SMT-V: The Society for Music Theory Videocast Journal
SMT-V is the open-access, peer-reviewed video journal of the Society for Music Theory. Founded in 2014, SMT-V publishes video essays that showcase research in music theory in a dynamic, audiovisual format, presented so as to have the potential to engage both specialists within the field as well as interested viewers outside the music theory community. The journal features a supportive and collaborative production process, and publishes several videos each year. Read more about SMT-V here.
Latest Issue: 11.3 (May 2025)
Tessellated Tonics: Zuckerkandl’s Toy for Music Fundamentals
Daphne Tan, Alexis Millares Thomson, Tegan Ridge, and Emma Soldaat (University of Toronto)
In the early- to mid-twentieth century, many music educators were concerned with creating engaging and effective approaches to teaching music fundamentals. This video-article brings to life a pedagogical device from 1946 that was invented by the music theorist Victor Zuckerkandl but never produced. We demonstrate how this “small toy” can be used to learn major and minor keys, as Zuckerkandl intended, as well as intervals, modulations, and more. We also connect this device to manipulatives in mathematics education.
Keywords: Music fundamentals, music theory pedagogy, tonality, Victor Zuckerkandl, key signatures, manipulatives