CLASSICALMozart, Sonatina No. 1

ROMANTICChopin, Etude Op. 10 No. 1

IMPRESSIONISMSatie, Gymnopédie No. 2

MODERNProkofiev, Fugitives Vision XIX

F C

G

D

A

E

BF#

C#

G#

D#

A#

NOTE COLORS

BAROQUEBach, Invention in C Major

VISUALIZING HARMONY IN WESTERN ART MUSIC

The visualizations below demonstrate the evolution of music with a strong tonal center to music that has no tonal center and uses all twelve notes of the chromatic scale equally. All of the pieces below use C as the tonic pitch, with the exception of Schoenberg’s Sechs Kleine Klavierstücke, which has no tonic.

SERIALISMSchoenberg, Sechs Kleine

Klavierstücke

How to read the graphs: Colors represent pitch (see diagram to the left). The pitches are arranged by the circle of fifths. Lines between them represent the connections between the root of the chords present in the piece and the pitches that are harmo-nized over it. Line thickness represents the number of times the note is present in the piece.