Survey of Music History I
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School of Music Undergraduate Journal
39 20th Century Discussions on Instrumentation and Timbre in Regards to Pierre Boulez and Le marteau sans maître By: Elsa Marshall As elements of music, including tonality, rhythm, and form, became more and more unfamiliar in modern compositions of the 20th century, the instrumentation of a piece sometimes provided the only link to the familiarity of Western art music. The use of unconventional timbres in other pieces further weakened relations to what was conventionally understood to be music and lead to intellectual debates on what is sound and what is music. The role of electronic instruments and machines in composition, as well as the inclusion of non-Western instruments beyond the role of sound effects, were new considerations for composers of the time. For some, the inclusion of these new sounds was necessary to the development of new music. In this paper I will first discuss composers John Cage, Edgard Varèse, and Pierre Boulez's ideas about instruments and timbres. I will then examine Boulez's ideas more specifically and how these relate to the aforementioned ideas. Finally, I will study various analyses of his instrumentation in Le marteau sans maître (1952-55) in relation to these modern debates. Discussions of Technology and Sound in Compositions and Writings of Boulez, Varèse, and Cage A large part of the discussions about defining music in the writings and interviews of Cage, Varèse, and Boulez consists of the analysis of timbres used in musical composition. More specifically, there are debates over the role of timbre in composition and the distinction or lack thereof between an object that produces sound and a musical instrument. -
18 Contemporary Opera and the Failure of Language
18 CONTEMPORARY OPERA AND THE FAILURE OF LANGUAGE Amy Bauer Opera after 1945 presents what Robert Fink has called ‘a strange series of paradoxes to the historian’.1 The second half of the twentieth century saw new opera houses and companies pro- liferating across Europe and America, while the core operatic repertory focused on nineteenth- century works. The collapse of touring companies confined opera to large metropolitan centres, while Cold War cultural politics often limited the appeal of new works. Those new works, whether written with political intent or not, remained wedded historically to ‘realism, illusion- ism, and representation’, as Carolyn Abbate would have it (as opposed to Brechtian alienation or detachment).2 Few operas embraced the challenge modernism presents for opera. Those few early modernist operas accepted into the canon, such as Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, while revolu- tionary in their musical language and subject matter, hew closely to the nature of opera in its nineteenth-century form as a primarily representational medium. As Edward Cone and Peter Kivy point out, they bracket off that medium of representation – the character singing speech, for instance, in an emblematic translation of her native tongue – to blur diegetic song, ‘operatic song’ and a host of other conventions.3 Well-regarded operas in the immediate post-war period, by composers such as Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Francis Poulenc and Douglas Moore, added new subjects and themes while retreating from the formal and tonal challenges of Berg and Schoenberg. -
The Late Choral Works of Igor Stravinsky
THE LATE CHORAL WORKS OF IGOR STRAVINSKY: A RECEPTION HISTORY _________________________________________________________ A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia ________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts ____________________________ by RUSTY DALE ELDER Dr. Michael Budds, Thesis Supervisor DECEMBER 2008 The undersigned, as appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled THE LATE CHORAL WORKS OF IGOR STRAVINSKY: A RECEPTION HISTORY presented by Rusty Dale Elder, a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. _________________________________________ Professor Michael Budds ________________________________________ Professor Judith Mabary _______________________________________ Professor Timothy Langen ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to each member of the faculty who participated in the creation of this thesis. First and foremost, I wish to recognize the ex- traordinary contribution of Dr. Michael Budds: without his expertise, patience, and en- couragement this study would not have been possible. Also critical to this thesis was Dr. Judith Mabary, whose insightful questions and keen editorial skills greatly improved my text. I also wish to thank Professor Timothy Langen for his thoughtful observations and support. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………...ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………...v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF STRAVINSKY’S LATE WORKS…....1 Methodology The Nature of Relevant Literature 2. “A BAD BOY ALL THE WAY”: STRAVINSKY’S SECOND COMPOSITIONAL CRISIS……………………………………………………....31 3. AFTER THE BOMB: IN MEMORIAM DYLAN THOMAS………………………45 4. “MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL”: CANTICUM SACRUM AD HONOREM SANCTI MARCI NOMINIS………………………………………………………...60 5. -
