MTO Dissertation Listings

Volume 4.1 1998

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  1. Biamonte, Nicole V. The Modes in Romantic Music
  2. Buchler, Michael H. Relative Saturation of Subsets and Interval Cycles as a Means for Determining Set-Class Similarity
  3. Cahn, Steven J. Variations in Manifold Time: Historical Consciousness in the Music and Writings of Arnold Schoenberg
  4. Cotner, John S. Archetypes of Progressive Rock, ca. 1966-1973
  5. Hoffmann, Peter. Music Out of Nothing? The Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis: a Rigorous Approach to Algorithmic Composition by Iannis Xenakis
  6. Pye, Richard, C. The Music of William Schuman
  7. Wiens, Carl K. Igor Stravinsky and Agon


Biamonte, Nicole V. The Modes in Romantic Music

INSTITUTION: Yale University
BEGUN: September 1994
COMPLETED: March 1998 (projected)

ABSTRACT:
A number of 19th-century works, while fundamentally tonal, 
incorporate elements of modality.  Various Romantic impulses 
contributed to this reawakening of the modes: the historicist 
preoccupation with the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and an 
accompanying interest in older religious music; a growing 
regard for folk music, rooted in primitivism and the cult 
of nature, in nationalism, and in post-Revolution egalitarianism.  
The role of these ideas in the other arts is briefly discussed.  
A purely musical reason for the renewal of interest in the 
modes, the perceived need for an expansion of major-minor 
tonality, is explored in more depth.  

I examine the influence of these impulses in the music of 
Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin, and others, analyzing 
the forms assumed by mode in the 19th century: harmonizations 
of a modal melody, whether tonal, modal, or some combination 
of the two; the construct known as  "modal harmony," comprising 
diatony with an emphasis on secondary triads; and incorporation 
of a single element of a mode--for example, the "Dorian sixth," 
and whether this is sufficient to qualify a work as modal, or 
is merely a temporary modal inflection.  I hope to develop a 
theoretical framework for mode in a harmonic context, and to 
determine the relationship of modal harmony to earlier modal 
theory and to harmonic tonality.

KEYWORDS:
mode, modality, modal theory, modal harmony, Romantic, 
19th-century, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Chopin

TOC:
Introduction
1: Romantic Ideas
Classic vs. Romantic; Historicism; Religion; Mysticism; Primitivism; 
Egalitarianism; Nationalism; Harmonic Expansion

2: On the Modes
Middle Ages; Renaissance; 17th Century; Mode as a Pedagogical 
Tool; Romantic Era; Mode in a Harmonic Context; Mode as "Other"

3: Beethoven
Musical Education; Missa Solemnis; 9th Symphony finale; Heiliger
Dankgesang

4: Schumann
Musical Education; "Auf Einer Burg"; Folksongs for Cello and 
Piano; G minor Piano Trio

5: Brahms
Musical Education; "Von ewiger Liebe"; "Vergangen ist mir Glueck 
und Heil"; Intermezzo Op. 76 No 7; 4th Symphony slow movement; 
F minor Clarinet Sonata

6: Other Composers
Schubert ("Der Koenig in Thule"); Chopin (Mazurka Op. 41 No. 1); others

7: Conclusion 

CONTACT:
Nicole Biamonte
87 Turtle Bay
Branford, CT 06405
email: nicole.biamonte@yale.edu
phone: (203) 488-9621
fax: (203) 483-1897

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Buchler, Michael H. Relative Saturation of Subsets and Interval Cycles as a Means for Determining Set-Class Similarity

 
INSTITUTION: University of Rochester (Eastman School of Music)
BEGUN: September, 1995
COMPLETED: October, 1997

ABSTRACT:
The issue of how one should or might compare two or more 
events in atonal music has been a major concern--either 
explicitly or implicitly--in much music theoretical literature 
this century.  While musical entities related by certain 
transformations (most notably transposition and inversion) 
have commonly been understood as equivalent, there is to
date no commonly accepted method for comparing 
non-transformationally-related musical entities.  

