DOCSLIB.ORG

Experimentalist

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Experimentalist MUSIC + LIFE -t'rr ^^o'n-# AFTER THE GRADUATINc Tigers sing "Old The orchestral, chamber and solo piano Nassau" this spring and all the caps and pieces on Lansly's latest album, Notes to Self gowns are put away, Princeton University wiil (Bridge Records), form a sort ofmusical diary. say goodbye to a retiring faculty member who The pastoral Arches for strings revises and didnt just teach the sweep of twentieth and expands a previous piece for string quartet. twenty-first-century music he lived it. Partita for guitar and percussion extends 'l - faotPos-R In his own work, Paul Lansky, who Lanslq's long collaboration with guitarist, turns seventy in June, journeyed from the producer and label head David Starobin. The algebraic atonality of Milton Babbitt through And the title work has elements that nod the painstaking programming of early at composers from Ravel and Stravinsky to Experimentalist computers to emerge, decades later, as a Hindemith and Messiaen as well as a pair of composer of bright, friendly and decidedly Lanslgr's teachers, Babbitt and George Perle. Th rough encou nters with tonal music for traditional instruments. "When I entered Princetonj' Lansky says, atonality and tonality, serialism Along the way he became known for such "I was very involved in pitch structures as and computer music, rock and eiectronic pieces as Table's Clear (which a successor to tonalityl' It was t966, and he rap, Paul Lanskyfinds his voice. includes mealtime hijinks by his children) was a graduate of Queens College and New and Notjustmoreidlechatter (which trans- York's High School of Music and Art, as well By Mark Mobley forms Lanskyt wife reading lane Eyre into a as the French horn player in the Dorian rnassive chorale prelude). Wind Quintet. "It was very exciting. Milton MUSIC + LlFE. COMPOSER '-'..:-.111 Good company. Milton Babbitt 'Theblurringof thc 1i,:., -, .' -.' ' . betweenclassicaland (I9I6-2OLL) (top) in the computer room at Col u mbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center; Jonny Greenwood (b. 1971) sampled Paul Lansky's Mild und leisefor Radiohead's "ldioteque"" Babbitt was in his prime. Ther:',ra-i : ir':-.-: :::Lcated Lanskyt own campus evatgeliza- revolution going on and people Ll--:'':s::: =.: :i.rn ibr another English band more than serialism and tn elve-tone music ''.ia'-.J r,. --i:. --l^-rrtr- r-ears before. way of the future. -l lored rock'n ro11 in the fifties," Lansky "I was not that interested in i:- -.:: I .er-s. "-\nd then I became interested in more studied the craft and tried Io ;.rr-r.' j: l .erious'music, let's say, and immediately computer piece. It \{as a 1'en'Lb;r:::::g :he sound of fifties rock became repulsive experience, because I rrorked ,ln -I3 ::r;: :,--r me. I couldn t take it. It just wasn't music. for a year and a half and thel irrir- .13 :ii -\nd then the sixties came around and The I listened to it and I said, 'This :ta-1" ::.r;. Beatles basically did a take on fifties rock- a So I stopped doing it unti-l abrrut l.;:',-..:i .ot of the eariy Beatles deals with Jerry Lee later when I started up again n1i ;il -1I:,.; Lerr is, Elvis, Chuck Berry- and the music und leise." ali ofa sudden started to sound good again, The eighteen-minute compute: ::: --;. especialiy through The Beatles' ears." named for the opening line oi rh,e -L:;i".-.;-'.: But as fresh and influential as The Beatles from Tristan und Isolde, u'as made oi 1r:al i, ere, and despite existing examples of was then, according to Lanslir-, the on-r- classical-popular fusion from Ives to Gersh- Princeton campus computer. It rsa-. an 1B\l rrin to Copland, there was still resistance in mainframe that despite costing hu:creds the academy to assimilating rock. - "The of thousands of Nixon-era dollars - ra:r on Beatles in a funny way changed punch cards and had just one meqab.,-te of everrthingi' Lansky says. "The graduate memory. (For comparison, an iPhone -1 has students were keen to convince the faculty eight thousand times more.) that there was some virtue to this music. My The piece won Lans\'a League oi lather was still working for