Dissertation Index
Author: Behrens, Lisa, S. Title: Cyclic Pitch Organization in the Twelve-Tone Works of Aaron Copland Institution: The Graduate Center, CUNY Begun: August 2004 Completed: October 2012 Abstract: Late in his career, Aaron Copland composed four twelve-tone works; the Quartet for Piano and Strings (1950), the Piano Fantasy (1957), Connotations (1962), and Inscape (1967). Rather than constituting a sudden conversion to serial composition, Copland’s mature twelve-tone works constitute a revival of serial procedures that antedates and pervades his American works of the 1930s and 40s. Moreover, these works exemplify a stylistic continuity that contradicts the specious distinction between Copland’s “severe” and “simple,” idioms that has previously been promoted in the literature. Consequently, I demonstrate that Copland adapted twelve-tone principles to his already well-established idiom, transferring salient features of the harmonic language in his American works to a serial platform. Thus, all of the twelve-tone works employ cyclic row classes that are based on whole-tone relationships, which generate a wealth of symmetrical constructs that recreate the distinctive fourth-and-fifth-harmonies that are typical of Copland’s tonal harmonic language. I also identify four compositional principles that determine the organization of pitch: segmental invariance, whole-tone complementation, cyclic formal articulation, and a generalized collectional interaction between pentatonic, octatonic, and hexatonic sets. Keywords: Copland, cyclic, pitch, whole-tone, complementation, invariance, interaction TOC: Table of Contents Volume I: Text Chapter 1 Introduction to Copland’s Twelve-Tone Music 1-1 Incorporation of Twelve-Tone Techniques 1-2 Promotion of “Simple” and “Severe” Styles 1-3 Motivating Factors and Analytical Literature 1-4 Compositional Aspects of the Mature Twelve-Tone Works Chapter 2 Piano Fantasy: Spontaneous Coherence 2-1 Conception and Introduction 2-2 Row Structure 2-3 Analytical Applications 2-4 Diatonic and Pentatonic Invariants 2-5 Introduction to (048)-Based Cyclic Form 2-6 Overview of Cyclic Form 2-7 Elaboration of Cyclic Form 2-8 Motivic Development: Conflicts 1 and 2, G/G# and C/C# 2-9 Further Motivic Development: Conflict 3, Db/D 2-10 Conflict 4, Bb/B, Double-Interruption and Conflict 5, WT0/WT1 2-11 Summary and Conclusions Chapter 3 Connotations: Primary Meaning and Implications 3-1 Inception 3-2 Formal Design 3-3 Cyclic Properties of the Row Class 3-4 Thematic Development of Trichordal Row Segments I: (0134) Motive 3-5 Thematic Development of Trichordal Row Segments II: (014) and (036) 3-6 Thematic Development of ic-5 Row Content 3-7 Formal and Thematic Symmetry in A\' 3-8 Summary and Conclusions Chapter 4 Inscape: Order, Unity, and Discipline 4-1 Conception 4-2 Introduction to Pitch Organization 4-3 Chordal Row Form X 1. Whole-Tone Complementation 2. Octatonic Complementation 3. Diatonic Implications 4-4 Contrapuntal Row Form Y, Provenance and Organization 4-5 Whole-Tone Complementation in X and Y 4-6 Ancillary Hexachordal Combinatoriality and Hexachordal Invariance in Y 4-7 Segmental Invariance in Y 4-8 Preservation of the Initial Tetrachord in Y 4-9 Hexatonic Complementation in Y 4-10 Summary and Conclusions Chapter 5 Piano Quartet: Revitalization 5-1 Background 5-2 Cyclic Row Class Organization 5-3 Whole-Tone Complementation 5-4 Segmental Invariance 5-5 Analytical Applications 5-6 Berg and Inversional Complementation 5-7 Messiaen and Collectional Interaction 5-8 “Three Blind Mice” Motive Chapter 6 Conclusions VOLUME II: Examples Contact: Lisa Behrens, 70 Lincoln Ave. Apt. G22, Rockville Centre, NY 11570 lsbehrens@yahoo.com lisa.behrens@hofstra.edu |