In an attempt to bridge this gap, many theorists and composers 
have developed similarity measures or other constructs that 
are useful for relating two collections of notes (typically 
pitch classes).  The first chapter of the dissertation provides 
a brief history and critique of various works in this field.  
The second chapter, which forms the theoretical heart of the 
dissertation, introduces several new similarity indices which 
take into account the degree of "saturation" that each element 
(interval class, subset class, or subset of an interval cycle) 
enjoys in a given set class.  In order to examine the degree 
to which set X is saturated with element x, we compare the 
number of x's in X to the minimal and maximal amount of x 
that is possible in any set of the same size.

The third and fourth chapters provide examples of how 
similarity indices can inform analyses of some post-tonal 
music.  Chapter 3 is a comparative analysis of the first 
movement of Igor Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Clarinet 
Solo (1920) using eight different similarity indices.  
In Chapter 4, the second movement of Olivier Messiaen's  
Petites esquisses d'oiseaux (1985) is analyzed through 
the lens of one of the similarity indices defined in 
chapter 2.

The final chapter of the dissertation addresses some criticisms 
of similarity indices in particular and pitch-class based atonal 
analysis in general.  It also provides the groundwork for 
extending the idea of elemental saturation into other domains, 
most notably "pitch-space," in which octave-related notes are 
not considered equivalent. 

KEYWORDS:
Similarity, relations, indices, measures, set theory, Messiaen, 
Stravinsky, p-space, pc-space

TOC:
Chapter 1:  A brief history and critique of interval/subset 
   class vectors and similarity functions
Chapter 2:  Saturation vectors and associated similarity indices
Chapter 3:  A comparative analysis of Stravinsky's Three Pieces 
  for Clarinet Solo, first movement (1920) using similarity 
  indices and pcset networks
Chapter 4:  Similarity and dissimilarity of set types in 
  Olivier Messiaen's  Petites esquisses d'oiseaux, second 
  movement ('Le Merle noir')
Chapter 5:  Extensions and Conclusions

CONTACT:
Michael Buchler
University of Iowa School of Music
1006 Music Building
Iowa City, IA  52242
Home:  (319) 354-0043
Office: (319) 335-1646
Fax:  (319) 335-2637

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Cahn, Steven J. Variations in Manifold Time: Historical Consciousness in the Music and Writings of Arnold Schoenberg

INSTITUTION: State University of New York, Stony Brook
BEGUN: 
COMPLETED: August 1996
ABSTRACT:
Questioning the entrenched and monochromatic view of
Schoenberg's historical consciousness, that he saw himself as
history's instrument for the advancement of music, this study
finds Schoenberg's historical consciousness to be multifaceted.
Among these many facets, the most important common factor is 
creativity, which should be animated by historical consciousness,
not squelched by it.  In this respect, Schoenberg's thought is 
resonant with that of Goethe, Kant, Hegel, Wilhelm von Humboldt,
Zunz, Krochmal, Nietzsche, Bergson, Musil, Rosenzweig and Cohen.  
Like Schoenberg, each of these thinkers espouses the boundlessness 
of possibility, variation and creativity in the world.  Yet 
Schoenberg's works also bring into relief the conflicted 
coexistence of historical consciousness and artistic creativity.

To illustrate the devitalizing aspects of history, Schoenberg's 
views are compared to similar views of Rosenzweig and Musil.  
Polemics between Schoenberg and those who see decline in modern 
art, such as Schenker, Riemann and Spengler, reveal Schoenberg's 
antipathy to excesses of history.  Nietzsche's The Use and 
Abuse of History informs this analysis (chapter one).

We next consider how historical consciousness can foster
creativity.  Karl Popper argues that Schoenberg entangled art 
with historicist ideology.  This view is incomplete because 
it neglects the idea which Schoenberg inherited from modern 
Judaism's turn to history, that historical understanding 
promotes cultural regeneration (chapter two).

To show how works may embody one or more historical 
positions, Schoenberg's compositions are considered in light 
of his attempts at historical narrative, which are analyzed 
with respect to four themes:  continuity, discontinuity, 
social historyand the phenomenology of creativity 
(chapter three).

Affinities between art and history suggested in the work
of Humboldt, Bergson, Croce, Musil, D'Arcy Thompson, Lakoff, 
Edelman and Gruber are related to Schoenberg's writings 
(chapter four).  These findings ground the analyses of four 
works:  Erwartung, Die glueckliche Hand, Vorgefuehl, 
Op. 22, No. 4 and A Survivor From Warsaw (chapter 5).

The Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23, are discussed in terms 
of conflicts that arise when aesthetic and historical 
assessments of a musical composition disagree, and in terms 
of how Schoenberg addressed such conflicts (chapter 6).

Schoenberg's evolutionary and intuitionistic view of 
musical perception, as described in Harmonielehre, is 
considered vis-a-vis the contrasting evolutionary views of 
Mach and Bergson (chapter seven).

KEYWORDS:
Philosophy of History, Essayism, Modern Judaism, Historicism, 
Serialism, Atonality.

TOC:
I.  On Creative Imagination and Historical
      Consciousness
II. On Historical Consciousness as an 
      Ideological Source
III. The Emergence of Schoenberg's Historical
      Consciousness
IV.  On the Interaction of Phantasy and 
       Historical Consciousness
V.   Historical Consciousness in Schoenberg's
       Music
VI.  Schoenberg's Five Piano Pieces. 
      Op. 23:  Judgment and Purpose
VII.  Between Pitch Class and "Empfindungswelt"

Selected Bibliography

CONTACT:
Steven J. Cahn
College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati
Box 0003
Cincinnati, OH  45221-0003
(513) 556-7820
fax (513) 556-0202
cahnsj@email.uc.edu

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Cotner, John S. Archetypes of Progressive Rock, ca. 1966-1973

INSTITUTION: University of Wisconsin-Madison
BEGUN: May, 1995
COMPLETED: May, 1999 or Dec., 1999
ABSTRACT:

This dissertation offers a revised definition of 1960s and early
1970s progressive rock, highlighting select works by the Beatles,
Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, and King Crimson.  I argue
that the period in rock history from roughly 1966 to 1973
connotes a "progressive" point-of-compass because artists such as
those mentioned above developed aesthetic norms demarcated by a
high degree of perceptual sensitivity to issues of structure and
process, composition and improvisation, content and expression.
Ultimately, my objective is to evaluate the working mechanisms of
particular pieces, which lead to aesthetic criteria for asserting
a theory of progressive rock stylistic "archetypes."

The analytical methods appropriated and expanded in this study
include (1) generative theories of Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983),
(2) implication- realization models of Meyer (1973) and Narmour
(1977, 1989), and (3) semiotic techniques of Ruwet (1987, 1966),
Nattiez (1990), and Philip Tagg (1982); as well as musicological
studies of popular music by David Brackett (1995), Richard
Middleton (1990), and Allan Moore (1993), and critical ideas of
Andrew Chester (1970).

The dissertation is comprised of four chapters flanked by an
Introduction and Epilogue.  The Introduction presents analytical
hypotheses, and examines issues concerning rock music style
analysis.  Chapter One focuses on avante-garde works of the
Beatles and Frank Zappa during the mid-'60s.  Chapter Two
examines Pink Floyd's large-scale instrumental works from
1967-'71.  Chapter Three showcases "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"
from Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix, and compares the studio
version with live versions, as well as rural and urban blues
antecedents.  Chapter Four explores compositional formalisms in
King Crimson's album entitled Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973).
The Epilogue (1) reiterates the basic themes of the study, (2)
suggests a set of stylistic archetypes based on the analytical
data, and (3) theorizes a revised definition of progressive rock.

KEYWORDS:
progressive-, psychedelic- rock,
popular music style analysis
British-, American- Rock, 
syntactic-, processive- analysis of (p. rock)
improvisation in - (p. rock)

TOC:
Chapter Outline (subject to revision)

Prologue: A Revised Definition of Progressive Rock
Chapter I: Prototypes and Antitypes: The Beatles and
   Frank Zappa (1966-'68)
Chapter II: Large-scale Psychedelic Soundscapes: Pink Floyd (1967-'71)
Chapter III: Syntactic and Processive Strategies in the music 
   of Jimi Hendrix (1967-'70)
Chapter IV: King Crimson's Compositional Formalisms: Larks'
   Tongues in Aspic
Epilogue: Archetypes of Progressive Rock, ca. 1966-1973

CONTACT:
John S. Cotner
4321 Britta Drive #4
Madison, WI 53711
(608) 278-0787

Advisor: Dr. John W. Schaffer
Director, School of Music
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Humanities Building
Madison, WI 53706
musicdir@macc.wisc.edu

