Editing Unified field

{{about|the music topic|the physics theory|unified field theory}}

In music, '''unified field'''<!--- "unified field" term: have not found in Samson but may be there, seems like something of a description of Allen Forte's aspirations in set theory, which Joseph N Straus identified as such, certainly Sb and W et al conceived of "unity of musical space" --> is the 'unity of musical space' created by the free use of [[melody|melodic]] material as [[harmony|harmonic]] material and vice versa.

The technique is most associated with the [[twelve-tone technique]], created by its 'total thematicism' where a [[tone-row]] (melody) generates all (harmonic) material. It was also used by [[Alexander Scriabin]], though from a diametrically opposed direction, created by his use of extremely slow [[harmonic rhythm]] which eventually led to his use of unordered [[pitch-class]] sets, usually [[hexachord]]s (of six pitches) as harmony from which melody may also be created.<ref>Samson 1977</ref>

It may also be observed in [[Igor Stravinsky]]'s Russian period, such as in ''Les Noces'', derived from his use of folk melodies as generating material and influenced by shorter pieces by [[Claude Debussy]], such as ''Voiles'', and [[Modest Mussorgsky]]. In [[Béla Bartók]]'s Bagatelles, and several of [[Alfredo Casella]]'s ''Nine Piano Pieces'' such as No. 4 'In Modo Burlesco' the close intervallic relationship between motive and chord creates or justifies the great harmonic [[Consonance and dissonance|dissonance]].<ref>Samson, Jim (1977). ''[https://archive.org/details/musicintransitio0000sams Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920]'', {{page needed|date=November 2012}}. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. {{ISBN|0-393-02193-9}}.</ref>

{{quote|Webern was the only one...who was conscious of a new sound-dimension, of the abolition of horizontal-vertical opposition, so that he saw in the series only a way of giving structure to the sound-space....That functional redistribution of intervals toward which he tended marks an extremely important moment in the history of language.|Pierre Boulez, ''Notes of an Apprenticeship'', p.149|<ref>Brian Clarence Hulse, Nick Nesbitt, Brian Hulse (2010). ''Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music'', p.113. {{ISBN|9780754667735}}.</ref>}}

==See also==
*[[Counterpoint]]
*[[Polyphony]]
*[[Pitch space]]

==Sources==
{{reflist}}

{{Atonality}}

[[Category:Post-tonal music theory]]
[[Category:Harmony]]