What are some good tunes based on non-functional harmony?

[The_Orlonater]

I'd like to know some more great tunes based on this system of writing music. Besides, Teen Town and Havona.

[Norwegianwood]

Non-functional harmony isn´t really a system.
But check out So What.

[Lo end PUNCH]

Prince has quite a few, these immediately come to mind.

"God"
"The beautiful ones"
"Sister"
"Something in the water"

[Hoover]

geez, where do you start? there are so many...

- Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" immediately comes to mind.
- John McLaughlin's "Wings Of Kharma"
- arguably Coltrane's "Giant Steps" is non-functional (though it's just as easily described as being functional albeit in an extremely sophisticated way...operative word there being "easily")
- 95% of Frank Zappa's instrumental works
- pretty much everything by Debussey, Stravinsky, Bartok, the Second Viennese School, and all of the post-WWII composers who they influenced
- almost everything by Joni Mitchell

[soong]

Why don't you go all out and listen to some of Ravi Shankar's Raga.

[soong]

Originally Posted by Norwegianwood

Non-functional harmony isn´t really a system.
But check out So What.

Great post, thanks.

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by I Suck At Bass

Why don't you go all out and listen to some of Ravi Shankar's Raga.

Because the OP asked about "non-functional harmony" and by definition there's no "harmony" in traditional Indian raga; it's an entirely linear form of music.

But other than that, it's certainly a good suggestion for anyone interested in hearing music that is not based on functional harmony.
It's non-functional non-harmony!

[Norwegianwood]

Or why not just call it non functional music?
I think that´s what the OP really ment, anyway....but I might very well be wrong.

[Ed Fuqua]

Wayne.
Shorter.

[buddyro57]

Wayne was exactly the first jazz composer to come to mind. Some of his music establishes tonal centers via V-I relationships, but I am thinking of tunes like Infant Eyes, Fall, Nefertiti, and others. The term that some theory books use (and I think applies here) is "freely tonal". A lot of 20th century classical music can be described this way: Debussy, Copland, Hindemith, Bartok etc. With these guys, stability is created, by other means than common practice tonal function. The other thing to remember is that all of these descriptive terms say nothing about the quality or beauty of the music- I think that much atonal music (especially by the 2nd Viennese school masters) is quite beautiful/compelling/powerful- you choose the adjective.
Lastly, Teen Town and Havona are both very simple compositions on one level, and very much alike. They both operate on a four-chord recurring progression, a chaconne or sorts. Teen Town is a sequence of four altered dominants on C,A,F & D, Havona is a sequence of 4 extended major structures on E, C, B,& G. Of course, both (long time favorites of mine) are extremely complex in other ways.
Uh, I have had too much coffee this morning.
JS

[Hoover]

Originally Posted by buddyro57

The term that some theory books use (and I think applies here) is "freely tonal". A lot of 20th century classical music can be described this way: Debussy, Copland, Hindemith, Bartok etc. With these guys, stability is created, by other means than common practice tonal function.

I had a professor who liked to refer to the difference as "chord sequences" versus "chord progressions" ... his contention was that in functional harmony, chords have predictable behaviors and so progress from points of instability to stability. Whereas in what we're here calling non-functional harmony, chords are colors whose behavior & movement is guided by the composer's skill

...or lack thereof. Obviously for composer's such as Debussy, Copland, Hindemith, Bartok, or Shorter it's the former. The potential for abuse comes when a less-skilled composer decides to use chords as colors without controlling their potential for wanting (sic) to behave otherwise.