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Hoffmann, Peter. Music Out of Nothing? The Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis: a Rigorous Approach to Algorithmic Composition by Iannis Xenakis

INSTITUTION: Technische Universitaet Berlin
BEGUN: August, 1995
COMPLETED: 1998
ABSTRACT:
The Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis (GENDYN = "GENeration DYNamique"),
conceived by Iannis Xenakis (b. 1922), is a comprehensive
computational procedure (algorithm) for composing music by
synthesizing sound on a computer.  To investigate into this rigorous
example of algorithmic composition, the working environment of the
composer has been reconstructed in order to be able to study the
genesis of compositions like GENDY3 (1991). The Xenakis algorithm has
made to run in a graphical, real-time environment to allow for
immediate inspection of various details of the synthesis process. 
Musical analysis can thus benefit from the fact that the creative 
act is fully reproducable "in vitro" thanks to its total algorithmical 
formalization.  Used for the purpose of analysis, the new tool enables 
the systematic exploration of the "decision space" contributing to a 
deeper understanding to both the potential and limitations of rigorous 
algorithmic composition.  Alternatives can be explored and side 
conditions changed in order to ascertain the complex interaction 
between "material requirements" and compositional freedom, within 
which the composer originally navigated.  The technical possibilities 
for both analysis and synthesis of Stochastic Synthesis compositions 
provoke many fundamental questions about computing, listening and 
understanding, of creation, interaction and aesthetics and of the 
essence of what is machine music.  It is shown that Xenakis, unlike 
many computer music composers, has no ambition whatsoever to model 
traditional musical thinking. Instead he realizes his sonic vision 
in an abstract physical model of sound pressure dynamics yielding 
higher-order musical structures as emergent epiphenomena.  This 
radical approach which  addresses the medium of electroacoustic 
algorithmic music, i.e. the physics of sound, as well as the 
computability of sound as being a subject of artistic creation as 
such, seems to be somehow more valid for a foundation of a "true" 
computer art than the widespread imitation of human qualities by the 
computer and the strive for artificial musical "intelligence."

KEYWORDS: Iannis Xenakis, Algorithmic Composition, Stochastic Music,
Non-Standard Sound Synthesis, Real-Time Systems, Analysis of Computer
Music.

TOC:
Preface
Introduction
Algorithmic Composition
Analysis of Computer Music
Computability, Complexity, Creativity
The Dynamic Stochastic Synthesis
Analysis of GENDY3
The Development of the New GENDYN Program
Future Research
Conclusion 
Bibliography

CONTACT:
Peter Hoffmann,
Skalitzer Str. 96
D-10997 Berlin
phoffman@inf.fu-berlin.de

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Pye, Richard, C. The Music of William Schuman

INSTITUTION: University of Newcastle
BEGUN: January, 1995
COMPLETED: January 1999
ABSTRACT:
The study traces the development of Schuman's style with particular
emphasis upon his approach to the symphony. Three works are studied in
detail, each focussing on significant aspects of his approach to
structural delineation and development: Symphonies no. 3 (1941), no.6
(1948) and no.9 (1968).

Pitch-class set analysis is employed in the examination of the
extended diatonicism of the early 1940's, through to the quasi-serial
circulation of the aggregate in the Ninth Symphony. Key analytical
concerns include the processes of motivic manipulation that lie behind
Schuman's instinctive approach to "autogenetic development," and the
changing nature of the symphonic duality as the early diatonicism
gives way to a contextual, self-referential motivic vocabulary.

>From a theoretical perspective the focus of inquiry is the relevance
of different approaches to set-complex relations to the various stages
of this stylistic evolution. A number of questions are addressed: To
what extent are the generic relations outlined by Forte and Parks
applicable to large-scale symphonic works with their stylistic roots
in the diatonic/neo-classical tradition? Does Schuman's approach to
the symphony reflect a Schoenbergian view of form and structure? Are
concepts outlined in Schoenberg's theoretical writings (such as the
Idea, the Grundgestalt and developing variation) useful here?

KEYWORDS: Schuman, symphony, diatonic, genera, pc-set, developing
variation, autogenetic development, Schoenberg, theory

TOC:
Chapter 1: A brief overview of the musical language of String Quartet
no.2 (1937), American Festival Overture (1939), String Quartet no.3
(1939) - stylistic characteristics, formal devices, diatonic
collections.

