Tonnetz

In musical tuning and

harmony, the Tonnetz
(German: tone-network) is a
conceptual lattice diagram
representing tonal space first
described by Leonhard Euler
in 1739.[1] Various visual
representations of the Tonnetz
can be used to show traditional
harmonic relationships in
European classical music.

A modern rendering of the Tonnetz. The A minor triad is in strong blue, the C major
Contents triad in strong red. Interpreted as a torus the o
Tnnetz has 12 nodes (pitches) and 24
History through 1900 triangles (triads).

Twentieth-century
reinterpretation
Similarities to other
graphical systems
See also
References
External links

History through 1900

The Tonnetz originally appeared in Euler's 1739 Tentamen novae theoriae musicae
ex certissismis harmoniae principiis dilucide expositae. Euler's Tonnetz, pictured at
left, shows the triadic relationships of the perfect fifth and the major third: at the top
of the image is the note F, and to the left underneath is C (a perfect fifth above F),
and to the right is A (a major third above F). The space was rediscovered in 1858 by
Ernst Naumann, and was disseminated in an 1866 treatise of Arthur von Oettingen.
Euler's Tonnetz. Oettingen and the influential musicologist Hugo Riemann (not to be confused with
the mathematician Bernhard Riemann) explored the capacity of the space to chart
harmonic motion between chords and modulation between keys. Similar
[2]
understandings of the Tonnetz appeared in the work of many late-19th century German music theorists.

Oettingen and Riemann both conceived of the relationships in the chart being defined through just intonation, which uses pure
intervals. One can extend out one of the horizontal rows of the oTnnetz indefinitely, to form a never-ending sequence of perfect fifths:
F-C-G-D-A-E-B-F#-C#-G#-D#-A#-E#-B#-Fx-Cx-Gx-(etc.) Starting with F, after 12 perfect fifths, one reaches E#. Perfect fifths in
just intonation are slightly larger than the compromised fifths used in equal temperament tuning systems more common in the
present. This means that when one stacks 12 fifths starting from F, the E# we arrive at will not be exactly seven octaves above the F
we started with. Oettingen and Riemann's Tonnetz thus extended on infinitely in every direction without actually repeating any
pitches.
The appeal of the Tonnetz to 19th-century German theorists was that it allows spatial representations of tonal distance and tonal
relationships. For example, looking at the dark blue A minor triad in the graphic at the beginning of the article, its parallel major triad
(A-C#-E) is the triangle right below, sharing the vertices A and E. The relative major of A minor, C major (C-E-G) is the upper-right
adjacent triangle, sharing the C and the E vertices. The dominant triad of A minor, E major (E-G#-B) is diagonally across the E
vertex, and shares no other vertices. One important point is that every shared vertex between a pair of triangles is a shared pitch
between chords - the more shared vertices, the more shared pitches the chord will have. This provides a visualization of the principle
of parsimonious voice-leading, in which motions between chords are considered smoother when fewer pitches change. This principle
is especially important in analyzing the music of late-19th century composers like Wagner, who frequently avoided traditional tonal
relationships. [2]

Twentieth-century reinterpretation
Recent research by Neo-Riemannian music theorists David Lewin, Brian Hyer, and
others, have revived the Tonnetz to further explore properties of pitch structures. [2]
Modern music theorists generally construct the Tonnetz using equal temperament,[2]
and using pitch-classes, which make no distinction between octave transpositions of
a pitch. Under equal temperament, the never-ending series of ascending fifths
mentioned earlier becomes a cycle. Neo-Riemannian theorists typically assume
enharmonic equivalence (in other words, Ab = G#), and so the two-dimensional
plane of the 19th-century Tonnetz cycles in on itself in two different directions, and Neo-Riemannian music theory's PLR
operations applied to a minor
is mathematically isomorphic to a torus. Theorists have studied the structure of this
chord Q.
new cyclical version using mathematicalgroup theory.

Neo-Riemannian theorists have also used the Tonnetz to visualize non-tonal triadic
relationships. For example, the diagonal going up and to the left from C in the diagram at the beginning of the article forms a division
of the octave in three major thirds: C-Ab-E-C (the E is actually an Fb, and the final C a Dbb). Richard Cohn argues that while a
sequence of triads built on these three pitches (C major, Ab major, and E major) cannot be adequately described using traditional
concepts of functional harmony, this cycle has smooth voice leading and other important group properties which can be easily
observed on the Tonnetz. [3]

Similarities to other graphical systems

The harmonic table note layout is a recently developed musical interface that uses a note layout topologically equivalent to the
Tonnetz.

A Tonnetz of the syntonic temperament can be derived from a given isomorphic keyboard by connecting lines of successive perfect
fifths, lines of successive major thirds, and lines of successive minor thirds.[4] Like a Tonnetz itself, the isomorphic keyboard is
tuning invariant. The topology of the syntonic temperament's Tonnetz is generally cylindrical.

The Tonnetz is the dual graph of Schoenberg's chart of the regions,[5] and of course
vice versa. Research into music cognition has demonstrated that the human brain
[6]
uses a "chart of the regions" to process tonal relationships.

See also
Neo-Riemannian theory
Musical set-theory Tonnetz aligned with the notes of an
Riemannian theory isomorphic keyboard.
Transformational theory
Tuning theory
Treatise on Harmony
References
1. Euler, Leonhard (1739). Tentamen novae theoriae musicae ex
certissismis harmoniae principiis dilucide expositae(in Latin). Saint
Petersburg Academy. p. 147.
2. Cohn, Richard (1998). "Introduction to Neo-Riemannian Theory: A
Survey and a Historical Perspective".Journal of Music Theory. 42 (2
Autumn): 167–180. JSTOR 843871 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/84387 Tonnetz showing enclosed chords.
1). Capitalized chords ('Xx') are major;
3. Cohn, Richard (March 1996). "Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic others ('xx') are minor.
Systems, and the Analysis of Late-Romantic T riadic Progressions".
Music Analysis. 15 (1): 9–40. doi:10.2307/854168 (https://doi.org/10.230
7%2F854168).
4. Milne, A.; Sethares, W. A.; Plamondon, J. (2007)."Invariant fingerings across a tuning continuum"(http://www.mitpre
ssjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj.2007.31.4.15). Computer Music Journal. 31 (4 Winter): 15–32.
doi:10.1162/comj.2007.31.4.15(https://doi.org/10.1162%2Fcomj.2007.31.4.15) .
5. Schoenberg, Arnold; Stein, L. (1969).Structural Functions of Harmony. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-00478-3.
6. Janata, Petr; Jeffrey L. Birk; John D. Van Horn; Marc Leman; Barbara Tillmann; Jamshed J. Bharucha (December
2002). "The Cortical Topography of Tonal Structures Underlying Western Music" (http://www.sciencemag.org/c
gi/content/abstract/298/5601/2167). Science. 298 (5601): 2167–2170. Bibcode:2002Sci...298.2167J (http://adsabs.h
arvard.edu/abs/2002Sci...298.2167J). doi:10.1126/science.1076262(https://doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.1076262) .
PMID 12481131 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12481131).

External links
Music harmony and donutsby Paul Dysart
Charting Enharmonicism on the Just-Intonation oTnnetz by Robert T. Kelley
Midi-Instrument based on Tonnetz (Melodic Table) by The Shape of Music
Midi-Instrument based on Tonnetz (Harmonic Table) by C-Thru-Music
Interactive Tonnetz by Ondřej Cífka and Anton Salikhmetov

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