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A Practical Approach to Donald Martino's Twelve-Tone Song Cycles

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A Practical Approach to Donald Martino's Twelve-Tone Song Cycles A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO DONALD MARTINO‘S TWELVE-TONE SONG CYCLES: THREE SONGS AND TWO RILKE SONGS, FOR PERFORMANCE Yoon Joo Yang, B.M., M.M. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2011 APPROVED: Jennifer Lane, Major Professor Stephen Dubberly, Committee Member Graham Phipps, Committee Member Jeffrey Snider, Chair of the Division of Vocal Studies Lynn Eustis, Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Music James C. Scott, Dean of the College of Music Yang, Yoon Joo. A practical approach to Donald Martino’s twelve-tone song cycles: “Three Songs” and “Two Rilke Songs,” for performance. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), May 2011, 64 pp., 29 figures, appendix, bibliography, 49 titles. The performance of vocal works using the twelve-tone technique requires thorough study of complex rhythms, non-tonal melodies, non-traditional notations, and specific musical terms. They generally also require advanced and varied vocal techniques. Twelve-tone vocal works often contain unusual features vital to the composer’s intention. One of the premiere twelve-tone composers in the United States, Donald Martino (1931-2005) composed only two solo vocal works using the twelve-tone technique: Three Songs (1955) and Two Rilke Songs (1961). He has explored innovative and progressive uses of the twelve-tone technique, and composed music with particular methods of his own, later used by other composers. Three Songs, his first twelve-tone work, and Two Rilke Songs, the only twelve-tone song cycle in his mature style, present comparable features in his use of the twelve-tone technique, text setting, and notations. The variety of ways in which Martino uses these features in the song cycles is discussed in the performance guide. The intention of the present study is to help performers, especially singers, understand Donald Martino’s two twelve-tone song cycles, and to aid in the preparation of an excellent performance. The study includes a study of historical context, the poems, and Martino’s compositional and aesthetic approaches to setting them. It also offers practical and systemized ways of analyzing and preparing Martino’s songs for performance. It is hoped that the methods suggested herein will reduce a singer’s difficulties and rehearsal time with the pianist. The present study will offer a valuable addition to the literature on the performance practice of twelve-tone vocal music, and provide insight and advice on how to practice and perform other non-tonal music. This method of study may be applied to other contemporary music. Doing so can in turn help develop a singer’s skill in handling tonal and rhythmic difficulties of all kinds, including non-traditional notations. Copyright 2011 by Yoon-Joo Yang ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................v Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 2. DONALD MARTINO (1931-2005), TOWARD THE TWELVE-TONE COMPOSER AND HIS ONLY TWELVE-TONE VOCAL WORKS: THREE SONGS AND TWO RILKE SONGS ..................................................................4 Modern Music in the United States before Martino’s First Twelve- Tone Composition Donald Martino, Toward the Twelve-Tone Composer Martino’s First Twelve-Tone Work, Three Songs Martino’s Last Twelve-Tone Vocal Work, Two Rilke Songs Martino’s Influence on His Pupils 3. MARTINO’S AESTHETIC AND COMPOSITIONAL APPROACHES TO THE TEXTS ....................................................................................................16 James Joyce (1882-1941) Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) 4. PERFORMANCE GUIDE...............................................................................28 Complicated Rhythmic Figures Chromatic Melodies/Pitch Organization and Large Leaps Overview Three Songs Two Rilke Songs Large Leaps Sprechstimme and Speaking Voice Special Notations and Indications Rehearsal with an Accompaniment iii 5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................52 APPENDIX: NOMENCLATURE AND COMBINATORIALITY ............................54 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................60 iv LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 9-11 ………….……………..……….… 13 Fig. 2. Three Songs, ―Alone,‖ the recurring chord B♭- A - B - G# ………………… 18 Fig. 3. Three Songs, ―Tutto è sciolto,‖ mm. 1-3 ……………………………………. 19 Fig. 4. Three Songs, ―Tutto è sciolto,‖ a falling gesture ……………………………. 19 Fig. 5. Three Songs, ―A Memory of the Players in a Mirror at Midnight,‖ mm.1-3... 20 Fig. 6. Three Songs, ―A Memory of the Players in a Mirror at Midnight,‖ mm. 21-23 ………………………………………………………….……….…. 20 Fig. 7. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 1-3 ……………………………………. 23 Fig. 8. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 12-14 …………………………………. 23 Fig. 9. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 15-16, piano part ……………………... 24 Fig. 9-a. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 17, vocal part ………….……………. 24 Fig. 10. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 36 ……………………………………. 25 Fig. 11. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 17-18 ………….…………….….……. 29 Fig. 12. Three Songs, opening of ―Alone,‖ mm. 1-2 …………………….…………. 32 Fig. 12-a. Three Songs, ―Alone,‖ partitioning of RI-8 ………………….………….. 32 Fig. 13. Three Songs, opening tone rows…………………………………………… 33 Fig. 14. Three Songs, tetrachordal exercises …………………………..…………… 33 Fig. 15. Two Rilke Songs, opening of ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 1-2 ……………….……… 36 Fig. 15-a. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ partitioning of P-6 ……………………… 36 Fig. 16. Two Rilke Songs, opening of ―Aus einer Sturmnacht VIII,‖ mm. 1-5 ……... 37 Fig. 16-a. Two Rilke Songs, ―Aus einer Sturmnacht VIII,‖ partitioning of P-0 …….. 37 Fig. 17. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 4-9: hexachordal partition (P-0) ….…. 38 v Fig. 18. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 12-14 ………………………………... 39 Fig. 18-a. Two Rilke Songs, ―Aus einer Sturmnacht VIII,‖ mm. 3-6, 10-12, 6-9 ……39 Fig. 19. Die Laute, mm. 18-20……………………………………………………… 40 Fig. 20. Two Rilke Songs, ―Aus einer Sturmnacht VIII,‖ mm. 6-7 …………………. 43 Fig. 21. Two Rilke Songs, ―Aus einer Sturmnacht VIII,‖ mm. 13-15 ………………. 45 Fig. 22. Three Songs, ―A Memory of the Players in a Mirror at Midnight,‖ shifting whispering to full voice, mm. 5~8 ……….…………………….……………. 46 Fig. 23. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ m. 18 ……………………………………... 47 Fig. 24. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ m. 23 ………………………………………48 Fig. 25. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ m. 26 ………………………………………48 Fig. 26. Two Rilke Songs, ―Aus einer Sturmnacht VIII,‖ mm. 1-5 …………………. 49 Fig. 27. Two Rilke Songs, ―Die Laute,‖ mm. 4-6 …………………………………... 49 Fig. 28. Luigi Dallapiccola, An Mathilde, no. 2, m. 4 ……………………………… 50 Fig. 29. Two Rilke Songs, ―Aus einer Sturmnacht VIII,‖ m. 11 …………………….. 50 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Since Arnold Schoenberg initially developed the twelve-tone technique1 in the early part of the twentieth century, composers worldwide have composed vocal music with this technique. One significant composer, Donald Martino (1931-2005), has explored innovative and progressive uses of the twelve-tone technique, and composed music with particular methods, later used by other composers. This paper aims to demonstrate, through study of Martino‘s twelve-tone vocal works, that it can be valuable to explore innovative and practical ways of preparing twelve-tone vocal works for performance, especially in ways that use an understanding of an individual composer‘s innovations. Twelve-tone works often include non-tonal harmony, highly chromatic melodies, and independent rhythmic settings between the vocal and accompanimental parts, and these usually require more rehearsal time and effort to prepare for performance than tonal music of the same length generally does. Because texts are often set in non-literal ways when using the twelve-tone system, transforming whole poetic metaphors into the musical structure, some analytical study of the specific compositional methods used may help a singer to learn the music and understand the text setting. It must be noted that there are very few published articles, books, recordings, or performance guides related to the preparation of twelve-tone works for 1 Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition in which all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are related only to one another in a piece of music. See Paul Lansky and George Perle, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: Twelve-note Composition, edited by Stanley Sadie, vol. 26 (Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2001), 1-11. 1 singers. This, and the fact that they generally require rigorous practice, especially for singers who do not have perfect pitch, results in many singers‘ reluctance to undertake learning them. Even works by very well known composers, many of which reward the effort, are often, sadly, overlooked. The intention of the present study is to help performers, especially singers, understand Donald Martino‘s two twelve-tone song cycles, Three Songs (1955) and Two Rilke Songs (1961), and to aid in the preparation of an excellent performance of them. This study provides some historical context for modernist music in the United States before Martino‘s first twelve-tone work. It also addresses the period during which Martino composed his twelve-tone vocal works, i.e. 1954 to 1961. It also includes a study of the poems from Pomes Penyeach by James Joyce that Martino uses in Three Songs,
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