Melinda Wagner and Her Piano Concerto: Extremity of Sky

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UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

MELINDA WAGNER AND HER PIANO CONCERTO: EXTREMITY OF SKY

By Yujia Xia

A DOCTORAL ESSAY

Submitted to the Faculty of the University of Miami in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts

Coral Gables, Florida

May 2021

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI

A doctoral essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts

MELINDA WAGNER AND HER PIANO CONCERTO: EXTREMITY OF SKY

Yujia Xia

Approved:

______Tian Ying, M.M. Naoko Takao, D.M.A. Associate Professor Associate Professor of Keyboard Performance of Keyboard Performance

______Kevin Kenner, M.M. Guillermo Prado, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Dean of the Graduate School of Keyboard Performance

______Charles Castleman, M.M. Professor of String Performance

XIA,YUJIA (D.M.A., Keyboard Performance) (May 2021)

Melinda Wagner and Her Piano Concerto: Extremity of Sky

Abstract of a doctoral essay at the University of Miami.

Doctoral essay supervised by Professor Tian Ying. No. of pages in text. (94)

Melinda Wagner (1957-) is one of the most influential female American composers

across the 20th and 21st centuries. Extremity of Sky: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was a commissioned work by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Emanuel Ax with funding from the Prince Prize. Wagner was writing the second movement of the concerto when the

September 11 attacks happened in New York City. Later, she named this piece “Extremity of Sky,” metaphorically alluding to the dark smoke in the sky. Wagner finally completed this work in 2002, with a traditional four-movement frame: Opening, Departure, Prayer-

Chain, and Varied Return. The grandiosity and bravura of its structure, orchestration, sonority, and arrangement continually strike the hearts of listeners.

This dissertation will include Melinda Wagner’s biography, compositional style, and it will also provide a theoretical analysis of her piano concerto. The author hopes that this research will provide an introduction to the remarkable composer Melinda Wagner and help pianists who desire to understand the general structure and compositional principle of this music. Acknowledgements

I would like to express my great appreciation to my supervisor Tian Ying for his unlimited support, enthusiastic encouragement, and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this research project. I would also like to thank

Professor Kevin Kenner, Dr. Naoko Takao, and Professor Charles Castleman for their generous assistance and valuable advice.

My special thanks are extended to the composer Melinda Wagner for graciously providing me valuable materials about her biography and the piano concerto.

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to my friend Belinda Chen, who kindly spent a lot of time editing my paper.

I would like to give my deepest gratitude to my families for their endless love and support. A lot of thanks give to my husband, Ziyang Zhang, for his encouragement and accompaniment as well as for taking care of my life.

Finally, I wish to dedicate this paper to my baby girl Stella, who has always been the motivation for me to finish this project.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ...... v

LIST OF FIGURES ...... viii

LIST OF TABLES ...... ix

Chapter

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 Overview ...... 1 Composer’s Biography ...... 2 Melinda Wagner’s Music Toolbox ...... 5 Compositional Background of Extremity of Sky ...... 6 Need for Study ...... 10

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...... 13 Overview ...... 13 Sources on Melinda Wagner ...... 13 Sources on Extremity of Sky ...... 14 Sources on Theoretical Analysis ...... 15

3 THE ORCHESTRATION OF EXTREMITY OF SKY ...... 18 Woodwinds and Brass...... 20 Strings ...... 23 Percussions ...... 26 Piano ...... 30

4 THE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF EXTREMITY OF SKY ...... 31 Movement I: Opening ...... 34 Movement II: Departure ...... 48 Movement III: Prayer-Chain ...... 58 Movement IV: Varied Return ...... 71

5 THE METRIC MODULATION IN EXTREMITY OF SKY ...... 83

CONCLUSION ...... 89

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………...... 91

List of Musical Examples

1 Wagner Extremity of Sky, Mov. I m.1-3……………………………………………20

2 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.52-53…………………………………………………..21

3 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.86-89…………………………………………………..21

4 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.77-79………………………………………………….22

5 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.87-89……………………………………………...... 22

6 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.96-103.……………………………………………...... 25

7 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.115-124………………………………………………..29

8 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.1-3……………………………………………………..35

9 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.14-17.…………………………………………………35

10 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.21-24.…………………………………………………..35

11 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.61-62.…………………………………………………..36

12 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.163-175.…………….………………………………..36

13 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.176-181.……………………………………………...37

14 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.9-12…………………………………………………….37

15 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.34-37.………………………………………………….38

16 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.9-12……………………………………………………38

17 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.63-66.………………………………………………….39

18 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.30-33.………………………………………………….40

19 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.42-51…………………………………………………..40

20 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.86-89…………………………………………………..41

21 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.32-35…...……………………………………..………48

22 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.5-8………...………………………………...…………49

23 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.118-123………….…………………………………….49

24 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.9-12……………………………………………………50

25 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.37-40…..………………………………………………51

26 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.39-43.…………………………………………………51

27 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.56-59….………………………………………………52

28 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.144-146……………………………………………….53

29 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.56-59.…………………………………………………53

30 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.1-8………………………………………………..…..59

31 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.9-14..…………………………………………………59

32 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.18-23…………………………………………………60

33 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.19…..…………………………………………………60

34 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.18-23….………………………………………………61

35 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.22-23….………………………………………………61

36 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.18-22………………………………………………….61

37 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.19-21………………………………………………….62

38 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.19-21………………………………………………….62

39 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.52-53………………………………………………….63

40 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.18-23………………………...………………………..64

41 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.24-29……………………….…………………………64

42 Extremity of Sky, mov. III m.30-35………………………………………………….64

43 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.1-10..…………………………………………………72

44 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV 15-20…..………………………………………………..72

45 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.42-46……………………….………………………...73

46 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.183-189..……………………………………………..73

47 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.90-93..………………………………………………..73

48 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.90…...………………………………………………..74

49 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.163-175…...……………………….…………………75

50 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.170-174.…………………….………………………..75

51 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.176-182…...……………………….………………....75

52 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.183-189…….……………….………………………..76

53 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.187....……………………….………………………..76

54 Extremity of Sky, mov. IV m.183-189..………………….………………………….77

55 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.61…...………………………………………………….84

56 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.96-99…...…………………..………………………….85

57 Extremity of Sky, mov. I m.100-103...…………………………………….………..86

58 Extremity of Sky, mov. II m.87-90…...……………………………………………..87

vii

List of Figures

1 The instrumentation of the Extremity of Sky……………………………………19

2 Slapstick…………………………………………………………………………28

3 Brake drum……………………………………………………………………...28

4 Bell tree…………………………………………..……………………………..28

5 Elliot Carter’s Double Concerto, metric modulation……………………………84

viii

List of Tables

1 The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, I, Opening……………..……....……...... 47

2 The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, II, Departure………….……….……...... 57

3 The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, III, Prayer- Chain…….………………...70

4 The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, IV, Varied Return……….…..……….....82

Chapter I INTRODUCTION

Music offers composers an immeasurably rich and generous sonic landscape in which to explore the “life story” of each musical idea - its dramas, intrigues, joys and sorrows - a life. I strive to find various and persuasive ways of moving through the resulting temporal narrative, and to traverse a wide spectrum of expression and color on the way. Ultimately, I want listeners to know me; I want them to hear that while I enjoy the cerebral exercise, I am led principally by my ear, and by my heart.1 -Melinda Wagner

Overview:

This dissertation will be a theoretical analysis of American composer Melinda

Wagner's Piano Concerto: Extremity of Sky, which was composed in a traditional four- movement frame. Wagner was writing the second movement when the September 11 attacks happened in New York City. When she looked at the sky, it seemed as if dark smoke had swallowed the entire city. Later, she named this piece "Extremity of Sky," in remembrance of the tragic event. Commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for pianist Emanuel Ax in 2000, Wagner finally completed this piano concerto in 2002.

Extremity of Sky continues to strike listeners' hearts, not only because of the grandiosity and bravura of its structure, orchestration, arrangement, and sonority but also because the tragedy behind this composition has deeply impacted every American. Extremity of Sky brought American contemporary music to new heights upon its premiere. The author hopes that the analysis of this concerto will encourage pianists to expand their repertoire to include more contemporary works, which can be just as impactful to listeners as the classics of the canon.

1 https://www.melindawagnermusic.com/

Composer’s Biography

Born in 1957 in Philadelphia, Melinda Wagner is one of the most influential

American composers across the 20th and 21st century. Wagner began playing the piano at the age of four and started learning the cello in elementary school. She sang in choirs from age ten to twenty-two. At the age of 15, Wagner entered the Chautauqua Institute for intensive piano study, and she attended Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts the following year. Wagner showed her interest and talent in composition when she was a young child; she made up tunes and improvised a lot. Later, she simply gravitated towards serious study in composition – it was not a concrete decision for her. She also found that performance culture was not for her after studying piano intensively as a teenager. In 1979, Wagner received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Hamilton College.

In 1982, she graduated from the University of Chicago with her Master of Arts degree, where she studied composition with Shulamit Ran. Wagner received her Ph.D. in composition in 1986 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also taught and studied with Richard Wernick, George Crumb, and Jay Reise. From 1987 to 1991, she taught at Brandeis University, Swarthmore College, and Syracuse University.

Afterwards, she worked as a professor at Hunter College from 1992 to 1996. She served as Composer-in-Residence at the Wellesley Composers Conference and music festivals, including Yellow Barn, Bravo! Vail Valley, and Walden School.2

Melinda Wagner is married to James Saporito, an accomplished percussionist graduated from the Eastman School of Music, enjoyed a flourishing career as a freelance

2 Mark Alburger, “Wagner, Melinda,” In Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, https://doi-org.access.library.miami.edu/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2289660.

drummer/percussionist in New York City. Currently, Saporito serves as Associate

principal percussionist with the New York City Ballet Orchestra as well as principle

percussionist with the New York Pops Orchestra and the American Composers

Orchestra.3

In 1989, while Melinda Wagner was studying at the University of Pennsylvania,

her Sextet (1989) was performed on multiple occasions, and she began a long-term

cooperation with Presser publishing. Afterwards, her dissertation piece, Passages,

acquired a commission from the Chicago Symphony. Wagner achieved wide-spread

attention after the great success of her commissioned work Falling Angels (1992). As a

result, flutist Paul Lustig Denkal (1943-2018) directly asked her to write a concerto for

him. This commissioned work, Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion (1998),

performed by Westchester Philharmonic with conductor Mark Mandarano, was awarded

the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. Melinda Wagner is one of only three women to receive a

Pulitzer in music and the second-youngest woman to receive this award. (Ellen Taaffe

Zwilich received the prize in 1983, and Shulamit Ran in 1991. Ms. Ran was 41 while Ms.

Melinda was 42).4 In the following year, 2000, Wagner obtained funding from Prince

Prize5 to compose a concerto for piano and orchestra. Extremity of Sky (2002) was

premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2003 with conductor Daniel

Barenboim, featuring soloist Emanuel Ax.

3 https://nycbo.org/musicians/saporitoj/. 4 Cynthia Magriel Wetzler, “Orchestra Fostered Pulitzer Prize, ” The New York Times, April 18, 1999, https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/18/nyregion/orchestra-fostered-pulitzer-prize.html. 5 Prince Prize: wishing to support and encourage musical creation, the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation has awarded, since 1960, the Music Composition Prize to a composer for a recent musical work. https://www.fondationprincepierre.mc/en/music/prize/the-musical-composition-prize.

Other important works of Wagner’s include the New York Pops commission of

57/7 Dash, Overture for Percussion, Timpani, and Orchestra (2003), which featured her

husband, James Saporito, as the percussionist; the song cycle Four Settings (2004) for

Christine Brandes at Lincoln Center; a Trombone Concerto (2006) for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Loren Maazel; Little Moonhead (2008), a commissioned work for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (inspired by the instrumentation of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 4); the wind composition Scamp (2008) for the

US Marine Band; Pan Journal, a harp and string quartet for the Philadelphia Chamber

Music Society (2009); and Swept Up (2011) for symphonic band. 6 In 2016, Wagner

completed her third orchestral work commissioned by the Chicago Symphony. Proceed

Moon: Fantasy for Orchestra was premiered on June 15, 2017, and it was a great

success. Wagner admitted that the compositional experience of Proceed, Moon was laced

with a deep sense of nostalgia and sadness for her mother’s passing.7

Wagner’s chamber works have been performed by many leading ensembles, including the American Brass Quintet, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the New

York New Music Ensemble, and the Empyrean Ensemble. She is the recipient of the

Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, three ASCAP Young Composer Awards, an honorary degree from

Hamilton College, and a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of

Pennsylvania. Project support has come from the Barlow Endowment, the Fromm and

Koussevitzky Foundations, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust.8

6 Alburger. 7 https://www.melindawagnermusic.com/. 8 https://www.juilliard.edu/music/faculty/wagner-melinda.

Working as a passionate and inspiring teacher, Melinda Wagner has been a

Juilliard faculty member since 2016. 9

Melinda Wagner’s Music Toolbox

Melinda Wagner’s stylistic and compositional background

Melinda Wagner believes that any composer’s musical toolbox will evolve over the years due to experiences, and especially due to the learning of new pieces, new sounds, and new ideas from others. Wagner was raised on the standard repertoire – Bach,

Mozart, Beethoven – and those composers remain her criterion. Her music is regularly inspired by Bach; she believes that “all of the drama and beauty and excitement and angst in Bach’s music is built into the notes.”10 Wagner has always been attracted to writing orchestral works because she finds the sheer magnitude of the ensemble to be rewarding.

