Twelve Tonality Music Theory Research

In20century, the music theory is contending. It seems like a colorful kaleidoscope, which isreflected away from the tonal music features. For the pitch organization issues and method ofanalysis, many theorists want to conclude an alternative way of the high pitch control, while theTwelve-Tone Tonality, written by George Perl, is one of the most influential books. According to theanalysis of the “Twelve-Tone Tonality”, this assay analyzed the tight of organization of high pitchand the logical force of internal structure. For the exploration of new musical techniques,thecomposers can manage the material of high pitch in this way, which could give the musical worksthe logic and express the characteristics of liberalization, while the new way of high pitchorganization controlling is gained by the exploratory. Twelve-tone tonality belongs to the category ofatonal music, so it has the general characteristics of atonal music. The author tries to compare it withtwelve-tone sequence of Schoenberg and intend viewing twelve-tone tonality and twelve-tonesequences on equal status, so it can be avoided using mainstream style to describe the compositiontechniques and music features of this period. In this music era of complex technique, we should takean objective attitude towards the understanding of these genres, avoiding leaning to either side as faras possible. However, through Perl’s naming of “twelve-tone tonality", Perl tried to link thetwelve-tone tonality with traditional tonality. According to Perl’s theory, the tonality still exists inthe pitch relationship of atonal music, and his harmony thinking has common with traditionaltonality. The author compares also twelve-tone tonality with traditional tonality in the tonal pitchorganization mode.The thesis has two parts. The first part focuses on the structure framework of twelve-tonetonality. This part is divided into five chapters, the first chapter is the theoretical premise oftwelve-tone tonality; the second chapter is the interpretation of basic concepts in the theory oftwelve-tone tonality; the third chapter elaborates three kinds of tonality and transposing mode; thefourth chapter introduces the harmonic progression and the fifth chapter is a section,which theauthor concluded by herself: the composition method of sum and dirfference table. In the secondpart the author compares the twelve-tone tonality, tonal music and twelve-tone sequence. Throughthe comparison, the similarities and differences are showed on the pitch organization, which reflectsthe value of twelve-tone tonality for the research of post tonal music theory.