Dissertation Index
Author: Eng, Clare Sher Ling Title: Motif and Closure in Twentieth-Century Music: Bartók, Britten and Fauré Institution: Yale University Begun: August 2006 Completed: March 2012 Abstract: By the end of the nineteenth century, Classical cadences had become reified elements whose expressive capability had weakened. They also acquired semantic qualities that they lacked when they were in currency, such as nostalgia and epigonism. Consequently, composers who desired expressive endings, and who wanted to avoid those qualities, were compelled to seek alternative technical means to communicate closure. My dissertation investigates how Bartók, Britten and Fauré—three twentieth-century composers of distinct musical styles—responded to this challenge. Adopting Leonard Meyer’s communication model of music, I posit that closure proceeds by convention. I propose that its conventions are divisible into three types (corpus-, composer- and work-specific), and that every judgment of closure is a negotiation between different, and different types of, conventions. I supplement work already done in identifying corpus-level conventions of closure in twentieth-century music by identifying those that are composer-specific, focusing on how Bartók, Britten and Fauré use a common means (motives) variously to create work-specific closure. Bartók recollects motives at their original pitch classes. He presents harmonic restatements of melodic motives, brings back motivic progressions, and creates what I term retrospective collages. Britten transforms the motives that he recollects. He weaves long modal melodies from short and previously disparate motives, reinterprets open-ended motives as concluding gestures, and uses motivic references to forge intertextual relationships in song cycles. Fauré in his late songs incorporates motives into cadences. Some cadences embed motives in various voices, others have similar outer-voice motion, and yet others interact with the poem’s text and/or narrative structure. For each composer, I show that the closural conventions gleaned from their music relate to corpus-level ones from earlier historical style periods. I also explore the possibility that the same motivic process might have different significance for closure in the music of different composers, discussing this topic in relation to partial (incomplete) restatements of motives in the music of Bartók and Britten. By taking into account features of a composer’s typical ending, I argue that we can arrive at more informed and nuanced interpretations of particular endings. Keywords: closure, twentieth-century music, Bartók, Britten, Fauré, motif, motive, cadence TOC: Chapter 1. Introduction An Obituary and a Musical Problem Definitions Theorizing the Communication of Closure Conventions of Closure since the Classical Period Dissertation Outline Chapter 2. Motivic Recollection in the Music of Béla Bartók (1881-1945) Introduction Bartók’s Motivic Processes of Closure Conversion of Melody to Harmony Restatement of Motivic Progression Retrospective Collage Is There a Case for Closural Failure? Chapter 3. Motivic Transformation in the Music of Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) Introduction Britten’s Motivic Processes of Closure Transformation of Motives into Modal Melody The Unbearable Openness of Epiphany: Closural Failure in the Third Cello Suite, op. 87 Reinterpretation of Open-Ended Motif Partial Motivic Restatement in Britten and Bartók Motif Manipulation to Create Intertextual Relationships Chapter 4. Motivic Cadencing in the Late Songs of Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) Introduction Characteristics of the Late Music of Gabriel Fauré Cadential Norms in Fauré’s Late Music Fauré’s Treatment of Classical Parameters of Cadential Closure Aspects of Song Analysis Fauré’s Techniques for Contextualizing Cadences Motif Embedding Outer-Voice Correspondence Interactions with Text Closure in the Song Cycle Cadential Motives and Musical Memory in Mirages, op. 113 Chapter 5. Conclusion Contact: clare.eng@belmont.edu College of Visual & Performing Arts School of Music Belmont University 1900 Belmont Boulevard Nashville, TN 37212 Phone: 615-460-6267 Fax: 615-460-8642 |