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Volume 10, Number 1, February 2004
Copyright © 2004 Society for Music Theory
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Kievman, Carson. "Ockeghem and Ligeti: The Music of Transcendence." Princeton University, June 2003.
AUTHOR: Kievman, Carson
TITLE: Ockeghem and Ligeti: The Music of Transcendence
INSTITUTION: Princeton University
COMPLETED: June 2003
ABSTRACT: If we suspend disbelief for a moment and imagine that five
centuries of "musical development" never existed, we find that music from the
14th & 15th centuries connects unequivocally to the most radical and forward
thinking musical creations in the late 20th century. This dissertation
specifically examines and compares the music of 20-21st century composer György Ligeti and 15th century composer Johannes Ockeghem. These two composers, who
lived five centuries apart, have in common the creation of music built upon a
sophisticated, albeit largely imperceptible, framework upon which they
constructed undifferentiated progressions of massive counterpoint. Notably, both
composers avoid “traditional” means of closure via cadence and the sublimation
of linear sequencing. The result of their efforts stands in stark contrast to
the “classical” musical ideals that have held dominion over musical culture from
the 16th century until the 20th.
The Introduction sets forth the intentions of this dissertation and briefly
outlines how early music, and Ockeghem in particular, may have directly, or
indirectly, influenced new music and the development of Ligeti’s style. Chapter
One looks at György Ligeti’s life and closely examines his Requiem. By analyzing
musical techniques that have become synonymous with Ligeti, and looking careful
at his references to early music composers, such as Ockeghem and Guillaume de
Machaut, as well as some 20th century masters, this chapter attempts to
determine the extent to which Ligeti earned his stature by creating an entirely
new musical form, or how he may have utilized existing ideas to develop a hybrid
(albeit an ingenious one). Chapter Two looks at Johannes Ockeghem and examines
his Intemerata Dei mater. Rather than try to understand the mindset of a 15th
century composer, this chapter looks at this ancient music as a 20th century
artifact and seeks to comprehend the music’s power to influence and inspire modern composers and listeners. The Summary touches
on the transcendent (or spiritual) aspects of Ockeghem and Ligeti’s musical
intent through a discussion and appraisal of the work of Manfred Bukofzer in his
book Studies in Medieval & Renaissance Music.
TOC:
Introduction
Chapter 1: György Ligeti
Chapter 2: Johannes Ockeghem
Summary (Ramifications)
CONTACT:
Dr. Carson Kievman
68 Westerly Road
Princeton, NJ 08540
ckievman@princeton.edu
AUTHOR: Steenstra, Sytze G.
TITLE: We Are The Noise Between Stations: A philosophical exploration of the work of David Byrne, at the crossroads of popular media, conceptual art, and performance theatre
INSTITUTION: Maastricht University, The Netherlands
COMPLETED: June 2003
ABSTRACT: "We Are The Noise Between Stations" first of all offers an overview of the work of New York-based artist David Byrne (1952), emphasizing its conceptual and theoretical underpinnings. Byrne has produced an extensive and truly heterogeneous oeuvre. In the 1970's and 80's he gathered worldwide fame as singer and artistic leader of the pop group Talking Heads. Next to that, he collaborated with leading artists such as theatre maker Robert Wilson, visual artist Joseph Kosuth, theatre groups Mabou Mines and the Wooster Group, composer/producer Brian Eno, and many others. Apart from his popular music Byrne directed feature films as well as an anthropological documentary, collaborated in theatrical projects, showed photography in galleries and museums, makes books, and manages his own record label Luaka Bop, which presents the worldwide diversity of contemporary pop music. Characteristic for all these media is that Byrne does not approach them as a means for individual expression, but as miniature 'Gesamtkunstwerke,' as meeting ground for different forms of artistic mimesis. Byrne's work functions in the popular mass media, where every product, whether a film script, a clip, or a song, has to comply with strict formal standards of unity and direct recognition. Nevertheless, it successfully applies within these formats the methods that were developed in conceptual art and in performance theatre: methods of experimenting with accepted mimetic standards, and of developing a reflexive perspective on these standards.
