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Hatten's Theory of Musical Gesture

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Hatten's Theory of Musical Gesture HATTEN’S THEORY OF MUSICAL GESTURE AN A P P L I E D L O GICO- DEDUCTIVE ANALYSIS OF MOZART’S FLUTE QUARTET IN D, K.285 by DOUGLAS WALTER SCOTT submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF MUSICOLOGY a t t h e UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA Supervisor: Dr. Michael Blake J u n e 2 0 0 9 HATTEN’S THEORY OF MUSICAL GESTURE AN A P P L I E D LOGICO - DEDUCTIVE ANALYSIS OF MOZART’S FLUTE QUARTET IN D, K.285 This study investigates the possibility of applying Hatten’s theory of m us ical gesture to a fo rmal system of musical analysis. Using historical antecedents and established mu sicological practice as a gui de, a range of musical parameters in a motive length span of music are incorporated into a s ingle gesture. This gesture forms the basi c semantic unit upon which an analytical tableau structure is built , and a syntax is developed to allow derivation s of new gestures ; a large scale structure displaying fractal -li ke s elf -similarity is then proposed. The completed system is applied to the an alysis of the ‘Adagi o ’ of M ozart’s Fl ut e Quartet K.285 to test whether it can consistently be implemented and whether it produces falsifiable results while maintaining predictive power. It is found that these requirements are indeed met and that a s et of i nference rules can be derived suggesting that the proposed system has ample scope for further development. HATTEN’S THEORY OF MUSICAL GESTURE AN A P P L I E D LOGICO - D E D U T I V E ANALYSIS OF MOZART’S FLUTE QUARTET IN D, K.285 K E Y T E R M S : M U S I C A L ANALYSIS; MUSICAL GESTURE ; MOZART; HATTEN; ANALYTICAL TABLEAU X ; M U S I C A L MEANING; MUSICAL PARAMETER S ; FORMAL SYSTEM ; AURAL SONOLOGY; GRAPHICAL N O T A T I O N ; FRACTAL GEOMETRY ; L O G I C i CONTENTS List of Tables iii List of Figures iv Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Preface 1 1.2 General Introduction 1 1.3 Hypothesis and Objective s 2 1.4 Logic and Meaning in Music 3 Chapter 2: Musical Gesture as Defined by Hatten 9 2.1 Introduction 9 2.2 Issues of D i s c o v e r y 9 2.3 The Nature of Analytical Gestu r e s 13 2 . 4 T h e M eaning of Gestures 17 2.5 Gestural A n a l y s i s 19 Chapter 3: Methodology 20 3.1 S yntax and Semantics 20 3 . 1 . 1 S y n t a x 20 3 . 1 . 2 S e m a n t i c s 23 3.2 The Analytical Algorithm 34 3.3 Final Methodological Remarks 37 ii Chapter 4: Analysis 39 4.1. Introduction 39 4.1.1 A note on the Selection of Music for Analysis 40 4.2 Overview 40 4 . 2 . 1 M a j o r S u b - d i v i s i o n s 40 4.2 .2 T e m p o 41 4.3 Section I, phrase A 41 4.2 . 1 H a r m o n y 41 4.2 . 2 L i n e s 41 4.2 . 3 D e r i v a t i o n 42 4.2 . 4 Structural D i a g r a m 42 4.4 Adding the Second Phrase 50 4.3.1 Discussion 50 4.5 Completing the Second Movement 54 4.4.1 D i s c u s s i o n 54 Chapter 5: Conclusion 71 5 . 1 T h e H y p o t h e s i s 71 5 . 1 . 1 M e t a - systematic analysis 72 5.2 Suggestions f o r F urther Study a n d Application 75 5 . 2 . 