Multi-Layered Construction of Elliott Carter's Violin
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MULTI-LAYERED CONSTRUCTION OF ELLIOTT CARTER’S VIOLIN CONCERTO, FIRST MOVEMENT, AND IMMERSED IN AN ETHEREAL BLUE LIGHT FOR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! by Jonghee Kang B.M. in Music Composition, Yonsei University, 2000 M.A. in Music Composition, New York University, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2015 ! UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Jonghee Kang It was defended on March 31, 2015 and approved by Reza Vali, Professor of Music, Carnegie Mellon University Amy Williams, Associate Professor of Music, University of Pittsburgh Mathew Rosenblum, Professor of Music, Chair, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh Dissertation Advisor: Eric Moe, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music, University of Pittsburgh ! ii! Copyright © by Jonghee Kang 2015 ! iii! ! MULTI-LAYERED CONSTRUCTION OF ELLIOTT CARTER’S VIOLIN CONCERTO, FIRST MOVEMENT, AND IMMERSED IN AN ETHEREAL BLUE LIGHT FOR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Jonghee Kang, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2015 ! ! Most analytical studies of Elliott Carter’s music focus on how Carter utilizes his system of harmony, pitch material, or polyrhythmic stratification. This study, however, explores the structure of Carter’s Violin Concerto from a different analytic angle. Violin Concerto constitutes a new structural model for the traditional concerto genre based on its multi-layered construction. The background structure of Violin Concerto is derived from pre-compositional planning, utilizing tempo modulation and three-way stratification based on a long-range polyrhythm. The phrase structure of the concerto divides the first movement into seven sections, while the movement’s rhythmic activity largely shows a four-part structure. Detailed phrase analysis of the first movement’s violin solo part uses the notions of memory and montage to explain the solo part’s construction. The solo part’s temporally manipulated structure is framed in a ritornello form by the orchestra’s behavior.!In this late-period Carter work, both the violin solo and the orchestra make manifest constant circulations of particular musical ideas, which appear in various structural levels. This unique mapping of the concerto, especially of the violin solo, is best understood through concepts like montage, events and event-properties. As invented terms for this study, an event consists of event-properties, which are reoccurred and synthesized character-objects, particular musical ideas in terms of intervallic motion, rhythm pattern, and change of textural density. These concepts are applied for the phrase analysis, which involves the ! iv! following process: defining the characteristic properties of the events in sub-phrase and phrase levels; locating the events created with similar or identical event-properties; and then exploring how they are mapped to larger levels. Such examination shows a strong unifying characteristic of the concerto. ! The composition, Immersed in an Ethereal Blue Light for chamber ensemble, musically explores the contrast and the phenomenal differences between the dark and deep blue sea and the bright ocean surface. While the second movement, Open Water, is saturated with a dark, monochromatic, and relatively empty character, the first movement, Nearer the Coast..., features brighter and more dynamic aural illustration. ! ! v! TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................xii 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 ELLIOTT CARTER’S VIOLIN CONCERTO: BACKGROUND…………...…1 1.2 ANALYZING VIOLIN CONCERTO………………………………………….....3 2.0 ANALYSIS OF VIOLIN CONCERTO 2.1 INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………..7 2.2 BACKGROUND-STRUCTURE OF VIOLIN CONCERTO………….………….8 2.2.1 General concept of tempo modulation and its application in Violin Concerto………………………………....................................................…..8 2.2.2 Large-scale construction based on polyrhythmic stratification..............12 2.3 ANALYTIC APPROACHES FOR PHRASE ANALYSIS …………………….17 2.3.1 Montage and memory ……………………………………………………17 2.3.2 Defining events…………………………………………………………......19 2.4 ANALYSIS OF VIOLIN SOLO--FIRST MOVEMENT……………………..…25 2.4.1 Large-scale structures: seven-part and four-part structures………...…25 ! vi! 2.4.2 How the drama begins: opening of the violin solo……………………....35 2.4.3 Phrase analysis of the first movement……………………………………38 2.4.3.1 Section 1……...............................................................................….40 2.4.3.2 Section 2……………………………………………………............49 2.4.3.3 Application of E-I (P5-m6) in the first movement….…..……….61 2.4.3.4 Section 6…………………………………………………………....67 2.4.3.5 Section 7…….…...