UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date: June 20, 2005 I, Everett N. Jones III, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in: PIANO PERFORMANCE It is entitled: “Intervallic Coherence in Four Piano Sonatas by George Walker: An Analysis” This work and its defense approved by: Chair: Dr. Steven Cahn Awadagin Pratt Elizabeth Pridonoff “Intervallic Coherence in Four Piano Sonatas by George Walker: An Analysis” A D. M. A. document submitted to the Division of Graduate Studies and Research of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS in the Keyboard Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music 20 June 2005 by Everett N. Jones III 688 Riddle Road Apt# 1200G Cincinnati, OH 45220 [email protected] B.M., Rowan University, 1999 M.M., Rowan University, 2001 Committee Chair: Dr. Steven Cahn ABSTRACT George Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winner composer whose compositional language includes unity through intervallic coherence. While taking one of Howard Hanson’s theory courses at the Eastman School of Music, Walker gained full control over unity through the consistent projection of an interval in composition. This is a performer’s document that analyzes the first four piano sonatas by focusing on how they are unified with intervals. Walker uses certain intervals as the basis for the four sonatas by constructing motives, chords or clusters, and key relationships within and between movements from the given interval/intervals—this is intervallic coherence. The First Sonata is constructed from fourths, the Second is based on thirds, the Third Sonata is built from seconds, and the Fourth Sonata uses octaves, seconds, and fourths. The first chapter is an introduction that includes a brief biography with a description of the document and my purpose for writing it, the second chapter systematically gives a brief outline of the form of each sonata and analyzes the specific interval/intervals used, the next chapter is a small section that surveys the sonatas with performance suggestions and descriptions of each work, and the last chapter is the conclusion of the document. Copyright by Everett N. Jones III 2005 TABLE OF CONTENTS MUSICAL EXAMPLES………………………………………………………………...……… iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION……………………………….………………………………………..…… 1 II. THE FOUR PIANO SONATAS……………………..………………………..……………….6 A Survey and Methodology…………………………………………………..…….... 6 Sonata No. 1 Form ………………………………………………..…………………. 8 Intervallic-based motive Quartal harmony Fourth relationships Sonata No. 2 Form…………………..……………………………………………….16 Tertian construction Tertian projection of chords Tertian relationships Sonata No. 3 Form…………………..……………………………………………….26 Intervallic construction Sonata No. 4 Form…………………………………………………………………...32 Intervallic motives Intervallic clusters Intervallic form III. TO THE PERFORMER…………...………………………………………………………...39 IV. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………42 V. BIBLIOGRAPHY…….………………………………………………………………………44 ii MUSICAL EXAMPLES FIGURE 1. Sonata No. 1, first movement, mm. 20–22……….……………………...………….8 2. Sonata No. 1, first movement, m. 1……………………………………………...…11 3. Sonata No. 1, first movement, mm. 8 & 10……………………………………...…12 4. Sonata No. 1, first movement, mm. 78–79…………………………………………12 5. Sonata No. 1, first movement, mm. 146–47………………………………………..13 6. Sonata No. 1, second movement, mm. 11–12…………………………...………....13 7. Sonata No. 1, first movement, mm. 23–27, secondary theme……...…...………....14 8. Sonata No. 1, first movement, mm. 60–61, 68–69………………………………....15 9. Sonata No. 2, first movement, mm. 1–4…………………………...……….............19 10. Sonata No. 2, first movement, mm. 13–17………………………………………...20 11. Sonata No. 2, first movement, mm. 22–25……………………………………..….21 12. Sonata No. 2, second movement, mm. 1–9 …………………………....……....…..22 13. Sonata No. 2, third movement, m. 1……………………………………………….23 14. Sonata No. 2, third movement, m. 20…………….………………………..………23 15. Sonata No. 2, fourth movement, mm. 49–56………………………………………24 16. Sonata No. 3, first movement, mm. 1–2…………………………………………...26 17. Sonata No. 3, first movement, mm. 25–27………………………………………...27 18. Sonata No. 3, second movement and reduction, mm. 1–10………………….……28 19. Sonata No. 3, second movement, reduction of mm. 1–20………………..………..30 iii 20. Sonata No. 3, third movement, m. 16…………………………………….………..30 21. Sonata No. 3, third movement, m. 17…………………………………….………..31 22. Sonata No. 4, first movement, m. 1, second movement, m. 1……………………..34 23. Sonata No. 4, first movement, m. 12………………………………………………35 24. Sonata No. 4, second movement, m. 72 ...…………………………………………35 25. Sonata No. 4, first movement, m. 21…….………………………………………...36 26. Sonata No. 4, first movement, mm. 34–35………………………………………...37 27. Sonata No. 4, first movement, reduction of mm. 34–35…………..