Everyday Tonality II

Towards a tonal theory of what most people hear

Résumé

“Everyday tonality II. Toward a Tonal Theory of What Most People Hear,” by Philip Tagg, is a textbook on harmony. The relevant contribution of the book is that, from a perspective that could be called decolonial, it does not focus on understanding the canonical uses of harmony in Western art music - which is common in many textbooks on the subject - but rather that offers a renewed look at how to study harmony or, better, how to approach the multiple and diverse harmonic behaviors present in many and varied contemporary musical traditions, those music that “most people” listen to. This is a valuable book that deserves to be more widely disseminated and used, and is part of the great contributions that Philip Tagg made to the study of music.