Adlington, Robert C. "Temporality in Post-Tonal Music"
AUTHOR: Adlington, Robert C. TITLE: Temporality in post-tonal music INSTITUTION: University of Sussex, UK BEGUN: October, 1993 COMPLETED: September, 1996 ABSTRACT: Existing accounts of musical temporality presume concepts of time which are, arguably, not adequate to experience. They also serve to marginalise post-tonal music. Experiential absolutes might better be sought in the cognitive sciences, in the form of principles governing our organisation of change. Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983) claim to identify some of these universal principals, and they would seem to support prevailing concepts of time. But Lerdahl and Jackendoff's dependence upon intuitions about experience betrays a simplistic view of the relation between automatic cognitive processes and conscious experience. The complexities of consciousness make it difficult to correlate cognitive activity and musical temporality. Descriptions of music appear to confirm the existence of certain absolutes in temporal experience. But the description of musical activity in terms of motion (for instance) is problematic. However, the alternatives are not obviously preferable; rather, competing descriptions 'determine' music differently. Dennett's model of consciousness (1991) suggests that linguistic thought may be involved in musical experience, but the descriptive 'determining' of experience does not constitute a faithful rendering. The difficulty of identifying experiential absolutes, and the limitations of describing, suggest that accounts of musical temporality are touched by the interpretative interests of the describer. Favoured concepts of musical form are examined in this light. Claims that music presents a 'narrative', or a 'structure', serve certain interests and institutions, and discriminate against others. As changing sound, music may be organised by listeners in ways less analogous to language and visual objects. Adorno's is the most ambitious attempt to interpret musical meaning on the basis of music's temporality, but his music criticism too readily smooths over the difficulties raised in earlier chapters. Paul de Man's defiantly anti-spatial concept of temporality is a useful corrrective, and can be accommodated within the broader trajectory of Adorno's philosophy. Ideas raised in earlier chapters are revisited in a discussion of the first movement of Ligeti's Violin Concerto. KEYWORDS: time, temporality, intuition, motion, description, narrative, structure, form, Adorno, Ligeti TOC: INTRODUCTION (Temporality. Post-tonal music) I. MUSIC AND TEMPORALITY (Temporality, time, clocks. Other concepts of time: Barry and Kramer. Conceptualising time. 'Psychological' temporality and 'interpretative' temporality.) II. 'PSYCHOLOGICAL' TEMPORALITY (The cognitive organisation of tonal music: Lerdahl and Jackendoff. Intuition about experience. The structural representation of music. Memory. Metre, memory and measuring. Cognitive processes and consciousness. Limitations of the cognitive approach.) III. DESCRIBING MUSICAL TEMPORALITY (Post-tonality and stasis. Music: 'time in motion'? Metre and musical 'motion'. Describing music. Interpreting musical temporality. Temporality and spatiality.) IV. MUSIC'S TEMPORAL FORM (Narrative. Plot. Sequential form. Verbal organisation. Unfolding structure. The construction of musical form. Musical sound: questions of organisation and form.) V. TEMPORALITY AND MUSICAL MEANING (Adorno's critique of musical temporality in context. 'Negative Dialectics', antinomy, and the concept of dialectic. Adorno and temporality: a summary and a suggestion. De Man and temporality. De Man and musical temporality. Critical temporalities.) VI. TEMPORALITY IN LIGETI'S VIOLIN CONCERTO CONTACT: Dr R C Adlington Music Faculty Essex House University of Sussex Falmer Brighton BN1 9RQ UK e-mail: R.C.Adlington@sussex.ac.uk phone: +44 1273 678019 fax: +44 1273 678644
AUTHOR: Douw, Andre, M. TITLE: The Construction of Order and Direction in Igor Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Canticum Sacrum, and Threni INSTITUTION: Utrecht University BEGUN: July 1989 COMPLETED: March 1995 ABSTRACT: This study presents complete analyses of In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Canticum Sacrum and Threni. In the material tables of the period, the original set is connected with its inversed reversion in In Memoriam Dylan Thomas and Canticum Sacrum, and with its inversion in Threni. Numbered zero, this original double set is transposed by falling fifths, and the transpositions are numbered 1 to 11. While the transposition sceme is traced back to Webern's Variations for Orchestra, the additional technical idea of double sets is taken from Schoenberg, as is the structural idea of equivalence. Enriched with the Stravinskyan concept of implication, the technique enabled the composer to create connections between remote parts of the compositions. This method was also used to create two layers of organisation in Canticum Sacrum and three in Threni. A motivation is proposed which explains the great number of non-serial irregularities in the scores. They constitute another system of organization