The 'Table of Relations' and music psychology in Hugo Riemann's harmonic theory.

摘要

Hugo Riemann (1849-1919) belonged to an era of positivism during which musicology looked to the models and methods of the natural sciences. True to his time, Riemann attempted to establish a harmonic theory on acoustical and physiological grounds. Finding these grounds inadequate, he later construed tonal relations psychologically. Riemann's role in the history of music psychology is not well documented, probably because his contributions were scattered over an uncommonly prolific and varied publishing career.;In this study, we trace the emergence of music psychology in Riemann's harmonic writings, with reference to a construct that reappeared frequently in his work. This construct--the Verwandschaftstabelle, or Table of Relations--had a history prior to Riemann in the music theories of Leonhard Euler (1707-83) and Arthur von Oettingen (1836-1920). Riemann initially used the Table to summarize acoustic relations, but by the end of his career it had become a psychological hypothesis underlying a complex and idiosyncratic theory of harmony. We believe a study of the Table of Relations is corequisite to any full appraisal of Riemann's harmonic theory.