Capitol Records Composers-Internationai Socien tor Con- at that point, so I could get free LPs and I temporary Music award and the opporninin- qave Beatles LPs to bunch ofpeople. The for the piece to be issued b1'Capitol Records. r'-hole shift, the blurring of the iines and whose New York studio his tather happened demarcation between classical and popular to run. Lanskyt work concludes the album cultures changed a lot as a result of The Electronic Music Winners (on Capitol's Beaties. They became an emblem of a new Odyssey label). The record is long out of approach to thinking oftonality and the print, but not so obscure that Radiohead kinds of music that one would want to write. guitarist lonny Greenrvood couldnt snag a I still think Paul McCartney is one of the used copy and then incorporate ten seconds great songwriters." of Mild und leise into "Idiotequei' rrhich is One trait Lansky shares with McCartney on the bandt zooo album Kld l. is a family musical partnership. Linda Mc- In a brief essay on Lansls-t rsebslte (paul. Cartney collabqrated with her husband on mycpanel.princeton. edu), the composer hrote, the album Ram, and, as a member of Wings, 'What's especially cute, and also occurred co-wrote the Oscar-nominated hit single to |onny Greenwood, is that I lvas about his "Live and Let Diel' The voice of Lanskyt wife current age when I wrote the piece - sort of and muse, Hannah McKay, has appeared a musical time warpi' Even before the band both unadorned and electronically in his approached Lans$ about sampling his music, works, in which it was - to borrow a Waffle he knew about them, having been introduced House phrase, - "scattered, smothered, to them by his students. It's a process that chunked and diced." 34 SPRING EOI4 Square one. Pau Lansky rn the old Winham Laboratory at the Colunrbia- Princeton Univers ty ln 1981. Digital tapes were carried here from the lBl\4 nrainframe across the street. The mischievous grin on Lansky's face is probably clue to the fact that he "had to be crazy to do the things we used to do to make corrpuler Jnu5ic. 'B :& ffi a,r*l "The first thing I did with her was the Slx Fantasies on a Poem by Thomas Campion|' Lansky says. "I had been sort ofallergic to rythmic approach to speech in music and I decided at that point to do a piece in which I r,vas setting a text, but I was really interested in the contours of the spoken rendition of the text, so I just set her up with a tape machine and went and had a cup of coffee rvhile she recorded it. "She is trained as an actress, went to The High School of Performing Arts, and before we had children she did movies and commerciais in New York City. The thing I like about her reading is that it doesnt sound like somebody is reading. There's a very natural ring to it. I think it's very hard F to read. There are a few composers who :E {q can do it, like Robert Ashley and Laurie Anderson. You can t just talk naturally, but vou can't overdo it." McKay, Lansky says, "had a very graceful and delicate way of reading. That was the first piece I had er.er written that I felt I was going to keep. Then I did a piece with her, we called it "I had just become aware of rap and I came to the realization that as a senior I had As it Grew Dark, and that was the setting of text thought that was a fascinating use ofspeech. probably changed my major." His conversion irom Jane Eyre, where lane tells Mr. Rochester It was highly artificial speech, but it was was surprising enough to merit a feature in about meeting his wife in the atticl' sort of an interesting rhythmic approach to the New York Times, and new Lansky works Then Lansky and McKay embarked on a speech, so I decided to do something like continued to emerge for performers as series of 'thatter" pieces, beginning with ldle that on the computer and I took the data varied as the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Chatter, largely because of a chance encounter set from As it Grew Dark and chopped it up the Yale Concert Band and forward-looking at a stoplight. into little bits and sort ofput them together chamber ensembles like Eighth Blackbird "I was driving into New York with into Idle Chatterl'This piece was eventually and So Percussion. [composer] Frank Lewin to talk to his class at choreographed by Bill T. Jones and is on "There is a whole new generation of Columbia and we got out of the Lincoln Tun- Lansky's second album for Bridge, Homebrew, young composers who are doing wonderful, nel," Lansky says. 'At that point, this was in along with jus t _more_idle _chatter and wonderful thingsl' Lansky says. "This sounds eighty-three, eighty-four, the Manhattan end N o tj u st m o r eidl e chatt er. strange to say, but they are composers who of the Lincoln Tunnel was something you had As Lansky entered the new century, his probably really like the sound of their own to navigate because the poor people would priorities began to shift, as he explained music.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Importance of Being Digital Paul Lansky 3/19/04 Tart-Lecture 2004
    The Importance of Being Digital Paul Lansky 3/19/04 tART-lecture 2004 commissioneed by the tART Foundation in Enschede and the Gaudeamus Foundation in Amsterdam Over the past twenty years or so the representation, storage and processing of sound has moved from analog to digital formats. About ten years audio and computing technologies converged. It is my contention that this represents a significant event in the history of music. I begin with some anecdotes. My relation to the digital processing and music begins in the early 1970’s when I started working intensively on computer synthesis using Princeton University’s IBM 360/91 mainframe. I had never been interested in working with analog synthesizers or creating tape music in a studio. The attraction of the computer lay in the apparently unlimited control it offered. No longer were we subject to the dangers of razor blades when splicing tape or to drifting pots on analog synthesizers. It seemed simple: any sound we could describe, we could create. Those of us at Princeton who were caught up in serialism, moreover, were particularly interested in precise control over pitch and rhythm. We could now realize configurations that were easy to hear but difficult and perhaps even impossible to perform by normal human means. But, the process of bringing our digital sound into the real world was laborious and sloppy. First, we communicated with the Big Blue Machine, as we sometimes called it, via punch cards: certainly not a very effective interface. Next, we had a small lab in the Engineering Quadrangle that we used for digital- analog and analog-digital conversion.
    [Show full text]
  • A Heretic in the Schoenberg Circle: Roberto Gerhard's First Engagement with Twelve-Tone Procedures in Andantino
    Twentieth-Century Music 16/3, 557–588 © Cambridge University Press 2019. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. doi: 10.1017/S1478572219000306 A Heretic in the Schoenberg Circle: Roberto Gerhard’s First Engagement with Twelve-Tone Procedures in Andantino DIEGO ALONSO TOMÁS Abstract Shortly before finishing his studies with Arnold Schoenberg, Roberto Gerhard composed Andantino,a short piece in which he used for the first time a compositional technique for the systematic circu- lation of all pitch classes in both the melodic and the harmonic dimensions of the music. He mod- elled this technique on the tri-tetrachordal procedure in Schoenberg’s Prelude from the Suite for Piano, Op. 25 but, unlike his teacher, Gerhard treated the tetrachords as internally unordered pitch-class collections. This decision was possibly encouraged by his exposure from the mid- 1920s onwards to Josef Matthias Hauer’s writings on ‘trope theory’. Although rarely discussed by scholars, Andantino occupies a special place in Gerhard’s creative output for being his first attempt at ‘twelve-tone composition’ and foreshadowing the permutation techniques that would become a distinctive feature of his later serial compositions. This article analyses Andantino within the context of the early history of twelve-tone music and theory. How well I do remember our Berlin days, what a couple we made, you and I; you (at that time) the anti-Schoenberguian [sic], or the very reluctant Schoenberguian, and I, the non-conformist, or the Schoenberguian malgré moi.
