Musical Theory

What is Musical Theory

Music theory is a field of study that aims to investigate the various elements of music, including the development and methodology to analyze, listen, understand and compose music.

While musicology may include any statement, belief or conception of what music is, musical theory is limited to discussions concerning the synchronic (or diachronic) events of a specific composition (or several compositions), and to the musician chapters. - abstract theorists (for example set theory, group theory, tonal tension theory, etc.).

A person specialized in music theory is a music theorist.

Some musical theorists try to explain the use of compositional techniques by composers by establishing rules and patterns. Others model the experience of hearing or performing music. Considering the extreme diversity of their interests and purposes, many Western music theorists are united by their belief that the acts of composing, performing, and listening to music can be explained with a high level of detail (this, as opposed to a conception of musical expression as fundamentally ineffable, except in musical sounds). Generally, music theory works are both descriptive and prescriptive, since both attempt to define the practice and influence the subsequent practice. Thus, music theory lags behind practice in an important way, but also points to future exploration and execution.

The interpreters study music theory to be able to understand the relationships that a composer expects to be included in the notation, and the composers study musical theory to understand how to produce effects and how to structure their own works. Composers should study music theory to guide its precompositional process and compositional decisions. Generally speaking, music theory in the Western tradition focuses on harmony and counterpoint, and then uses them to explain large-scale structures and the creation of melodies.

If it is important not to forget, that the theory proceeds as a consequence of a previous musical practice, and it is in this approach that it should be valued and cultivated, even more so thinking in an educational context of specialized training, where the language should be a construction from the experience, and then in a later step to reach the theory.