A level also "tonality level", Gerhard Kubik

Gerhard Kubik

Gerhard Kubik is an Austrian music ethnologist from Vienna. Kubik studied ethnology, musicology and African languages at the University of Vienna. He published his doctoral dissertation in 1971 and achieved habilitation in 1980....

's "tonal step", and John Blacking

John Blacking

John Anthony Randoll Blacking was a British ethnomusicologist and social anthropologist.John Blacking was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and at King's College, Cambridge, where he was a pupil of the illustrious anthropologist, Meyer Fortes.After serving with the British Army in Malaysia,...

's "root progression

Root (chord)

In music theory, the root of a chord is the note or pitch upon which a triadic chord is built. For example, the root of the major triad C-E-G is C....

") is a temporary modal frame

Modal frame

In music a melodic mode or modal frame is one of, "a number of types permeating and unifying African, European, and American song" and melody. "Mode" and "frame" are used in this context interchangeably. Melodic modes allow melodies which are not chord-based or determined by the harmony but...

 contrasted with another temporary modal frame built on a different foundation note. It is more general and basic than a chord

Chord (music)

A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...

 and is found in Asian, African

Music of Africa

Africa is a vast continent and its regions and nations have distinct musical traditions. The music of North Africa for the most part has a different history from sub-Saharan African music traditions....

, and Celtic

Celtic music

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...

 folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

s and in European Renaissance music

Renaissance music

Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...

. Levels then give way to chords and chord changes in Baroque music

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 and in the twentieth-century chords give way to levels in the blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, completed with the V-IV-I progression, and spread to all popular music

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

. (van der Merwe 1989, p.209-211)

Each level is based on one pitch

Pitch (music)

Pitch is an auditory perceptual property that allows the ordering of sounds on a frequency-related scale.Pitches are compared as "higher" and "lower" in the sense associated with musical melodies,...

, a foundation note, upon which a melodic

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

 or harmonic

Harmony

In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...

-melodic third

Third

Third may refer to:*3 , such as the 3rd of something -see also Ordinal number *Fraction , such as 1/3*1/60 of a second, or 1/3,600 of a minute *Third World, economically underdeveloped nations...

, triad (fifth

Perfect fifth

In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is a musical interval encompassing five staff positions , and the perfect fifth is a fifth spanning seven semitones, or in meantone, four diatonic semitones and three chromatic semitones...

) (such as in the song "Shallow Brown"), or seventh

Seventh

Seventh may refer to:* Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution-Music:* Diminished seventh, a chromatically reduced minor seventh interval...

 (such as in the song "Donald MacGillavry") may be built. A "change" in levels is called a shift. For example, double-tonic tunes such as "Donald MacGillavry" feature shifts of level (notes: A to G) which are more emphatic than chord changes (chords: Am-G), but not as emphatic as modulations

Modulation (music)

In music, modulation is most commonly the act or process of changing from one key to another. This may or may not be accompanied by a change in key signature. Modulations articulate or create the structure or form of many pieces, as well as add interest...

 (keys: A minor to G major):
The foundation is the most important note and chords built are almost always in root position. The fifth is next in importance, and consecutive fifths are most often emphasized in shifts of level while being banned in the common practice period

Common practice period

The common practice period, in the history of Western art music , spanning the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods, lasted from c. 1600 to c. 1900.-General characteristics:...

. The third is less important and often blue

Blue note

In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...

, neutral

Neutral third

A neutral third is a musical interval wider than a minor third but narrower than a major third . Three distinct intervals may be termed neutral thirds:...

, or changing from major

Major third

In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the largest of the two: the major third spans four semitones, the minor third three...

 to minor

Minor third

In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the minor third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. The minor quality specification identifies it as being the smallest of the two: the minor third spans three semitones, the major...

. This last characteristic is common in the English virginalist

Virginalist

Virginalist denotes a composer of the so-called virginalist school, and usually refers to the English keyboard composers of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods. The term does not appear to have been applied earlier than the 19th century...

s music such as William Byrd

William Byrd

William Byrd was an English composer of the Renaissance. He wrote in many of the forms current in England at the time, including various types of sacred and secular polyphony, keyboard and consort music.-Provenance:Knowledge of Byrd's biography expanded in the late 20th century, thanks largely...

's "The Woods so Wild" theme, which is an example of levels (F and G) being elaborated through cadence

Cadence (music)

In Western musical theory, a cadence is, "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of repose or resolution [finality or pause]." A harmonic cadence is a progression of two chords that concludes a phrase, section, or piece of music...

, melodic divergance from the accompaniment

Accompaniment

In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...

, and subsidiary chord

Subsidiary chord

In music and musical analysis, a subsidiary chord is an elaboration of a principal harmonic chord in a chord progression.If the principal chord is partially replaced by the subsidiary , there are three possible positions - beginning, middle, and end - for the subsidiary:For example, a subsidiary...

s, reaching a complete little cadential phrase

Phrase (music)

In music and music theory, phrase and phrasing are concepts and practices related to grouping consecutive melodic notes, both in their composition and performance...

. In the blues and blues-influenced popular music elaboration happens within the chords, as in boogie-woogie bass, which are the primary triad

Primary triad

In music, a primary triad is a one of the three triads, or three note chord built from thirds, most important in tonal and diatonic music, as opposed to an auxiliary triad or secondary triad....

s rather than a tone apart, and the melody also contrasts with the bassline

Bassline

A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...

. (van der Merwe 1989)

See also

• Phrase modulation
• Theory of levels
  Schenkerian analysis
  Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker. The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work. The theory's basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music...
  
  

Source

• van der Merwe
  Peter van der Merwe
  Peter van der Merwe was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He is a musicologist, author, and librarian at the Natal Society Library. He has written several books on the history of modern classical music. He studied at the College of Music at the University of Cape Town. He also works as a cataloguer...
  
  , Peter (1989). Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-316121-4.