Hans Keller and the Media of Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William O’Hara
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Functional Analysis ◽  
Music Analysis ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Dynamic Mode ◽  
Music Criticism ◽  
Philosophy Of Music ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
The Media

Developed in the late 1950s, Hans Keller’s method of “functional analysis” (FA) sought to analyze music in audible form, without verbal argument or conceptual labels. Keller composed analytical interludes which repeated, recontextualized, and recomposed recognizable thematic and rhythmic elements from the compositions he studied, and placed them in between the movements of those works in live performances or radio broadcasts. Drawing on early twentieth-century music analysis, mid-century media theory, and recent studies of analysis for performance, this chapter reads Keller’s early analyses against a series of annual updates he published, chronicling FA’s development from a polemical philosophy of music criticism to a dynamic mode of wordless musical argument.

Modalities of National Identity: Sibelius Builds a First Symphony

2011 ◽  
pp. 451-483
Author(s):  
James Hepokoski
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Jean Sibelius ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

This article discusses Jean Sibelius, a Finn composer who emerged during the golden age of Finnish nationalist art. It first studies the gap between the elite-urban European art and Finnish-revered originary culture. Preserved literary and musical collections, the concept of strategic triangulation, and the construction of Sibelius' first symphony are discussed. The article also proposes a methodological model that is generalizable to the study of other art-music inflections of nationalism in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century music.

Juxtaposition and Non-motion: Varèse bridges early modernism to electroacoustic music

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY S. KENDALL
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Electroacoustic Music ◽  
Sound Structure ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

Edgard Varèse's Poème électronique can be viewed as a bridge between early twentieth-century modernism and electroacoustic music. This connection to early modernism is most clearly seen in its use of musical juxtaposition, a favoured technique of early modernist composers, especially those active in Paris. Juxtaposition and non-motion are considered here, particularly in relationship to Smalley's exposition of spectromorphology (Smalley 1986), which in its preoccupation with motion omits any significant consideration of non-motion. Juxtaposition and non-motion have an important history within twentieth-century music, and as an early classic of electroacoustic music, Poème électronique is a particularly striking example of a composition that is rich in juxtapositions similar to those found in passages of early modernist music. Examining Poème électronique through the lens of juxtaposition and non-motion reveals how the organisation of its juxtaposed sounds encourages the experience of sound structure suspended time.

Early Twentieth-Century Music

Notes ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 1338
Author(s):  
John Thow ◽  
Jonathan Dunsby ◽  
David Lewin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

scholarly journals Queue the Roll

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison Wente
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientific Management ◽  
Music Culture ◽  
Labor Practices ◽  
Labor Theory ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Industrial Labor ◽  
Twentieth Century Music

By the early twentieth century the machine aesthetic was a well-established and dominant interest. While this aesthetic has been examined in art and in literature, the representation of industrial labor practices and the role of the machine in musical compositions remain largely unexplored. In this article, I use labor theory to frame a discussion of a musical topic of the mechanical in various musical examples from the United States and Europe in the 1910s, 20s, and 30s. Each example imitates, showcases, or features the sounds of the machine, and illuminates the ways in which industrialized labor influenced music. I organize the machine sounds into three categories: music written to sound like or imitate the machine, music written to highlight the skills of virtuoso performers while also showcasing what the machine can do, and music written specifically for machines. These categories encompass a wide variety of performing bodies, audiences, and spaces, evidencing the ubiquitous presence of the machine aesthetic in early twentieth-century music culture. As the discussion of the examples in each part will show, the prevalence of machine sounds in music indicates the widespread influence of industrialization and its culturally dominant ideology, Frederick Winslow Taylor’s system of scientific management.

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