As a young child, Wagner’s first notated pieces were songs, some of them in the style of

American standards, and some of them folksy. Later, as a teenager, she was influenced by the music of Copland and Bernstein. Her style changed a lot when she went to college, when her music began to sound more like the typical post-Schoenberg and Berg contemporary music of the 70s and 80s. At present, Wagner’s works tend to be more lyrical – not entirely “tonal” but not as dissonant as they used to be. Her music has always been markedly narrative. Her admirable catalog of compositions embodies the extraordinary power, beauty, and intelligence of music. Wagner’s works inherit the style of Oliver Messiaen, Elliott Carter, and Gustav Mahler, featuring a strong narrative

9 Juilliard. 10 Phillip Huscher, “Proceed, Moon, Fantasy for Orchestra,” Chicago Symphony Orchestra Program Note, June 13th, 2017. https://cso.org/globalassets/pdfsshared/program-notes/2016- 17/ProgramNotes_MalkkiMarsalis.pdf.

element with contrapuntal and color sensibilities, and they also allude to the compositions of her teachers Wernick and Crumb.

Melinda Wagner does not use theoretical constructs as her compositional guide.

She usually obtains her inspiration from the music around her, and she tries to listen to as many new pieces as she can. Most of the time, a particular piece can act as a springboard for her own music by providing a very general sound world or “feeling.”

When beginning a new composition, Melinda Wagner does not know exactly where a piece will go. Instead, she usually approaches the beginning of every piece by improvising and composing melodies – many of which will not be applied in the final work – to get the flow going. She begins with smaller ideas- melodies, motives, rhythms- and explores where they might develop. The large shape and structure of a piece starts to emerge in her mind when she is about 25 percent into it, and at the halfway point, she knows exactly how the composition will play out. 11

Melinda Wagner also acquires inspiration from observing other art forms, including literature, theatre, painting, sculpture, etc. It is difficult to tell whether a specific artwork has influenced her musical decisions in a literal sense. However, the ideas of these arts have potentially affected her composition.

Compositional Background of Extremity of Sky

As mentioned previously, Extremity of Sky: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was a commissioned work by Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Emanuel Ax with funding from the Prince Prize. Daniel Barenboim conducted the premiere of this piece on

11 Melinda Wagner, interview, 2021.

May 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 27th, 2003, with the Chicago Symphony, featuring pianist

Emanuel Ax.

In the program notes from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s performance of

Proceed, Moon in 2017, Melinda Wagner stated that her musical sensibilities had

changed ever since composing Falling Angels, a poem for orchestra commissioned by the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra and premiered by Daniel Barenboim in 1993. Even though

Melinda Wagner's musical "toolbox" has become bigger, her outlook's anchor remains

the same: an emphasis on telling a purely musical story.12 Extremity of Sky was created in the shadow of September 11, 2001, which was one of the most tragic days in American history. On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with Islamic extremist group al

Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United

States. Two of the planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in

New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.13

Melinda Wagner was invited to the University of Miami Frost School of Music in

the fall of 2019 as a guest speaker and during a talk, she shared the story behind this

composition. Wagner recalled that she was working on the second movement of the piano

concerto when she heard the sound of hundreds of police cars, fire trucks, and

ambulances, as well as screams. Then she ran downstairs and asked her husband what

was happening outside. They turned on the television and watched the live report of this

catastrophe. After the attacks, Wagner and her family saw waves of billowing dark

12 Huscher . 13 “September 11 Attacks,” Aug 25th 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/9-11-attacks.

smokes rising above Manhattan from a ridge in their hometown New Jersey; as with the

rest of the country, they felt deep desperation and misery. In the interview, she also

recalled that their town lost twelve people to the attacks; some of them were known to

Wagner’s family personally. It was devasting and absolutely dreadful. She was halfway through the concerto when 9/11 happened, and she stopped composing for two months after that because she felt like there was nothing in her mind but the attacks. Even though the attacks affected her life in myriad ways, she never thought to write a piece about

September 11th. The following autumn, when Wagner looked up at the sky while wandering about the street, the words “extremity of the skies” ([in] Act III of King Lear by Shakespeare)14 suddenly appeared in her mind. Then she realized that --“extremity of sky” could be a metaphorical title of her piano concerto. Shakespeare’s words not only set the perfect atmosphere for a musical composition but also depicted the unimaginably gloomy atmosphere of a post-9/11 New York. It was the first time Melinda Wagner realized she was composing “while thinking about something on the earth,” and the relationship between music and life grew subtly more complicated in her heart.15

In the beginning, Melinda Wagner wanted to compose a “big” piece with a big sound, in part because she recognized the piano to be “big” and orchestral. The large percussion and brass sections helped produce this effect, but they also yielded some very delicate and quiet music in this piece. There were several moments that Wagner wanted the pianist to be part of the ensemble rather than only being the “soloist.” Also, because her husband is a percussionist, he has many percussion instruments in their house, which

14 Huscher. 15 Ibid.

9 immensely helped Wagner with her composition. Even though Wagner has never composed for James, he has played a lot of her music.

Music critic John von Rhein wrote in the Chicago Tribune after the premiere:

"It is an absorbing, exhilarating piece, packed with difficulties yet wondrously clear to the ear and mind-tailor-made for the powerhouse orchestra to which it is dedicated and to the pianist whose commitment to new music has set a shining example for other keyboard virtuosos… Wagner's concerto recalls, with a slight wink and nudge, the big-shouldered

Romantic piano tradition of Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninov. Bartok and Prokofiev are there, too, lurking in the angular melodies and motor-rhythms that fold seamlessly into luminously transparent textures.”16

The classical music critic of the Chicago Sun-Times Wynne Delacoma described the premiere as:

“With his keen intelligence, stunning virtuosity and ear for intricate nuance, [Emanuel

Ax] was just the man to explore every corner of Wagner’s delicately haunted emotional landscape... Anyone who commissions a new work hopes it will have staying power beyond a first performance... it is a pleasure that Wagner’s beautifully crafted “Extremity of Sky” is such a memorable work. ... There is an intriguing wariness to Wagner’s colorful score, a sense of things not being entirely what they seem... As the music shifted about us, it seemed to float within tantalizing reach, only to melt away. Encased in glittering percussion, the final, crashing piano chord hit the ear with the violence and disturbing delicacy of shattering glass. ‘Highly recommended’”17

16 John von Rhein, “CSO, Ax take Wagner's `Sky' to great heights,” Chicago Tribune, May 24th, 2003. 17 Program note of Extremity of Sky by Theodore Presser Company.

Need for Study

The solo piano concerto has appealed to composers and audiences since the first half of the 18th century. Even in the Baroque period, the setting of harpsichord or organ with orchestra attracted many composers. Musicologist Donald Tovey described in his book Essays in Musical Analysis that: “Nothing in human life and history is much more thrilling or of more ancient and universal experience than the antithesis of the individual and the crowd; an antithesis which is familiar in every degree, from flat opposition to harmonious reconciliation, and with every contrast and blending of emotion, and the concerto forms express this antithesis with all possible force and delicacy…”18 While there are thousands of piano concertos in the repertoire, audiences have not heard many

American contemporary piano concertos. One possible reason could be that audiences are more inclined to listen to the standard concerti. Pianists themselves have encountered many challenges and difficulties in promoting contemporary works. First of all, pianists have countless choices in standard concerti; in this case, few people will prefer to play a more challenging contemporary concerto than a standard one. Secondly, concerti composed in modern musical languages are usually technically demanding and more difficult to understand. It will be a huge project for pianists to conquer a contemporary concerto. Thirdly, fewer performance opportunities will be provided for a contemporary concerto compared, especially a piece like Melinda Wagner’s piano concerto, which was composed for a special event. Fourthly, pianists have more resources to refer to when dealing with standard concerti that have been performed and studied by many people;

18 Donald Tovey, Essays in Musical Analysis, Vol 3 (London: Oxford University Press, 1948).

however, they can rarely find relevant information about the piece or composer as well as

any audio or video recordings when playing a contemporary one.

Currently, no dissertations or studies have been conducted on the topic of Melinda

Wagner and her piano works. Only one doctoral dissertation, The Development of the

Flute Concerto in 20th – Century America: A Comprehensive Survey and Database by

Amy Sue Dombach, has mentioned Wagner's acclaimed flute concerto. The current project will closely examine her piano concerto. Although few supporting materials can be found for contemporary works, the advantage of studying living composers' pieces is noticeable. The pianist can directly talk to the composer to obtain abundant information about the piece, which helps him/her comprehend the music from both performer and composer's communicate perspective. The interview content is considered a valuable primary source for this research. Since Melinda Wagner's piano concerto was composed for 9/11, many figurative and metaphorical musical clues that allude to the event will be addressed during the interview. In order to understand the composer’s musical language more work must be done prior to learning a contemporary concerto than a standard concerto. When learning a standard concerto, pianists can often predict the musical development (melody, harmony, rhythm, or modulation) of a piece because they are familiar with that period's language and style and have sufficient theoretical knowledge of this music. Although novel musical languages and writings styles are difficult and time-consuming for pianists to digest, a theoretical analysis will help pianists learn contemporary works more efficiently. For example, by analyzing the compositional language of this piece, pianists will find the patterns and techniques that Melinda Wagner used. Once the performer discovers the rules and clues in it, they are able to anticipate the

development of this music. In addition, after knowing the structure of each movement

based on Vectoral analysis, one can re-organize each section and apply block practice.

Consequently, the ultimate purpose of this project is to provide pianists a theoretical

analysis of this piano concerto to make the learning process more comfortable and more

enjoyable.

The instrumentation of Melinda Wagner's piano concerto is unusual compared to

standard piano concertos, which all contain a similar style of orchestration: a balance

between strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. In Wagner’s concerto, she applies a

large number of brass instruments and more than 22 percussion instruments in the

orchestra part. The extensive use of brass, winds, and percussion provides a novel

sonority to audiences' auditory experience, which is common in 21st-century experimental

music. Additionally, the instrumentation analysis will significantly help pianists

memorize the cues from different sections and anticipate the music by internal hearing.

2020 has been a catastrophic year that has impacted humans from all corners of the globe. Disasters have ranged from the wildfires in Australia, to aircraft accidents, to the pandemic. Nevertheless, humans strive to unite in order to get through the unprecedented challenges of 2020 together. Music has always been a beacon of hope and light throughout human history, bringing comfort to people during their most desperate times. With the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 in 2021, this remarkable concerto will inevitably be heard again in public. Meanwhile, this dissertation will provide abundant information about Melinda Wagner and her piano concerto. The author hopes that this dissertation will help audiences further understand and appreciate the profound circumstances under which this work was composed.

Chapter II

Review of Literature

Overview

As mentioned previously, Melinda Wagner's piano concerto Extremity of Sky was completed in 2002. It is a relatively new piece, and no one has ever written an essay on it.

Therefore, no research has been completed on this work, and the ultimate goal of this paper is to provide a thorough theoretical and musical analysis of it. Much of the paper will be based on the author's own learning experience, but the sources used pertaining to factual information, and theoretical analysis methodologies will be discussed in this chapter.

Sources on Melinda Wagner

Pertaining to the biographical information of Melinda Wagner, the Grove Music

Online provides a general introduction of her life, educational background, principal works, awards and honors, musical positions, and a complete list of her works. The

Juilliard School of Music webpage contains an updated list of Melinda Wagner’s latest activities and events. Wagner’s personal website is also a valuable primary source, as she shares many of her musical ideas, compositional inspirations, as well as recordings there.