    [Show full text]
  • Miriam Gideon's Cantata, the Habitable Earth
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Major Papers Graduate School 2003 Miriam Gideon's cantata, The aH bitable Earth: a conductor's analysis Stella Panayotova Bonilla Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_majorpapers Part of the Music Commons Recommended Citation Bonilla, Stella Panayotova, "Miriam Gideon's cantata, The aH bitable Earth: a conductor's analysis" (2003). LSU Major Papers. 20. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_majorpapers/20 This Major Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Major Papers by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. MIRIAM GIDEON’S CANTATA, THE HABITABLE EARTH: A CONDUCTOR’S ANALYSIS A Monograph Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in The School of Music by Stella Panayotova Bonilla B.M., State Academy of Music, Sofia, Bulgaria, 1991 M.M., Louisiana State University, 1994 August 2003 ©Copyright 2003 Stella Panayotova Bonilla All rights reserved ii DEDICATION To you mom, and to the memory of my beloved father. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to Dr. Kenneth Fulton for his guidance through the years, his faith in me and his invaluable help in accomplishing this project. Thanks to Dr. Robert Peck for his inspirational insight. Thanks to Dr. Cornelia Yarbrough and Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • (CCM)2 - College-Conservatory of Music Center for Computer Music, University of Cincinnati
    (CCM)2 - College-Conservatory of Music Center for Computer Music, University of Cincinnati Mara Helmuth, Director (CCM)2 (1) Michael Barnhart, Carlos Fernandes, Cheekong Ho, Bonnie Miksch (1) Division of Composition, History and Theory - College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati [email protected] [email protected] http://meowing.ccm.uc.edu Abstract The College-Conservatory of Music Center for Computer Music at the University of Cincinnati is a new environment for computer music composition and research. Composers create sound on powerful systems with signal processing and MIDI, with an excellent listening environment. The technical and aesthetical aspects of computer music can be studied in courses for composers, theorists and performers. Innovative research activity in granular synthesis, live performance interfaces and sound/animation connections is evolving, incorporating collaborative work with faculty in the School of Art. CCM has traditionally had a lively performance environment, and the studios are extending the capabilities of performers in new directions. Computer music concerts and other listening events by students, faculty and visiting composers are becoming regular occurrences. 1 Introduction video cables connect the studios and allow removal of noisy computer CPUs from the listening spaces. Fiber network connections will be installed for internet An amorphous quality based on many aspects of the access and the studio website. The studios will also be environment, including sounds of pieces being created, connected by fiber to a new studio theater, for remote personalities of those who work there, software under processing of sound created and heard in the theater. construction, equipment, layout and room design, and The theater will be equipped with a sixteen-channel architecture creates a unique studio environment.
    [Show full text]
  • A Study on the Use of Vocal Samples and Vocal Transformation Techniques in the Music of Paul Lansky and Trevor Wishart
    THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Copyright and use of this thesis This thesis must be used in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction of material protected by copyright may be an infringement of copyright and copyright owners may be entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. Section 51 (2) of the Copyright Act permits an authorized officer of a university library or archives to provide a copy (by communication or otherwise) of an unpublished thesis kept in the library or archives, to a person who satisfies the authorized officer that he or she requires the reproduction for the purposes of research or study. The Copyright Act grants the creator of a work a number of moral rights, specifically the right of attribution, the right against false attribution and the right of integrity. You may infringe the author’s moral rights if you: - fail to acknowledge the author of this thesis if you quote sections from the work - attribute this thesis to another author -subject this thesis to derogatory treatment which may prejudice the author’s reputation For further information contact the University’s Copyright Service. sydney.edu.au/copyright A Study on the Use of Vocal Samples and Vocal Transformation Techniques the Music of Paul Lansky and Trevor Wishart Shamun Hameed A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music (Composition) Sydney Conservatorium of Music University of Sydney 2005 Table of Contents A b s tr a c t iii C h a p te r 1 Introduction
    [Show full text]
  • A Tuner of His World: an Interview with Paul Lansky
    A Tuner of His World: An Interview with Paul Lansky Alistair Riddell Few composers in recent years have explored the boundaries of computer music as imaginatively as Paul Lansky. Recognizing that Lansky's creative stature is as palpable in the exquisiteness of his music as it is in the detail of his curriculum vi-, I decided to think of this interview as a collection of corridor chats (non-linear, of course!). Over time, I was hoping to gain insight into his current creative concerns the way I had through incidental daily contact as a graduate student at Princeton in the early 1990s. Although this interview was conducted by email, the text, I hope, has an imprint of candid spontaneity and informality to the extent possible through this type of exchange and under the imperative of general publication. The fact that we are seasoned emailers-communicating this way for more than a decade now-would, at least, ensure that the interview mechanics were natural and relaxed. Certainly, this text is considered. Its measure is different from that of a conversation transcribed from a recording because it evolved over a much longer period. A slow dialogue in electronic letters. I like to imagine he composed his responses on the same computer he composes his music (I know I did). Entirely probable, and an observation I'm sure would appeal to his sense of technological engagement. To view Lansky as a computer hacker or boffin is to see him with only one of his hats on (others he wears are Professor of music at Princeton University, composer, guitar freak and folk music lover).
    [Show full text]
  • Works by George Perle, David Del Tredici, and Nicholas Thorne New World 80380-2
    Works by George Perle, David Del Tredici, and Nicholas Thorne New World 80380-2 The vastly divergent reactions to twelve-tone composition of George Perle, David Del Tredici and Nicholas Thorne are a vivid reflection not only of their different generations, but of the unfolding of musical style change in America. Perle, born in 1915 and educated here at a time when twelve-tone composition was little understood, felt the urge to revise Schoenberg's method so as to reconcile serial chromaticism with the hierarchical elements of tonal practice. The system he evolved, known as “twelve-tone tonality,” has been the basis of most of his compositions until 1969, and all since. Del Tredici, born in 1937, studied at Princeton at a time when serialism had become dogma. Yet he eventually repudiated the technique and turned to a highly eccentric form of tonality. Thorne, born in 1953, gave little thought to twelve-tone composition. “It was the generation before me who had this monkey on its back,” he says. Instead, Thorne came to maturity amid the welter of styles, from minimalism to neo-Romanticism, that characterized America during the 1970s. All three attitudes offer us invaluable insights into the composers and their music. In some circles George Perle is known as a musicologist, particularly for his pathbreaking studies of Alban Berg. In other circles, he is viewed as a theorist, a coherent codifier and radical reviser of serial technique. But he insists that both these pursuits have been sidelines to composition, and his music belies the popular misconception that art conceived under the wing of academia need be abstruse or inaccessible.
    [Show full text]
  • Twelve-Tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern James P
    University of San Diego Digital USD Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-19-2015 Twelve-tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern James P. Kinney University of San Diego Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/honors_theses Part of the Music Theory Commons Digital USD Citation Kinney, James P., "Twelve-tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 1. https://digital.sandiego.edu/honors_theses/1 This Undergraduate Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Digital USD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital USD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Twelve-tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern ______________________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty and the Honors Program Of the University of San Diego ______________________ By James Patrick Kinney Music 2015 Introduction Whenever I tell people I am double majoring in mathematics and music, I usually get one of two responses: either “I’ve heard those two are very similar” or “Really? Wow, those are total opposites!” The truth is that mathematics and music have much more in common than most people, including me, understand. There have been at least two books written as extensions of lecture notes for university classes about this connection between math and music. One was written by David Wright at Washington University in St. Louis, and he introduces the book by saying “It has been observed that mathematics is the most abstract of the sciences, music the most abstract of the arts” and references both Pythagoras and J.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Section 9: Analysis and Resynthesis Procedures
    9. Analysis and resynthesis procedures (This section last updated June 2002) This section provides tutorial information on three analysis/resynthesis techniques available on the ECMC SGI and Linux systems: • phase vocoder programs analyze the changing signal energy within hundreds or thousands of very narrowfrequencybands; during resynthesis, the signal is reconstructed, but modifications in pitch, duration or other parameters can be introduced • sms ("Spectral Modeling Synthesis") is a package of programs originally developed at CCRMA (Stanford University) in which sounds are divided into a periodic (pitched) component, analyzed in a manner similar to phase vocoder procedures, and a "stochastic" (aperiodic) component, analyzed as filtered white noise. sms resynthesis techniques provide a broad range of sound modification possi- bilities, including timbral morphing, but work much better with certain types of sounds than with oth- ers. • linear predictor coding (lpc)analysis and resynthesis programs do not attempt to capture every frequencycomponent within a source sound,but rather to capture time-varying spectral formants (res- onances, or emphasized narrowfrequencybands). Spectral formant analyses created by lpc software can be used with Eastman Csound Library instrument algorithm resyn to produce varied resynthesis of a sound, or with algorithm xsyn to create a hybrid, cross-synthesized "child" sound that has some characteristics of its two"parent" sounds; lpc resynthesis and cross-synthesis also can be performed with the mixviews application.