…………………………………………………71 2.5 ANALYSIS OF THE ORCHESTRA PART: RITORNELLO FORM..……….75 3.0 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………..89 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………….………………...92 IMMERSED IN AN ETHEREAL BLUE LIGHT FOR CHAMBER ENSEMBLE…….…...94 ! vii! LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Tempo Modulation in the Scherzando Movement..........................................................12 Table 2: Structure of Violin Solo Based on Phrasing, First Movement........................................25 Table 3: Beat Division Patterns in the First Movement in Violin Concerto.............................28-29 Table 4: Summary of Violin Solo in Section 1, First Movement..................................................49 Table 5: Occurrences of P5-m6 Interval-events in Conjunction with Other E-types in the First Movement.................................................................................................................................62-64 Table 6: E-R Organization of the Second Phrase, Section 7, Violin Solo, First Movement.........72 ! viii! LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1:The Tempi of the Three Movements in Violin Concerto...........................................…...9 Figure 2: Three-way Stratification of Violin Concerto by David Schiff.......................................16 Figure 3: Organization of An Event, mm.154-166, Violin Concerto............................................22 Figure 4: Arrangement of Events according to the Occurence of Highlighted Event- Properties.......................................................................................................................................23 Figure 5: Domain-Transformation Graph of Beat Divisions in Violin Concerto, First Movement......................................................................................................................................33 Figure 6: Relative Density of Rhythmic Activity, Violin Concerto, First Movement..................34 Figure 7: The Beginning of the Violin Solo, mm. 6-7...................................................................41 Figure 8: Using Melodic Contour, mm.6-7...................................................................................41 Figure 9: Mirroring Between Bars 11-12, Violin Solo..................................................................43 Figure 10: Mirroring Between Bars 12-13.....................................................................................44 Figure 11: Comparison of Rhythmic Onset-Points, Bars 17-19....................................................45 Figure 12: Short Periodic Pulsation (underlined notes), mm. 19-20.............................................45 Figure 13: Endings of the Three Phrases in Section 1, First Movement.......................................48 ! ix! Figure 14: Durations of the Intervallic Cell-Curves, mm. 28-33.............................................................52 Figure 15: Two Events Appearing in the Second Phrase, Section 2, First Movement..................53 Figure 16: Multiple Montages Occurring from Parts of Sections 1 to 2, Violin Solo, First Movement......................................................................................................................................55 Figure 17: Construction of Sections 1 & 2, First Movement, Violin Solo....................................60 Figure 18: Pattern of Occurrences in the Violin Solo, E-I (P5-m6), First Movement...................67 Figure 19: Compositions of Intervals and Melodic Contour, Section 6, First Movement.............70 Figure 20: Montage-structure of the Sixth Section, mm. 154-166, First Movement.....................71 Figure 21: Analysis, mm. 196-200, Violin Solo, First Movement................................................73 Figure 22: Mirroring and Imitating Contours, mm.196-200, Violin Solo, First Movement.........74 Figure 23: Stage Setting for Performance, Immersed in an Ethereal Blue Light..........................95 ! ! x! LIST OF EXAMPLES Example 1: Beginning of the First Movement, mm. 4-11........................................................37-38 Example 2: mm. 7-11, Violin Solo.....................................................................................................................43 Example 3: Excerpts of Event-Zigzag Contour (E-ZC), Violin Concerto.....................................51 Example 4: Comparison of Rhythms and Melodic Contours, First Movement............................56 Example 5: The Sixth Section of the First Movement, Violin Concerto.......................................77 Example 6: Coincidental Onsets Between Violin Solo and Orchestra, First Movement (mm.191- 194)…............................................................................................................................................79