Wagner’s interview with music critic Bruce Duffie is another valuable source that allows us to know the person behind Wagner’s innovative and creative compositions. The first part of this interview was recorded in Chicago on February 4, 1993, before the premiere of Wagner’s Falling Angels; the second part was recorded on May 21, 2003, the day

before the premiere Extremity of Sky.19 Wagner talked about the evolution of her compositional ideas and shared several interesting stories of working with other musicians. She discussed her personal life as a wife and mother and the balance between composing and teaching.

As the author mentioned previously, she met Melinda Wagner and received permission to write about this piano concerto for her dissertation in the fall of 2019. After the meeting, the author has been in contact with Melinda Wagner via email. The author conducted an email interview with the composer in January of this year. In the interview,

Wagner shared her music education background at different stages of her life. She also discussed the development of her compositional methodologies and inspirations. All of these materials have provided the author with a comprehensive understanding of Melinda

Wagner.

Sources on Extremity of Sky

The program notes for Extremity of Sky posted on the University of Missouri-

Kansas City library page introduces comprehensive background information on this

piece, including compositional inspiration, completion date, premiere information, as

well as the structure and musical elements of each movement. The article “Proceed,

Moon, Fantasy for Orchestra” on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s program notes discusses the transition of Melinda Wagner’s compositional style by comparing her three commissioned orchestral works by Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Falling Angels (1992),

Extremity of Sky (2002), and

19 Bruce Duffie, “Composer Melinda Wagner: Two Conversations with Bruce Duffie,” New Music Connoisseur, 2016. http://www.bruceduffie.com/melindawagner.html.

Proceed, Moon, Fantasy for Orchestra (2016). The article “CSO, Ax take Wagner’s Sky to great heights” from the Chicago Tribune and the critique written by Wynne Delacoma on Chicago Sun-Times are two referable commentaries on the premiere of Extremity of

Sky. These articles provide a general concept of this piece from both structural and musical aspects.

The composer also shared her compositional process, musical ideas, and structural design of the piece in the interview, which provided relevant background information and stories to the author from Wagner’s own perspective. The instrumentation of Extremity of

Sky is listed on the first page of the score. A full recording of the four movements of

Extremity of Sky, performed by Emanuel Ax and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was posted on SoundCloud by Astral, Inc.20

Sources on Theoretical Analysis

Although the above sources are supportive of the author’s research in providing a general introduction of composer Melinda Wagner and her piano concerto, a large portion of this paper will be devoted to a theoretical analysis of this piece based on the author’s own knowledge of music theory. The author will mainly refer to the analysis methods in three books: The New Direction in Music21 by David Cope, Musical Forces:

20 Melinda Wagner, “Extremity of Sky, concerto for piano & orchestra (2002), ” performed by Emanuel Ax (piano) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recorded May 22, 2003, posted by Astral, Inc, https://soundcloud.com/astral-inc/melinda-wagner-extremity-of-3. 21 David Cope, “New Directions in Music”, Fifth ed.(Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown, 1989).

Motion, Metaphor, and Meaning in Music22 by Steve Larson, and The Time of Music:

New Meanings, New Temporalities, and New Listening Strategies23by Jonathan Kramer.

In Music al Forces, Steve Larson suggested that “our experience of physical motion shapes our experience of musical motion in specific and quantifiable ways.”24 In other words, music is metaphorical of physical forces, and our own experiences with physical forces in our everyday lives help us to understand and react to the music.

According to Larson, several different physical-musical forces include melodic gravity, melodic magnetism, musical inertia, stability, metric magnetism, rhythmic gravity, melodic expectations, etc. In fact, the idea of analyzing melodic patterns was suggested by Leonard B. Meyer in his book Explaining Music: Essays and Explorations25. Leonard

Meyer (1918-2007) was an American composer, musicologist, and writer of aesthetic

theory in music and compositional analysis. He was appointed professor of music and the

humanities at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975.26 Melinda Wagner studied with

Leonard Meyer and was musically influenced by him while she was at the University of

Pennsylvania. In Explaining Music, Meyer developed techniques for analyzing melodies

based on the ideas of pattern-completion and good continuity. His earlier emphasis on a

listener's “expectancies” is replaced with reference to musical “implications”. 27

22 Steve Larson, “Musical Forces: Motion, Metaphor, and Meaning in Music,” (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012). 23 Jonathan Kramer, “The Time of Music: New Meanings, New Temporalities, New Listening Strategies,” (New York: Schirmer, 1988). 24 Larson. 25 Leonard B. Meyer, “Explaining Music: Essays and Explorations,”(University of California Press, 1973). 26 F.E. Sparshott and Naomi Cumming, “Meyer, Leonard B.,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, https://doi- org.access.library.miami.edu/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.18551. 27 Ibid.

Therefore, finding musical forces and melodic directions is a practical methodology to easily perceive the entire structure and musical tensions in Extremity of Sky.

In the opening chapter of The Time of Music, Kramer states that “Music unfolds in time. Time unfolds in music. Music, as Susanne Langer wrote, ‘makes time audible…’

Music becomes meaningful in and through time.”28 Based on Jonathan D. Kramer’s theory of post-modern temporalities in music, five criteria should be mainly considered in a temporality analysis: linear, non-linear, vertical, moment, and mobile form.29 The

author will apply this methodology to illustrate how Melinda Wagner manipulated time

and space in her piano concerto.

Vector Analysis was originally a branch of mathematics that deals with quantities that have both magnitude and direction. For example, some physical and geometric quantities, called scalars, can be fully defined by specifying their magnitude in suitable units of measure. There are also quantities called vectors. Velocity, force, and displacement are examples of vectors.30 David Cope stated in the preface of his book that

Vectoral analysis is used for larger in-depth analysis that provides an analytical approach in seven stages for understanding contemporary experimental music: Historical

Background; Overview, Structure and Texture; Orchestration Techniques; Basic

Techniques; Vertical Models; Horizontal Models; and Style.31. The author will mainly

focus on the orchestration techniques and rhythmic developments in this essay.

28 Kramer, 1. 29 Ibid. 30 https://www.britannica.com/science/vector-analysis. 31 Cope, Preface.

Chapter III

The Orchestration of the Extremity of Sky

Contemporary composers have been exploring new possibilities in orchestration over the decades. It seems that while some composers gradually lose interest in using conventional instruments in their works, other composers seek new sonorities by using conventional instruments in an unconventional way. As Cope concluded in his book, “no traditional instrument has escaped the imagination of the composer's mind.”32

As the author previously mentioned, the instrumentation (see Figure 1) of

Extremity of Sky is quite unusual, as Melinda Wagner used large brass and percussion sections to play against the piano, which she recognized as a "big" and orchestral instrument. She admitted that she intended to weaken the role of the piano as a soloist by strengthening other instruments.

It is notable that Wagner used more than twenty different percussion instruments in her concerto. Many of them are uncommon for the orchestration of a standard piano concerto, even unfamiliar to musicians besides percussionists. One of the reasons that

Wagner used so many percussion instruments is that her husband, James Saporito, has many of these instruments at home, which helped her experiment on different devices and sonorities. On the other hand, the piano can also be classified as a percussive instrument.

Therefore, the sound effects of many percussion instruments can be well-integrated with the piano.

32 Ibid, 88.

Figure 1 – The instrumentation of the Extremity of Sky. 33

33 Wagner.

In chapter four "Instrument Exploration" of the book New Directions in music,

David Cope introduced innovative techniques of different instruments, including strings,

winds, percussion, vocal, and keyboard instruments. The author will mention some of

these techniques that appear in Melinda Wagner's piano concerto.

Woodwinds and Brass

Cope divided innovative techniques that can be applied to wind and brass

instruments into six categories. In the second category, he discussed “color fingerings involving pitch and timbre fluctuations by changing the available fingerings on the instrument for the same note.”34 Wagner applied this effect (timbral trill) to the Clarinet 2

part at the beginning of the first movement:

Musical Example 1 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.1-3.

Cope also mentioned the application of traditional techniques to wind instruments, such

as glissando, harmonics, speed rates of vibrato, pedal tones, flutter tongue, and circular

breathing. 35 In m.52 of the first movement, Wagner wrote a glissando for the horn

section:

34 Cope, 91. 35 Ibid, 91.

Musical Example 2 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.52-53.

Additionally, whenever the "mournful sigh" motive appears in the winds, it is in glissando form.

Musical Example 3 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.86-89.

Another category of novel techniques for winds is the use of jazz effects, including "a large variety of hitherto avoided sound such as rips, fall offs, bends, etc.36 The fall-

off effect appears in m.78 of the second movement (a slow fall-off):

36 Ibid.

Musical Example 4 – Extremity of Sky: II “Departure,” m.77-79.

The fall-off is an effect in which the performer "[plays] the written note for about one- half of its value, then quickly [slides] down chromatically. The chromatic notes should not sound individual, and there should not be any particular pitch in evidence at the end of the glissando."37

Several measures later, Wagner wrote a rip in the horn section:

Musical Example 5 – Extremity of Sky: II “Departure,” m.87-89.

37 William Bay, “Complete Jazz Clarinet Book,” (Mel Bay Publications, Incorporated, 2014), 22.

A rip was originally used in Jazz as a quick upward glissando up to an intended tone38,

while for Brass instruments in this concerto, a rip should be played as an indefinite

glissando. 39

Similar examples of application can be discovered throughout the piece. Based on

the author's observations, novel techniques applied to wind instruments are usually

related to trills and glissandos in this piano concerto. According to Cope, other effects

include multiphonics, percussion effects, and the manipulation of the mouthpiece.40

Strings

Cope introduced four major string techniques that have evolved in contemporary

music: 1. percussive effects; 2. singing, speaking or humming while playing; 3. unusual

bowings; and 4. combinations and extensions of traditional techniques41. Krzysztof

Penderecki’s well-known work, Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, might be the best

illustration of these new techniques. In Melinda Wagner's Extremity of Sky, the third and

fourth techniques are commonly used.

Unusual bowings include circular bowing, bowing on or across the bridge, bowing between the bridge and tailpiece, bowing directly on the tailpiece, and undertones

(subharmonics) created by bowing with great pressure on a harmonic node (actually creating notes well below the lowest open string of the instrument).42 Melinda Wagner

applied several ideas in m.96-m.102 (Musical Example 43) of the first movement:

38 https://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/jazzglossary/r/rip.html. 39 https://andrewhugill.com/manuals/trumpet/effects.html. 40 Cope, 91. 41 Ibid, 89. 42 Ibid.

1) In m.96, Melinda Wagner combined a bow tremolo with portamento in the violin

parts (brackets in orange). A bow tremolo is the “repetition of a note with no

accent or rhythm by means of very fast up and downstrokes art the point”.43 The

Portamento is “an audible slide of the finger along the string with accompanying

change of position. The effect is of two notes being joined together in a

suggestion of a glissando.”44 The combination of these two techniques creates a

more dramatic effect and increases tonal intensification.

43 https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Violin/Playing_Techniques-Right_Hand#!Violin-Bow_tremolo. 44 https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Violin/Playing_Techniques-Left_Hand#!Violin-Portamento.

Musical Example 6 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.96-103.

2) In m.98 and 99, Wagner wrote sul tasto on the finger tremolos of the second

violins (brackets in blue). The technique sul tasto simply means to play "on the

fingerboard." Usually, the nearer to the fingerboard the string is bowed, the

weaker and softer the sound. The effect of a sul tasto is a muffled and flute-like

sound45. In contrast to the bow tremolo, the finger tremolo is defined as “two

notes [that]are played as a tremolo on the same string as follows: the finger in the

lower position fingers the string and keeps it pressed down while the other finger

quickly and repeatedly stops and releases a higher note.”46 The combination of sul

tasto and tremolos makes it harder to play but creates a darker, mysterious effect.

45 https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Violin/Playing_Techniques-Right_Hand#!Violin-Sul_tasto. 46 https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Violin/Playing_Techniques-Left_Hand#!Violin-Finger_tremolo.

3) In the following measure, 100, Wagner indicated ord. to the second violins

(brackets in yellow). Ord. is the abbreviation of Ordinario (ordinary), which is

“an instruction to return to the normal way of playing after employing a special

technique.47 The use of this term proves that the previous technique is not

common in a performance, which is considered an exploration of the instrument.

4) In m.101, Wagner asked the second violins to play at the tip (of the bow) on the

F♯ (brackets in green). In m.115, Wagner wrote “half-section at tip” on a long

note tremolo in the second violins. Based on the author's observation, the position

change of the bow is usually applied on a tremolo. When playing at the tip, it

usually creates a light, illusory sound with uncertainty.

