Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CGU Theses & Dissertations CGU Student Scholarship 2012 Musical Aesthetics and Creative Identification in Two Harmonielehren by John Adams and Arnold Schoenberg Scott M. Strovas Claremont Graduate University Recommended Citation Strovas, Scott M., "Musical Aesthetics and Creative Identification in Two Harmonielehren by John Adams and Arnold Schoenberg" (2012). CGU Theses & Dissertations. Paper 46. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/46 DOI: 10.5642/cguetd/46 This Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in CGU Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Musical Aesthetics and Creative Identification in Two Harmonielehren by John Adams and Arnold Schoenberg by Scott M. Strovas A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Claremont Graduate University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Musicology. Claremont Graduate University 2012 APPROVAL OF THE REVIEW COMMITTEE This dissertation has been duly read, reviewed, and critiqued by the Committee listed below, which hereby approves the manuscript of Scott M. Strovas as fulfilling the scope and quality requirements for meriting the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Nancy van Deusen, Chair Claremont Graduate University Professor of Music Louis and Mildred Benezet Chair in the Humanities Peter Boyer Claremont Graduate University Professor of Music Helen M. Smith Chair in Music Robert Zappulla Claremont Graduate University Associate Professor of Music Fred W. Smith and Grace Hobson Smith Chair in Music Wendy Martin Claremont Graduate University Professor of American Literature and American Studies Vice Provost and Director of the Transdisciplinary Studies Program Abstract Musical Aesthetics and Creative Identification in Two Harmonielehren by John Adams and Arnold Schoenberg by Scott M. Strovas Claremont Graduate University: 2012 The music of John Adams (b. 1947) exemplifies a reinvestment in traditional instrumental genres and musical values that began to take place in contemporary music in the late 1970s and early ’80s. His Harmonielehre for orchestra (1984-85) meets many of the conditions of the symphonic genre, including its scoring for full orchestral forces, its multi- movement structure, its presentation of contrary, dialectical melodic gestures, and its dramatic thematic and harmonic conflict. It is thus ironic that Adams would title his composition after a treatise written by Arnold Schoenberg, a figure whose break from the musical past inspired many of the complex and experimental musical models that arose between the publication of his own Harmonielehre (1911, rev. 1922) and that of Adams. But to conclude that Adams’ composition is a statement about tonality is perhaps over-simplistic. Examination of the two works reveals more similarities between the composers’ artistic philosophies than differences. This dissertation is an attempt to expose these similarities in order to discover the motivations behind Adams’ curious decision to title his composition after Schoenberg’s treatise, and to gain a deeper understanding of the artistic priorities shared by both composers that arises from the interrelationship between their respective Harmonielehren . Adams’ title is partly a marker of the types of Romantic-era stylizations that pervade his score. But I argue that the relationship between the two Harmonielehren is not merely cursory. Prevalent themes within Schoenberg’s prose can inform the analysis and interpretation of Adams’ composition. Adams draws on Schoenberg’s treatise as a signifier of his creative identification, one that both complements and departs from the creative model presented in Schoenberg’s text. Both Harmonielehren confront the aesthetic expectations of their individual times and places, but while Schoenberg centers his creative identification in a discourse of restless inquiry into new materials and models of musical expression, Adams seemingly subscribes to Schoenberg’s presentation of composition as craft, as the working-with and fitting- together-of the pre-existing sound vocabularies of music. Acknowledgements Had it not been for as encouraging and judicious an advisor as Dr. Nancy van Deusen, this dissertation would have taken an entirely different path. I am indebted to her for her guidance, support, and patience throughout the process of this project, and for her commitment at Claremont Graduate University to challenging her students to inquire beyond the established curricula. I have found in Professor van Deusen not only a mentor and friend, but also a model for the type of musicological scholar that I will seek to be