Macroharmony Explained

In music analysis, macroharmony comprises the discrete pitch classes in a given (structural) duration of time.

Tymoczko's concept and project

Macroharmony was defined by Dmitri Tymoczko in A Geometry of Music (2011). He wanted to discuss "music that is neither classically tonal nor completely atonal" (see chromaticism and nonchord tones).

Tymoczko observed that relatively limited macroharmonies, of between five and eight pitch classes, tended to contribute to a sense of tonality. He observed limited macroharmonies as one of five general (universal) features of "virtually all human music". The others were conjunct melodic motion, acoustic consonance, harmonic consistency, and pitch centricity. He considered their (non-)interaction, relative importance, and mutual reinforcement.

Of macroharmonies specifically, he asked:

• What is the number of pitch classes in a given macroharmony, if fewer than the total chromatic (aggregate)?
• What is the rate at which given macroharmonies change?
• What is the relationship (e.g., transpositional) between given macroharmonies?
• What are the intervallic qualities (consonance or dissonance) of a given macroharmony?

He proposed to show:

• the rate at which pitch classes are used with graphs ("pitch-class circulation graphs"), and
• the number and relative proportion of pitch classes on a large scale ("global macroharmonic profiles").

See also

• chroma feature or chromagram
• Fred Lerdahl's Cognitive Constraints on Compositional Systems (1988)
• Italian: [[musica ficta]]
• musical set theory
• musical texture
• musical transformation
• pitch space
• Schenkerian analysis
• simultaneity