The same innovative techniques are applied to viola, cello, and bass as well.

Another group of terms that frequently appears in the string parts is con sordino

(with “mute”) and senza sordino (without mute). Even though this technique was not invented in recent times, the author still thinks it is necessary to include a brief introduction. The mute is a device placed on the bridge and has the effect of reducing the projection of the higher partials with a frequency of over 2000 hertz.48 When applying

the mute, the loudness and brightness of the sound will be reduced.

Percussions

Percussion might be the second most crucial component in the piano concerto,

only after the piano. The author considers that the diverse exployment of percussion

instruments greatly exceeds the possibilities of the piano. David Cope did not include a

47 https://www.violinschool.com/glossary/#p. 48 https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Violin/Construction#!Violin-Con_sordino.

27 categorized list in his book for percussion instruments as he did for other instruments.

However, he summarized that the listing of all the innovative techniques applied in percussions would create “a book twice the size of this volume for just the unusual uses of the ‘standard’ orchestral percussion instruments.”49 It is undeniable that the amount of percussion instruments is countless, and each of them can create various sound effects.

First of all, the author will review all the percussion instruments that Melinda

Wagner used in the orchestra. On the Vienna Symphonic Library Website, percussion instruments have been divided into five categories: timpani, drums, mallets, cymbals & metal, and bells.50 Several instruments are listed under each category. The author considers these percussion instruments as standard devices in an orchestra. Besides, celesta is considered a percussion instrument instead of a keyboard instrument, even though sometimes keyboard instruments are categorized as a sub-group for the percussion section. Melinda Wagner used some uncommon percussion instruments in

Extremity of Sky such as the slapstick, brake drum, and bell tree. A slapstick (Figure 2) is a percussion instrument that creates a loud clapping or slapping sound, often called a whip.51 It is uncommon in the classical repertoire but present in a number of contemporary compositions. The brake drum (Figure 3) is a percussion vessel idiophone in a bowl shape with a hole at its apex. It is made of metal and originated in North

America in the 20th century. The instrument repurposed motor vehicle parts, used primarily in contemporary American percussion ensemble compositions.52 A bell tree

(Figure 4), as the author introduced in chapter III, is a stack of nested metal bells

49 Cope. 95. 50 https://www.vsl.co.at/en/Instrumentology/Percussions. 51 https://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/3207-slapstick. 52 https://omeka-s.grinnell.edu/s/MusicalInstruments/item/2691.

28 connected by a long rod. The bells look like inverted bowls that get increasingly smaller in size. A glissando can be produced by striking the bells.53

Figure 2 – slapstick Figure 3 – brake drum Figure 4 – bell tree

The use of these uncommon percussion instruments enhances the sound effects of the music as well as extends possibilities for orchestration.

Melinda Wagner also explored novel techniques on common percussion instruments in Extremity of Sky. In the coda of the first movement, a composer’s note for

Percussion 2 is included in m.119, indicating, “continuous sound is best achieved by rolling the toys back and forth in opposite directions. This must be done on the floor, on a carpet-like surface, so that only ‘chimes’ are heard. Please avoid a stop in the sound.”54

The sound effect produced by this operation perfectly imitates the faraway toy marching band as Wagner desired.

53 https://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/406-bell_tree. 54 Wagner.

Musical Example 7 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.115-124.

Since Wagner applied various percussion instruments in the orchestra, she had to mark the particular device in the score (blue arrows in Musical Example 44). She also gave a plentiful amount of performance instructions to the percussionists. For example, in m.118, she marked (no pedal) for vibraphone and "come in when you are able" for the small triangle. Besides, many instructions, such as “hard/soft rubber,” “choke,” “very soft/hard sticks,” “slow/fast motor,” “motor off,” “wire brush,” “tap only,” “rimshot,” etc., frequently appear in the score. Obviously, Melinda Wagner put a lot of effort into the arrangement of percussion instruments. The variety of percussion instruments increases the dynamic contrast and tension as well as adds color and rhythmic impulses to the entire piece.

Piano

Even though several new techniques are being explored and applied to the piano in contemporary music, Melinda Wagner did not apply any such techniques to the piano part of Extremity of Sky. Instead of using innovative techniques, Wagner explored more possibilities pertaining to integrating the piano with the orchestra. Unlike other piano concertos, the piano part in Extremity of Sky is less “important” than the part of a soloist in a typical concerto. Instead of primarily serving as the accompaniment for the piano, the orchestra presents many highlights in the concerto, like Ravel, Gershwin, and Saint Saëns did in their concertos in which the orchestra part is mostly responsible for providing the color and main character of the concerto. For example, it is almost impossible for the piano to present the expressive, sentimental melody in the third movement with the kind of legato and sentimentality of a string instrument. Moreover, it is difficult for the piano to achieve a sonorous sound without harshness, while the brass can produce that type of sound easily. Percussion instruments make many different contributions throughout the concerto, from providing a rhythmic pulse for the entire orchestra, to adding color with various sound effects. Accordingly, the orchestration of this piano concerto is deliberately designed to introduce audiences to many innovative ideas regarding sonority.

Chapter IV

The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky

In many ways, Melinda Wagner’s Piano Concerto is formally conventional,

consisting of four contrasting movements: Opening, Departure, Prayer-chain, and Varied

Return. Wagner states: “The first movement is in large part gestural, serving as an

introduction – a kind of anacrusis – to the following movement.”55 In other words, the

first movement of the concerto is analogous to a gateway, while the second movement is

analogous to an arrival. In music, an anacrusis simply means an “upbeat” that is followed

by a “downbeat,” which is another way to represent the formal roles of the first and

second movements.

Compared to the first movement, the second movement consists of more thematic and developmental materials. As the author mentioned in the compositional background,

Melinda Wagner was halfway through composing this concerto when 9/11 happened.

Even though the rest of this concerto was composed in the wake of the attacks, she did

not revise the first movement.

The third movement, Prayer-chain, is an Adagio that serves as “a kind of

collective prayer.” The sentimental feelings and despair from the depths of Wagner’s

heart are fully expressed in this movement. In the opening, she wrote the words “starkly

alone… with aching tenderness” as instructions to the pianist in the opening and marked

“heavier and heavier… almost fatigued” as instructions for the entire orchestra halfway

through the movement. Near the end of this movement, Wagner composed a section with

the heading “Olivia’s music (a little girl’s slightly out-of-tune music box).” This section

55 Melinda Wagner, interview, 2021.

was written for her daughter’s friend, Olivia Carroll, who had just lost her father in the

9/11 attacks. The third movement closes with Wagner’s inscription:“ In memoriam

Michael Carroll, Firefighter, September 11, 2001, and for Nancy, Brendan and Olivia with my love.” (Michael Carrol was one of Wagner’s neighbors in New Jersey, who was a firefighter of the New York Fire Department; he lost his life attempting to rescue people trapped in the Twin Towers.) Wagner considers this inscription a personal acknowledgment to her friend rather than a public gesture. She said: “my dedication had to with the fact that my friend, and all of the others, were ever-present in my mind at that time.”

Wagner brings back elements from the second movement in the final movement.

In interviews, Wagner admitted that composing the “Return” proved to be a most interesting and challenging part of the process. This is because one cannot simply tack on previously heard music; it has to work dramatically and convey some sense of acquired maturity and, at the same time, closure. In the program notes of the premiere of Extremity of Sky, Wagner writes: “Whenever I hear a work that engages the classical notion of departure and return, I am always struck by a feeling of musical triumph at the point of recapitulation. We hear music whose notes are the same, yet its character has been transformed by the very act of having lived a life through time. I tried to capture this kind of return in the final movement and enhance the ‘transformation’ by framing familiar music with new sounds. I hope it works! The soloist also experiences a kind of transformation, becoming prominent only gradually over the course of the first two movements and finally emerging – entirely alone – at the beginning of the third.”

In the interview, Melinda Wagner suggested that in learning this concerto, it

might be helpful for the pianist to first observe the narrative of each movement, noting its

structures and patterns as well as peaks, valleys, and repeats.56 The author strongly agrees

that it is beneficial to learn and study the overall structure of a new piece before actually

trying to play it at the instrument. Since no structural analysis has yet been conducted on

this piece, the author will analyze the structure of each movement based on her own

theoretical knowledge and musical understanding.

In this analysis, double bar lines will serve as the primary reference of sectional divisions, as double bar lines are usually used to separate two distinct sections within a piece or movement. Besides, Melinda Wagner wrote many tempo markings and performance instructions on the score, which can also be viewed as references to sectional divisions. She also used descriptive words to help the performers better understand the musical content. In this analysis, sections will be analyzed from a

microscopic perspective. For example, the author will observe motivic development, key

modulations, orchestration, sudden tempo changes, etc., as the parameters to decide the

formal structure.

The author will begin analysis of each movement by listing all crucial motives in

the music. The arrangement and development of a motive will help the author locate the

peaks and valleys of the music. In the article Motivic Development is How a Piece

Moves, Edward Levy defined a motive as “the smallest combination of notes, usually

successive, that functions as a characteristic unit in the generation of melodic activity,

56 Melinda Wagner.

rhythmic activity, or any combinations of these.”57 According to Levy, analyzing motives is not merely about searching for certain melodic identities, but also about discovering the process of melodic growth.58 After listing all motives, the author will briefly introduce the constitution and character of each one of them, tracing their appearance throughout the concerto from first appearance to significant reappearances. It is fascinating that some of the motives are used throughout the entire concerto, instead of being contained within a single movement. A table of detailed structural analysis will be attached at the end of each movement, consisting of four columns: sectional information, measure number, composer's note, and author's description.

The duration of this piano concerto is approximately 28 minutes.

First movement – Opening

The first movement was written in through-composed form. A composition written in through-composed form has a relatively uninterrupted continuity of musical thought and invention. It is particularly applied in contexts where a more sectionalized structure might be expected.59 In other words, the musical ideas in this movement are

continuous and non-repetitive.

The first movement is divided into five sections: Intro (m.1-42), Section A (m.43-

83), Transition (m.84-97), Section B (m.98-114), and a Coda (m.115-124). Even though

the author will not discuss the motivic development and melodic patterns in this chapter,

57 Edward Levy, “Motivic Development Is How a Piece Moves,” Music Educators Journal, vol. 56, no. 2, 1969, pp. 30–34. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3392583. 58 Ibid. 59 Ian Rumbold, “Through-composed,” In Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, https://doi-org.access.library.miami.edu/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.27904.

six motives will be introduced. It is worth noting that all motives first appear in this

movement reappear in the rest of the concerto.

♭ ♭ Motive a is a five-note pattern, E – C – E – C – E♮, first introduced in m.1-3:

Musical Example 8 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive a, m.1-3.

This motive reappears in m.14-17 with a slight difference, in that it does not arrive at the

E♮ like previously. However, Wagner includes the E natural in the brackets after each E flat:

Musical Example 9 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive a, m.14-17.

The third appearance of this motive is a complete repetition of the original motive:

Musical Example 10 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive a, m.21-24.

Motive a occurs with a slight difference in m.61: Melinda Wagner repeats the pitches Eb

and C and omits the E♮, making the music anxious and unsettled. She also wrote “with

Bravura!” on the score to distinguish this appearance of the motive from the others.

Musical Example 11 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive a, m.61-62.

The same arrangement of this motive, which alternates E♭ and C between the two hands, reappears in the fourth movement near the end (from m.165). The melody finally arrives at the E♮ after ten measures (in m.175).

Musical Example 12 – Extremity of Sky: IV. “Varied Return,” motive a, m.163-175.

Motive a finally returns in its complete, original form at the end of the fourth movement

(m.179-181). When this motive first appears in the opening, Wagner marked "fully ringing," but this time, she marked "all notes ringing" because this is the last statement of this motive in this piano concerto.

Musical Example 13 – Extremity of Sky: IV. “Varied Return,” motive a, m.176-181.

In literature, this kind of compositional technique, in which similar material is placed at

the beginning and end of a section, is called inclusio. The purpose of an inclusio is to

remind the reader (as the listener) of a particularly significant theme (motive).

Accordingly, the author considers motive a as one of the most crucial figures throughout

the entire concerto.

Motive b is created based on a texture of continuous, percussive notes alternating

between two hands in a toccata style. It is first introduced in m.10-12 by celesta.

Musical Example 14 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive b, m.9-12.

