Dissertation Index
Author: Moreira, Daniel Title: TEXTURAL DESIGN: A Compositional Theory for the Organization of Musical Texture Institution: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Begun: August 2015 Completed: October 2019 Abstract: Textural design is an original pre-compositional methodology for organizing the various textural configurations of a piece. Based on Robert Morris’ compositional design (MORRIS, 1987), this methodology aims to coordinate the arrangement of textural configurations by using two-dimensional arrays ready to be implemented as music. Since textural configurations does not depend on the nature of the materials that underlies it, they are understood as autonomous elements, free from stylistic traditions or aesthetical orientation. Thus, a textural design may be used to suit any compositional goal. Three textural spaces are defined to describe textural configurations in different levels of details. Textural-class space (tc-space) consists of the description of the textural morphology at its most superficial level, dividing textural components into two abstract structures: line and block. Unordered partition space (up-space) is the very proposal of Pauxy Gentil-Nunes’ Partitional Analysis (GENTIL-NUNES, 2009), in which textural organization is portrayed by using integer partitions. The last space, called partition layout space (pl-space), provides the most refined description of a textural configuration by including the spatial (ordered) organization of its internal components. All textural codes within a space are connected to one another by a given transformational operation. This relational topology may be used to elaborate a string of textural codes – a set of codes in any textural space arranged in an ordered (temporal) sequence. These strings underlie the construction of any textural design. Various original concepts and tools are formulated to enable the construction of these strings. The discussion concerning the realization of textural designs in musical notation emerges from the formulation of the modes of textural realization. Finally, this thesis concludes providing three compositional applications of different textural designs. Keywords: Musical Texture. Musical Composition. Compositional Design. Arrays. Pre-compositional Strategy. TOC: TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 2 COMPOSITIONAL DESIGN AND MUSICAL TEXTURE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND2.1 THE COMPOSITIONAL PROCESS ACCORDING TO ROBERT MORRIS 2.1.1 Morris’s Compositional Design 2.1.2 Morris’s Compositional Space 2.2 MUSICAL TEXTURE 2.2.1 Wallace Berry’s Approach to Musical Texture 2.2.2 Gentil-Nunes’ Partitional Analysis 2.2.3 Complementary Bibliography 3 DEFINING THE TEXTURAL LEXICAL SET: A PROPOSAL OF TEXTURAL SPACES 3.1 TEXTURAL MORPHOLOGY: DEFINING THE INTERNAL COMPONENTS OF ANY TEXTURE3.1.1 Musical threads 3.1.2 Textural Parts 3.1.1 Textural Thickness 3.1.2 Textural Cardinality 3.2 TEXTURAL CODES AND TEXTURAL SPACES 3.2.1 Textural class Space (tc-space) 3.2.2 Unordered Partition Space (up-space) 3.2.3 Partition Layout Space (pl-space) 3.2.3.1 Ordered partitions 3.2.3.2 Thread-words 3.2.3.3 Thread-word class 4 TEXTURAL DESIGN: ORDER AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF STRINGS OF TEXTURAL CONFIGURATIONS 4.1 AN INTRODUCTION TO TEXTURAL DESIGNS 4.2 CONSTRUCTING A STRING OF TEXTURAL CODES 4.2.1 Operating on Textural Spaces 4.2.1.1 Operations on tc-space 4.2.1.2 Operations on up-space 4.2.1.3 Operations on pl-space 4.2.2 Texture-leading: Diachronic Transformations on pl-space 4.2.2.1 Removing 4.2.2.2 Inserting 4.2.2.3 Merging 4.2.2.4 Splitting 4.2.2.5 Duplicating 4.2.2.6 Intersecting 4.2.3 General Relations of Linear Organizations 4.2.3.1 Lester’s Melodic Approach 4.2.3.2 Gentil-Nunes’ Linear Operations 4.2.3.3 Edward T. Cone’s Stratification Method 4.2.3.4 Textural Identity, Similarity, and Contrast 4.2.4 Textural Contour: Ordering Defined by Complexity 4.2.4.1 Operations on Textural Contour 4.3 TRANSFORMATIONS ON AND WITHIN ARRAYS 4.3.1 Array operations 4.3.2 Array Cell Operations 5 IMPLEMENTING TEXTURAL CODES INTO MUSICAL SCORE 5.1 MODES OF TEXTURAL REALIZATION 5.1.1 Standard Mode 5.1.2 Partitional Complex 5.1.3 Evolving Realization 5.1.4 Colorization 5.1.5 Montage 6 COMPOSITIONAL APPLICATION: THREE TEXTURAL DESIGNS 6.1 SAGRAÇÃO DE UM FAUNO NA PRIMAVERA (2016/2019) 6.1.1 Impressões No. 3 (2018) 6.1.2 Virus (2019) 7 CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY APPENDICES Contact: danielspro@hotmail.com |