Sostituzioni e riarmonizzazione alla luce di un nuovo approccio funzionale all’armonia tonale
Abstract
Chord substitutions and reharmonisation in jazz music are often approached on the basis of stereotypical formulae based on the three Riemannian tonal functions of tonic, dominant, and subdominant. The aim of this article is to present a simpler and more cogent functional tonal model that allows a more conscious and creative approach to the above techniques, thus enabling tonal jazz music to be both explained and produced in a similar way to classical music. Once this new way of studying the harmonic system has been explained, the historical — modal and tonal — origins of the most used substitutions (tritone, backdoor, and the others) become clear. The so-called functional approach to harmony, on the other hand, completely obscures the distinction between modal and tonal harmony because of the unlimited extensions of chord relations. The Riemannian interpretation of harmony is more concerned with weakening cultural connotations than with revealing the combinatory nature of chords. The model is also compared with some transformational approaches to the study of bebop and postbop music. To date, scholars have mostly presented reharmonisation and chord substitution as a mechanical process, similar to, for example, mathematical studies. In contrast, this article develops a new model — the MHU-R Model— to approach reharmonisation in a dynamic way. Furthermore, the article aims to develop a logic of music production in which the “deviation from rules” is the basic behaviour in music as an art language. The creative process can and must be the goal of active learning.
