MTO Dissertation Listings

Volume 4.4 1998

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  1. Linklater, Mary L. "From Procedure to Technique: Canonic Works of the Fifteenth Century"
  2. Luchese, Diane. "Olivier Messiaen's Slow Music: Glimpses of Eternity in Time."
  3. MacKay, James S. "Motivic Structure and Tonal Organization in Selected Motets of William Byrd"
  4. Palombini, C. V. "Pierre Schaeffer's Typo-Morphology of Sonic Objects"


Linklater, Mary L. "From Procedure to Technique: Canonic Works of the Fifteenth Century"

INSTITUTION: University of Rochester
BEGUN: May, 1998
ABSTRACT:
This dissertation examines the canonic works of the fifteenth century, traces their compositional development from ad-hoc measure-by-measure procedures to a systematic large-scale technique, and demonstrates how the use of underlying structural frameworks contributes to accomplishing this shift. Background study of fourteenth-century literature identifies the origin of canon as a compositional device, while Renaissance theoretical treatises provide contemporary descriptions. By employing reductive graphs in the analysis of the canonic voices, the study demonstrates common underlying structural frameworks. The use of structural frameworks first appears in the second half of the fifteenth century in works by Ockeghem, and later develops into a sophisticated manner of composition with Josquin des Prez. The construction of these frameworks greatly facilitated the creation of canonic compositions which, once decorated, concealed the underlying patterns. The dissertation provides the link between early canonic procedures in the fourteenth century and Robert Gauldin's demonstration of canonic paradigms in Palestrina and Lassus, tracing the progression of canonic composition throughout the century from a measure-by-measure procedure to a systematic technique of structural frameworks.

KEYWORDS:
canon, Josquin, fuga, fifteenth-century, early music analysis

CONTACT:
Mary Linklater
16201 Comus Road
Comus, MD 20871
301-407-0024
popinfo@juno.com

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Luchese, Diane. "Olivier Messiaen's Slow Music: Glimpses of Eternity in Time."

AUTHOR: Diane Luchese
TITLE: Olivier Messiaen's Slow Music: Glimpses of Eternity in Time
INSTITUTION: Northwestern University
BEGUN: Sept, 1996
COMPLETED: May, 1998
ABSTRACT:
Messiaen frequently indicated his intention to express the sacred mysteries of the Catholic faith through his music. This study, based on an examination of twenty-five different slow compositions of a similar aesthetic, points out some of the characteristics of Messiaen's slow music that seem to contribute to its distinctive, yet elusive, sound quality. Although this music has been described by others as "static," such a description neglects the music's many progressive elements. These compositions seem to manifest a paradox; the music gives an impression of changelessness while it also allows its listeners to experience progressive change. It appears that this tension between stillness and forward motion is the result of the composer's attempt to express the unchangeableness of eternity through a means that also reflects the Western notion of linear time.

Chapter I points out how scholars have described the sound quality of Messiaen's music and suggests a new description of the sound quality as paradoxical. Chapter II shows how the music evokes a transcendental atmosphere through means such as harmonic and instrumental color, unchanging elements, avoidance of conflict, neutralized dissonances, and often relatively stable levels of tension. Chapter III shows how the music reflects a linear conception of time, experienced as varying degrees of thematic and tonal closure that give rise to expectations of the attainment of musical goals. Chapter IV points out musical characteristics that divert our attention from progressive change to other aspects, further contributing to the illusion of changelessness. These characteristics include extreme slowness, deceleration, thematic expansion, and coloristic harmonies.

The final chapter contains the analyses of four compositions, illustrating the interaction of the characteristics discussed in earlier chapters, showing how they combine to create the music' paradoxical effect.

KEYWORDS:
Messiaen, stasis, color, eternity,time, slowness, musical atmosphere

TOC:
I. Introduction
II. A Reflection of Eternity
III. A Reflection of Time
IV. Diverting Attention From Progressive Change
V. Analyses:

VI. Conclusion
Bibliography

CONTACT:
Diane Luchese
2529 Jackson Ave., Apt. 2W
Evanston, IL 60201
(847) 492-9949
dlu316@nwu.edu

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MacKay, James S. "Motivic Structure and Tonal Organization in Selected Motets of William Byrd"

INSTITUTION: McGill University
BEGUN: November 1997
COMPLETED: August 1999
ABSTRACT:
In this dissertation, I will examine the 16 motets in William Byrd's 1589 collection of CANTIONES SACRAE from two analytical perspectives: motivic and linear-reductive. Through motivic analysis, I will identify and categorize contrapuntal combinations (labelled according to Peter Schubert's three presentation types: non-imitative module, imitative duo, and canon), and note their patterns of recurrence within each motet. I will focus on how these presentation types are loosened and reformulated to create distinctions between beginning and middle sections, as an extension of Joseph Kerman's "cell technique."

Through linear-reductive analysis, I will identify a wide variety of background voice-leading models for Byrd's modally-organized motets, showing their distinctiveness in comparison with later, tonally-conceived works. Following the example of Felix Salzer, Saul Novack, Lori Burns, Cristle Collins Judd and David Stern, I will propose modifications to, and extensions of Heinrich Schenker's analytic method to account for Byrd's modally-based, long-range structural procedures, in particular his emphasis of the subdominant at the background level.