The first appearance of motive b in the piano part starts in m.35:

Musical Example 15 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive b, m.34-37.

Motive c is a group of four repeated 32nd notes followed by a 16th note.

Trombones first introduce it in m.10, and this motive continues to randomly appear in different instruments throughout the movement.

Musical Example 16 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive c, m.9-12.

This motive first appears very percussively in the piano part in m.63 (brackets in orange).

Meanwhile, a varied form of this motive can be found in the trumpets (brackets in yellow) and percussion (brackets in blue). The particular arrangement of this motive contributes to the tension throughout the movement.

Musical Example 17 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive c, m.63-66.

Motive c also occasionally reappears in other movements of the concerto, usually played by strings and percussions as a background effect.

Motive d features clusters; the use of clusters is a frequent compositional technique in contemporary music. The notes in these clusters are built on an alternation of half steps and whole steps. In the first line, the F♯ seems to be the center note that every cluster contains. from the second line, the top notes of clusters move from F to E stepwise. E is considered the most significant note of this piano concerto, as it is frequently used to signify a point of arrival. The dissonance of these clusters provides

40 plentiful intensity to the music.

Musical Example 18 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive d, m.30-33.

Motive e is an ascending chromatic line of 16th notes. The musical character of the movement suddenly changes from heavy to grazioso when this motive occurs. This motive reappears in m.119-123 of the second movement.

Musical Example 19 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive e, m.42-51.

Motive f – a mournful sigh – is a descending two-note slur. The brass first introduces this motive in m.88. Even though this motive never appears in the piano part, it expresses the

mourning associated with the 9/11 attacks. This motive reappears near the end of the

fourth movement.

Musical Example 20 – Extremity of Sky: I. “Opening,” motive f, m.86-89.

As the author mentioned, all motives in the first movement reappear in the following movements in their original form or with slight variations. The author will continue to review them throughout the analysis.

Formal Measure Composer’s Note Author’s Descriptions Section Number

1-22 Orchestra: The first section consists of m.10 – a delicate, almost toy- piano entrance, motive a, in a like march. fully ringing sound, with brasses m. 19 – relax tempo. and woodwinds play groups of fast notes and trills softly to Percussion: create a dark, mysterious m.10 – à la (in the manner of) atmosphere. high-hat. Motive b is introduced by celesta in m.10 while motive c Piano appears in trombone for the first m. 1, motive a – fully ringing. time. The percussion groups m.14 – sneak in. play in a pretentious character I m.15 – free. but delicatissimo (pp). N m.19 – relax tempo. Motive a, is presented again by T piano in a varied form in m.14. R The strings play in con sord O (mute) and sul tasto.60

(42) 22-33 Orchestra: Motive a repeats in piano from m. 22 – A big rollicking 3! m. 23, martellato (detached and (3+3+2). strongly accented). Motive d m. 30 – Maestoso, a bit enters in m.30 by the piano, pompous: grandiose. accompanied with brasses and m. 32 –Joyous! woodwinds mumbling, build to ff before next section.

34-42 Orchestra: The piano starts with a trill in ff, m. 38 – colla parte (with the followed by motive b (in a solo part in tempo and descending line) while brass and phrasing). woodwinds play the same motive in a canon. After the Harp: dashing rolling chord, motive b m.35 – delicatissimo. (in an ascending line) is repeated by piano and orchestra. This is Piano: the first peak of this movement m.37 – free. dynamically and acoustically.

60 sul tasto – a technique used in string playing – to bow or occasionally pluck near or over the fingerboard, resulting in an ethereal tone. David D. Boyden, “Flautando,” In Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, Oxford University Press, https://doi- org.access.library.miami.edu/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.09789.

m. 38 – dashing!; start slowly.

43-60 Orchestra: After three connecting chords, m. 60 – Grand! motive e enters in piano (m.45), followed by motive d – clusters Piano: – to the end of this part. The m.43 – in precise time, but clarinet perfectly interposes (in heavy m. 49) between motive e and d m.45, motive d – grazioso, a of the piano by presenting part sudden change in character. of the motive e in an intrusive m.58 – big, sweeping, bring way. The vibraphone points out out top notes. motive c in m. 51 with a secco m.60 – sonoro (sonorous). (dry) cresc. From m.55 to 60, varied forms or parts of motive e S Clarinet 1: are performed by different E m.49 – Intrusive! instruments in turn. Piano part C m.53 – Wild! ends in a group of sonorous T clusters. I O N 61-83 Piano: The fourth appearance of motive m.62 – with bravura! Sonoro, a starts in m.61, with bravura. A toss these (notes) off. The compact version of the m.70 – drum-like, secco (dry). motive makes the music more (83) intense and anxious acoustically. Immediately after motive a, motive c appears in piano for the first time, in a very percussive articulation, with percussions and trumpets playing the same motive. After the low octave in m.67, motive b is presented again by the piano in a high register. From m.70- 75 is a six-measure long unstoppable phrase of 32nd notes based on motive b, written in a toccata style, dry sounding with intensive rhythmic pulses, accompanied with sporadic notes by orchestra. From m.76- 79, the note value changes to 16th but is invaded by two 8th note chords in m.77. This drum- like, perpetual section drives the

music to its climax. For the first time, the piano appears as a soloist.

84-87 Orchestra: In contrast to the previous m.84 – suddenly broader section, the music suddenly m. 87 – ritard. colla parte becomes broader from m.84. Then motive d, two measures of Percussion 2 (glockenspiel): clusters, directly leads the music m.85 – always in background to the next part. Motive c reappears in Violin I: m.84 – sneak in percussion 4 on the last half-beat Violin II: m. 84 /1 – sneak in: of m.87, builds to ff on the first take over Vibration note. beat of m.88.

Piano: m.86 – emerging… T R A 88-94 Orchestra: Piano in m.88-92 is an arch N m.88 – Slower shape phrase, starts slowly, then S Orchestra becomes gradually accelerates to the top. I increasingly secondary from The repetitive C should be T this point. played in accel. ad. lib., echoed I m.90 – orchestra building by Xylophone. After the long O toward crest of wave (tempo trill in m.89, a line of twinkling N hold back slightly) broken intervals goes down and m. 92 – then crashing to the lands on Bb in m.91. The (97) sound (pushing to the next ascending part of this phrase is down beat) duplicated in m.92 and 93, but m. 93 – again building… this time accompanied by harp plays a glissando with panache. piano: Wagner inserted another m.88 – emerge! measure of sparkles before the m. 89 & 93 – accel.ad.lib. descending part starts in m.95. m.90 – Twinkling Wagner indicated in the note that from this part, the orchestra Percussion 2 (Xylophone): gradually retreats to the m. 89 & 93 – Echo Piano background. A mournful sigh – Percussion 3 (Water Gong): motive f – is presented in m. 94 –play as much like a different instruments throughout roll as possible, avoiding this section: trombone in m.88; discernible attacks, very horns and strings in m.89; horns background. and trombones in m.93. In this

part, the orchestra musically and Harp: dynamically goes ups and downs m.92 – with panache! with the piano.

Horns/Trombones/Strings/: A mournful sigh

95-97 Orchestra: The second part of the arch m.95 – … now falling phrase continues in m.95 after m.96 – A sigh… a bit slower the one measure interposition. b m.97 – Slower still Two bell-like B , in the very low register on piano, are placed at the end of this section. Piano: The entire transition part (m.88- m.97 – a low bell tolling (on 97) gradually slows down the the Bb) music from the previous agitated, fast section, as the piano increasingly becomes the dominance of the orchestra.

98-100 Orchestra: Every note in piano is fully m.98 – Expansive (feel big ringing, like the bell sound with beat, however) resonance, and should be played loco (at place). The trill, as a Horn: connection to the next phrase, m.98 – mournful should be played very delicate. S The mournful sigh reappears in E Piano: horn in m. 98. The first violins C m.98 – full ringing: every note play octaves to make a hollow T very important effect. The author considers this I m.100 – more delicate part as a meditation or a O reflection. N

B 101-102 Orchestra: The entire measure is a deep m.101 – A sigh… a bit slower sigh (descending) that comes (114) from different instruments, Piano: including piccolo flute, clarinet, m.101 – grazioso bassoon, harp, celesta, and piano.

103-106 Orchestra: The pianist can play the m.102 – starting to wind down flourishing melody as freer as m.103 – colla parte he/she desires in this part but m.104 – Mournful songs with very delicate tone intertwined production, accompanied with mournful sighs intertwined in Piano: the orchestra. Stylistically, these m. 104 – a piacere. Pianist four measures sound like a small should play freely here, cadenza. The orchestra gradually perhaps pushing ahead “out of slows down from m.104. time”.

107-114 Orchestra: The music starts ritardando and m. 111 – un poco meno mosso diminuendo from m.104 and keeps slowing down to the end Piano: of this section. Chromatic chords m.108 – hopeful are placed in the piano part with m.113 – semplice a color of fantasy, and like m.114 – with Crotale Wagner indicates, "semplice". The harmony in orchestra part Violin II/Viola/Cello/Bass: becomes warmer. All m.114 – al niente (the instruments play in an ascending dynamics fade to nothing) line this time, which provides listeners a feeling of hope. The music finally settles down at the end of section B with a fermata rest, then the coda comes unexpectedly.

115-117 Orchestra: Trumpet enters with playing m.120 – Subito più mosso motive c, while the triangle rings Sudden reappearance of delicately. Percussion groups faraway toy marching band. give the pulse to the orchestra, and second violins play a Violin II: tremolo in c until the end. All C m.115 – Half-section at tip the instruments are now O preparing for the last entrance of D the piano. A

(124) 118-124 Percussion 2: Vibraphone, marimba, celesta, m.118 – Continuous sound is and piano sneak in the music best achieved by rolling the simultaneously, presenting toys back and forth in motive b in a toccata style for

opposite directions. This must the last time Celesta stops first, be done on the floor, on a then marimba, after four carpet-like surface so that measures, vibraphone quits. At only “chimes” are heard. this time, only the piano Please avoid a stop in the continues the repetition with sound. chimes as a background (see composer's note).. The music Small triangles: gives the sense that it will repeat m.118 – come in when you endlessly but gradually fade are able. away (morendo). The first movement ends in a long rest Piano: with fermata, attacca to the m.118 – sneaky, almost next movement. sinister. m.123 – pantomime, continue (the notes) as desired. Table 1 – The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, I, Opening.

Second Movement – Departure

Musically, the second movement is more intense, chromatic, and angular compared to the first movement; as Melinda Wagner explained in the interview, the second movement is more like a downbeat to the first movement. Structurally, the author feels that the music flows fluently from the beginning to the end, without any stop.

However, Wagner did stop composing for months after the attacks. Even though she did not complete this movement in one stretch, the musical character remained the same after she resumed writing. Melinda Wagner wrote down 9/11/01 on the corner of measure 32 to mark the attacks:

Musical Example 21 – Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” m.32-35.

As Wagner marked “attacca” at the end of the first movement, the second movement should enter directly and decisively. The second movement consists of five sections, in the same structural frame as the first movement: Intro (m.1-10), Section A (m.11-65),

Transition (m.66-93), Section B (m.94-130), and Coda (131-150). Three motives from the first movement reappear in the second movement with a slight difference. The author

49 will mark them as a prime form (') of the motive to differentiate them from their original form. Two new motives will be introduced in this movement.

Motive c’ is a development of motive c from the first movement. The original form of motive c is a group of four repeated 16th notes. Wagner added a minor second up to the repeated note with a slur in this movement to create a mysterious/darker effect.

This motive usually appears as background material throughout this movement, and the length of it is variable. The first appearance of motive c’ in this movement is introduced by the second violin in m.5, with frequent meter changes.

Musical Example 22 – Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” motive c’, m.5-8.

As the author mentioned in the first movement, motive e reappears in m.119-123 of the second movement:

Musical Example 23 – Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” m.118-123.

Motive e’ is a varied form of motive e, which is also an ascending chromatic line,

but with a syncopated ending. It first appears in the piano part in m.11. Melinda Wagner

marked "Growly, ironic: Maurice Chevalier!" 61at the top of this measure. Based on the

introduction of Maurice Chevalier, the author surmises that Wagner is looking for a

playful, entertaining, comedic character in music, as if it were a caricature. This motive

fully returns in the last movement.

Musical Example 24 – Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” motive e’, m.9-12.

The author considers motive e’ to be one of the most critical figures in the second

movement because it reappears many times. Even though every appearance starts in a

different key, the chromaticism of this motive creates a feeling of anxiety and perpetual

motion.

Motive g (brackets in orange) is a new motive that consists of eight 16th notes

within the rhythmic group of 2+2+4. It usually appears with a part of motive e’ (brackets

in blue) to form a vaulted melodic shape. Some contemporary composers may consider

the visual effects of a gesture as a creative factor in their compositions. The piano first

introduces motive g in m.27:

61 Maurice Chevalier (1888- 1972)debonair French musical-comedy star and entertainer known for witty and sophisticated films that contributed greatly to the establishment of the musical as a film genre during the early 1930s. His suave manner and half-speaking style of singing, together with his trademark tilted straw hat and a possibly exaggerated French accent, gained him international fame as a stage personality. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maurice-Chevalier.

Musical Example 25– Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” motive e’ + g, m.37-40.

This musical example also illustrates that motive d (clusters) returns in the second movement.

Another example of the combination of motive e’ and g is presented in m.39-43, with an expansion:

Musical Example 26 – Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” motive e’+ g, m.39-43.

Melinda Wagner not only grouped motive e’ and g horizontally but also superposed them vertically. As shown in musical example 18, the piano is playing motive e’ (brackets in blue) while the vibraphone and marimba play motive g (brackets in orange) simultaneously.

Musical Example 27– Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” motive e’ + g, m.56-59.

Motive h is the octatonic scale (a collection of eight note that is generated by alternating half steps and whole steps62). It is first introduced by the second violin in m.144 as a significant gesture in the coda section, starting on the note D. In the subsequent measure (m.145), the second violin and the viola start a new octatonic scale on the note E. The first violins join at the third appearance of motive h in m.146, starting on the C♯:

62 http://openmusictheory.com/scales2.html.

Musical Example 28 – Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” motive h, m.144-146.

After the three-measure accumulation of motive h , the octatonic scale finally appears in

the piano part in m.147:

Musical Example 29 – Extremity of Sky: II. “Departure,” motive h, m.56-59.

In the last four measures of the second movement, Wagner tends to enhance the acoustic effect of the octatonic scale through writing in octaves and percussive articulation, accompanied by trombones and percussions playing the same scale. The ascending gesture of motive h visually echoes the title of the second movement – Departure.

Melinda Wagner extensively uses this motive in the third movement but in the opposite direction.

Formal Measure Composer’s Note Author’s Description Section Number

1-10 Orchestra: The introduction of the second m.5 – Strict tempo movement is relatively short, starts with a staccato chord in sffz by piano. Piano: Then, the pianist should use the pedal m.1 – catch resonance to catch the resonance of the chord. m.2 – glassy! From m.2-5, a falling pattern is m.4 – pesante, rubato presenting by the orchestra and the I m.10 – bring out top piano with a glassy sound. In m.5-7, N notes motive c’ first appears in the second T violin to create a mysterious R Violin II: atmosphere. Afterward, the orchestra O m.6 – misterioso starts a rising pattern in m.8. The piano enters again with the orchestra in m.9, (10) C Trumpet: plays two measures chords in sffz. The m.9 – eccentric, opening of the second movement is full strained of impetus and anxiety. There is an understanding, an impetus and anxiety Clarinet 1: as if the undercurrent has been pushing m.9 – a bit wild! the music to move forward.

11-65 Orchestra: The entire section A is created on the m.59 – blowsy! chaos of unsettled rhythmic patterns and chromatic pitch collections. Piano: Motive e’ and g intersperse closely in m.11 – Growly, the piano part, sometimes interrupted ironic: Maurice by a couple of clusters. She disrupts S Chevalier! the original rhythms and reorganizes E m.14 – Grand! them to create a new flow as if the C m.29 – eccentric! music has never stopped. The music T m.32 – sneaky maintains forte for a while until m. 32, I m.39 – intense: tight where Melinda Wagner marks O m.40 – nasty "9/11/01". After the two measure N m.59 – blowsy! sneaky stepped back in mp, the music m.61 – Bell- like immediately returns to mf in A m.64 – ma m.34. Near the end of section A, a delicatissimo bell-like passage enters in m.61, (65) comprising successive syncopation in Clarinet: the right hand with even eighths notes m.25 – intrusive on the left hand. Meanwhile, the strings play motive c’ furiously. The Strings: piano becomes the leading role of this

m.60 to 63 – furious! section, while motive c’, e’ and g can also be discovered in different instruments. Wagner intelligently intertwines different motives in this part.

66-70 Orchestra: The music finally slows down in m.66 m.66 – Relax tempo, and is suffused with warmth now. An warm elegant descending line presents in m.67 while the pianist plays a series of Piano: sixths. Flute also plays a warm melodic m.67 – elegant line in m.69, followed by a glissando- m.70 – a piacere, like ascending scale by piano. The delicatissimo dynamic continues in piano.

T R 71-86 Orchestra: After cooling down, the music starts to A m.73 – broader expand in this part. The dynamic N m.82 – relax tempo reverts to forte again with more S slightly instruments involved. A phrase from I m.84 – a tempo the first movement (m.90) reappears in T m.86 – broader the second movement (m.75) with the I same twinkling quality. From m.74-82, O Piano: almost every instrument participates in N m.73 – grandioso the performance – they either imitate m.76 – twinkling each other or echo one another. In (93) m.83 – sneak in, m.82, the music cools down again. come out of the Clarinets, bassoons, and strings start a clarinet trill long trill as an intro to the piano. The m.85 – bring out top piano sneaks playing the same Bb trill notes in the previous measure. With a crescendo by clarinets in m.84, the Brasses: music becomes broader and louder m.78 – slow fall off again. (ad lib)

87-93 Orchestra: The chords and clusters in the piano m.87 – Sudden! are more angular and aggressive in m.93 – poco rit. Colla these measures. After the arpeggio in parte 92, the whole orchestra and the pianist are preparing for the upcoming storm. The colla parte also indicates that the piano will become the leader again.

94-130 Piano: This stormy section is made up of m.109 – a bit wild, motive e’ and g interspersed. The piano eccentric! does not take any breath from m.94 to m.119 – Ironic m.112. This long-phrase starts with m.128 – catch nine and a half measures of resonance consecutive 16th notes, followed by m.129 – cantabile nine and a half bars of chords – in a symmetrical structure. The dynamic accumulates from pp (m.94) S to ff (m.112), A determined melody is E played by trumpet in m.103 to make C the transition part in piano T unperceived. And strings enter I immediately after the piano O stops. From m.112 to m.116, an N ascending line has been presented in sequence by all instruments. The chord B in m.116 reaches to fff eventually, followed by two (130) brilliant glissandos. Motive e’ and g re- enter in m.119 after a short rest. It starts in mp with an ironic character this time. The second violin solo presents a solo melody in m.124. Then, strings play long notes to build a discordant harmony until the piano enters with a glassy cluster in m.128. The word cantabile first appears in the second movement in m.129, which contrasts the music before.

C 131-150 Piano: The coda starts with three sffz chords. O m.136 – Grand! Subsequently, measure 133 to 144/1 is D m.150 – pause a complete duplication of measure 11 A to 22/1. It can also be described as a short recapitulation of section A. Every (150) instrument states an octatonic scale (motive h) from m.144. Finally, the piano plays an octatonic scale in octaves towards the end, and the entire movement concludes on the note A.

Table 2 – The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, II, Departure.

The Third Movement – Prayer Chain

The third movement – Prayer Chain – is the most expressive and narrative movement of the four. The story-telling style makes the music quite attractive to listeners. One of the most striking musical elements that Wagner frequently used in this movement is the octatonic scale. Acoustically, the alternation of half-steps and whole-

steps within the octatonic scale makes the music sometimes mysterious and dreamy,

other times chromatic and uncertain. Besides piano, the cello also plays an essential role

in this movement. Melinda Wagner wrote many beautiful, cantabile melodies for the

cello because its tone is the closest to a human voice. The nature of the cello sound

makes the music more sentimental and touching to the audience. Even though the main

character of this movement is cold and dark, Wagner occasionally offers a glimmer of

hope and vitality in music. Whenever these sparkles appear, they remind the author of the

line from the movie The Shawshank Redemption: “Remember, hope is a good thing,

maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” For the author, the entire

movement is like a fairytale that she does not want to awaken from to face the cruel

reality. This mirrors Melinda Wagner’s sentiments and grief.

The structure of this movement quite evidently consists of six sections: Intro

(m.1-18), Transition A (m.19-38), Section A (m.39-58), Transition B (m.59-79), Section

B – Olivia's Music (m.80-96), and a Coda (m.97-100). The dramatic contrasts between each section reveals Wagner's entanglement in this tragedy, and the misery she felt for the loss of her friends. The section entitled “Olivia's music” is very imaginative in that

Wagner combined an angel figure – the little girl Olivia – with a devil figure – representing the attacks that took Olivia's father's life. Wagner used the music box as a

frame. A music box is usually melodious sounding, but in this case, the music box is

distorted and out of tune, which alludes to the little girl's wounded heart. As the author

mentioned previously, motive h – the octatonic scale – returns in this movement frequently appears in the third movement and motive f reappears as motive f’. Two new motives will be introduced.

Motive i is a chant-like melody based on the A Aeolian mode. The repeated A in

m.3 sounds like a bell from a distance. The Aeolian mode is equivalent to a natural minor

scale, which gives the music a feeling of sorrow and helplessness. Also, the mode as a

medieval church mode often associated with sacred music and closely relate to the word

“chant” (in m.1) and the use if the bell sound (in m.3). At the beginning of the third

movement, the use of the Aeolian mode felicitously echoes the word "Prayer" in the title.

Musical Example 30 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive i, m 1-8.

Melinda Wagner added more voices and colors to motive i at its reappearance in m.10.

The added richness and a rising crescendo from the bottom note A make it more present

and expressive. Though this motive develops into a more intense and chromatic direction,

it is still filled “with aching tenderness.”

Musical Example 31 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive i, m.9-14.

Motive h – the octatonic scale – returns in m.19 (brackets in orange) of the third movement. Unlike the ascending development of it in the second movement, Melinda

Wagner reverses its direction to descending in the third movement, because the characteristic of the third movement – sentimental – is different from the "departure" idea in the second movement:

Musical Example 32 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive h, m.18-23.

The Musical Example 33 is an extraction of the right-hand melody in m.19. It clearly illustrates the definition of octatonic scale that the distance between every two notes is in the order of alternating half steps (letter H) and whole steps (letter W):

Musical Example 33 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive h, m.19.

In the following measures (brackets in blue), a similar arrangement of the notes is presented in chords:

Musical Example 34 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” m.18-23.

As the extraction of its top line (Musical Example 35) shows that this gesture is not an octatonic scale but an A major scale starting from its 7th degree based on the relationship between the neighbor notes.

Musical Example 35 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” m.22-23.

In the left hand of m.19, a new motive – motive j is introduced:

Musical Example 36 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” m.18-22.

Motive j is a sequence of ordered pitch intervals. In Joseph Strauss's book

Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, a pitch interval is defined as the distance between two pitches, measured by the number of semitones between them. When considering the

62 direction of the interval, the number will be preceded by either a plus sign to indicate an ascending interval or a minus sign to indicate a descending interval. Intervals with a "+" or "–" are called ordered pitch intervals (opi).63 Based on this theory, the opi of motive c should be calculated as:

Musical Example 37 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive j, piano, m.19-21.

In this case, the ordered pitch intervals can be described as a sequence of alternating +3 and +5. Another illustration of this opi (+3/+5) can be found in the cello part at the same place. This motive can also be considered as groups of major seventh chords based on the slurs.

Musical Example 38 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive j, cello part, m.19-21.

In musical example 39, Wagner combined motive h (brackets in blue) with motive j (brackets in orange) as well as the A major scale (brackets in yellow) between different instruments. Wagner used the same idea of juxtaposing and superposing different motives simultaneously in the second movement. She mentioned in the interview that J. S. Bach – the master of contrapuntal music – greatly influenced her

63 Joseph Nathan Straus, “Introduction to Post-tonal Theory,” 4th ed, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.), 9.

63 compositions. The intertwined motives once again prove Wagner's ingenuity in orchestration.

Musical Example 39 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” m.18-23.

Motive f’ has a similar idea to motive f in the first movement – the two-note slur

also sounds like a mournful sigh. Motive f' is considered more expressive than motive f,

because the interval between the two notes has changed from a second to a fourth or a

fifth. It usually appears at the beginning of a singing melody. The cello first introduces

motive f’ in m.23 (Musical Example 40), and it is restated in measure 26 by the viola

with an "impassioned soliloquy" (Musical Example 41). In m.34 (Musical Example 42),

the horn plays this motive more intensively.

