Ernst Levy's A Theory of Harmony

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Ernst Levy's A Theory of Harmony represents an unusual approach that is only marginally received in current music theory discourse and attempts to create a comprehensive, holistically conceived model of harmony. The focus is on deriving tonal relations from the structure of a generator and from the principles of polar sound genesis and dynamic striving. The starting point is the Tabula Pythagorica as an ordering model of harmonic and arithmetic tone relationships, from whose division and multiplication series functional tones, sound formations and models of harmonic organization develop.
Levy's approach draws on speculative and dualistic traditions of harmonics, but transforms them into an independent, generator-based system. The decisive factor here is the distancing from a primarily physicalistic justification of harmonic relations. The starting point is not so much the acoustical natural phenomenon as the mathematical-logical structure of tonal relationships. The genesis of sounds is not traced back to a foundation, but understood as the unfolding of a generator; the foundation remains a subordinate - telluric - auxiliary construct of tonal realization. However, it is precisely from this that central areas of tension arise, especially in the relationship between generator and foundation, between abstract sound genesis and concrete tonal stabilization, as well as in the interpretation of polar and gravitationally conceived force relations.
Against this background, in addition to presenting the system-internal foundations, the lecture focuses on the question of the extent to which Levy's approach can be made fruitful for the analysis of harmonic relationships and as a basis for compositional thinking. It will be shown that, despite systematic ambivalences, Levy's theoretical concept has productive analytical and compositional potential. Its strength lies less in the provision of a completely closed system than in the opening up of alternative perspectives on harmonic organization, tonal tension and generative structuring processes.

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