1 Suggestions f o r F urther Study 75 5.2.2 Application 77 List of Sources 80 A p p e n d i x A - A Definition of Formal T h e o r i e s viii A p p e n d i x B - A Sample List of P a r a m e t e r s ix A p p e n d i x C - R e c o r d i n g [see back cover inset] iii List of Tables T a b l e 1 . Conditions for accepting the hypothesis 2 T a b l e 2 . T h e Secondary o b j e c t i v e s 2 T a b l e 3 . Hatten’s twelve points 10 T a b l e 4 . Hatten on the nature of gestures 1 5 T a b l e 5 . Hatten on the relation of gestures 1 6 T a b l e 6 . White’s parameters for analysis 21 T a b l e 7 . Truth Table 35 T a b l e 8 . Some compound rules 71 T a b l e 9 . Par a m e t e r s ix T a b l e 1 0 . [A] x T a b l e 1 1 . [B] xi T a b l e 1 2 . [C] x ii T a b l e 1 3 . [G] xiii T a b l e 1 4 . [H] xiv T a b l e 1 5 . [ x ] xv T a b l e 1 6 . [ y ] x v i T a b l e 1 7 . [ z ] xvii iv List of Figures Figure 1. Hin demith’s system of verticalities 2 5 F i g u r e 2 . Truslit’s ‘Festgestelte bewegung’ 2 6 Figure 3. Hindemith’s ‘Act ual design of harmonic 2 7 t e n s i o n ’ F i g u r e 4. Persichetti’s tension graphs 2 8 Figure 5. White’s graphical notation 2 9 Figure 6. Hindemit h’s units of degree progression 30 Figure 7. Th o r e s s e n ’s formbuilding transformations 31 Figure 8. Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s time - span analysis 32 Figure 9. An analy tical tableau by Letz and Stenz 33 F i g u r e 10. Another example of an analytical tableau 33 F i g u r e 1 1. An axiom schema for the g e s t u r al analysis 36 s y s t e m in the form of an analytical tableau Figure 12. A gestural philosophy of mind 38 . F i g u r e 1 3 . The second movement ‘Adagio’ o f M o z a r t ’ s 43- 44 F l u t e Q u artet in D KV285 F i g u r e 1 4 . Structural outline 45- 46 F i g u r e 1 5 . P h r a s e A 47 F i g u r e 1 6 . Gestural subdivision for phrase A 47 F i g u r e 1 7 . Gestural assignations for phrase A 47 F i g u r e 1 8 . Tableau index for phrase A 4 8 F i g u r e 1 9 . Consecutive and meta - gestures for phrase A 4 8 F i g u r e 2 0 . Resultant and combinatorial gestures for 4 9 p h r a s e A v F i g u r e 2 1 . Completed tableaux for phrase A 4 9 F i g u r e 2 2 . Harmonic analysis for phrase B 51 F i g u r e 2 3 . Gestural subdivision for phrase B 51 F i g u r e 2 4 . Gestural assignations for phrase B 51 F i g u r e 2 5 . Tableau index for phrase B 52 F i g u r e 2 6 . Completed tableau for phrase B 52 F i g u r e 2 7 . Combined tableau for phrases A a n d B 53 F i g u r e 2 8 . Gestural subdivision for p h r a s e A ' 54 F i g u r e 2 9 . Gestural assignations f o r p h r a s e A ' 54 F i g u r e 3 0 . Gestural subdivision for p h r a s e C 55 F i g u r e 31. Gestural assignations f o r p h r a s e C 55 F i g u r e 3 2 . Tableau index for phrases A ' a n d C 56 F i g u r e 3 3 . Completed tableau for phrases A ' a n d C 57 F i g u r e 3 4 . Analytical tableau for s e c t i o n I 58 F i g u r e 3 5 . Gestural sub division for phrase D 59 F i g u r e 36. Gestural assignations for phrase D 59 F i g u r e 3 7 . Tableau index for phrase D 60 F i g u r e 3 8 . Gestural subdivision for phrase E 61 F i g u r e 3 9 . Gestural assignations for phrase E 61 F i g u r e 4 0 . Tableau index for phrase E 62 F i g u r e 4 1 .
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