    [Show full text]
  • David Tudor in Darmstadt Amy C
    This article was downloaded by: [University of California, Santa Cruz] On: 22 November 2010 Access details: Access Details: [subscription number 923037288] Publisher Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37- 41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Contemporary Music Review Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713455393 David Tudor in Darmstadt Amy C. Beal To cite this Article Beal, Amy C.(2007) 'David Tudor in Darmstadt', Contemporary Music Review, 26: 1, 77 — 88 To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/07494460601069242 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07494460601069242 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.informaworld.com/terms-and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Contemporary Music Review Vol. 26, No. 1, February 2007, pp. 77 – 88 David Tudor in Darmstadt1 Amy C.
    [Show full text]
  • Primary Compositional Characteristics in the Instrumental Music of Paul
    PRIMARY COMPOSITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC OF PAUL LANSKY AS DEMONSTRATED IN HOP (1993) Eric Jason Willie, B.S., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2010 APPROVED: Mark Ford, Major Professor Bernardo Illari, Committee Member Christopher Deane, Committee Member Lynn Eustis, Director of Graduate Studies John Holt, Chair, Division of Instrumental Studies James C. Scott, Dean of the College of Music James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Willie, Eric Jason. Primary Compositional Characteristics in the Instrumental Music of Paul Lansky as Demonstrated in Hop (1993). Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), December 2010, 53 pp., 2 tables, 18 musical examples, sources, 27 titles. This dissertation provides insight into the compositional characteristics of Paul Lansky’s instrumental works as demonstrated in Hop (1993). As well, this document intends to make Hop more approachable to performers through a structural, harmonic, and rhythmic analysis. This dissertation presents a brief overview of Lansky’s biographical information, discusses background information about Marimolin (the ensemble that premiered the piece), and provides an analysis of Hop. Hop is analyzed with regard to form, harmony, and rhythm. The analysis was conducted through a tonal approach, and harmonies are identified with a lead sheet analysis. Personal interviews with Paul Lansky and marimbist Nancy Zeltsman provided significant insight into Lansky’s influences, musical characteristics, as well as other elements pertaining to Hop. Copyright 2010 by Eric Jason Willie ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank my family and friends who have supported me throughout this process, particularly my wife Rebecca, my grandparents, and my parents.
    [Show full text]
  • Belatedness, and Sonata Structure in Rochberg's (Serial) Second
    Trauma, Anxiety (of Influence), Belatedness, and Sonata Structure in Rochberg’s (Serial) Second Symphony Richard Lee University of Georgia Serialism is special to theorists and composers alike. For composer George Rochberg, doubly so: “I needed a language expressive and expansive enough to say what I had to. My war experience had etched itself deep into my soul.1 This essay is an exploration of Rochberg’s Second Symphony (1955–56)—“the first twelve-tone symphony composed by an American2— analyzed as a narrative of trauma, anxiety, and belatedness that emerges from the composer’s biography, his reliance on tradition (form), and his theorizing/deployment of serialism within a mid-20th-century compositional trend. Throughout this analysis, serialism acquires agency: it drives the following interpretation and has a capacity to act on (behalf of) Rochberg. Symphony No. 2 contains an array of thematic content that signifies trauma. The work stands as a response to World War II, therefore it makes sense to pin a biographical account of musical narrative to it. Rochberg was drafted in 1942 and his composition teacher, Hans Weisse, was driven out of Europe by the Nazi regime. In 1950, Rochberg went to Rome to study with Luigi Dallapiccola (known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions), later telling Richard Dufallo that “one of the most powerful impulses toward twelve-tone, serialism, whatever you want to call it, was my reaction to my war experience which began to take over after the war.”3 1 George Rochberg, Five Lines, Four Spaces: The World of My Music, ed. Gene Rochberg and Richard Griscom (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 14.
    [Show full text]