A Study Of Allen Forte's Pitch-Class Set Theory

In the literature of music theory, the term of pitch-class set theory has three referents. First, it refers to the viewpoints explained in the book entitled The Structure of Atonal Music. Second, it refers to the theory explained by Allen Forte in a series of his books and articles since 1964. Third, it refers to all the theories and views related to pitch-class set theory.Based on an understanding of the third referent, this dissertation attempts to make intensive research of Forte's pitch-class set theory. This dissertation tries to find answers to the following questions and organize them as follows: What's Forte's pitch-class set theory? How to apply this theory in music analysis? How is it formulated? What about its developments? What's the validity of the theory? What's the rationality of it? What causes the formulation of the theory? What's the value of it?This dissertation consists of introduction, main body comprised of four chapters and conclusion. The first chapter outlines the essentials of the three theoretical documents related to the pitch-class set theory, namely "A Theory of Set Complexes for Music", The Structure of Atonal Music and "Pitch-Class Set Genera and the Origin of Modern Harmonic Species". The second chapter attempts to organize the ideas related to the formulation and development of the pitch-class set theory from such three angles as "theories before Allen Forte", "Forte's own theories" and "other theorists". The third chapter tries to explore the validity of Forte's pitch-class set theory from the two angles of "object of analysis" and "effectiveness of analysis" and discusses the rationality of Forte's ideas and methods related to segmentation. The fourth chapter starts with the contributing factors of Forte's theory from the two angles of "a study of atonal music" and "Forte's life and his field of study" and ends with summarizing the value of his theory from the two angles of "theory" and "analysis".The research made in this dissertation can deepen one's understanding of Forte's pitch-class set theory, provides technical guidance for the practice of music analysis, and serves as reference for case study and comparative study of some other theories and analysis methods of modern music. In addition, this research will also be an inspiration to music composition.