Colloquium Music Theory

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According to the dominant paradigm in modern harmonic theory, each chord possesses a root that defines its identity. This conception contrasts with the less widespread view according to which a chord may comprehend multiple roots. The distinction corresponds to that between monorhizy and polyrhizy, neologisms signifying, respectively, "the quality of having a single root" and "the quality of having multiple roots." Polyrhizic analysis originates in the eighteenth-century, in the theory of Jean Philippe Rameau, and undergoes important developments in writings of Jean Adam Serre and Hugo Riemann. Following its apogee at the turn of the twentieth century, the concept of polyrhizy is eclipsed by plurifunctionalism, in which certain notes no longer refer directly to roots. It is in this partially arhizic state ("without roots") that the legacy of polyrhizy has found resonance in North America in recent decades, notably through the work of Daniel Harrison. Perpetually overshadowed by monorhizy, polyrhizy is rarely discussed and often abandoned, presumably because it challenges the very foundations of harmonic theory. Yet it offers effective solutions for the analysis of sonorities that resist monorhizic tools.

Adam Francis Filaber is a PhD candidate in musicology at McGill University and at Sorbonne Université. His research encompasses various topics in the history of harmony and harmonic theory, from antiquity to the present day. In his thesis, he is examining the heterogenous meanings of the term "function" in harmonic theory since the nineteenth century.

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