Bauer, Amy, M. "Compositional Process and Parody in the Music of Gyorgy Ligeti"
AUTHOR: Bauer, Amy, M
TITLE: "Compositional Process and Parody in the Music
of Gyorgy Ligeti"
INSTITUTION: Yale University, Music Dept., 143 Elm St., New Haven CT 06520
BEGUN: 1/1990
COMPLETION: 8/1996 (projected)
ABSTRACT:
"Compositional Process and Parody in the Music of Gyorgy
Ligeti" examines parody and compositional process in Ligeti's works
from the early 1950s through the mid-1980. I discuss parody in
Ligeti's music as a doubly-coded, paradoxical synthesis of musical
texts that establishes a critical distance from an original text or
set of conventions. Various models of critical distance-canonic
structure, mannerist style, modal functions, allusions to late
nineteenth-century orchestral music, and an inverted relation between
primary and secondary musical parameters-are presented as specific
examples of ironic 'trans-contextualization' and inversion. I
illustrate these critical models with analyses of music taken from
different phases of Ligeti's career, and discuss the aesthetics of
Ligeti's music in the context of contemporary post-serial and
avant-garde European music. Works examined include solo compositions
(Ricercare per organo, Harmonies, Continuum and the recent Piano
Etudes), electronic pieces (Glissandi and Artikulation), chamber music
(Aventures, the First and Second String Quartets, Ten Pieces for Wind
Quintet, and the Chamber Concerto), choral works (�jszaka, Reggel,
Requiem, Lux Aeterna, and Magyar Et�d�k), and compositions for
orchestra (Apparitions, Atmosph�res, Lontano, Melodien, and the
Violin Concerto).
KEYWORDS: canon, Ligeti, Lontano, mannerism,
micropolyphony, musical allusion, pattern-meccanico, parody, secondary
parameter
TOC: Chapter I Historical Distance and the Critique of Tradition:
Introduction to the Music of Gyorgy Ligeti (1923-) Chapter II
Micropolyphony, Pattern-Meccanico and the Mannerist Tradition Chapter
III Modal Functions, Canonic Procedure and the Unity of Musical Space
in Ligeti's polyphony IV. "Tone-color, movement, changing harmonic
planes;" Secondary Parameters and Structural Inversion in the Music of
Ligeti V "Through Bruckner's Eyes": Allusion and Influence in Ligeti's
Orchestral Works VI "Behind the Music there is Other Music"; Poeitic,
Immanent and Esthesic Distance in Ligeti's Ouevre
CONTACT: 1007 1/2 W 38th
Kansas City, MO 64111
Voice: (816) 235-2857 Fax: (816) 235-5264
Amy Bauer
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory
Conservatory of Music
4949 Cherry
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Kansas City, MO 64110-2229
bauera@cctr.umkc.edu
Nivans, David B. "Brahms and the Binary Sonata: A Structuralist Interpretation"
AUTHOR: Nivans, David B.
TITLE: "Brahms and the Binary Sonata: A Structuralist Interpretation"
INSTITUTION: University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Musicology
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1623
BEGUN: January 1988
COMPLETION: January 1992
ABSTRACT:
There is within the Brahms repertory a special class of sonata
composition whose thematic organization appears to suggest more than
one formal interpretation. For the practitioners of thematic analysis,
a combination of theme-complexes generates and determines the form of
the composition; with respect to this particular group of works,
thematicists maintain that the normal succession of principal and
secondary themes followed by their immediate repetition invariably
produces a two-part sonata with exposition and recapitulation but
without an intermediary autonomous development section. Starting from
the premise that (for Brahms) harmonic structure rather than thematic
organization determines form, this dissertation offers an alternative
view, in the tradition of Heinrich Schenker and Felix Salzer, of those
compositions of Brahms often classified as binary, some of which by
dint of their respective structural frameworks have central
development sections, and form, consequently, ternary sonatas. The works
included in this study are opp. 25/I, 26/IV, 34/IV, 68/IV, 81, 90/IV,
98/II and III, 114/IV, 8/IV (both versions), 51 no. 1/IV, 87/I, 101/I
and 108/IV; the last five opuses are ternary sonatas.
