Modal Pitch Space — A Theoretical and Analytical Study

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to the pitch space of the seven diatonic modes. The proposed theory is an expansion of Fred Lerdahl's tonal pitch space model; its purpose is a more accurate description of the situations involved in the analysis of diatonic modal music. The original methodology and set of algebraic calculating formulae is retained, but it is applied on modal instead of tonal space, on the basis that the latter is a subset of the former. In connection to Fred Lerdahl's theory, melodic motion, chord attraction and various cadence types are described within the modal context. Apart from the calculation of the pitch and the chordal and regional space algebraic representations, geometrical representations of all three levels of the modal pitch space are also included. Finally, the stability conditions arising from the new model are used as criteria to build the time span reduction and prolongational reduction parts of the Generative Theory of Tonal Music (GTTM) analysis of modal music. Two short GTTM analyses of 20th century modal music are being presented to illustrate the new model's analytical use.