User:Scrypted/Sandbox/Sandbox/ChartoftheRegions

This is a draft of an article entitled Chart of the Regions



Arnold Schoenberg, writing in Structural Functions of Harmony, created a graphic representation of tonal "regions", which he called the Chart of the Regions. Regions are parts or subsets of a tonality, "segments of [an encompassing tonality] carried out like independent tonalities." Schoenberg used the Chart of Regions to represent some of the tonal relationships possible among regions of a tonality.

History of the Term Region in Schoenberg's Writings
Schoenberg's concept of region grows out of his dissatisfaction with the notion of intervening keys. In lieu of reference to an intervening key, chordal analysis and simple composition should presume the "elaboration" of a scale degree in one, encompassing key. With reference to the use of secondary dominant chords in ex. 130b of the Theory of Harmony, Schoenberg warns against recognizing an elaborated scale degree as a key. It is instead merely a scale degree enlarged upon, for example, by its secondary dominant:

"I gave this explanation involving the term 'intervening keys' only with reluctance, for it is incorrect to differentiate keys within so short a passage. Thus, as we do not call a secondary triad eminor, for example, but rather the IIIrd degree, so here too we prefer not to speak of keys but rather of degrees elaborated by means of secondary dominants. A degree can on occasion be treated just as if it were a key. But it is confusing, it obstructs the view of the whole and its internal relations, if we give every degree that is preceded by a dominant the name of a key."