The Negation of a Negation Fixed in a Form
Cultural Studies Review volume 11 number 2 September 2005 http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/csrj/index pp. 95–109 Timothy S Murphy 2005 The Negation of a Negation Fixed in a Form Luigi Nono and the Italian Counter-culture 1964–1979 TIMOTHY S MURPHY UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA At the outset of this discussion I would like to propose a definition or two that will hold throughout it. First, I would like to define the term ‘counter-culture’, which appears in my title, as the organised and self-conscious articulation of an alternative to hegemonic capitalist culture—alternative in terms of values, institutions and sign systems. Second, I would like to define the date ‘1968’ as the historical moment at which various nationally specific counter- cultures actually coalesced, despite the fact that these counter-cultures were often composed of individual elements that predate 1968. Thus I am defining the two terms reciprocally: a counter- culture is that alternative framework that emerges when a confluence of quantitative changes (in labour conditions, educational access or values, tolerance of ethnic/gender/cultural differences, and so on) crosses a threshold and produces a qualitative shift in consciousness, critique and creativity, and 1968 marks the various ways that threshold was crossed in the USA, Europe and elsewhere. From this viewpoint, for example, the American ’68 marked the emergence of a counter-culture defined by a relatively fleeting politicisation of students and a temporary cultural alliance between students and people of colour, while the French ’68 gave rise to a counter-culture characterised by a similarly fleeting political alliance of students and factory workers. -
Twelve-Tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern James P
University of San Diego Digital USD Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses and Dissertations Spring 5-19-2015 Twelve-tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern James P. Kinney University of San Diego Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/honors_theses Part of the Music Theory Commons Digital USD Citation Kinney, James P., "Twelve-tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 1. https://digital.sandiego.edu/honors_theses/1 This Undergraduate Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Digital USD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital USD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Twelve-tone Serialism: Exploring the Works of Anton Webern ______________________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty and the Honors Program Of the University of San Diego ______________________ By James Patrick Kinney Music 2015 Introduction Whenever I tell people I am double majoring in mathematics and music, I usually get one of two responses: either “I’ve heard those two are very similar” or “Really? Wow, those are total opposites!” The truth is that mathematics and music have much more in common than most people, including me, understand. There have been at least two books written as extensions of lecture notes for university classes about this connection between math and music. One was written by David Wright at Washington University in St. Louis, and he introduces the book by saying “It has been observed that mathematics is the most abstract of the sciences, music the most abstract of the arts” and references both Pythagoras and J.S. -
BEETHOVEN Ideals of the French Revolution
BEETHOVEN Ideals of the French Revolution ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE MONTRÉAL Kent Nagano CD1 The General, for orchestra with soprano, choir and narrator Music by Ludwig van Beethoven Text by Paul Griffiths © Maximilian Schell, narration Adrianne Pieczonka, soprano OSM Chorus Marika Kuzma, Chorus Director 1. Overture 8:29 [Egmont: Ouverture] 2. No.1 Song: A drum in the distance 3:55 [Egmont: No.1, Song: Die Trommel gerühret] 3. No.2 Melodrama: One thing I learned 2:03 [König Stephan: No.7, Melodrama] 4. No.3 Melodrama: Informants, spies 0:49 [König Stephan: No.5, Melodrama] 5. No.4 Interlude 1 3:34 [Egmont: No.6, Entr’acte 4] 6. No.5 Interlude 2 5:08 [Leonore Prohaska: Funeral March] 7. No.6 Interlude 3 / Melodrama: I could do something 3:18 [Egmont: No.2, Entr’acte 1] 8. No.7 Interlude 4 5:31 [Egmont: No.3, Entr’acte 2] 9. No.8 Interlude 5 2:14 [Egmont: No.7, Clara’s Death] 1 10. No.9 Melodrama: I was one human being 3:11 [Egmont: No.8, Melodrama] 11. No.10 Song: Lost and despairing 1:23 [Egmont: No.4, Song: Freudvoll und leidvoll] 12. No.11 Interlude 6 4:04 [Egmont: No.5, Entr’acte 3] 13. No.12 Interlude 7 1:40 [König Stephan: No.8, Solemn March] 14. No.13 Melodrama: I had nothing to say to these people 3:30 [König Stephan: No.8, Melodrama from Grave risoluto e ben marcato] 15. No.14 ‘Victory Symphony’ 0:28 [Egmont: No.9] 16. No.15 Finale 5:30 [Opferlied, Op.121b] CD2 Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op. -