………….……37 28. Sonata No. 4, first movement, mm. 98–99………………………..………….……38 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION George Walker was born in Washington D.C. on 27 June 1922 and received the best musical education available. He earned a Bachelors of Music degree (with the highest honors) from Oberlin Conservatory in 1941 and studied piano with David Moyer and composition with Normand Lockwood. He received an Artist Diploma from the Curtis School of Music in 1945 while studying with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horsowski; his composition instructors were Rosario Scalero and Gian Carlo Menotti. He then attended the American Conservatory of Music at Fontainbleau, France and graduated with an Artist Diploma in 1947; his piano instructor was Robert Casadesus. Walker received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1957, before returning to study composition in Paris privately with Nadia Boulanger (1957–1959) and piano with Clifford Curzon (this was with the aid of a Fulbright Fellowship and the John Hay Whitney Grant). Walker’s teaching career includes positions at Dillard University, the New School of Music in New York, Peabody Conservatory, Rutgers University (Newark), Smith College, the University of Colorado, and the University of Delaware. His productive pen has produced solo piano works like the Prelude and Caprice (1945 & 1941), the twelve-tone variations Spatials (1961), the one-movement Spektra (1971), Bauble (which was composed in 1979 for the Maryland International Piano Competition), Guido’s Hand (1986), five piano sonatas (1953 [revised in 1991], 1956, 1975 [revised in 1994], 1985, and 2003 respectively), and a piano concerto. 1 George Walker was a pioneer on many fronts: he was the first African-American to win the Philadelphia Orchestra youth auditions, to sign a major management contract, to graduate from the Curtis School of Music, to receive a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music, to debut in New York’s Town Hall, and to earn a Pulitzer Prize as a living black composer (Scott Joplin had been awarded one posthumously in 19751). Walker has been awarded many honorary doctorates, received several large commissions from orchestras like the Cleveland, Atlanta, and New York Philharmonic, and has made many recordings. Many notable performers like Natalie Hinderas and Leon Bates have also recorded his works. In addition to performing with renowned ensembles like the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony, he has published over ninety works in major genres. There are five piano sonatas, two violin sonatas, two string quartets, a piano concerto, music for brass, three sinfonias, and a symphony. Despite Walker’s accomplishments, his music is not performed as frequently as some of his contemporaries’. This is vexing because there is a dearth of American composers who were virtuoso pianists and significantly contributed to twentieth-century piano repertoire with a body of piano sonatas (Walker wrote five). Walker feels the lack of performance of his and other black composers’ music is partly because of prejudice. He expressed his opinion when asked, “Why is the music of black composers not better known?” Racism is alive and well in classical music. Its legacy, which has affected society in general, has left its imprint on performers and academics as well as marketing moguls. There appears to be a systematic and exclusionary view of the importance and value of black composers’ works by musicologists and music critics…In the 1970s, this would be considered benign neglect. But today, it is better described as arrogant disdain…The white press promotes John Adams, Steve Reich, Aaron Kernis, John Harbison, and others while ignoring Hale Smith, T. J. Anderson, Olly Wilson, Adolphus Hailstork, David Baker, Wendell Logan, and other black artists who are more interesting and equally 1 Edward Berlin, King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 252. 2 competent.2 Although Walker’s music speaks for itself, many remain unaware of his contributions because of his omission in some histories of twentieth-century music, and in the lack of incorporating black composers in many classroom curriculums. Although this may be an uncomfortable topic for some, race is a relevant reality to the biography of a black composer living in a period of inequality from the 1920’s on. For example, the first two sonatas were written a decade before many civil rights laws were in place, segregation was legal and prevalent, and racism was overt. Race has played a direct role in Walker’s career—he turned to composition because managers felt the audiences at the time (in the 40s and 50s) were not ready to accept a black pianist.3 The subject of exclusion and