KEYWORDS: Music, Brahms, Schenker, Salzer, Sonata Form, Harmony,
Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Schoenberg, Developing
Variation,
TOC:
Part I: Introduction
1: Thematicism, Schoenberg, and Brahms
2: Structuralism and Schenker
3: Schenker and Salzer
4: The Need for the Structuralist View
Part II: The Binary Sonatas
5: op. 25/I
6: op. 26/IV
7: op. 98/III
Part III: The Ternary Sonatas
8: op. 101/I
9: op. 8/IV (Original and Revision)
10: op. 108/IV
11: op. 87/I
12: op. 51 no.I/IV
Conclusion
Notes
Appendix A: op. 81
Appendix B: op. 114/IV
Appendix C: op. 98/II
Appendix D: op. 34/IV
Appendix E: op. 68/IV
Bibliography
CONTACT: David B. Nivans Phone: (310) 640-9603, E-mail: dnivans@aol.com
Novak, John K. "The Programmatic Orchestral Works of Leos Janacek: Their Style and Their Musical and Extramusical Content"
AUTHOR: Novak, John, K.
TITLE: "The Programmatic Orchestral Works of Leos Janacek: Their Style And
Their Musical and Extramusical Content"
INSTITUTION: The University of Texas at Austin, School of Music, Austin,
Texas 78712
BEGUN: MAY, 1991
COMPLETION: MAY, 1994
ABSTRACT: This dissertation investigates the spectrum of meaning
inherent in the three twentieth-century programmatic symphonic
compositions by Leos Janacek: The Fiddler's Child (1912), Taras Bulba
(1918) and The Ballad of Blanik (1919-20). The first part codifies
Janacek's twentieth-century compositional style, first through an
examination of its origins in folk music and speech-melody, then in
the features of its melody, form, texture, instrumentation and key
selection. It then examines harmony and tonality, addressing various
types of suspended tonality. The second part presents an analysis of
the three works. The analysis implements an analytical method based
on a system devised by literary theorist Roland Barthes in his essay
"S/Z," in which he traced the "codes" of meaning which run throughout
a literary work. The present analysis consists of the examination of
each musical works' musical elements, the affective and programmatic
association of each section of the work, as well as the four narrative
codes of Barthes: the hermeneutic code (which governs the proposing,
sustaining and resolution of enigmas), the semic code of musical
motives, the proairetic code (which contains the formal aspects of the
piece), and the referential code (which draws on analogous passages
from other pieces of music).
KEYWORDS: Janacek, narrative theory,
narrativity, Czechh music, program music, affect, suspended tonality,
Barthes, key association, emotion.
TOC:
Chapter 1 Truth and Music: Janacek the Expressive
Chapter 2 The Impact of Folk Music
Chapter 3 Special Elements of Janacek's Music
Chapter 4 Harmony in Janacek's Music
Chapter 5 Tonality in Janacek's Music
Chapter 6 Music And Narrative: A Technique For Analysis
Chapter 7 The Fiddler's Child
Chapter 8 Taras Bulba
Chapter 9 The Ballad of Blanik
Postscript
CONTACT: 2300 Toulouse Dr. Austin, TX 78748
jknovak@niu.edu
O Maidin, Donncha S. "A Programmer's Environment for Music Analysis"
Donncha S. O Maidin sends the following corrections to the dissertation posting in MTO 2.3 (1996): Department of Computer Science, University of Limerick, Limerick, Republic of Ireland Voice: 353 61 202 705 Fax: 353 61 330 876 eMail: donncha.omaidin@ul.ie
Solomon, Larry Joseph. "Symmetry as a Determinant of Musical Composition"
AUTHOR: Solomon, Larry Joseph
TITLE: "Symmetry as a Determinant of Musical Composition"
INSTITUTION: West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV
BEGUN: approx. February 1968
COMPLETION: February 1973
ABSTRACT:
Symmetry is shown to be the major determining operant in musical
composition.Some of the compositional parameters that are demonstrated
to be symmetrical operations are: all aspects of serialized
composition, all contrapuntal operations (including imitation, canon,
rounds, cancrizans, melodic inversion, invertible counterpoint
augmentation and diminution, and cantus firmus composition), all
musical forms (including all sectional, contrapuntal forms, and arch
forms), isorhythm and isomelos, ostinati and passacaglia, mirror
chords, planing and fauxbourdon, vibrato, scale formation, invertible
counterpoint, meter and pulse, timbre, vibrato, trills and other
ornaments, Alberti bass and other accompaniment figurations,
antiphony, the circle of fifths, and pitch itself.
