The Dimension of the Tone
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The world of the tone, even of the tone we hear inside with our inner ear, is the objective sphere of music, its outer shell. This tone may be structured as simple and unintelligent as the elements in the field of matter, or as complex and intelligent as the physiology of living beings depending on which musical spirit abides within the tone, which musical structural means enlivens it from within, and which degree of order it embodies.
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The Physics of the Tone |
Thus, the tone is the body of the music but not the music itself.
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The Organism of Music |
The organism of the tone is its inner tonality, and the potential of the tone appears in its overtone-mechanics.
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Motifs are the enlivening inner forces of the organs of the tone the elements of tonality. Here, in the world of the musical sound-space, the subjective and the objective spheres of music meet: objective with regard to the physics of the tone, its overtone structure; subjective with regard to its inner sociology, its inner formative forces, e.g. the motifs.
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The Tone as the Medium of the Subjective and the Objective Spheres of Music |
Thus, on the level of the microcosm of music, tonality is the natural link between the subjective and the objective spheres of music.
That aspect of tonality which sounds is the gross “material” body of music, and that aspect which does not sound is the subtle, the “immaterial” body of music which, however, is the basis of the gross sounding body, because from it the musical ideas of the composition flow into the sound, thus turning it into music.
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Tonality as the Link between the Subjective and Objective Spheres of Music
The Tonality of Music in the Tone |
In the conventional performance we know the so-called sound or tone of an instrument. Physically, its sound-spectrum is based on periodically oscillating overtones, and this instrument sound is supported by the musician who, when producing a sound, leaves the instrument predominantly to itself. This is also called producing “instrumentspecific sounds.”
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The Generation of Tones in Conventional Performance |
However, during his inner musical creative process the composer does not bind himself to the sound of an instrument but rather thinks, “How can the music that I just heard inside be generated outside with instruments?”
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The Original Tone-Concept of the Composer |