01 New Beginnings.Pages
MSM CPP Survey EC 1. New Beginnings “The destruction, havoc, grief, and misery felt across the world — and the widespread hopes for a new social order, and therefore a new culture — demanded not just reconstruction but an alternate paradigm.” Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music and After, 1. New Tools: Technology Pierre Schaeffer Etude aux chemins de fer (1948) Symphonie pour un homme seul (1949-50) Etude violette (1948) Etude noire (1948) Diapason Concertino (1948) Bilude (1979) “So these were the three circumstances that compelled me to experiment in music: I was involved in music; I was working with turntables (then with tape-recorders); I was horrified by modern 12-tone music. I said to myself, ‘Maybe I can find something different… maybe salvation, liberation, is possible.’ Seeing that no-one knew what to do anymore with DoReMi, maybe we had to look outside that. Unfortunately it took me forty years to conclude that nothing is possible outside DoReMi… In other words, I wasted my life.” Pierre Schaeffer with Tim Hodgkinson. An Interview with Pierre Schaeffer. Halim El-Dabh The Expression of Zaar (aka The Wire Recorder Piece) (1944) Symphonies in Sonic Vibration-Spectrum No. 1 “I’ve always been interested in zaar, particularly since it’s a women-only ceremony… Women are the center of our civilization… [The Wire Recorder Piece] was all women and it was all chanting. I wanted to find the inner sound, that vibration that’s always necessary for transcendence. I eliminated the fundamental tones of the harmony by changing the voltage — it changes the quality of the music, it seeks another quality in the voice, the hidden material, the inner part of the voice. -
Sieben Musikabsätze Emma Groves What Is Music?
Groves 1 Sieben Musikabsätze Emma Groves What is music? Most would agree that breaking glass is not music, just as most would agree that smashing a cello with a hammer is less musical than vibrating a bow across its strings. Many say that music is a series of sounds which contain the elements of rhythm and pitch, but most music we hear follows certain patterns beyond rhythm and pitch. Music as we know it contains key signatures and time signatures, chord progressions and other repetitive harmonies. This strict language that we have built for music is called tonality. So we must ask ourselves, is tonality necessary for music? This question was explored by the experimental composers of the twentieth century, including Arnold Schoenberg. The music they wrote was called atonal, without tonality. Schoenberg developed a new set of strict rules to follow, an alternative to tonality called dodecaphony, first seen in the final movement of his Op. 23. This technique led to the development of serialism, a broader, less strict style. Schoenberg's Op. 23, Fünf Klavierstücke, perfectly represents the twentieth century in music because of its newly developed techniques, discordant and atonal styles, and philosophical message of escaping tonality. The twentieth century saw the rise of many new techniques to express the experimental philosophies of the time, leading to the unusual style of much of the period's music. In the late nineteenth century, composers began to grow bored with music as they knew it and sought ways to go further with their art. This common frustration led to many different styles, each distinct, but with clear similarities. -
Form and Virtuosity in Luciano Berio's Sequenza I
University of Alberta Form and Virtuosity in Luciano Berio's Sequenza I by Ian Knopke A thesis submitted to the Facuity of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Music Edmonton, Alberta Fa11 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Sireet 395. nie Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Li'brary of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distnbute or seU reproduire, prêter, distriiuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfichelfilm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be p~tedor othenvise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. The objective of this thesis is an analysis of Luciano Berio's Sequenza I, for solo flute, using the composer's own published comments on the compositional system used in creating the piece. Additional insights into this system are provided by materials relating to an earlier composition, Nones, for orchestra. -