Definitions, descriptions, and mathematical formulations of the
different types of musical symmetry are provided, and each of the
major types is explored with examples. Parallels are shown in nature
and other art forms. An analytical methodology is developed, and
specific works are examined to demonstrate intensive applications of
symmetry. These include detailed analyses of Bartok's Music for
Srings, Percussion, and Celeste, and Webern's Variations for piano, Op
27.
Some new transformations are developed, called the Quadrate
transformations, which are 90 degree rotations of a basic set (the
author later wrote an article on these, which appeared in Perspectives
of New Music, 1973). A chapter is also devoted to the possible
psychological effects of musical symmetry.
KEYWORDS: symmetry, composition, compositional theory, quadrate,
rotation, translation, reflection, arch form
TOC: Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter II: Definitions and Principles
Chapter III: Reflection
Chapter IV: Translation and Rotation
Chapter V: Analytic Methods
Chapter VI: Analysis of Unspecialized Works
Chapter VII: Analysis of Works with Intensive Applications
Chapter VIII:New Transformations
Chapter IX: Some Psychological Considerations
Chapter X: Summary
Bibliography
CONTACT: E-mail: Solo@AzStarNet.com
Address: Center for the Arts, Pima College, Tucson, AZ 85709, USA
Phone: 520-884-6973 Fax: 520-884-6975
Windsor, Luke W. "A Perceptual Approach to the Description and Analysis of Acousmatic Music"
AUTHOR: Windsor, W., Luke
TITLE: "A Perceptual Approach to the Description and Analysis of
Acousmatic Music"
INSTITUTION: Department of Music, City University, Northampton Square,
London, EC1V OHB, UK
BEGUN: October, 1991
COMPLETION: September, 1995
ABSTRACT: Chapter 1 offers a critique of existing theories which
purport to form the basis for the description of acousmatic music. It
is concluded that there is a need for a descriptive, perceptual theory
of acousmatic music, a theory which is able to respond not only to the
intrinsic structures concentrated on by traditional notation and music
theory but also to the extrinsic structures within which acousmatic
works are situated. Chapter 2 presents a review of work in ecological
acoustics which provides a theoretical framework within which the
relationship between the work and its surroundings might be
explored. This framework is extended to apply to the perception of
culture, society and art and a preliminary musical analysis is offered
which applies this theoretical approach. Chapter 3 develops and
extends the theoretical position developed through a detailed analysis
of Mi Bmol by Yves Daoust and a number of shorter analyses. Chapter 4
forms both a conclusion to the preceding chapters and a cultural
critique of the theoretical position they develop. A number of
observations are drawn regarding acousmatic music's position within
contemporary culture and some general conclusions are reached
regarding the relationships between composition and listening, and
between perceptual and musical research.
KEYWORDS: Acousmatic, electroacoustic, analysis, perception,
aesthetics, ecological, critique, mimesis, Adorno, Gibson
TOC: Chapter 1: Towards a perceptual theory of acousmatic music - 9
Chapter 2: An ecological approach to acousmatic music - 66
Chapter 3: Analysing acousmatic music within its
ecological context - 139
Chapter 4: Acousmatic music, aesthetics and society - 193
CONTACT:
Dr Luke Windsor
Department of Music
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
UK
Phone: +44 (0)113 233 2603
Fax: +44 (0)113 233 2586
E-mail: W.L.Windsor@leeds.ac.uk
[1] Music Theory Online (MTO) as a whole is Copyright � 1996, all rights reserved, by the Society for Music Theory, which is the owner of the journal. Copyrights for individual items published in MTO are held by their authors. Items appearing in MTO may be saved and stored in electronic or paper form, and may be shared among individuals for purposes of scholarly research or discussion, but may not be republished in any form, electronic or print, without prior, written permission from the author(s), and advance notification of the editors of MTO.
[2] Any redistributed form of items published in MTO must include the following information in a form appropriate to the medium in which the items are to appear:
This item appeared in Music Theory Online[3] Libraries may archive issues of MTO in electronic or paper form for public access so long as each issue is stored in its entirety, and no access fee is charged. Exceptions to these requirements must be approved in writing by the editors of MTO, who will act in accordance with the decisions of the Society for Music Theory.
in [VOLUME #, ISSUE #] on [DAY/MONTH/YEAR].
It was authored by [FULL NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS],
with whose written permission it is reprinted here.