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MUSIC, MOTION, AND SPACE: A GENEALOGY by JOON PARK A DISSERTATION Presented to the School of Music and Dance and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2015 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Joon Park Title: Music, Motion, and Space: A Genealogy This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the School of Music and Dance by: Jack Boss Chairperson Roger Mathew Grant Core Member Lori Kruckenberg Core Member Michael Allen Institutional Representative and Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2015 ii © 2015 Joon Park This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Joon Park Doctor of Philosophy School of Music and Dance June 2015 Title: Music, Motion, and Space: A Genealogy How have we come to hear melody as going “up” or “down”? Why does the Western world predominantly adopt spatial terms such as “high” and “low” to distinguish musical notes while other non-Western cultures use non-spatial terms such as “large” and “small” (Bali), or “clear” and “dull” (South Korea)? Have the changing concepts of motion and space in people’s everyday lives over history also changed our understanding of musical space? My dissertation investigates the Western concept of music space as it has been shaped by social change into the way we think about music today. In our understanding of music, the concept of the underlying space is so elemental that it is impossible for us to have any fruitful discourse about music without using inherently spatial terms. For example a term interval in music denotes the distance between two combined notes; but, in fact, two sonic objects are neither near nor far from each other. This shows that our experience of hearing interval as a combination of different notes is not inherent in the sound itself but constructed through cultural and social means. In Western culture, musical sound is often conceptualized through various metaphors whose source domains reflect the society that incubated these metaphorical understandings. My research investigates the historical formation of the conceptual metaphor of music. In particular, I focus on historical formation of the three underlying assumptions we bring to our hearing of music: (1) “high” iv and “low” notes and motion between them, (2) functionality of musical chords, and (3) reliance on music notation. In each chapter, I contextualize various music theoretical writings within the larger framework of philosophy and social theory to show that our current understanding of musical sound is embedded with the history of Western culture. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Joon Park GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, Music Theory, 2015, University of Oregon Master of Arts, Music Theory Pedagogy, 2009, Eastman School of Music Bachelor of Music, Music Theory, 2007, Eastman School of Music AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: History of Music Theory Greek and Medieval Music Theories Neo-Riemannian Analysis Jazz Analysis PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, University of Oregon, 2010–2015 Editor’s Assistant, Music Theory Online, 2014–2015 GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Outstanding University Graduate Scholar in Music, University of Oregon, 2015 SOMD Outstanding Graduate Scholar in Music Theory, University of Oregon, 2015 UO Graduate School Research Aware, University of Oregon, 2013 vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Professors Jack Boss, who encouraged me to pursue this history of music theory project, and provided critical reflections and proofreading assistance throughout the process of my writing. My interest in the historical formation of musical space goes back to the class on the Enlightenment science taught by Professor Roger Mathew Grant. The final paper for that class was the earliest version of my chapter on the Greek monochord. His continued support from East Coast also guided me throughout the process of writing this dissertation. This dissertation would not have been possible from kind support from him. My interests in Greek and Medieval music theories come from the first term of the history of music theory class taught by Professor Lori Kruckenberg. All of my knowledge on this topic is rooted from that class. Also, I am grateful for the support from Professor Michael Allen, particularly on his comments on the third chapter of this dissertation. I am thankful for the support and encouragement from Professor Stephen Rodgers, who carefully listened to my ideas and provided critical suggestions. The discussion of Mehrdeutigkeit in the third chapter came from his insight. Lastly, Wing Lau provided crucial support for meeting the deadline for the submission. She looked over the bibliography as well as general formatting of the first and second chapters. Also, her steadfast writing process for her own dissertation on the notated meter change in Brahms’s songs inspired me daily to work on this dissertation. vii To my family viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 II. THE GREEK MONOCHORD AND THE BIRTH OF MUSICAL SPACE ........ 13 2.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 13 2.2. Secondary Scholarship ............................................................................................. 22 2.3. The Ancient-Greek Concept of Motion ............................................................... 27 2.4. Aristoxenus’s Concept of Musical Space .............................................................. 30 2.5. The Greek Concept of Number ............................................................................. 38 2.6. Parameters of Musical Space .................................................................................. 43 2.7. Motion and the Monochord in Ancient Greek Music Treatises ....................... 46 2.8. The Influence of Spatial Reasoning ....................................................................... 53 2.9. Summary .................................................................................................................... 57 III. GENEALOGY OF MUSICAL FUNCTION ................................................................ 59 3.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 59 3.1.1. Clarifying the Relationship between Musical Function and Object .......... 59 3.1.2. Chapter Overview ............................................................................................. 62 3.2. Reciprocal Solidification of Form and Function ................................................. 66 3.2.1. Musical Form as a Concept with Hard Boundaries ..................................... 68 3.2.2. Separation of Function from Identity ............................................................ 71 3.3. Emergent Agency of Musical Objects ................................................................... 82 3.3.1. Concept of a Chord as a Regulative Entity ................................................... 82 3.3.2. Form, Function, and Organic Unity .............................................................. 86 3.4. Musical Work as an Industrial Product ................................................................. 94 3.4.1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 94 ix Chapter Page 3.4.2. Rise of Functionality......................................................................................... 95 3.4.3. Organic Unity as Industrial Object .............................................................. 105 3.5. Chapter Summary ................................................................................................... 109 IV. REFLECTION ON (AND IN) STRUNK’S TONNETZ ......................................... 115 4.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 115 4.2. Preliminary Question: How Do We Analyze Jazz? ........................................... 117 4.3. Methodological Difference ................................................................................... 121 4.3.1. Notationality in Conventional Neo-Riemannian Literature ..................... 121 4.3.2. Strunk’s Reconceptualization of the Tonnetz ............................................... 130 4.4. Weaknesses and Strengths of Strunk’s Method ................................................. 137 4.5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 147 V. CLOSING REMARKS ..................................................................................................... 149 REFERENCES CITED ................................................................................................................. 155 x LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page III-1. Excerpt from Rameau's Nouveau Systême de Musique Théorique (1726, 39) ........................