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MUSI2070 Fundamentals of Tonal Music
Course Type: core/compulsory for music majors/minors, free elective for others
Prerequisite: MUSI1023
For exchange students: equivalent to MUSI1023 at the home institution required.
Instructor: Dr. Jing WANG
Semester: First Semester 2026/27
Time: 12:00pm – 1:50pm, Wednesday
Venue: RRT-11.01 Seminar Room
This course further explores tonal procedures, of which the fundamentals were introduced in MUSI1023 Materials and structures of music. It examines the tonal logic and the voice-leading principles of diatonic and basic chromatic harmonic practices. Simple formal structures such as binary, ternary, and sonata forms are explored. Students completing this course are expected to have attained a thorough understanding of tonal syntax in the context of diatonic and simple chromatic harmony and to be able to analyze music in simple forms.
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Course Learning Outcomes
Assessment Methods
Topics
Text & Resource Materials
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
  • demonstrate knowledge of the harmonic functions and simple formal procedures in tonal music;
  • acquire theoretical and conceptual frameworks in music analysis and apply them to analysing and interpreting musical excerpts and pieces;
  • articulate their analytical findings and interpretations in a coherent way.
Assignments 40%
Quizzes 30%
Final Test 20%
Participation 10%
  • Diatonic Seventh Chords
  • Expanding Harmonic Vocabulary: Secondary Functions
  • Tonal Space: Modulations Using Diatonic Common Chords
  • Tonal Space: Other Modulatory Techniques & Tonicization
  • More on Chromaticism: Mixing Modes
  • More on Chromaticism: Altered Pre-dominants
  • Form & Analysis
  • Sonata Form
  • Analyzing Music (and Performance)
  • *Kostka, Stefan M., and Dorothy Payne. Tonal Harmony 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2018.
  • Aldwell, Edward, and Carl Schachter. Harmony & Voice Leading. Australia: Thomson/Schirmer, 2003.
  • Burstein, L. Poundie, and Joseph Nathan Straus. Concise Introduction to Tonal Harmony. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
  • Cadwallader, Allen, and David Gagné. Analysis of Tonal Music. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
  • Caplin, William Earl. Analyzing Classical Form: an approach for the classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • Clendinning, Jane Piper, and Elizabeth West Marvin. The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis. NewYork: W.W. Norton, 2016.
  • Gauldin, Robert. Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.
  • Turek, Ralph. Theory for Today's Musician. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2014.