Tonnetz

peared in the work of many late-19th century German

music theorists.[2]
Oettingen and Riemann both conceived of the relationships in the chart being dened through just intonation,
which uses pure intervals. One can extend out one of
the horizontal rows of the Tonnetz indenitely, to form
a never-ending sequence of perfect fths: F-C-G-D-AE-B-F#-C#(Db)-Ab-Eb-Bb-F-C- (etc.) Starting with F,
after 12 perfect fths, one reaches another F. However,
perfect fths in just intonation are slightly larger than the
A modern rendering of the Tonnetz. The A minor triad is in
fths used in equal temperament tuning systems more
strong blue, the C major triad in strong red. Interpreted as a torus
common in the present. This means that the F one arthe Tonnetz has 12 nodes (pitches) and 24 triangles (triads).
rives at will not be a whole number of octaves above the
F we started with. Oettingen and Riemanns Tonnetz thus
In musical tuning and harmony, the Tonnetz (German:
extended on innitely in every direction without actually
tone-network) is a conceptual lattice diagram representing
repeating any pitches.
tonal space rst described by Leonhard Euler in 1739.[1]
Various visual representations of the Tonnetz can be used The appeal of the Tonnetz to 19th-century German theto show traditional harmonic relationships in European orists was that it allows spatial representations of tonal
distance and tonal relationships. For example, looking
classical music.
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.
1 History through 1900
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 (EG#-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 comEulers Tonnetz.
posers like Wagner, who frequently avoided traditional
tonal relationships. [2]
The Tonnetz originally appeared in Eulers 1739 Tentamen novae theoriae musicae ex certissismis harmoniae
principiis dilucide expositae. Eulers Tonnetz, pictured at
left, shows the triadic relationships of the perfect fth 2 Twentieth-century reinterpretaand the major third: at the top of the image is the note
tion
F, and to the left underneath is C (a perfect fth above
F), and to the right is A (a major third above F). The
space was rediscovered in 1858 by Ernst Naumann, and Main article: Neo-Riemannian theory
was disseminated in an 1866 treatise of Arthur von Oet- Recent research by Neo-Riemannian music theorists
tingen. Oettingen and the inuential musicologist Hugo David Lewin, Brian Hyer, and others, have revived the
Riemann (not to be confused with the mathematician Tonnetz to further explore properties of pitch structures.
Bernhard Riemann) explored the capacity of the space to [2] Modern music theorists generally construct the Tonchart harmonic motion between chords and modulation netz using equal temperament,[2] and using pitch-classes,
between keys. Similar understandings of the Tonnetz ap- which make no distinction between octave transpositions
1

Neo-Riemannian music theorys PLR operations applied to a minor chord Q.

REFERENCES

Tonnetz aligned with the notes of an isomorphic keyboard.

of a pitch. Under equal temperament, the never-ending

series of ascending fths 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 dierent directions, and is mathematically isomorphic to a torus. Theorists have studied the
structure of this new cyclical version using mathematical
group theory.
Neo-Riemannian theorists have also used the Tonnetz to Tonnetz showing enclosed chords. Capitalized chords ('Xx') are
visualize non-tonal triadic relationships. For example, major; others ('xx') are minor.
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 ac- 4 See also
tually an Fb, and the nal C a Dbb). Richard Cohn ar Neo-Riemannian theory
gues that while a sequence of triads built on these three
pitches (C major, Ab major, and E major) cannot be ade Musical set-theory
quately described using traditional concepts of functional
harmony, this cycle has smooth voice leading and other
Riemannian theory
important group properties which can be easily observed
[3]
on the Tonnetz.
Transformational theory
Tuning theory

Similarities to other graphical

systems
5 References

The harmonic table note layout is a recently developed

musical interface that uses a note layout topologically
equivalent to the Tonnetz.

[1] Euler, Leonhard (1739). Tentamen novae theoriae musicae ex certissismis harmoniae principiis dilucide expositae (in Latin). Saint Petersburg Academy. p. 147.

A Tonnetz of the syntonic temperament can be derived

from a given isomorphic keyboard by connecting lines of
successive perfect fths, 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.

[2] Cohn, Richard (1998). Introduction to Neo-Riemannian

Theory: A Survey and a Historical Perspective. Journal of Music Theory 42 (2 Autumn): 167180. JSTOR
843871.

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 uses a chart of the regions to process tonal
relationships.[6]

[3] Cohn, Richard (March 1996). Maximally Smooth

Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of LateRomantic Triadic Progressions. Music Analysis 15 (1):
940. doi:10.2307/854168.
[4] Milne, A.; Sethares, W. A.; Plamondon, J. (2007).
Invariant ngerings across a tuning continuum.
Computer Music Journal 31 (4 Winter): 1532.
doi:10.1162/comj.2007.31.4.15.

[5] Schoenberg, Arnold; Stein, L. (1969). Structural Functions of Harmony. New York: Norton. ISBN 0-39300478-3.
[6] Janata, Petr; Jerey L. Birk; John D. Van Horn; Marc
Leman; Barbara Tillmann; Jamshed J. Bharucha (December 2002). "The Cortical Topography of Tonal
Structures Underlying Western Music".
Science
298 (5601): 21672170. doi:10.1126/science.1076262.
PMID 12481131.

External links
Music harmony and donuts by Paul Dysart
Charting Enharmonicism on the Just-Intonation
Tonnetz 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

7 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

Text

Tonnetz Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnetz?oldid=708831326 Contributors: The Anome, Hyacinth, SurrealWarrior, Waldir,

Kbdank71, Rjwilmsi, Wknight94, Kleinzach, Rainwarrior, Leakeyjee, Trevordeclercq, David Eppstein, Greenwoodtree, Watchduck,
XLinkBot, JimPlamondon, Addbot, Dysartp, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Iranief, FrescoBot, Citation bot 1, Kiefer.Wolfowitz, MusicScienceGuy,
RjwilmsiBot, VitVit, BTonY, Shugurim, Monkbot, Paul Dysart and Anonymous: 14

7.2

Images

File:Chord_Lattice.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Chord_Lattice.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0

Contributors: Own work Original artist: JimPlamondon
File:Eulers_tonnetz.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Eulers_tonnetz.png License: Public domain
Contributors: Eulers 1739 book Tentamen Novae Theoriae Musicae Original artist: Leonhard Euler
File:Hugo_Riemann.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Hugo_Riemann.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: Dieses Bild der ist Teil der Portrtsammlung Friedrich Nicolas Manskopf der Universittsbibliothek der Johann Wolfgang
Goethe-Universitt Frankfurt am Main.
Original artist: Benque & Kindermann, Hamburg
File:Neo-Riemannian_Tonnetz.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Neo-Riemannian_Tonnetz.svg License: CC0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Watchduck (a.k.a. Tilman Piesk)
File:PLR_on_tonnetz.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/PLR_on_tonnetz.png License: CC BY-SA
3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: JimPlamondon
File:QWERTY_with_Tonnetz.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/QWERTY_with_Tonnetz.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: JimPlamondon

7.3

Content license

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