ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors provide a brief sketch of the politics of Hugo Riemann's music-theoretical project and a precis of three of his best-known theories: namely, harmonic dualism, the Schritt/Wechsel system, and Funktionstheorie. It is the last of these in which they are most interested. After explaining how his system of ‘functional analysis’ works – by interpreting all chords as modifications of Tonic, Subdominant, or Dominant chords – they defend it against common criticisms. In particular, they challenge the idea that the multiple functional labels that might be given to a hypothetical chromatic chord are evidence of the system's analytical inexactness; they read this on the contrary as a sign of its flexibility. That said, they theorise two voice-leading constraints, based on Kenneth Smith's discussion of the link between function and octatonic scales in Desire in Chromatic Harmony (2020) and Riemann's discussion of the interplay between function and Fuxian counterpoint, respectively, which indicate circumstances in which one possible functional designation will be more likely than another. This enables them to claim that every chord has a true function in each particular context, while still being open to a number of general possibilities in the abstract. Such a position sharply distinguishes their approach from the relativism of NRT.