next to the first. A comparison is made with compositions from earlier periods of Stravinsky's creative life where styles and techniques of other composers were 'Stravinskyfied' by means of changes in the text. The hypothesis is that this system was developed simultaneously with the development of the serial technique and that both techniques reached their apogee in Threni. The suggestion is made to regard the scores as written texts rather than as scripts for a performance. The notation of accidentals, measure numbers and double barrings refer to 'deeper' levels of organisation. This is increasingly the case in the course of the research period and probably thereafter. The notation of accidentals points at a consciousness of late Renaissance problems of equal temperament while the notation of double barrings in Threni refer to the existence of several layers of organization and to the message encoded by those levels. KEYWORDS: Stravinsky, serialism, equivalence, implication, constructionism, order, direction. TOC: CHAPTER I: Technical Background 1 Introduction 2 Change of style a. The traditional approach b. Some new proposals 3 Technique a. The original sets b. The material charts c. Equivalence and implication 4 Text and subtext a. Two examples b. Two levels of organisation c. Stasis 5 Inconsistencies a. The traditional approach b. A new approach c. Rotations 6 Visualisation a. Accidentals b. Measure numberings c. Crosses 7 Conclusion a. Survey b. Conclusions CHAPTER II: In Memoriam Dylan Thomas 1 Introduction 2 Technique a. The traditional approach b. A proposal for a new approach c. Set and material tables - 1 3 Analysis a. Dirge-Canons b. Song: ritornelli c. Song: the even forms d. Song: the odd forms e. Serial inconsistencies f. Notation g. Construction 4 Conclusions a. Use of numbers b. Set and material tables - 2 c. Stravinsky, Thomas and Webern CHAPTER III: Canticum Sacrum ad Honorem Sancti Marci Nominis 1 Introduction 2 Level I: Analysis a. Dedicatio b. Movement I: Euntes in Mundum c. Movement II: Surge, Aquilo d. Movement III:De Tres Virtutes Hortationes e. Movement IV: Brevis Motus Cantilenae f. Movement V: Illi CONTACT: Andre M. Douw Sweelinck Conservatory van Baerlestraat 27 1071 AN Amsterdam The Netherlands telephone: 020 - 6647641 telefax: 020 - 6761506 andre@ahk.nl
AUTHOR: Jardim, Antonio TITLE: Music: another density of real - to a philosophy of a substantive language INSTITUTION: Conservatorio Brasileiro de Musica BEGUN: 3-1987 COMPLETED: 3-1988 ABSTRACT: The propose of this work is: In the first place, to show that music is a product of social life as other products. In the second place, to raise a series of characterizations showing that music is a language with a determinate degree of speciality, that become a substantive one. In the third place, to show through analysis and the exposition of a series of concepts that the instituitions of musical teaching as they neither see music as a product of social life nor as a substantive language, they play the part of reproducer instead of producer. Besides, it's a propose in this work to discuss in a philosophical degree a series of concepts and then to approach the music and the musical teaching in a philosophical conception. KEYWORDS: Music, philosophy, education, economy, knowing, production TOC: I. A aspect: The Musical Production The music and your productio process The music's evolution The music in the age industrial capitalist The capitalist way of production and musical's production The musical's production Process of production and work's process in music The musical work's process The musical work's object Musical work's Instruments The musical work's force The musical production's relations The artesanal production The manufactural production The industrial production The re-producion process The productive forces The consume's relations The structure of musical production's process The infra-structure and the super-structure II. Another aspect: The Musical Language The pseudo-concreticity A qiestion of fundamentation The knowledgement The knowing's forms The organic knowing The mithic knowing The philosophic knowing The knowing: doxa, myth and philosophy The theory and the practice The music and the knowing's forms The music how language Music and doxa Myth and music Philosophy and music The music's language The hearings The question of system The hearing's points The formation of hearing's points III. A third aspect: The Music's School The scool: a complex organization The school A truth Another truth Organization and truth The process of "production" of the school Education: domination or knowing? Education: theory or practice? Education: actualization or search of principles The music school The music school and the musical language Music school: theory or practice? The teaching and the representation's forms Knowing: learning and teaching Music school and production Music school and hearing's point The music school how a introductory process to music Education and reproduction Music school: truth and reproduction Conclusion Bibliography CONTACT: Antonio Jardim Rua Sao Luis Gonzaga 445/601 Sao Cristovao - CEP 20 910-061 Rio de Janeiro - RJ Brasil e-mail: ajardim@openlink.com.br
