorities do not function in ways traditionally associated with that sonority. To account for this disjunction, I develop a model of Functional Interval Progressions (FIPs), which proposes dominant function is a product not of sonority, nor an isolated leading tone, but rather a combination of a univalent dissonance (a tritone or diminished seventh) combined with its conventional resolution: in short, I suggest function is a product of motion. I apply this principle in various ways. Firstly, I postulate the possibility of chromatically altered diminished-seventh chords: these chords often have the sonority of commonplace tonal chords, such as dominant or half-diminished sevenths, but their behaviour is more consistent with diminished-seventh chords. The presence and resolution of a diminished-seventh interval, I posit, overwrites the centrifugal nature of the chromatic alteration. I then export this principle to triads, arguing that a similar half-enharmonic reinterpretation can explain what Lorenz (1933) refers to as apparent consonances. Contrary to Cohn (2004/2012), I view these triads then as tonal dissonances, rather than as acoustic consonances. Lastly, I argue for a contextual remodeling of chordal inversion, following Schenker's (1922) notion of "the roothood-tendency of the lowest tone," suggesting that in certain cases inverted chords project the function of their bass, rather than their root. I conclude by applying these principles to larger-scale analysis, proposing that through a more thorough understanding of the surface-level harmonic syntax, deeper-level prolongations- and their relationships to one another-can be adduced with greater certainty and clarity in highly chromatic music.

'Transformational analysis in practice' is a Must-Have for everyone working in the field or aspiring to develop their music-analytical and theoretical skills in transformational theory. This co-authored book puts together a plethora of analytical studies, diverse both in the repertoires covered and the methodologies employed. It is a much-needed anthology in this sub-field of music analysis, which has been developing and growing in recent years, reaching ever wider outlets in English-speaking countries and beyond, from dedicated conference panels to YouTube videos. The book is divided into four parts based on the repertoires under discussion. Part I encompasses four analytical studies on familiar composers from the European Romanticism of the nineteenth century. Part II analyzes the music of less familiar composers from Brazil and Turkey. Part III offers four contrasting ways to adapt the analytical capabilities of neo-Riemannian theory to the post-tonal music of the twentieth century. Catering to the interests of jazz performers and researchers, as well as those into popular music production, Part IV offers transformational analytical approaches to both notated and improvised jazz, emphasizing John Coltrane’s performance. Providing an invaluable synthesis of a wide range of analytical studies, this book will be an essential companion for many musicology students, as well as for performers and composers.

Applicable on a wide scale not only to this repertory, Harrison's lucid explications of abstract theoretical concepts provide new insights into the workings of tonal systems in general.

In 1861, a half-century before Arnold Schoenberg's break with tonality, a young composer associated with Liszt saw a threshold to musical modernism as lodged in the "suspension of the main key." As the unified tonal perspective of earlier music yielded increasingly to dualistic key structures often laden with chromaticism, the language of music was transformed. In The Second Practice of Nineteenth-Century Tonality, nine prominent theorists and historians explore aspects of this musical evolution, from Schubert to the end of the nineteenth century. Many works discussed are masterpieces of the performance repertory, ranging from Chopin's piano pieces and Wagner's music dramas to the symphonies of Bruckner. The integration of analytical and historical approaches in the essays seeks to avoid narrow specialization as well as the polemic stance of some recent studies. A critical assessment of issues including inter-textuality, narrative, and dramatic symbolism enriches this investigation of what may be described as the "second practice" of nineteenth-century tonality.

The harmonic language of the late nineteenth-century is studied here as a development of common-practice tonality, taking as a model selected songs by Hugo Wolf. Late nineteenth-century romantic composers employed extended-tonal language in a variety of genres, and a special feature of such tonal exapansion was the use of extra musical elements. Hugo Wolfs output, encompassing over 160 miniature masterworks, displays all the necessary characteristics, and makes an ideal subject for studying extensions of tonality. The study is organised to focus on individual techniques of tonal expanison, then to explore the foundations of that technique, and finally, to illustrate the conclusions with particular Wolf songs. Necessarily, Wolf's relationship to Richard Wagner, and to Wagner's revolutionary musical language, forms a part of this study, and so too does the similarity of Wolf's music to that of his contemporaries.

Through analysis, Matthew Bribitzer-Stull explores the legacy of the leitmotif, from Wagner's Ring cycle to present-day Hollywood film music.