THE MAGIC OF TONE
and the Art of Music

by Dane Rudhyar
1982

The Rudhyar Archival Project is pleased to offer this online edition of Dane Rudhyar's The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music. The work was first published by Shambhala Publications in 1982; it has been out-of-print since 1987.

View the book by clicking on a chapter title displayed to the right. Once inside the online book, you may move to the next or previous page by clicking on the large red arrows found at the bottom of every page, or you may go to any chapter by selecting it from the side menu found in this column on every page.

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The web publication of Dane Rudhyar's Magic of Tone and the Art of Music heralds the August 2003 release of PARIS X - musica obscura of Dane Rudhyar and Erik Satie - Richard Cameron-Wolfe, Piano, by Furious Artisan's Recordings.

Contents

Preface
--> Preface

1. Communication: Man's Primordial Need

2. Sound as Carrier-Wave for Tone

3. The Magical and the Sacred

4. Number and the Quantification of Tone Relationship

5. The Spatialization of the Tone-Experience: Musical Notation and Form

6. Descending and Ascending Musical Progressions

7. The Harmonic Series

8. The Septenary Tone Cycle and the Psychoactive Modes issued from Its Fundamentals

9. The European Spirit in Music: Pluralism, Tonality and Equal Temperament

10. Music in Transformation: Avant-garde Music and the Deconditioning Process

11. Dissonant Harmony, Pleromas of Sound, and the Principle of Holistic Resonance

12. The Rhythms of Civilization and Culture

APPENDIX I.
The Pythagorean and Chinese Approaches to Music

APPENDIX II.
Notes on the Music of India

APPENDIX III.
The Origin and Early Development of the European Approach to Music

APPENDIX IV.
Concerning My Musical Works