#000208
Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression
W. A. Mathieu
*Harmonic Experience* is W. A. Mathieu's remarkable, unclassifiable treatise on tonal harmony, published by Inner Traditions in 1997. Its ambition is to reconcile two systems usually kept apart: the ancient tuning of just intonation, built from the pure ratios of the overtone series, and the modern twelve-tone equal temperament of the piano. Mathieu - composer, pianist, and teacher steeped in both Western and Indian traditions - argues that the rules of harmony were discovered in the resonating body, not invented in the head, and he teaches the reader to hear this from the ground up through more than a thousand exercises, examples, and diagrams. It is a demanding, almost devotional book, as much ear-training practice as theory. For musicians willing to do the work, it is widely regarded as a modern classic that changes how you hear.
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The author
W. A. (Allaudin) Mathieu is an American composer, pianist, and teacher whose study of Indian classical music under Pandit Pran Nath and Ali Akbar Khan shaped his approach to tuning and harmony. He has written several influential books bridging Western theory and contemplative practice.
The book
Harmonic Experience traces harmony from the natural overtone series and just intonation to modern equal temperament, explaining why certain sounds move us. It is built as a graded course of singing and listening exercises - over a thousand musical examples - meant to be practiced, not merely read.
How to read it
This is a working method more than a reference: it asks the reader to sing, listen, and internalize intervals over months. Approached that way, it has earned a devoted following among composers and musicians.
For more context
Pair it with Mathieu's more meditative Bridge of Waves, or with Harry Partch's Genesis of a Music for another radical take on just intonation.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- W. A. Mathieu
- Publisher
- Inner Traditions
- Place of publication
- Rochester, Vermont
- Year
- 1997
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado