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Dramatic Structures in the Theatrical Music of Harry Partch and Manfred Stahnke

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Dramatic Structures in the Theatrical Music of Harry Partch and Manfred Stahnke MICROTONALITY, TECHNOLOGY, AND (POST)DRAMATIC STRUCTURES IN THE THEATRICAL MUSIC OF HARRY PARTCH AND MANFRED STAHNKE By NAVID BARGRIZAN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Navid Bargrizan To my parents, whose passion for both music and academic education has inspired me ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude for their mentorship and constructive criticism to my advisor Dr. Silvio dos Santos, and the members of my doctoral committee, Dr. Jennifer Thomas, Dr. Paul Richards, and Dr. Ralf Remshardt. I am very much obliged to Dr. Manfred Stahnke for his generosity and wisdom; Ms. Susanne Stahnke for her cordial hospitality; Dr. Georg Hajdu for sharing his knowledge, and Dr. Albrecht Schneider for evoking my interest in microtonality. I appreciate the support of the following individuals and organizations, without whom I could not have realized this dissertation: DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service); the past and present directors of UF’s Music Department, Dr. John Duff and Dr. Kevin Orr; UF’s College of the Arts; UF’s Graduate School and Office of Research; UF’s Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere; UF’s Student Government; Singer and Tedder Families; director of the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois, Dr. Scott Schwarz; the staff of the University of California San Diego Special Collections and Northwestern University Library. My family, friends, and early mentors have encouraged and supported me throughout my academic education. I would particularly like to thank my parents, sister, and brother-in-law; Mr. Bahram and Ms. Mali Bargrizan; Dr. Ramin Zand and Dr. Vida Abedi; Dr. David Assatiani, Mr. Hamidreza Dibazar, and Dr. Mehran Rouhani. I am grateful to Dr. Morgan Rich for her endless enthusiasm and helpfulness. She has read and listened to my research or compositional ideas; has read and listened to them as they have been realized in texts or pieces; and has brought her questioning insight, pushing me to re-think and revise my sketches. I would also like to thank my friend Emily Theobald for helping me with the final revisions of the text. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8 LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ................................................................................... 11 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 16 Rationale ................................................................................................................. 16 Literature Review .................................................................................................... 21 Chapter Outline and Analytical Key-Concepts ........................................................ 29 Methods of Research .............................................................................................. 31 2 MUSIC PHILOSOPHY AND AESTHETIC IDEAS ................................................... 33 Cultural Criticim Ingrained in Partch’s and Stahnke’s Music Philosophies .............. 33 Partch’s Music-Philosophical and Aesthetic Views ................................................. 34 Stahnke’s Music-Philosophical and Aesthetic Views .............................................. 50 Partch’s and Stahnke’s Music Philosophies and Aesthetics Juxtaposed ................ 60 3 FROM MONOPHONY TO MELOHARMONY: MICROTONALITY AND COMPOSITIONAL PROCEDURES ........................................................................ 66 Microtonality in Partch’s and Stahnke’s Music ........................................................ 66 Partch’s Microtonality and Compositional Techniques in His Theatrical Music ....... 71 Stahnke’s Microtonality and Compositional Techniques in His Theatrical Music .... 99 4 TECHNOLOGY, MEDIATION, AND INTERMEDIALITY ....................................... 142 Art and Technology ............................................................................................... 142 From Digital Theater to Digital Theatrical Music ................................................... 145 The Multimedia Concept in Orpheus Kristall ......................................................... 155 The Role of the Interactive Interface Quintet.net in Orpheus Kristall .................... 162 Various Trajectories in the Multimedia Design of Orpheus Kristall ....................... 169 5 CORPOREALITY AS THE FOUNDATION OF PARTCH’S OEUVRE .................. 181 Partch beyond Intonation and Tuning ................................................................... 181 Partch’s Corporeality and the Concept of Gesamtkunstwerk ................................ 186 5 Corporeality in Delusion of the Fury ...................................................................... 188 Partch’s Monophony and Corporeality .................................................................. 195 Partch’s Corporeality: a Historical and Ethnographical Discourse ........................ 199 6 (POST)DRAMATIC THEATRICAL MUSIC ........................................................... 208 Postdrama in Partch’s and Stahnke’s Works ........................................................ 208 Postdramatic vs. Dramatic Theater ....................................................................... 209 Dramatic and Postdramatic Elements in Partch’s Theatrical Music: Oedipus, The Bewitched, and Delusion of the Fury .......................................................... 215 Dramatic and Postdramatic Elements in Stahnke’s Theatrical Music: Wahnsinn das ist die Seele der Handlung and Orpheus Kristall ........................................ 236 7 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 245 Theatrical Music in the Service of Cultural Discourse ........................................... 245 The Lineage from Partch to Stahnke .................................................................... 246 Theatrical Structures in Partch’s and Stahnke’s Stage Works .............................. 248 Digital Media in Stahnke’s Theatrical Music .......................................................... 250 Influence of Partch on European Microtonal Music ............................................... 251 APPENDIX A LIBRETTO OF WAHNSINN DAS IST DIE SEELE DER HANDLUNG ................. 253 B LIBRETTO OF ORPHEUS KRISTALL .................................................................. 256 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 264 Primary Sources ................................................................................................... 264 Secondary Sources .............................................................................................. 264 Internet Sources ................................................................................................... 271 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 273 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 3-1 List of scenes and titles in Harry Partch’s The Bewitched .................................. 85 6-1 List of types, or manners, of dancing in Harry Partch’s The Bewitched ............ 225 6-2 List of scenes in Harry Partch’s Delusion of the Fury ....................................... 236 6-3 List of sections in Manfred Stahnke’s Wahnsinn das ist die Seele der Handlung .......................................................................................................... 238 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 Bitter Music; Harry Partch Estate Archive and Harry Partch Collection, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, University of Illinois. .......................... 47 2-2 Bitter Music; Harry Partch Estate Archive and Harry Partch Collection, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, University of Illinois. .......................... 48 2-3 Bitter Music; Harry Partch Estate Archive and Harry Partch Collection, Sousa Archives and Center for American Music, University of Illinois. .......................... 49 3-1 Partch’s forty-three-tone-to-octave scale ............................................................ 66 3-2 Cloud Chamber Bowls ........................................................................................ 67 3-3 Mazda Marimba .................................................................................................. 68 3-4 Adapted Viola ..................................................................................................... 68 3-5 Partch’s eleven-limit tonality diamond ................................................................ 73 3-6 Five-limit tonality diamond .................................................................................. 74 3-7 Manuscript of Oedipus; cover page and first page of legend. Located at Harry Partch Estate Archive and Harry Partch
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