Dissertation Index
Author: Schuijer, Michiel Title: Pitch-Class Set Theory and the Construction of Musical Competence Institution: University of Utrecht Begun: June 1994 Completed: September 2005 Abstract: This dissertation studies the evolution of pitch-class set theory, the predominant American theory of post-tonal music. It combines a thorough analysis of concepts (e.g. 'transposition', 'inversion', 'multiplication', 'equivalence', 'similarity') with an investigation of the historical context in which the theory has emerged. Pitch-class set theory is treated as part of the musical and cultural landscape in the United States after 1950, with particular emphasis on its role in the reception of the music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and others. The theory's remarkable rise to authority is related to the impact of the computer on the study of music in the 1960s—an impact that most music theory textbooks fail to acknowledge—and to the American university in its double role as protector of high culture and provider of mass education. Particular attention is given to the motives of Milton Babbitt and Allen Forte, the principal pioneers in the field of pitch-class set theory. Babbitt wanted to subject music discourse to the rigorous criteria of logical positivism in order to protect an endangered culture of advanced music. Forte’s concern was music education—not as the guardian of music tradition, but as an instrument in the widest possible dissemination of new knowledge. Keywords: pitch-class set theory, music analyis, music theory (history of), music education, twelve-tone serialism, computers, mathematics, Forte, Babbitt TOC: Foreword 1 Pitch-Class Set Theory: An Overture A Tale of Two Continents Paradigmatic Pieces A Short Detour over Schenker Institutionalization and Criticism Aim, Scope, and Structure of this Study 2 Objects and Entities Pitch and Pitch-Class Pitch Interval and Pitch-Interval Class Pitch-Class Set The Interval Content of a Pitch-Class Set 3 Operations Notes on the term 'Operation' Transposition Inversion Multiplication 4 Equivalence Definitions of Equivalence Equivalence and Equality The Study of Interval Content 'Operational' Equivalence Problems of Representation Class Types Canonical Transformation Groups Sound 5 Similarity Concept and Referent Gradations of Harmonic Tension Distributive Patterns Squaring the Difference Common Subsets 'Absolute' Measures An Almost Unreasonable Wish 6 Blurring the Boundaries: Analysis, Performance, History What Music Analysts Do Historical Models and Topical Meanings 7 Mise-en-Scène A: Formalization and Forgetfulness The Computer as a Role Model Computer Language and the Structure of Atonal Music B: Contemporary Music, Science, and Education Babbitt's Positivism Anxieties about Musical Discourse The University as a Refuge? A Democracy of Learning Literature Index Samenvatting Contact: Dr. Michiel Schuijer Conservatorium van Amsterdam P.O. Box 78022 1070 LP Amsterdam tel. +31 (0)20 527 7503 m.schuijer@ahk.nl Universiteit van Amsterdam Nieuwe Doelenstraat 16, Room 1.09 1012 CP Amsterdam tel. +31 (0)20 525 4667 e-mail: M.C.Schuijer@uva.nl http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/m.c.schuijer/ Home: Weissenbruchstraat 131 2596 GD Den Haag The Netherlands tel: +31 (0)70 319 1865 fax: +31 (0)70 324 7241 e-mail: michiel@schuijer.demon.nl |