Honors Program

Fine and Performing Arts Honors

Date of Award

5-2019

Thesis Professor(s)

Matthew Potterton

Thesis Professor Department

Music

Thesis Reader(s)

Martin Walters

Abstract

I set out to experiment and justify the use of a new theory called Negative Harmony in 21st century music. Negative Harmony is a musical avenue from which composers can glean new tones within traditional music theory rules. I took inspiration from the current leading authority on the topic, Jacob Collier, as well as older scholars from the 20th century, such as Ernst Levy and George Rochberg. I conducted research on the theory by finding its relation to major and minor chords, and how these mirrored chords worked from a theory standpoint. I then composed two original works, one piano piece and one piece for SATB choir and piano. I aimed to find the best balance between the unfamiliar negative chords and the familiar positive chords. I then looked to justify the use of this theory through the writings of scholars and modern music listeners and casual music makers.

Publisher

East Tennessee State University

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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