By combining linear-reductive and motivic analysis, I will locate links between foreground pattern and background structure in Byrd's CANTIONES SACRAE of 1589, and demon- strate his use of enlargement to project a melodic or contrapuntal motive into the deeper structural levels of a composition. This combination of analytic techniques will provide a flexible model which can be applied to Byrd's works in all genres, as well as to Renaissance music in general.

KEYWORDS:
motive, counterpoint, Byrd, Schenker, analysis, form, mode, motet, Renaissance

CONTACT:
3616 Durocher #501
Montreal, Quebec
Canada,H2X 2E8
(514)-288-1442
bhym@musicb.mcgill.ca

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Palombini, C. V. "Pierre Schaeffer's Typo-Morphology of Sonic Objects"

INSTITUTION: University of Durham
BEGUN: October 1989
COMPLETED: September 1992
ABSTRACT:
"Pierre Schaeffer's Typo-Morphology of Sonic Objects" proposes to present to the English-speaking reader the two achieved stages of Schaeffer's 1966 solfge, namely typology and morphology, as expounded in "Traite des objets musicaux", situating them in the larger context of Schaeffer's musicological work and in the specific context of the solfge. This is done through translation of and commentary on Schaeffer's writing.

Chapter I surveys the years 1948-57, exposing the shifts of priorities that define three phases: research into noises, concrete music and experimental music; particular attention is paid to Schaeffer's conception of experimental music and, through the analysis of "Vers une musique exprimentale", what has generally been seen as an antagonism between the Paris and Cologne studios emerges as the conflict between two opposing approaches to technology and tradition. Chapter II delineates three notions that underpin the fourth phase of Schaeffer's musicological work, musical research, of which the 1966 solfge is the programme: acousmatic listening, four functions of listening and sonic object. Chapter III elaborates on the premisses of typology and morphology. Chapter IV expounds typology proper while Chapter V presents morphology and the sketch of the subsequent operations of solfge: characterology and analysis.

From this study, it emerges that "Traite des objets musicaux" is first and foremost an inexhaustible repository of insights into sound perception. Typology, the first stage of the solfge, is doubtless a successfully accomplished project. However, as a method for discovering a universal musicality, the solfge enterprise needs to be viewed with caution. It suffers from the almost open-ended nature of its metaphorical vocabulary, the emphasis the text lays on reactive rhetoric, its reliance on "methods of approximation", and a gradual distancing from perceptual reality itself. This notwithstanding, "Traite des objets musicaux" appears as a fundamental text of twentieth century musicology. It brings to the fore two crucial issues: technology and the ways it alters our manner of perceiving and expressing reality, and reality itself thereby; the friction between sounds and musical structures, transparent in the text as the friction between isolated words and the discourse, transparent in Schaeffer's life as the friction between the man and the social structures he has neede to fit in.

KEYWORDS:
music technology, musique concrete, sonic object, musical object, experimental music, elektronische Musik, electroacoustic music, listening, virtual instrument, sound analysis

TOC:
Introduction: By Writing, p. vi.

Chapter I: From Research into Noises to Musical Research: 1. Research into Noises (1948-49), p. 3; 2. Concrete Music (1948-58), p. 6; 3. Towards an Experimental Music (1953), p. 9.

Chapter II: Three Fundamental Notions: 4. Acousmatic Listening, p. 30; 5. Four Functions of Listening, p. 31; 6. Hearing, Listening to, Listening Out for, Comprehending, p. 34; 7. The Phenomenological Status of the Sonic Object, p. 46.

Chapter III: The Premisses of Typology and Morphology: 8. The Method of Research after Concrete Music, p. 60; 9. The Four Operations of Solfge, p. 62; 10. Typo-Morphology and the Prose/Translation Metaphor, p. 66; 11. The Timbre of the Instrument that Does Not Exist, p. 73; 12. First Morphology, Identificatory Typology, Second Morphology, p. 84.

Chapter IV: Classificatory Typology: "When the Piping Starts to Sing": 13. The Three Pairs of Criteria of Classificatory Typology, p. 93; 14. Well Balanced Objects, Redundant Objects, Eccentric Sounds, p. 111.

Chapter V: Third Typology, Morphology Proper, Characterology, Analysis: 15. Morphology Proper, p. 121; 16. Solfge of Homogeneous Sounds: Criteria of Mass and Harmonic Timbre, p. 123; Solfge of Fixed Masses: Dynamic Criterion, p. 141; Solfge of Maintenance: Grain and Allure, p. 151; 19. Solfge of Variations: Melodic Profile and Mass Profile, p. 163.

Conclusion: By Reading, p. 178.
Addendum: "Musicology and Linguistics" (an English translation of Roman Jakobson's 1932 "Musikwissenschaft und Linguistik"), p. 178.

Notes, p. 188.
Bibliography, p. 194.
Figures (tables of "Traite des objets musicaux" translated into English), p. 211.

CONTACT:
Departamento de Musica
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco
CAC
Av. Academico Hilio Ramos s/n
Cidade Universitaria
Recife PE 50740-530
Brazil

Fax: +55 81 2718300 (c/o Departamento de Musica)
Tel.: +55 81 2718308, +55 81 2718318
Palombini@altavista.net

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