The Dichotomy

We may be able to start putting some of the described qualities about sound and music into a form of dichotomy. For example, we can say that music is progressive and dynamic, while sound is instantaneous and static, or that music is alive while sound is lifeless. Dichotomies are created by applying a central duality principle to a subject. It is worth noting that most dualities can be created by a simple negation operation. Thus, we can separate sound from music by saying that what is sound is not part of the music, or in other words, what is music is not in the sound. However, in real life experiences and especially in the creative process, we try to break these boundaries, to create life from death, and beauty out of ugliness. Such thoughts make our path for the search of simplicity and beauty, complex and sometimes ugly. However, beauty is not a matter of right or wrong, or true or false. The path is as much a creation path as it is a search path. In our search we can reach for the most simple results by the most complex paths, and we can create the most complex results by taking the simple paths. It is only through balance, and understanding the continuum between the poles, that we can achieve stability and communication. Transcendence of the banal and ordinary is only the first step of creation; making sure that the creation is going to last the nature's selective process is an issue of survival. Originality is a source of transcendence while use of techniques and traditions create more support for survival.

One of the techniques of assuring a relative balance in music is tonality. The balance is created by a uniform coherency between musical structures and what they organize, which is the harmonic sound. In the next section we will examine tonality and its antithesis and try to establish a relationship between the two.