AUTHOR: Laurson, Mikael TITLE: "PATCHWORK: A Visual Programming Language and some Musical Applications" INSTITUTION: Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland BEGUN: April, 1994 COMPLETION: April, 1996 ABSTRACT: Computer-assisted composition is a field calling upon various disciplines such as computer science, artificial intelligence, visual programming, music notation, music theory and representation of musical objects. This study presents a platform, called PatchWork (PW) which provides for the combination of these disciplines into an integrated whole. PatchWork is a general-purpose visual language with an emphasis on producing and analysing musical materials. It is first studied how Common Lisp can be translated into a visual language. Then several PW extensions are introduced including abstractions. Two important concepts - musical objects and PW-editors - follow, changing PW from a purely functional language into an environment creating, storing and processing complex CLOS objects. PWConstraints, the other main topic of this study, is a PW user library specialised in rule-based programming. PWConstraints allows the user to solve complex musical problems by describing the end result. First PWConstraints is introduced from the user's point of view. The discussion shows how the search-space is defined and how rules are written. The introductory part also includes several musical examples. After a technical discussion two case studies are presented. The first one is an extension dealing with polyphonic search problems. The second case study describes a large-scale musical search problem. A precomposed melodic line is harmonised with the help of a set of rules. KEYWORDS: computer-assisted composition, computer music, visual programming, rule-based programming TOC: Definitions Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: PW in Perspective Chapter 3: PW-Kernel Chapter 4: Musical Objects and PW-Editors Chapter 5: PWConstraints Chapter 6: Conclusions Appendix: Syyssonetti Bibliography CONTACT: E-Mail: laurson@siba.fi Address: Sibelius Academy, P.O. Box 86, 00251 Helsinki, Finland Voice: 358-0-485039
AUTHOR: McGinness, John, R. TITLE: "Playing with Debussy's Jeux: Music and Modernism" INSTITUTION: University of California, Santa Barbara Music Dept., Santa Barbara CA 93106 BEGUN: 9/92 COMPLETION: 9/96 ABSTRACT: This dissertation takes the ballet, Jeux, as a point of focus in order to discuss the ongoing evolution of musical modernism. Debussy's music, composed in 1912-13, is now often regarded as "presciently modern"; even, by some accounts, as a nascent "moment form." The inner chapters concentrate on issues related directly to the music itself: references to Stravinsky's Petrushka, the musical expression of Debussy's Symbolist aesthetic, the collaboration between Debussy, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Serge Diaghilev, and the influence of Emile Jaques-Dalcroze's theories of movement on both the music and the dance. (Nijinsky's notes for the choreography are discussed here for the first time.) Framing the presentation of this material, the first and last chapters focus on the remarkably disparate ways in which Jeux's music has been, and continues to be, perceived; of particular concern is the contrast between the early modern (pre-World War I) aesthetic relationship to the musical "object" and the mid-century ("high modern") ideal of aesthetic autonomy. Although I do not eschew the idea of Debussy's modernity, I posit that the ballet's recent history is related as much to the aesthetic and compositional concerns of both Pierre Boulez and the Darmstadt group (i.e., those responsible for initiating its mid-century reception) as it is to those of Debussy: Jeux, in fact, bears much more in common with the music of other early modernists than is currently believed. While making no claims to finality, the interdisciplinary process used in this study does reveal an aesthetic vision in the early years of the century that is significantly different from the pure formalism of mid-century and that represented by my own late (or post-) modern point of view. KEYWORDS: Modernism, Aesthetics, Ballets Russes, Eurhythmics, Nijinsky, Diaghilev, Darmstadt, Boulez TOC: I. Playing with Debussy's Jeux: Music and Modernism II. A Dancer's Angst; A Composer's Reluctance: Nijinsky's Notes for the Ballet, Jeux III. Debussy sur Stravinsky: Traces of Influence; Questions of Form IV. New Acquisition; Re-Acquisition: The Museum in Stasis CONTACT: P.O. Box 1755, Goleta CA 93116 (805) 687-2513 6500jrmc@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu
