String-based methods for tonal harmony: A corpus study of Haydn's string quartets

TL;DR

This study explores how string-based analytical methods can uncover principles of tonal harmony in Haydn's string quartets, focusing on recurrence, syntax, and recursion to understand musical organization.

Contribution

It adapts string-based methods to music analysis and provides empirical evidence for three fundamental principles of tonal harmony in Haydn's quartets.

Findings

Evidence for recurrence, syntax, and recursion in Haydn's quartets

Application of Mandler's mental organization taxonomy to music

Insights into musical organization through corpus analysis

Abstract

This chapter considers how string-based methods might be adapted to address music-analytic questions related to the discovery of musical organization, with particular attention devoted to the analysis of tonal harmony. I begin by applying the taxonomy of mental organization proposed by Mandler (1979) to the concept of musical organization. Using this taxonomy as a guide, I then present evidence for three principles of tonal harmony -- recurrence, syntax, and recursion -- using a corpus of Haydn string quartets.