Generative theory of tonal music

The generative theory of tonal music (GTTM) is a system of music analysis developed by music theorist Fred Lerdahl and linguist Ray Jackendoff.^[1] First presented in their 1983 book of the same title, it constitutes a "formal description of the musical intuitions of a listener who is experienced in a musical idiom"^[1] with the aim of illuminating the unique human capacity for musical understanding.^[2]

The musical collaboration between Lerdahl and Jackendoff was inspired by Leonard Bernstein's 1973 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, wherein he called for researchers to uncover a musical grammar that could explain the human musical mind in a scientific manner comparable to Noam Chomsky's revolutionary transformational or generative grammar.^[3]

Unlike the major methodologies of music analysis that preceded it, GTTM construes the mental procedures under which the listener constructs an unconscious understanding of music, and uses these tools to illuminate the structure of individual compositions. The theory has been influential, spurring further work by its authors and other researchers in the fields of music theory, music cognition and cognitive musicology.^[4]

^ ^a ^b Lerdahl & Jackendoff 1983, p. 1.
^ Lerdahl & Jackendoff 1983.
^ Chomsky, Noam (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton; Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press; Chomsky, Noam (1966). Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar. The Hague: Mouton.
^ Jackendoff, Ray (1987). Consciousness and the Computational Mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press; Temperley, David (2001). The Cognition of Basic Musical Structures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press; Lerdahl, Fred (2001). Tonal Pitch Space. New York: Oxford University Press; Lerdahl, F., & R. Jackendoff (2006). "The Capacity for Music: What Is It, and What's Special About It?" Cognition, 100.1, 33–72.

[FOOTNOTELerdahlJackendoff19831-1] Lerdahl & Jackendoff 1983, p. 1.

[FOOTNOTELerdahlJackendoff1983-2] Lerdahl & Jackendoff 1983.

[3] Chomsky, Noam (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton; Chomsky, Noam (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press; Chomsky, Noam (1966). Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar. The Hague: Mouton.

[4] Jackendoff, Ray (1987). Consciousness and the Computational Mind. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press; Temperley, David (2001). The Cognition of Basic Musical Structures. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press; Lerdahl, Fred (2001). Tonal Pitch Space. New York: Oxford University Press; Lerdahl, F., & R. Jackendoff (2006). "The Capacity for Music: What Is It, and What's Special About It?" Cognition, 100.1, 33–72.

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