throughout my career. I extend my sincere gratitude likewise to Peter Boyer, Robert Zappulla, and Wendy Martin for their time and energy as reviewers of this dissertation, and for their thoughtful remarks and guidance in bringing the project to a close. Additionally, I owe the generative idea for my dissertation to Professor Boyer, who put together at Claremont Graduate University likely one of the first college courses to take the music of John Adams solely as its object of study, and to my colleagues with whom I shared in the experience of the course: Joel Davis, Glenn Pickett, Phil Ruiz, and Joseph Schubert. I am consistently humbled by the profound musical intellect, yet genuine humility exhibited by each of these individuals. And I am forever grateful for the friendships that we cultivated in the classroom, in study and listening sessions, and, of course, at the local pub. While completing this dissertation, I have been fortunate to have been supported by two grants awarded by the Claremont Graduate University Transdisciplinary Studies Program. The Albert B. Friedman Arts and Humanities Grant for Transdisciplinary Studies provided resources for me to purchase the scores, recordings, and other primary and secondary materials necessary to get this project underway. Secondly, the Claremont Graduate University Transdisciplinary v Dissertation Award subsidized living and education expenses partially while I completed the bulk of this work. To my parents, Denny and Carolyn Strovas: I am especially grateful for your enduring support and encouragement. This dissertation is both the culmination and beginning of a lifetime of musical study made possible by your selflessness. I cannot begin to detail the financial sacrifice and emotional support, from purchasing several trumpets and other instruments to driving thousands of aggregate miles to attend performances, that laid the foundation for me to attain this goal and pursue a career in music. Thank you for your love, and for nurturing my potential as a musician and scholar. Finally, to my wife, my partner in life, my teammate in scholarship, and my best friend, Karen Beth Strovas: I can say with all certainty that this project could not have been completed without your companionship, your attentive ear and critical feedback, your love, your support, and your biscuits. I am captivated by your wit and beauty, and by your generosity and true selflessness. You are good police, KB, and my degree is so much more meaningful because I did it with you. vi Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgments v Chapter 1: Introduction: The Harmonielehren of Adams and Schoenberg 1 In Search of Models: Overview and Background of John Adams’ Harmonielehre 4 The Scope and Methodology of this Dissertation 11 PART 1: “TO HELL WITH ALL THESE THEORIES”: IMPASSES AND OPPOSITION 20 Chapter 2: Schoenberg and the Challenge to Musical Tradition 29 Aesthetics of Beauty and the Inadequacies of System 39 Schoenberg’s Appeal to Nature 52 Chapter 3: Adams and the Challenge to Musical Modernism 62 Textual Stratification, “Elegiac” Melodies, and Jazz Influences 70 “Functional Minimalism,” “Projected Motion,” and Dramatic Conflict 85 Part 1 Conclusions 103 PART 2: “AN IMPOSIING HEAP OF UNEXAMINED SCRAP MATERIAL”: CREATIVE IDENTIFICATION AND COMPOSITIONAL PHILOSOPHY 106 Chapter 4: Harmonic and Historical Discord: The Composer as Philosopher 112 The Metaphysics of Craft 115 From Craftsman to Searcher: The Composer’s “Sense of Form” 129 Chapter 5: Music Composition as Craftsmanly Activity 145 The Materials of Music 150 Starting Places 167 Part 2 Conclusions 177 Bibliography 181 vii Table of Illustrations Music Examples 3.1 Harmonielehre , Part I (mm. 257-67; reduced score) 71 3.2a Harmonielehre , Part I (mm. 20-24) 87 3.2b Harmonielehre , Part I (mm. 67-72) 88 3.2c Harmonielehre , Part I (mm. 121-125) 89 3.2d Harmonielehre , Part I (mm. 159-161) 90 3.3 Trumpet Rhythmic Motive (m. 136) 92 3.4 Harmonielehre , Part I, Theme 1 (mm. 19-31) 100 5.1 Schoenberg, Farben from Op. 16 (mm. 1-9): Five-Part Canon 155 5.2 Schoenberg, Farben from Op. 16 (mm. 1-4): Five-Part Reduction 158 5.3 Harmonielehre , Part II (mm. 52-65): Trumpet Melody above Farben Cantus Firmus 159 5.4 Harmonielehre , Part II (mm. 52-60): Harmonic Reduction 161 Tables 1 Harmonielehre , Progression of Characteristic Passages 102 viii CHAPTER 1 Introduction: The Harmonielehren of Adams and Schoenberg “My decision to name my symphony Harmonielehre is almost impossible to explain,” writes John Adams (b. 1947) in his 2008 memoirs, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life .1 Dotted with as many literary, cultural, political, jazz, rock,