Metamodern Composition: in Search of an Authentic Harmonic Language
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METAMODERN COMPOSITION: IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHENTIC HARMONIC LANGUAGE A. D. K. VOLTZ A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Music with Honours in Composition. School of Music, The University of Queensland October 2020 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I understand the University’s rules and policies on referencing and avoiding plagiarism. This thesis is my own work and contains nothing submitted for assessment elsewhere or for another course, at The University of Queensland or any other institution. I have appropriately and fairly accredited the work of others that I have drawn on in the writing of this thesis. I have undertaken the online Academic Integrity Tutorial: (https://www.uq.edu.au/integrity/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%25252fintegrity). I have also remained within a 10% margin of the word count pertaining to the relevant content. Name of student: Alexander Donald Kenneth VOLTZ Student number: 44734895 Course code: MUSC4550 Signature of student: Date submitted: 12 October 2020 Time submitted: c. 11:00 Disciplinary action will be taken for students found signing a false statement regarding the above, or who are in breach of the UQ Policy and Procedure Library 3.60.04 Student Integrity and Misconduct 6 Guidelines for Students (http://ppl.app.uq.edu.au/content/3.60.04- student-integrity-and-misconduct#Policy). ii ABSTRACT In this paper I investigate how contemporary art music composers use harmonic language to achieve authentic musical personalities. I believe harmony has an important role to play in the evolution of contemporary art music. Through analysing a portfolio of my compositions, I provide insight into my harmonic techniques and biases. I pioneer “magnetic” harmonic analysis as a tool for composers and musicologists alike. My investigation is informed by historical and contemporary approaches to harmony, and also adheres to the principles of metamodernism. I conclude that my harmonic language is indeed authentic, as opposed to unique. Indeed, I argue that “unique” is a poor descriptor or ambition for anyone’s artistic practise in this metamodern twenty-first century. Keywords harmony, harmonic language, metamodernism, authenticity, personality, pitch centre iii FOREWORD My thanks must go to a number of individuals, chiefly Dr Robert Davidson, my teacher and mentor of three years who supervised this paper and also first introduced me to metamodernism in 2018. Dr Liam Miller and Melissa Miller provided valuable feedback on metamodernism during drafting stages. The academic consults provided by Assoc. Prof. Denis Collins, Assoc. Prof. Patrick Murphy and Dr Simon Perry have also been of great benefit. The recent private mentorships of Dr Brenton Broadstock AM and Dr Melody Eötvös have accelerated my learning and thus improved both this paper and my artistic practise immeasurably. Concerning my portfolio works, I am grateful to the Australian Youth Orchestra for overseeing the premiere of Curtain!, and to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for commissioning Capital Hill. I also extend my thanks to Assoc. Prof. Gyula Fekete and the composition faculty of the Liszt Academy, Budapest, for recently shortlisting my First String Quartet in the 2020 Bartok World Composition Competition. Supreme appreciation goes to my good friend Robert Eldridge, whose mechatronics major greatly assisted in the presentation of this paper’s data. And lastly, dad, Dr Bradley Voltz. Thank you for providing me the support needed to complete my undergraduate studies. A. D. K. Voltz iv © ALEXANDER VOLTZ © ALEXANDER Alexander Voltz’s (b. 1999) work takes inspiration from myth, politics and the historic, whilst also deconstructing and challenging the human condition. His music has been performed and supported by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Australian Youth Orchestra, Queensland Youth Orchestras, The University of Queensland and others. He has collaborated with musicians including John Curro AM MBE, Susan Ellis, Alex Raineri and Bradley Voltz. Alexander was a winner in Artology’s 2015 Fanfare Competition (Sydney) and reached the semi-finals of both the 2018 and 2020 Bartok World Composition Competitions (Budapest). He was awarded The University of Queensland’s Prize for Composition in 2019 and will graduate in 2021 with a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in Composition and a Bachelor of Arts in Ancient History, History and Writing. Alexander lives in Brisbane, Australia. He signs his work as A. D. K. Voltz. https://adkvoltz.com/ v TABLE OF CONTENTS Exegesis Statement of Originality ii Abstract iii Keywords iii Foreword iv List of Examples viii Lists of Figures and Tables xi INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1 LITERATURE WITHIN A PERSONAL CONTEXT 4 Harmony as a Musical Parameter 4 Contemporary Composers’ Approaches to Harmony 7 Contemporary Harmonic Analysis 13 Authenticity, Personality and Metamodernism 17 Chapter 2 METHODOLOGY 23 Chapter 3 ANALYSIS 29 Macroanalysis 29 Middle-analysis 37 Microanalysis 42 vi CODA 48 List of Works Cited 50 List of Works Consulted 63 vii LIST OF EXAMPLES Ex. 1.1. Hindemith’s two series, reproduced. Series 1 predominantly concerns melodic construction, while Series 2 addresses harmony and intervallic tension. 