Musical Example 40 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive f’, cello, m.18-23.

Musical Example 41 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive f’, viola, m.24-29.

Musical Example 42 – Extremity of Sky: III “Prayer-Chain,” motive f’, horn, m.30-35.

Formal Measu Section re Composer’s Note Author’s Description Numb er

1-18 Piano: The third movement starts m.1 – chant-like, starkly alone with a piano solo melody m.3 – a bell built on the A Aeolian mode m.10 – emerging… (motive i). As Wagner noted m.11 – with aching tenderness – "chant-like, starkly alone," (molto cantabile) the ethereal sound seems to m.12 – blurred come from far away. The first m.14 – (accompany cello here), phrase is only three measures press forward a bit long, followed by the second m.16 – lush, molto rubato (Pianist statement rising from the left may push ahead of the orchestra hand and expanded to five I here, allow ensemble to catch up measures. When the third N by adding notes on last beat). phrase enters in m.10 with a T cresc, the music becomes R Triangle/Sus. Cymbal: more intense and colorful, but O m.10 – “launch” emerging piano still painful. Other melody instruments gradually emerge (18) from m 8. Melinda Wagner Orchestra: wrote pppp to the orchestra, m.14 – Very warm, press forward as the time has stopped, only a bit– now rit. the piano is singing a chant. Cello starts a plangent Viola (solo) : melody in m.13, followed by m.15 – dig in. Tzigane- style a group of Tzigane-style notes in viola in m.15. The music becomes warmer with a little motion from m.14. A lush arpeggiated phrase is presented by the piano in m.16, with rubato. The harmony in the last two measures is still a bit darker; the melody shapes in a sigh- like pattern.

19-21 Orchestra: An octatonic scale (motive h) m.19 – Misterioso falls in the right hand in Start from m.20 – ritard. Poco a m.19, with the left-hand plays poco … until m.22 a sequence of ordered pitch interval (motive j) based on

Piano: +3/+5. The octatonic scales m.19 – blurred, fully ringing and ordered pitch collections provide a feeling of Violin I: indeterminacy and mystery; it m. 19 – molto legato, almost seems like the music is slippery finding a way out. The timpani remains in the dynamic of pppp in this part.

22-23 Orchestra: The same idea to the previous m.22 – a tempo three measures, a combination of motive h (in Cello: the right hand) and motive j, m.23 – semplice, exactly with the is placed in m. 22-23 with the piano note value doubling. The cello plays a tender melody at T the same time. R A 24-33 Orchestra: Viola starts an expressive N m.24 – Relax tempo melody in m.26 (the entrance S m.30 – more and more intense of motive f’) as "an I impassioned soliloquy" T Cello: (Wagner's word). At this I m.26 – an impassioned soliloquy moment, the viola is the O soloist of the entire orchestra. N Later, other strings gradually join into the viola, and the A music becomes more and more intense. (38) 34-38 Water Gong: The piano regains its leading m.36 – always in background role in m.34 with a brilliant Vibraphone: arpeggio rising from a lower m.37– very background C, followed by another rising pattern in m.36. The Conductor: orchestra serves as the m.38 – let the F# ring a while background in this part. At penultimate measure of this section, a tremolo is placed between two hands, with an exaggerated crescendo from pp to ff. The entire section ends in the resonance of the F#.

39-48 Orchestra: The character dramatically m.39 – Maestoso, colla parte changes in this section – m.41 – Mad! instead of the sorrowful mood in the previous Piano: sections, the music suddenly m.39 – molto appassionato! Fully becomes appassionato and ringing furious. Melinda Wagner used the word "mad!" in m.41. It seems like the narrative unexpectedly reaches its climax. Octaves and chords in ff are fully ringing in the piano part. The dissonant, ironic harmonies and irregular rhythms remind the author of Stravinsky's music, who greatly influenced Melinda Wagner. The piano once S again leads the entire E orchestra as a soloist. C T I 49-53 Orchestra: The Ab repeats on every O m.49 – brighter second and fourth beat of N m.52 – heavier and heavier… each measure is like a bell heavy, almost fatigued… ring, accompanied with A woodwinds play the same Piano: note. As Wagner described, (58) m.50 – peasant the music gradually becomes heavier and slower, almost "fatigued" after the outburst.

54-58 Orchestra: The music continues to slow m.54 – Slower and diminuendo. The top line of clusters in the piano part is Piano: a descending octatonic scale m.56 – more and more blurred in quarter notes, while other instruments play the same motive but in a value of eighth note, sixteenth note, or triplet. The chromaticism provides a mysterious effect to the music.

59-60 Orchestra: Once again, Wagner outlined m.59 – Subito più mosso the top voices of the double T notes with an octatonic scale R in these two measures, but A this time in sixteenths. The N tone of the piano is crystal- S like and delicate. I T I 61-68 Piano: Piano states motive h for the O m.65 – sneak in (with harp) last time in this section with a N change from duple meter to triple meter and B accompaniment of strings and woodwinds. Meanwhile, (79) bassoons, water gongs, harp play motive j in contrary motion with motive h. The cello starts a plangent, cantabile melody in m.67. The piano part ends in a succession of disappearing Fs; like bells fading away, interrupted by the first violins and harp playing a Gb to create tension, then returning to F.

69-74 The music continually fades away with the alternation of F and Gb. Every time G flat appears, it adds a sparkle (or hope) in the cold winter.

75-79 Orchestra: A warm melody of the cello m. 75 – Slower in m.75 brings life and hope, m. 76 – push forward a bit… accompanied with piano m. 77 – now leaning back, slower playing an ascending cycle of fifths. This section ends in a Piano: measure of repeated Bs. still m.78 – semplice sounds like the bell rings, but this time with the foreboding

that something unusual is going to happen.

80-96 Orchestra: As mentioned previously, this m.80 – Olivia’s Music (a little section commemorates a S girl’s out-of-tune music box), friend of Melinda Wagner's E brighter. daughter Olivia, who lost his C m.85 – More lush and free; less life in the 9/11 attacks. The T mechanical main idea of the" out-of-tune I music box" is presented by O Piano: piano and bell tree64 based on N m.80 – delicatissimo octatonic scales. Both piano m.86 – more and more blurred and bell tree (and triangle) B create a crystalized sound, (96) Bell Tree: which is very delicate and m.80 – evenly, using two hands, lucid. Wagner did not write strike the cups with thin triangle the fixed pitches for the bell beaters, playing varied “pitches” tree, providing the Olivia’s ad libitum percussionist ample room for Music m. 84 – now “descend” from imagination. The uncertain highest to lowest cup intervallic relationship between piano and bell tree makes the music "out-of- tune." The music box may metaphorically allude the little girl's innocent soul; the “out-of-tune” nature of this section may allude to the “out-of-sorts” condition of the young daughter. Finally, an ascending octatonic line shows up in m.93 to imply hope in the future.

97-100 Orchestra: In the coda, the chords of the m.98 – a little bit slower. piano part imitate the sound m.100 – morendo of a funeral bell. The bell rings for all people who lost Piano: their lives in this attack. It is

64 Bell tree: The bell tree is a stack of nested metal bells connected by a long rod. The bells look like inverted bowls that get increasingly smaller in size. There is no specific number of bells and they vary, typically between 14 and 28. The bell tree can produce a glissando by striking the bells with a metal rod (similar to a triangle beater) or orchestra bells mallet. https://dictionary.onmusic.org/terms/406-bell_tree.

m.99 – dreamily, let (the pedal) up also a Memoriam for Melinda C slowly Wagner's beloved O friends. A dreamy melody D line is spun out in the high A register in the last two measures, offering a moment (100) of consolation from the nightmare of the attacks.

Table 3– The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, III, Prayer- Chain.

The fourth movement – Varied Return

As the title indicates, the last movement is indeed a return or a retrospection of the prior three movements. Structurally, the movement can be divided into six sections: Intro

(m.1-25), Section A (m.26-89), Connection (m.90), Section B (m.91-121), Recapitulation

(m.122-150) and Coda (m.151-189). Melinda Wagner merged two parts (m.11-34 and m.94-123) from the second movement with a short connection in between to comprise a new section A of the last movement. After the retrospection of the second movement, the connection part, which is only one measure long, comes the return of the octatonic scale from the third movement. Section B was written in the style of a cadenza. Afterward, similar materials from Section A reappear in the recapitulation. The beginning of the entire concerto – motive a– returns in the Coda.

There is no new motive in this movement as all the important figures are the return of the first three movements. Undoubtedly, "return" is the main idea of this movement, and Melinda Wagner did have this idea persistently in mind during the compositional process.

Motive e returns at the beginning of the fourth movement: the viola starts with an ascending chromatic line. The second violin restates it in m.3, and it is restated again by the cello. This time, Melinda Wagner added the word "scrubby" to this motive. Finally, the piano concludes this motive in m.8.

Musical Example 43 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” motive e, m.1-10.

Motive c – a group of straight 16th notes – returns in m.18 (brackets in orange). It is usually played by strings as a rhythmic accompaniment to create energy. Meanwhile, the cello is playing motive j – the 3+5+3 opi/ major 7th chords – along with the viola

(brackets in yellow).

Musical Example 44 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” motive c+ j, m.15-20.

Motive g returns in m.42 of the fourth movement:

Musical Example 45 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return, ” motive g, m.42-46.

Motive h – the octatonic scale – returns at the end of the last movement, which is also the closure of the entire piano concerto:

Musical Example 46 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” motive h, m.183-189.

Besides the octatonic scale, Melinda Wagner also used the whole-tone scale in the last movement:

Musical Example 47 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” m.90-93.

The Whole-tone scale is a scalar arrangement of pitches, each separated from the next by a whole step. 65 In other words, the interval between adjacent notes is a major second.

Musical Example 48 shows the scale extracted from the top line of the right-hand chords, descending from E natural to F sharp by whole steps.

Musical Example 48 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” m.90.

In music theory, both octatonic scale and whole-tone scale are considered symmetrical scales that can equally divide the octave.

As the author mentioned in discussing the first movement, motive a (E – C – E♭ –

C – E♮) returns in a varied form near the end of the last movement. Wagner added appoggiaturas to the main notes in its first reappearance, and the alternation between E♭ and C or C♯ retains for ten measures. The music does not settle down until the pianist’s right-hand finally hits the E♮ in m.175. These appoggiaturas add more color to the music as well as tension.

65 https://www.britannica.com/art/whole-tone-scale.

Musical Example 49 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” m.163-175.

Meanwhile, in m.171, the mournful sigh – first introduced as motive f in the first movement – returns in the first violin:

Musical Example 50 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return, ” m.170-174.

Ultimately, motive a returns in its full version in m.179 of the last movement. This time,

Melinda Wagner wrote "all notes ringing" to emphasize that this is the last statement of these five notes.

Musical Example 51 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” m.176-182.

The multiple reappearances of motive a that echoes the opening of this concerto

illustrates the idea of inclusio again.

The last two chords (G-C-E/C♯-F♯-A♯) of this piano concerto form a “Petrushka

chord”, which is a recurring polytonal device first applied in Igor Stravinsky's ballet

Petrushka and extensively used in his later work The Firebird. The chord is a tone cluster made of the major triads of C and F-sharp (tritone apart).

Musical Example 52 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” m.183-189.

Musical Example 53 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return,” m.187.

The entire concerto should have ended in this dissonant clash. However, Melinda

Wagner decided to add another two measures – violins and violas play an f-sharp major

triad with harmonics. This idea was suggested by Wagner's teacher Richard Wernick. In

the last measure, Wagner indicates "dim. al niente", meaning that the dynamics gradually

fade to nothing.

Musical Example 54 – Extremity of Sky: IV “Varied Return, ” m.183-189.

Sectional Measure Composer’s Note Author’s Description Information Number

1-25 Orchestra: Motive e directly enters by m.1 – Playful viola without any preparation, followed by I Viola: the second violin and cello. N m.1 – scrubby The piano starts with a T Violin II: group of clusters in m.2, R m.3 – scrubby contrasting with the O Cello: continuous 16th notes in m.5 – scrubby strings. From m.1-13, all (25) melodic lines are in Piano: ascending direction. From m.25 – bring out top notes m.14, the music goes downward. Motive c enters in m.18 by the viola. The consecutive 16th notes push the music moving forward and give listeners a sense of anxiety. The introduction part ends in the sffz. clusters.

26-89 Piano: Section A is a real "varied S m.26 – growly, ironic return" that Wagner put two E m.29 – Grand! parts from the second C m.44 – eccentric! movement together – m. T m.75 – A bit wild, 11-34 is a complete I eccentric! duplication of m.26-49 of O m.85 – ironic, leggiero the second movement; N m.89 – no pause! Jump in! m.60-89 is the other complete duplication of A m.94- 123 of the second movement. In the (89) connection, m.50-52 is very similar to m.91-93 of the second movement, with every note moves half-step higher. Motive c enters in m.53 by the cello. A four- measure gesture based on motive e appears in m.55,

served as an intro to the following return materials.

CONNECTION 90 Piano: A measure of chromatic m.90 – Very blustery and chords playing in a contrary self- important; start motion, the top line of the slowly, but move ahead right-hand is a descending (90) immediately whole-tone scale. It starts accelerando… molto fast! slowly, then accelerates. This measure serves as a connection to connect the return part and the new materials.

91-106 Orchestra: Starting with the piano m.94 – colla parte plays cluster tremolos in m.97 – start slowly – a m.91, the long trill by tempo clarinet indicates that the m.106 – Broader (colla cadenza is coming. Even parte) though other instruments occasionally make a sound, Piano: the piano is the real soloist m. 94 – very free now. Melinda Wagner S incorporated chromatic E scales, arpeggios, trills, C chords that all the musical T elements in this part to I show the unlimited O possibilities of the piano as N a solo instrument. Now, the pianist can express his/her B musicality and virtuoso without any concerns and (121) restrictions.

107-111 A long trill on E flat starts in m.107, accompanied by the woodwinds imitating cuckoo (a minor third). The trill ends in m.110 with an ascending chromatic scale,

landing on the higher E flat to continue the trill.

112-114 Orchestra: Wagner used Chopin's m.112 – Colla parte (senza favorite small notes in misura, without measure) m.112, a trill in 113 with the triangle's Piano: accompaniment, followed m.112 – a piacere (take by an ascending chromatic time), elegant: scale with a diminuendo Chopinesque and a fermata rest. All these m.114 – Distracted characteristics can be dreamy: askew, Slower concluded as Wagner and slower, trailing off… marked – Chopinesque – for its elegancy and delicacy.

115 Piano: Measure 115 continues the m.115 – senza misura dreamy, delicate melody with a little mysterious color.

116- Orchestra: The orchestra re-enters in 121 m.117 – più mosso, con m.116 with the flute plays moto…ritard an expressive melody, then m.118 – a tempo, con steps back to the moto, poco rit. background. Wagner wrote m.119 – a tempo, ritard… a tempo marking for every m.120 – slower measure in this passage to m.121 – very slow, rit… give the music enough tension. The piano creates a Piano: beautiful arpeggiated m.117 – Sonoro melody based on the fourth. m.118 – cantabile The melodic line here sounds very Scriabin. The entire cadenza section ends in a suspended motive a.

122-138 Piano: The recapitulation starts m.138 – bring out top with motive c in m.122, m. notes 124 to m.138 is a reduced version of the introduction

section (m.1-25). Wagner regrouped the musical R elements in a different E order, but the main idea C remains the same. A P 139- Piano: To be continued, m. 139- 150 m.142 – Grand! 150 is the recapitulation (150) m.26- m.37. Everything keeps the same as before.

151- Orchestra: All instruments come out in 163 m.151 – CODA the coda. Instead of pitch collections, the contrasting piano: of articulation and rhythm m.151 – sonoro becomes more critical in this part. Different rhythmic patterns – long notes, triplets, 8ths, 16ths, 32nds, C and rests – are intertwined O between instruments. Piano, D woodwinds, and brasses are A playing in a staccato while percussions and celesta play legato. Wagner also (189) changed the accent on the upbeat to create the hemiola. This part, both musically and textually, indicates that the music is toward the end.

164- Orchestra: The opening (motive a) of 178 m.168 – pushing ahead… the first movement returns in m.165 with two hands Winds: alternately play E flat and C m.170 – All sustaining until the E natural comes in wind and brass players m.175. Wagner added stagger breath. A slight appoggiaturas to each main accent is desired upon each note that makes the music re-entry. more colorful. Meanwhile, other instruments Violin I: sporadically point out the E

m.171 – mournful flat. The mournful motive from the first movement reappears in m.171. The piano starts an arch-shaped melody from m.174; the scale sounds jazzy but might also be created on a pitch collection. E flat, C, E natural are the three most important notes for the entire coda.

179-189 Piano: A full reappearance of the m.180 – martellato E♭ - C -E♭ - C - E♮ motive m.181 – all notes ringing lastly occurs in m.179. Horns and trumpets orderly Trumpet/Tuba/Bassoon: play the four-note pattern, m.182 – Gradually add C - E♭ - A♭ - D, to fill the rapid double tonguing rest in the piano part. The whole concerto ends in a Trumpet: “Petrushka” chord. Even m.185 – Gradually add though an extra F sharp flutter tonguing triad with harmonics in violins has been added at Violin I: the end, it is hard to be m.189 – dim. al niente heard in the performance. Obviously, the last two measures were added later , because Melinda Wagner wrote on the score that "Thanks to Richard Wernick for this idea".

Table 4 – The Structural Analysis of Extremity of Sky, IV, Varied Return.

Chapter V

The Metric Modulations in Extremity of Sky

Rhythm, without the melody and harmony, provides the musical skeleton.

However, the rhythm of a piece of music is often in opposition to the bar lines. György

Ligeti made a comment regarding the freeing of notes, stating: “The bar lines serve only as a means of synchronization; bar lines and beats never mean an accentuation, the music must flow smoothly...”66 Pierre Boulez criticized this point as well:

“The rational use of the opposition between multiplication and division of the [beat] unit will, moreover, give rise to striking contrasts due to the broader span of values brought into play... interaction of these various methods of organization can be extremely fertile, and will create and inexhaustible variety of objects – in the same way as in the field of pitch.”67 In order to free the rhythm (beat) from the bar lines, some composers turn to proportional notation to avoid the accent implications; others, like Melinda Wagner, apply the idea of metric modulation.

It was Elliot Carter who first used this technique in his Cello Sonata and explained, “The result in my own music, first of all, the way of evolving rhythms and continuities now called ‘metric modulation’…” 68 In New Directions In Music, David

Cope used Carter's Double Concerto for harpsichord and piano as an illustration (Figure

5):

66 György Ligeti, Lontano (New York: Schott Music Corp.,1969), from the performance notes in the score. 67 Pierre Boulez, Boulez on Music Today (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1971), 58. 68 Allen Edwards, Flawed Words and Stubborn Sound (New York: W. W. Norton and Co.,1971), 91.

Figure 5 – Elliot Carter’s Double Concerto, metric modulation.

As shown in Figure 5, the meter and tempo changes at bar lines. In short, metric modulation is the idea of shifting the beat from one rhythmic value to another.

Melinda Wagner applied this technique extensively in her piano concerto Extremity of Sky. She even provided the accurate metronome markings in the score as Elliot Carter did. The first metric modulation appears in m.61 of the first movement:

Musical Example 55 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.61.

Mathematically, this modulation means: in the previous section, the half note = 72, so the quarter note = 144 (72*2); after the modulation, because = = 72, then a quarter note = 72, a half note = 36 (72/2). Thus, the tempo of the new section is twice as slow as the previous section. However, the acoustic effect has not changed that much because Wagner replaced the 16th notes that she previously used with 32nd notes in the new section. In this case, even though the actual musical character does not change,

Wagner intended to express that a new section enters with new characteristics.

Another example of metric modulation is presented in m.98:

Musical Example 56 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.96-99.

In this case, if ♩= ♪ = 63, then the old tempo was ♩= 63, ♪ = 126; the new tempo will be

♪ = 63, ♩ = 31.5. Thus, the tempo slows down in the new section. As Melinda Wagner

indicated in the score, the music takes on an expansive quality, because it is felt in larger

beats. It can be seen from the score that, unlike the previous illustration, the pitch value

has also changed. Therefore, the music gradually slows down both metrically and

musically, and the musical character changes.

Interestingly, two metric modulations immediately occur in the following four

measures: in m.101, Wagner wrote = ♪, while in m.102, she suggested ♪ = . This series of modulations might be confusing; however, the author speculates that Melinda

Wagner was trying to express the push and pull of the music. Macroscopically, all these metric modulations serve as a part of the big ritardando starting from m.84 to m. 114.

Musical Example 57 – Extremity of Sky: I “Opening,” m.100-103.

Instead of slowing down, the metric modulation can also be used in the opposite direction. In m.87 of the second movement, Melinda Wagner wrote ♪ =♩= c.144-152.

Using the same formula to calculate: if ♪ =♩= c.144-152, then before the modulation ♪ =

144-152, ♩= 72-76; after the modulation, because♩= 144-152, then ♪ = 288-304. In conclusion, the tempo of the new section is two times as fast as the earlier tempo. This also explains why Wagner marked "Sudden!" on the score. Musically, this metric modulation is paving the way for an upcoming stormy passage.

Musical Example 58 – Extremity of Sky: II “Departure, ” m.87-90.

In conclusion, metric modulation frees the rhythm of a piece from the bar line to some extent. Sometimes, the metric modulation can be very complicated when it involves triplets, quintuplets, and other complex rhythmic patterns. Moreover, it is impossible for performers to present the actual metric modulation accurately on stage. Contemporary composers are still fascinated by this technique. From the author's perspective, metric modulation is more like a tool that changes the musical mood or character by

88 manipulating the rhythm. The extensive use of the metric modulation in Extremity of Sky provides the listener dramatic changes between sections as well as clear structural information.

Conclusion

As a contemporary American composer, Melinda Wagner has always been equally dedicated to the stage as well as to her job as an educator. She is internationally recognized as an accomplished composer for her Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion. Her piano concerto Extremity of Sky is a significant contribution to the contemporary piano repertoire. Extremity of Sky presents Wagner’s artistic genius from many aspects. She combined innovative compositional techniques from the 21st century with formal structures of the Romantic period. The enrichment of her harmonic language and narrative-like contents make her music affective and touching to the audience. The four movements – Opening, Departure, Prayer-Chain, and Varied

Return – are well-planned like an emotional narrative regarding the tragic 9/11 attacks.

Each plot has its particular characteristic and color. Extremity of Sky is a mixture of the

extreme emotions of excitement, tension, sentiment, indignation, happiness,

hopelessness, peace, and love. This piano concerto is worthy of being explored and

studied by pianists who are fond of contemporary music or challenging pieces. Melinda

Wagner exploits the endless possibilities of the piano in this concerto musically and

technically. Even though technical difficulties exists, there are actually melodic/rhythmic

patterns to follow. It is the author’s hope that this project may help interested pianists

learn this piece more effectively.

Finally, the author hopes that this research will provide an introduction to the

remarkable composer Melinda Wagner and her piano concerto Extremity of Sky. This

analysis part was intended to help pianists who desire to understand the general structure

and compositional principles of this music. As 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the

September 11th attacks, the author hopes that Extremity of Sky will be performed on stage again, inspiring audiences with its messages of hope, healing, and unity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Wagner, Melinda. Extremity of Sky. Recorded 2016. https://soundcloud.com/melinda- wagner-876898488/extremity-of-sky-i-opening-excerpts.

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Online Audio Resources

Wagner, Melinda. “Extremity of Sky, concerto for piano & orchestra (2002), the first movement.” Performed by Emanuel Ax (piano) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Recorded May 22, 2003. Posted by Astral, Inc. https://soundcloud.com/astral-inc/melinda-wagner-extremity-of-3.

Wagner, Melinda. “Extremity of Sky, concerto for piano & orchestra (2002), the second movement.” Performed by Emanuel Ax (piano) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Recorded May 22, 2003. Posted by Astral, Inc. https://soundcloud.com/astral-inc/melinda-wagner-extremity-of-2.

Wagner, Melinda. “Extremity of Sky, concerto for piano & orchestra (2002), the third movement.” Performed by Emanuel Ax (piano) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Recorded May 22, 2003. Posted by Astral, Inc. https://soundcloud.com/astral-inc/melinda-wagner-extremity-of-1.

Wagner, Melinda. “Extremity of Sky, concerto for piano & orchestra (2002), the fourth movement. ” Performed by Emanuel Ax (piano) and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Recorded May 22, 2003. Posted by Astral, Inc. https://soundcloud.com/astral-inc/melinda-wagner-extremity-of.