London's Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra Living Music LSO COMPOSER FOCUS THOMAS ADÈS Wednesday 9 March 2016 7.30pm Barbican Hall Thomas Adès Polaris Brahms Violin Concerto INTERVAL Thomas Adès Brahms Thomas Adès Tevot Thomas Adès conductor Anne-Sophie Mutter violin Samuel Dale Johnson baritone Generously supported by the Atkin Foundation Concert finishes approx 9.50pm Wednesday 16 March 2016 7.30pm London’s Symphony Orchestra Barbican Hall Thomas Adès Asyla Sibelius Violin Concerto INTERVAL Franck Symphony in D minor Thomas Adès conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin Concert finishes approx 10pm 2 Welcome 9 & 16 March 2016 Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief Welcome to the LSO, where we are delighted to LSO 2016/17 SEASON NOW ON SALE see Thomas Adès, one of Britain’s leading and most original composers, return to the podium. He Booking is now open for the LSO’s 2016/17 season. conducts two programmes of his own works, which Full listings for all concerts taking place between are heard alongside pieces from other composers September 2016 and July 2017 can be found on who have inspired Adès throughout his life. the LSO website, along with details of how to purchase tickets. In the first concert, we hear Polaris, Tevot and Brahms, Adès’ ‘anti-homage’ to the composer, for which we lso.co.uk/201617season welcome baritone soloist Samuel Dale Johnson, who makes his LSO debut. This follows a performance of Brahms’ own Violin Concerto, performed by soloist A NEW FAMILY OF LSO CONDUCTORS Anne-Sophie Mutter, a great friend of the LSO. The second concert opens with Adès’ breakthrough The LSO was delighted to announce last week that work Asyla, which among other pieces makes Gianandrea Noseda will become LSO Principal Guest reference to Franck’s Symphony in D minor, which Conductor alongside Daniel Harding from August we hear later in the programme. -
Elliott Carter What Next? Asko Concerto
ECM Elliott Carter What Next? Asko Concerto Valdine Anderson: soprano; Sarah Leonard: soprano; Hilary Summers: contralto; William Joyner: tenor; Dean Elzinga: baritone; Emanuel Hoogeveen: boy alto Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Eötvös ECM New Series 1817 CD 0289 472 188 2 (1) Release: 10. November, 2003 “The score's unceasing flow is one indicator of its refinement, others being the fastidious blend of tone-colour and Carter's spare, late, scintillating polyphony... One takes away the impression of an opera whose exploitation of ensemble-singing is radically new.” Sunday Times Released in time for the 95th birthday (on December 11th) of America’s greatest composer, this ECM New Series release is comprised of two premiere recordings. Both of them – the one-act opera “What Next?” and the Asko Concerto, a virtuoso ensemble piece - testify to the sustained inventiveness of Elliott Carter. As the Economist recently noted, “Today Carter is writing music of dazzling brilliance and subtlety: music that speaks with a playful and even youthful directness. His productivity has increased as he has struck into new fields and forms, pouring forth a stream of pieces… No world-weary swansong, this is an invigorating explosion of creativity.” In his liner note for the acclaimed ECM Carter/Yun collection “Lauds & Lamentation” issued earlier this year, Heinz Holliger spoke of “the miracle of Elliott Carter’s later works”: “With ever more wondrous serenity and freedom, he is creating music whose complexity attains an almost Mozartian oneness with the work and reveals itself quite simply and naturally to the responsive ear of the listener.” Mr Carter, in a recent interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, attributed his new prolificness to a change of emphasis in the work. -
An Original 12-Tone Fugue Modeled After JS Bach's BWV
Andrews University Digital Commons @ Andrews University Honors Theses Undergraduate Research 2014 A Composition Project: an Original 12-tone Fugue Modeled After J. S. Bach's BWV 847 Ilana Joyce Cady Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors Part of the Composition Commons Recommended Citation Cady, Ilana Joyce, "A Composition Project: an Original 12-tone Fugue Modeled After J. S. Bach's BWV 847" (2014). Honors Theses. 101. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors/101 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your interest in the Andrews University Digital Library of Dissertations and Theses. Please honor the copyright of this document by not duplicating or distributing additional copies in any form without the author’s express written permission. Thanks for your cooperation. J.N. Andrews Program Andrews University Honors Thesis A Composition Project: An Original 12-tone Fugue Modeled after J.S. Bach’s BWV 847 Ilana Joyce Cady March 31, 2014 Advisors: Dr. Carlos Flores, primary Trina Thompson, secondary Primary Advisor Signature:______________________________ Department of Music 1 CONTENTS Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Definition of Terms 4 Compositional Process 7 Reflections 11 Appendices 13 Bibliography 21 2 ABSTRACT A Composition Project: An Original 12-Tone Fugue Modeled after J.S. Bach’s BWV 847 A prominent feature among great composers is they often attempt to expand the boundaries of expectation and strive to discover fresh, new, and innovative styles.