Harmonic Tonality in the Music Theories of Jerome-Joseph Momigny, 1762-1842 (Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music)

Dr Caldwell's contribution to understanding Momigny's thought process traces in detail his hierarchies of the tonal strengths of diatonic and chromatic scale degrees, of chords withing keys, and of keys within a greater key system.In a situation strikingly parallel to Rameau's experience, organist and composer Jér6rne-Joseph de Momigny (1762- 1842) moved to Paris at about the age of 40 and soon began to attract attention as a music theorist. The parallel does not end there. As Jacques Chailley declared in 1966, and as Glenn Caldwell so clearly demonstrates in this book. Momiznv was indeed the nioneer theorist of nineteenth-century harmony, much as Rameau was of eighteenth-century harmony. Although Momigny did not achieve Rameau's eminence as composer or theorist, he did command a greater regard in his own time than posterity has accorded him. Like Rameau, regard for his ideas was hard won. Momigny gained visibility through his contributions to the Encyclopédie Méthodique: Musique - a later spinoff of the great Diderot/D'Alembert Encyclopédie. He began as a contributor of theoretical articles (starting with Gamme) and ended by assuming the duties of principal editor of the second of the two volumes, which was published in 1818.
In his articles and books, Momigny expanded the concept of tonal attraction to a key center and decisively integrated diatonic and chromatic harmony into a unified system. Nevertheless, as was earlier the case with Rameau, Momigny's ideas were regarded by many contemporaries as being interesting but radical.