Books on polytonality?

I'm having a hard time finding any books specifically about polytonality. At best there seem to be some that mention it but I'd like to find something that really get into different techniques for creating a polytonal piece. Any suggestions?

I don't think there are any, and I can't recall any 20th century Harmony books that go in depth into it. There really isn't a lot to it though... I would just suggest studying pieces that utilize polytonality and start experimenting with polychords etc in your own music.

Vincent Persicchetti's book Twentieth Century Harmony deals with a lot of the techniques from the last century and includes a lot of musical examples. But it is not specifically about polytonality. As far as I am aware there are no real rules to polytonality so no real need for a book.

qms and ablyth are right. You might as well want to check Ives and Bartok for a few simple examples of polytonality-polymodality.

For starters, you can look at plain vanilla bi-tonality in Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil.

Milhaud's Saudades do Brasil.

Aww... nice one Bartok has some straight polytonalities in his 42 duets for two violints, where the two parts are even in different time signatures.

Originally Posted by ablyth

Vincent Persicchetti's book Twentieth Century Harmony deals with a lot of the techniques from the last century and includes a lot of musical examples. But it is not specifically about polytonality. As far as I am aware there are no real rules to polytonality so no real need for a book.

I was thinking of getting that book. I'm assuming it's pretty good?

Well it covers a lot of different techniques and has a lot of musical examples. Another book I used to have was by someone called Marion Bauer. It was quite old but was similar to Persicchetti. I cant remember the title. However, as with most 20th century techniques, there are nor real rules just some general principles and then whether your ear tells you you are getting what you want or not. Milhaud was big on polytonality. I remember hearing one of his symphonies called the Rhodanian which is about a river and he uses masses of independently keyed lines to suggest merging streams. The overall effect as I remember is fairly chaotic or dissonant. But if this is what you are trying to create then this might be a model. Obviously Charles Ives is another biggy especially when he uses recognisable tunes in different keys. It is all about what effect you are trying to create. Probably it is easier trying to locate musical pieces that do it rather than a theoretical explanation.

Originally Posted by ablyth

Well it covers a lot of different techniques and has a lot of musical examples. Another book I used to have was by someone called Marion Bauer. It was quite old but was similar to Persicchetti. I cant remember the title. However, as with most 20th century techniques, there are nor real rules just some general principles and then whether your ear tells you you are getting what you want or not. Milhaud was big on polytonality. I remember hearing one of his symphonies called the Rhodanian which is about a river and he uses masses of independently keyed lines to suggest merging streams. The overall effect as I remember is fairly chaotic or dissonant. But if this is what you are trying to create then this might be a model. Obviously Charles Ives is another biggy especially when he uses recognisable tunes in different keys. It is all about what effect you are trying to create. Probably it is easier trying to locate musical pieces that do it rather than a theoretical explanation.

Umm, Stravinsky?

Originally Posted by ablyth

Well it covers a lot of different techniques and has a lot of musical examples. Another book I used to have was by someone called Marion Bauer. It was quite old but was similar to Persicchetti. I cant remember the title. However, as with most 20th century techniques, there are nor real rules just some general principles and then whether your ear tells you you are getting what you want or not. Milhaud was big on polytonality. I remember hearing one of his symphonies called the Rhodanian which is about a river and he uses masses of independently keyed lines to suggest merging streams. The overall effect as I remember is fairly chaotic or dissonant. But if this is what you are trying to create then this might be a model. Obviously Charles Ives is another biggy especially when he uses recognisable tunes in different keys. It is all about what effect you are trying to create. Probably it is easier trying to locate musical pieces that do it rather than a theoretical explanation.

The idea of the Milhaud piece sounds like the kind of stuff I'd want to use it for but as you point out, if it just sounds like chaos then it doesn't really work. I've just started messing around with the idea and the only thing I could think of was using diminished/augmented chords and resolve them to two different tonics or taking extended chords and treating them as two chords (ie. treating Cmaj7 as a C and an Em and continuing the progression from there in the keys of C and Em).

I've always heard that Strauss and Stravinsky use polytonality quite a bit as well and they always sound so much more accessible than someone like Ives. Perhaps I should dig deep into their scores.