Gottfried Weber

Gottfried Weber (March 1, 1779, Freinsheim – September 21, 1839, Bad Kreuznach) was a prominent German writer on music, especially on music theory, composer, and jurist.

From 1824 to 1839 he was the editor of "Cäcilia", a musical periodical published in Mainz, which influenced musical thought in Germany during the early Romantic era.

His most important work is his "Versuch einer geordneten Theorie der Tonsetzkunst (Theory of Musical Composition)" (Mainz, B. Schott, 1817-21), which introduces several concepts that have since become important in the study of music theory. In this work Weber introduces the idea of "Mehrdeutigkeit", that is, “multiple meaning” of individual tones and harmonies, based on their context in a piece of music. “To analyze a chord, a theorist must ask not only ‘What notes are in it?’ but also 'How is it behaving in the harmonic progression?'" (Thompson). In the same work, Weber also introduces for the first time the analytical symbol by which a chord is identified by the Roman numeral of the scale-degree number of its root. This Roman-numeral system is in widespread use today as chord symbols in music.

Weber’s "Theory of Musical Composition" was the first work on music theory to be translated into English for publication in the United States (transl. by James F. Warner. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1846).

References

Moreno, Jairo. "Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects." Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-253-34457-3.

Thompson, David M. "A History of Harmonic Theory in the United States." Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1980. ISBN 0-87338-246-3.