Chapter 2: Analysis 1:Symphony no.3 (1941): Passacaglia. The influence
of Haubiel and Harris. Harris as teacher and theorist. Formal
design. Diatonic collections.

Chapter 3: Analysis 2: Symphony no.3: Chorale. Harmonic
ambiguity. "Floating tonality".

Chapter 4: Influence of the dance: Undertow (1945) and Night Journey
(1947)

Chapter 5: Analysis 3: Symphony no.6 (1948): Autogenetic Development

Chapter 6: Analysis 4: Symphony no.6 : Harmony and structure

Chapter 7: Further developments: Credendum (1955), Violin Concerto
(1959), Symphony no.7 (1960)

Chapter 8: Analysis 5: Symphony no. 9

Conclusion: The developments of Schuman's musical language. The role
of generic pc-set theory.

CONTACT:
R.C. Pye
4 Coniston Road
Longlevens, Gloucester GL2 0NA
United Kingdom
Telephone: 01452 506603
E mail: r.pye@virgin.net

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Wiens, Carl K. Igor Stravinsky and Agon

INSTITUTION: University of Michigan
BEGUN: January 1995
COMPLETED: January 1997
ABSTRACT:
Igor Stravinsky's last ballet, Agon (1953-57), is an enigmatic
entanglement of tonal, serial, and twelve-tone compositional
procedures in conjunction with French court dances, classical
ballet, and musical textures reminiscent of Anton Webern.  In
sorting out this puzzle, I have undertaken an interdisciplinary
approach, one involving art history, traditional music analytical
techniques, and linguistic theory.  In the first chapter,
"Artistic Interminglings:  Picasso, Cubism, and Stravinsky's
Compositional Approach," I draw the parallel between Pablo
Picasso's artistic approach during his Cubist period and
Stravinsky's compositional approach, delineating three common
elements between the two artists:  context/modelling,
cut-and-paste, and substitution.  In the second chapter, "A Day
in the Memory:  The Fifth, the Torchbearer, and the Magician," I
take a whimsical look at Stravinsky, the twelve-tone composer.
With the third chapter, I offer two different looks at Agon.  The
first encompasses a more traditional m usic analytical
investigation of the ballet, demonstrating how the various parts
work together, creating this cohesive work.  The second entails
my borrowing of Mikhail Bakhtin's notion of dialogue as the
fundamental element of communication between human beings.  By
considering musical compositions as medium of communication, I am
able to explore Agon as a social act, thus, examining the
relationship between Stravinsky, Agon, and other composers' works
and the effect that they had on Stravinsky's compositional
choices.

KEYWORDS:  Stravinsky, Agon, Music Theory, Interdisciplinary 
   Studies, Bakhtin, Webern, Cubism, Picasso

TOC:
ONE
Artistic Interminglings:
Picasso, Cubism, and Stravinsky'S
Compositional Approach

TWO
A Day in the Memory:
The Fifth, The Torchbearer, and the Magician

THREE
The Post-game Show: An Analysis of Agon (A Drama in Three Acts)

Prologue	

Act I.  "Agon, In General Terms"	

Act II.  "An Analysis of Agon"
Scene i.  "Stravinsky's Tonal Souvenirs"	
Scene ii.  "An Analysis of Agon's First Section"	
Scene iii.  "Agon's Third Section"	
Scene iv.  "The Ritornello Theme"	
Scene v.  "The First Pas-de-Trois"	
Scene vi.  "The Second Pas-de-Trois"
Scene vii.  "The Pas-de-Deux"	

Act III.  "Agon as a Social Act"	
Scene i. "The Pas-de-Deux: More Than Meets
                the Eye"	
Scene ii.  "Dialogue, Bakhtin, and the Musical
                 Work"
Scene iii.  "The Application to Music"	
Scene iv.  "Agon via the Bakhtin Model"	
Scene v.  "The Pas-de-Deux By Way of
                  Bakhtin"	

Epilogue	
Bibliograpy

CONTACT:
Carl Wiens
#3 19991-53A Avenue
Langley, BC
Canada  V3A 8H6
wiens5@sprint.ca, or npearson@sfu.ca
phone: (604) 532-9573

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