KEYWORDS: popular music, reflexivity, mimesis, performance theory, conceptual art, Gesamtkunstwerk, anthropology, poetics, philosophy
TOC:
1 Introduction
Part I: Conceptual work in the mass media
2 Music as a mimetic arena
3 Film and performance theatre
4 Anthropology and music
5 Photography and books
Part II: Theories of performance
6 Exploring the foundations of performance
7 Performance theory in the theatre
8 The anthropology of performance
Part III: A poetics of reflexivity
9 Towards a philosophy of mimesis
10 The model of early Romanticism
11 Benjamin and Adorno on the myths in modernity
12 The Gesamtkunstwerk as laboratory
CONTACT:
dr S.G. Steenstra
Faculty of Arts and Culture, Universiteit Maastricht
P. O. Box 616
6200 MD Maastricht
THE NETHERLANDS
phone: [00]32-43-3882525
S.Steenstra@PHILOSOPHY.unimaas.nl
Wright, James K. "Schoenberg, Wittgenstein, and the Vienna Circle: Epistemological Meta-Themes in Harmonic Theory, Aesthetics, and Logical Positivism." McGill University, February 2002.
AUTHOR: Wright, James K.
TITLE: Schoenberg, Wittgenstein, and the Vienna Circle: Epistemological
Meta-Themes in Harmonic Theory, Aesthetics, and Logical Positivism
INSTITUTION: McGill University
BEGUN: 09/1999
COMPLETED: 02/2002
ABSTRACT:
This study examines the relativistic aspects of Arnold Schoenberg's harmonic and
aesthetic theories in the light of a framework of ideas presented in the early
writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, the logician, philosopher of language, and
Schoenberg's contemporary and Austrian compatriot. The author has identified
correspondences between the writings of Schoenberg, the early Wittgenstein (the
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, in particular), and the Vienna Circle of
philosophers, on a wide range of topics and themes. Issues discussed include the
nature and limits of language, musical universals, theoretical conventionalism,
word-to-world correspondence in language, the need for a fact- and
comparison-based approach to art criticism, and the nature of music-theoretical
formalism and mathematical modeling. Schoenberg and Wittgenstein are shown to
have shared a vision that is remarkable for its uniformity and balance, one that
points toward the reconciliation of the positivist-relativist dualism that has
dominated recent discourse in music theory. Contrary to earlier accounts of
Schoenberg's harmonic and
aesthetic relativism, this study identifies a solid epistemological core
underlying his thought, a view that was very much in step with Wittgenstein and
the Vienna Circle, and thereby with the most vigorous and forward-looking stream
in early twentieth century intellectual history.
KEYWORDS:
Schoenberg, Wittgenstein, Vienna Circle, Formalism, Positivism, Conventionalism,
Relativism, Empiricism, Universals, Harmony, Aesthetics
TOC:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Decline of the Quest for Universals in Twentieth-Century Music Theory
Schoenberg and Wittgenstein
Chapter 2: Universalism and Relativism
in Schoenberg's Harmonic Theory
Relativism in Schoenberg's Harmonic and Aesthetic Theories
The Problem of Universals
The Epistemological Foundations of Harmonic Theory: Four Propositional
Categories
Schoenberg's Universalism: The Icarus Principle
Schoenberg's Relativism and Conventionalism: The Schenker/Schoenberg Controversy
Chapter 3: Schoenberg and Wittgenstein: Positivism and the Limits of
Language
Language and Knowledge: Analytic Philosophy and
the Vienna Circle
Wittgenstein's Tractatus
Wittgenstein's "Stop": The Is/Ought Dichotomy and the Limits of Language
Schoenberg's "Stop": Facts versus Values in Harmonic Theory
The Proper Role of Art Theory and Aesthetics: Pointing to Facts and Making
Comparisons
"Important Nonsense": Showing the Value of
Values
Equating Ethics and Aesthetics: Emphasis on Praxis
over Theory
Schoenberg on the Limits of Language: "O Word, Thou Word that I Lack"
Wittgenstein, Schoenberg, and Schopenhauer: The Art Object Sub Specie
Aeternitatis
Rejecting "Heart and Brain" Dualism
Chapter 4: Problems of Formalism
Vienna-Circle
Conventionalism: The Autonomy of Language and Logic
The
Autonomy of Musical Languages: Creating Worlds of Our Own Making
Radical Formalism in Twentieth-Century Harmonic Theory
Was Schoenberg a Radical Formalist?
Wittgenstein's Grundgedanke: The Autonomy of Logic and Mathematics
Music-Theoretical Formalism and the Problem of Tautology
Wittgenstein's Rejection of Set Theory: Chasing Cantor and Hilbert from Paradise
Logical and Mathematical Formalism as "Scaffolding"
The Proper Role of Mathematical Modeling: Wittgenstein's Constructivist
Viewpoint
Things versus Facts and "States of Affairs": A Theory of Chords Versus a
Theory of Harmony
Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusions
Bibliography
CONTACT:
James K. Wright
1226 Erie Avenue
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
K1V 6G6
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