I've been studying HARMONIC-PATH and TONALITY-MAP functions to determine the exact similarities and differences between the two. While I understand the purpose of those functions in principle from reading the documentation and experimenting with different ideas, I wonder if - for educational purposes - someone could briefly highlight the main explicit differences between the two. In the short example below, both functions produce very similar results, so the question may be when to use one function instead of the other. And is it possible to achieve the same result with both functions? I appreciate anyone's advice or insight into this.

 

Thanks!

 

(setf chords '(c4e4g4 c4f4a4 b3d4g4))

(setf voice (gen-repeat (length chords) '((c4d4 e4))))

(setf harmonic-path (harmonic-path chords voice :octave :path))
=> ((c4e4 g4) (c4f4 a4) (b3d4 g4))

(setf tonality-series (tonality-series chords :map '(step) :closest 'up))
(setf tonality-map (tonality-map tonality-series voice))
=> ((c4g4 e5) (c4a4 f5) (b3g4 d5))

 

 

I use HARMONIC-PATH function to apply harmony when I want to keep the voice leading of my applied chords.

 

HARMONIC-PATH change totally the harmonic content when applying. TONALITY-MAP just "map" pitches on closest other pitches.

 

Try to use as path some chords with a very typical classical and well defined voice leading with both functions on a more complex material and you will see the difference .

 

S.

Thanks, Stephane. This is very helpful and informative.