15 Ex. 2.1. Curtain!, sketch of bars 21-29, typeset. As with many of my sketches, the temporal organisation is spatially proportional, rather than metred. 24 Ex. 2.2. Early rhythmic material for Capital Hill, typeset. The sketch is undated but was likely completed 18/19 April 2020. Now, I find there are markings which confuse me. As in Ex. 2.1, a contextual pragmatism appears to dominate my early compositional processes. 28 Ex. 3.1. Curtain!, bars 28-29, reduced and annotated. 37 Ex. 3.2. Curtain!, bars 30-31, reduced. 38 Ex. 3.3. Curtain!, bars 247-248, reduced and annotated. 38 Ex. 3.4. String Quartet No. 1, bars 26-33, annotated. 39 Ex. 3.5. Capital Hill, bars 222-226, annotated. 41 Ex. 3.6. Capital Hill, bars 296-301, reduced and annotated. 42 Ex. 3.7. Curtain!, chord from bar 33, reduced and annotated. 43 Ex. 3.8. Curtain!, bar 312, reduced and annotated. 43 Ex. 3.9. String Quartet No.1, bars 1-4, reduced and annotated. 44 Ex. 3.10. String Quartet No.1, bars 49-52, annotated. 45 Ex. 3.11. Capital Hill, bars 119-123, annotated. 47 viii LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures Fig. 2.1. Cohn’s four hexatonic systems, reproduced. Edited to include pitch-classes representing pitch centres. 26 Fig. 3.1. A “magnetic” analysis of the portfolio’s pitch centres, adapted from Cohn’s four hexatonic systems. 36 Tables Table 3.1. Pitch centres in Curtain! 30 Table 3.2. Pitch centres in String Quartet No. 1. 32 Table 3.3. Pitch centres in Capital Hill. 34 ix INTRODUCTION Today’s world is one of binary oppositions, of great promises and threatening terrors. 2020 has epitomised this. Among the year’s numerous challenges, demand has arisen for a global reconsideration of what it means to be individual. The arts have been dramatically impacted by this. A post-pandemic society may indeed begin to reject “the death of the author” and find a renewed appreciation for creative intent.1 Anticipating this, creatives should seek more than ever to hone their skills and understand their artistic practise. Throughout my student years, I have critically considered the dilemma facing all aspiring composers: “What makes me different?” Upon first inspection, the answers are disappointing. My music is largely driven by pitch and rejects conceptual processes like the New Complexity and chance. I compose intuitively and greatly rely upon my aural skills. I prize my work for both its structural strength and its serious extra-musical qualities. None of that is unique; I will, however, argue that “unique” is a poor descriptor or ambition for anyone’s artistic practise in this metamodern twenty-first century. Melody Eötvös commented that she accepted me as a composition participant during the Australian Youth Orchestra’s 2020 National Music Camp because my music demonstrated an “interesting use of harmony”.2 Later, during my studies as part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Cybec 21st Century Australian Composers’ Program, Brenton Broadstock described me as “not a tonal composer”.3 Harmony, then, is a notable 1 See Roland Barthes, Image, Music, Text, trans. Stephen Heath (New York: Noonday Press, 1988). 2 Melody Eötvös, in conversation with the author, 18 January, 2020. 3 Brenton Broadstock, in conversation with the author, 16 June, 2020. 1 musical parameter within my compositions. My harmonic language is what Stefan Kostka and Matthew Santa term “post-tonal” in that it does not obey the traditional conventions of tonal harmony.4 I think harmony has an important role to play in the evolution of contemporary art music, and so this paper explores my intuitive use of it for both private and public benefit. Others cite the merit in deconstructing subconscious creative procedures. Geoffrey Skelton argues that Hindemith’s Unterweisung im Tonsatz was an attempt by the composer to remove “an over-reliance on artistic inspiration”.5 Philip Gossett, while acknowledging composition cannot be taught, promotes “thorough knowledge” as creative stimulus when “experience” fails an artist.6 In other words, academia can be used to solidify compositional techniques. Furthermore, Schoenberg writes that in his experience students are “complacent” towards learning compositional “rules” of their own accord. He challenges teachers to simply illuminate what their students do not know or are reluctant to study independently.7 Conscious of Schoenberg’s concerns, I achieve proactivity through deconstructing my work whilst simultaneously embracing an autodidactic philosophy. Jacques Chailley asserts that analysis involves “putting oneself in the composer’s shoes”.8 As if Cinderella, it would seem the composer best fits the analytical slipper. John White writes that the “essential purpose” of studying music theory is to understand musical style.9 Therefore, in this paper I investigate how contemporary art music 4 Stefan Kostka and Matthew Santa, Materials and Techniques of Post-Tonal Music, 5th ed.