AUTHOR: Tjoeme, Berit K. TITLE: The Articulation of Sonata Form in Atonal Works by Fartein Valen. Analyses of his Violin Concerto, Op. 37 and Symphony No. 3, Op. 41. INSTITUTION: Department of Music and Theatre, Section for Musicology, University of Oslo, Norway BEGUN: January, 1990 COMPLETION: August, 1995 ABSTRACT: The aim of this study is to examine the most significant characteristics of the sonata-allegro form as it is reflected in Fartein Valen s two compositions. An introductory part of this dissertation illuminates Valen s relations to the tradition. More specifically, I throw light on the most significant inspirational sources of the composer s evolution toward his dissonant polyphony, which are primarily J. S. Bach s counterpoint, late Romanticism, and the new music by Arnold Schoenberg. These three historical aspects, more than any other sources, can be considered to form the premises for Valen s large-scale atonal works. This dissertation contains a broad spectrum of the stylistic hallmarks of Valen s atonality. The composer s development of a "modified row-technique" is viewed in the light of an "Ausfullung der Zwolftonskala". This is argued for on the basis of the composer s contrapuntal devices, the close relation between foreground and background in Valen s atonal pieces and his voice-leading procedures. The harmonic dimensions of this music, as well as the most significant characteristics of Valen s cadential formulas are discussed in relation to traditional tonality as well as to pitch-class set theory. This study also focuses on the composer s concern for musical continuity and coherence, and as such this will be examined in the light of the use of the complement relation, the concept of invariance, the importance of basic interval patterns and the significance of pc-set complexes. Furthermore, this dissertation takes a closer look at Valen s use of his developing-variation procedure, and his articulation of a so-called musical prose. Finally, the study focuses attention on the argument that Valen in his atonality makes a synthesis of the principle of variation, a fugal design, and the sonata form. KEYWORDS: Atonal music, pitch-class set analysis, sonata form, Norwegian music, Fartein Valen, atonal counterpoint, dissonant polyphony. TOC: Part I Fundamentals Ch. 1 Statement of Purpose Ch. 2 Valen s Premises for His Atonal Large-Scale Atonal Compositions Ch. 3 Methodological Considerations the Development of Analytical Approaches to Post-Tonal Music. A Historical Perspective Ch. 4 Theoretical Reflections the Problem of Abstraction in Pc-set Analysis Ch. 5 Theory and Analysis the Problem of Segmentation and Identification of Structural Components in Atonal Music Part II Analyses Ch. 6 The Violin Concerto, Op. 37 and Symphony No. 3, Op. 41 Ch. 7 Valen s Atonal Pieces Architectural Models or Developing Forms? a Focus on Cadential Patterns in his two Compositions Ch. 8 The Harmonic Vocabulary in Valen s Violin Concerto and his Symphony No. 3 Ch. 9 A Further Discussion on the Aspect of Harmony in Valen s Post-Tonal Works Ch. 10 Valen s Development of a "Modified Row Technique" the Composer s Concern about Musical Continuity and Coherence Ch. 11 Valen s Atonality as a Consecutive Process a New Conception of Musical Form in his Mature Atonal Works Ch. 12 Aesthetic Considerations Valen s Dissonant Polyphony Innovation and Tradition CONTACT: Nadderudveien 84E, N-1347 Hosle, Norway, Voice: +4767145935
AUTHOR: Waters, Keith, J. TITLE: "Rhythmic and Contrapuntal Structures in the Music of Arthur Honegger" INSTITUTION: Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester Department of Music Theory 26 Gibbs St. Rochester, NY 14604 BEGUN: July 1994 COMPLETION: January 1997 ABSTRACT: The dissertation examines fundamental principles of musical organization in the music of Arthur Honegger. These principles are based upon systematic rhythmic and contrapuntal strategies, illuminated through a study of Honegger's compositions and compositional sketches. While techniques of pitch organization are diverse in the compositions of Honegger, the strategies of rhythm and counterpoint provide an underlying source of compositional unity. The initial chapter provides a biographical summary, reviews the analytically-based secondary literature, and examines Honegger's prose writings. Chapter 2 discusses rhythmic organization, and refines current thories of rhythmic consonance and dissonance to highlight methods of rhythmic conflict. Contrapuntal strategies are expressed through techniques of inversional symmetry, considered here through contour symmetry, generic interval symmetry, and specific interval symmetry: this provides the focus of Chapter 3. Chapters 4 and 5 provide extended analyses of two orchestral works. Mouvement symphonique #2 (Rugby) establishes a series of correspondences based upon pitch material, rhythmic groupings, and rhythmic conflicts. The analysis of the first two movements of Symphonie pour cordes is supplemented by the composer's sketches which illuminate intervallic and contrapuntal processes. The final chapter suggests avenues for future inquiry in pitch organization of Honegger, in coordination with current analytical approaches for the tonally-centric music of Stravinsky, Bart�k, and Hindemith. KEYWORDS: Arthur Honegger, rhythmic (or metrical) consonance and dissonance, inversional symmetry, interval cycle, pitch centricity, Mouvement symphonique, Symphonie pour cordes, counterpoint TOC: 1. Background; 2. Rhythmic Structures; 3. Contrapuntal Structures and Symmetries; 4. Mouvement symphonique (Rugby); 5. Symphonie pour cordes CONTACT: Keith Waters 1826 19th St., #213 Boulder CO 80302 watersk@stripe.colorado.edu
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