ABSTRACT
Nonfunctional pitch centricity may be achieved through a variety of means. These means are contextual rather than systematic. That is, there are no such things as “systems” of nonfunctional pitch centricity, and to determine a center achieved by nonfunctional means the readers need to examine and interpret specific musical contexts. Nonfunctional pitch centricity may also result from the use of scalar collections that are built on (or can be referred to) pitch center, such as modal, pentatonic, whole-tone, or octatonic scales and collections. In the absence of the unifying force of functional tonality, motivic relationships, coupled with nonfunctional methods of pitch centricity, provided strong and sufficient elements of long-range cohesion for these composers’ music. A collection of pitches that contains seven basic, unaltered pitches that are adjacent to one another on the circle of fifths (as represented by the white keys of the piano) is known as a diatonic collection (or diatonic scale, when ordered in ascending or descending order).
