Editing Music theory (section)

{{Short description|Study of the practices and possibilities of music}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
[[File:Gaffurio Pythagoras.png|thumb|upright=1.25|[[Jubal (Bible)|Jubal]], [[Pythagoras]] and [[Philolaus]] engaged in theoretical investigations, in a woodcut from [[Franchinus Gaffurius]], ''Theorica musicæ'' (1492)]]

'''Music theory''' is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of [[music]]. ''[[The Oxford Companion to Music]]'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "[[Elements of music|rudiments]]", that are needed to understand [[Musical notation|music notation]] ([[key signature]]s, [[time signature]]s, and [[Chord chart|rhythmic notation]]); the second is learning scholars' views on music from [[Ancient history|antiquity]] to the present; the third is a sub-topic of [[musicology]] that "seeks to define processes and general principles in music". The musicological approach to theory differs from music analysis "in that it takes as its starting-point not the individual work or performance but the fundamental materials from which it is built."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fallows|first1=David|chapter=Theory|url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e6759.|title=The Oxford Companion to Music|publisher=Oxford Music Online|access-date=|isbn=978-0199579037|year= 2011}}</ref>

Music theory is frequently concerned with describing how musicians and composers make music, including [[Musical tuning|tuning systems]] and composition methods among other topics. Because of the ever-expanding conception of [[Definition of music|what constitutes music]], a more inclusive definition could be the consideration of any sonic phenomena, including silence. This is not an absolute guideline, however; for example, the study of "music" in the ''[[Quadrivium]]'' [[Liberal arts education|liberal arts university]] curriculum, that was common in [[Middle Ages|medieval Europe]], was an abstract system of proportions that was carefully studied at a distance from actual musical practice.{{refn|See Boethius's ''De institutione musica'',{{sfn|Boethius|1989}} in which he disdains "musica instrumentalis" as beneath the "true" musician who studies music in the abstract: ''Multo enim est maius atque auctius scire, quod quisque faciat, quam ipsum illud efficere, quod sciat'' ("It is much better to know what one does than to do what one knows").|group=n}} But this medieval discipline became the basis for tuning systems in later centuries and is generally included in modern scholarship on the history of music theory.{{refn|See, for example, chapters 4–7 of Christensen, Thomas (2002). ''The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory''. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.|group=n}}

Music theory as a practical discipline encompasses the methods and concepts that composers and other musicians use in creating and performing music. The development, preservation, and transmission of music theory in this sense may be found in oral and written music-making traditions, [[musical instrument]]s, and other [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]]. For example, ancient instruments from [[Prehistoric music|prehistoric]] sites around the world reveal details about the music they produced and potentially something of the musical theory that might have been used by their makers. In ancient and living cultures around the world, the deep and long roots of music theory are visible in instruments, oral traditions, and current music-making. Many cultures have also considered music theory in more formal ways such as written [[treatise]]s and [[Musical notation|music notation]]. Practical and scholarly traditions overlap, as many practical treatises about music place themselves within a tradition of other treatises, which are cited regularly just as [[scholarly writing]] cites earlier research.

In modern academia, music theory is a subfield of [[musicology]], the wider study of musical cultures and history. [[Guido Adler]], however, in one of the texts that founded musicology in the late 19th century, wrote that "the science of music originated at the same time as the art of sounds",<ref>Guido Adler, "Umfang, Methode und Ziel der Musikwissenschaft", ''Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft'' 1 (1885), p. 5: ''Die Musikwissenschaft entstand gleichzeitig mit der Tonkunst''.</ref> where "the science of music" (''Musikwissenschaft'') obviously meant "music theory". Adler added that music only could exist when one began measuring pitches and comparing them to each other. He concluded that "all people for which one can speak of an art of sounds also have a science of sounds".<ref>''Ibid.''</ref> One must deduce that music theory exists in all musical cultures of the world.

Music theory is often concerned with abstract musical aspects such as [[Musical tuning|tuning]] and tonal systems, [[Scale (music)|scales]], [[consonance and dissonance]], and rhythmic relationships. There is also a body of theory concerning practical aspects, such as the creation or the performance of music, [[orchestration]], [[Ornament (music)|ornamentation]], improvisation, and [[Electronic music|electronic sound]] production.{{sfn|Palisca and Bent|n.d.|loc=Theory, theorists. 1. Definitions}} A person who researches or teaches music theory is a music theorist. University study, typically to the [[Master of Arts|MA]] or [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] level, is required to teach as a tenure-track music theorist in a US or Canadian university. Methods of analysis include mathematics, graphic analysis, and especially analysis enabled by western music notation. Comparative, descriptive, statistical, and other methods are also used. Music theory [[textbook]]s, especially in the United States of America, often include elements of [[musical acoustics]], considerations of [[musical notation]], and techniques of tonal [[Musical composition|composition]] ([[harmony]] and [[counterpoint]]), among other topics.