NationalSandwic said:
there's a grave mistake in ever thinking about theory as a set of rules. if that's how it's been taught, then it's problematic. there are simply principles and systems and tendencies.
sure, composers didn't think about "rules" but they certainly knew what they were doing and followed principles and systems when they were composing, even if formal academic analysis only came about afterwards.
a pure, abstract (ie theoretical) intellectual understanding of music is always present in the great composers. academics has been, is, and always will be about describing and re-describing (and there's value in that.) But no academic worth his/her salt would preach 'rules' to a theory class.
i think the tendency to adopt principles/methods/systems as rules lies in those would-be composers who want to find a simple & easy way out of seriously engaging with music.
that's my 2c.
I'm going to disagree with the above. Rules have been formulated wrt specific styles - gregorian chant, classical, romantic, impressionism, neo-classical, 12-tone, atonal, jazz, blues, modern rock, whatever. And the rules for each of the above differ to at least some degree.
IMHO, any composer worth his or her salt has a firm grasp on the rules of the style they are working in. A firm grasp of the rules gives you a foundation within to work. From there, you break the rules.
With respect to songwriting, it is my belief that one needs at least a passing aquaintence with the rules of the style you are working in to create anything non-trivial. From there you can break rules, but without that foundation it cannot be anything but accidental.
As to the origin of the rules, yes, it can be said that they are observations. But innovation does not occur in a vacuum - they broke a rule. Break it enough, and it becomes a rule in and of itself to achieve a certain effect or sound.
The fact that you can use your ear to determine a chord progression implies that you have some apriori knowledge of a harmonic structure you are after. That harmonic structure living in your head came from a set of rules, whether your explicitly aknowledge it or not.
My $0.02.
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