Composition

2020 ◽  
pp. 450-465
Author(s):  
Joseph Dubiel
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Concert Music ◽  
Musical Cultures ◽  
Prominent Line

The activity of composition is little discussed in philosophy, understandably due to its disunity across musical cultures. In the context of the individually composed concert music that has preoccupied the discipline, composing and the composer are often invoked figuratively as objects of a kind of engagement expected of the listener. This figure has survived a reversal of direction in a prominent line of anti-modern musical critique, in which composers can be faulted for not proceeding in ways that match those to which listeners supposedly are bound. In a music-analytical example drawn from the finale of Ruth Crawford Seeger’s String Quartet, alternatives are offered to these views. Explicit compositional procedures, realizing Crawford’s radical conception of dissonance, are regarded as influential upon, not definitive of, audible traits of what they produce; and the utility of these procedures is seen as including idle, indirect, and even counter-productive elements. Awareness of compositional process, and of the conceptions in which it is embedded, may substantially affect audition and appreciation.

ON HORATIU RADULESCU'S FIFTH STRING QUARTET (‘BEFORE THE UNIVERSE WAS BORN’) OP. 89

Tempo ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (268) ◽  
pp. 34-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Dougherty
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Compositional Approach ◽  
String Techniques ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Formal Construction

AbstractHoratiu Radulescu's Fifth String Quartet, ‘before the universe was born’, is a shining example of his radical compositional approach. With an intense interest in creating a rich, numinous sound-world constructed firmly on principles of nature, science and ancient philosophy, Radulescu developed a unique compositional language that breaks with traditional musical conventions. In hopes of illuminating the inner workings behind his often enigmatic compositional process, this article examines various aspects relating to Radulescu's Fifth Quartet: the work's formal construction, with a focus on its notation and overall large-scale harmonic development; the Quartet's rhythmic devices and their link to the philosophical underpinnings that drive the work; the extended instrumental string techniques employed throughout, the sounds they achieve, and how they are executed; and the work's spectral pitch organisation.

Study, Copy, and Conquer

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Hedges Brown
Keyword(s):  
Chamber Music ◽  
String Quartet ◽  
Expressive Power ◽  
Main Theme ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Piano Works ◽  
Piano Quartet ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Critical Writings

Schumann's 1842 chamber music exemplifies a common theme in his critical writings, that to sustain a notable inherited tradition composers must not merely imitate the past but reinvent it anew. Yet Schumann's innovative practices have not been sufficiently acknowledged, partly because his instrumental repertory seemed conservative to critics of Schumann's day and beyond, especially when compared to his earlier experimental piano works and songs. This essay offers a revisionist perspective by exploring three chamber movements that recast sonata procedure in one of two complementary ways: either the tonic key monopolizes the exposition (as in the first movement of the Piano Quartet in E♭ major, op. 47), or a modulating main theme undercuts a definitive presence of the tonic key at the outset (as in the first movement of the String Quartet in A major, op. 41, no. 3, and the finale of the String Quartet in A minor, op. 41, no. 1). Viewed against conventional sonata practice, these chamber movements appear puzzling, perhaps even incoherent or awkward, since they thwart the tonal contrast of keys so characteristic of the form. Yet these unusual openings, and the compelling if surprising ramifications that they prompt, signal not compositional weakness but rather an effort to reinterpret the form as a way of strengthening its expressive power. My analyses also draw on other perspectives to illuminate these sonata forms. All three movements adopt a striking thematic idea or formal ploy that evokes a specific Beethovenian precedent; yet each movement also highlights Schumann’s creative distance from his predecessor by departing in notable ways from the conjured model. Aspects of Schumann’s sketches, especially those concerning changes made during the compositional process, also illuminate relevant analytical points. Finally, in the analysis of the finale of the A-minor quartet, I consider how Schumann’s evocation of Hungarian Gypsy music may be not merely incidental to but supportive of his reimagined sonata form. Ultimately, the perspectives offered here easily accommodate—even celebrate—Schumann’s idiosyncratic approach to sonata form. They also demonstrate that Schumann’s earlier experimental tendencies did not contradict his efforts in the early 1840s to further advance his inherited classical past.

“A new kind of part writing”

2021 ◽  
pp. 49-72
Author(s):  
Nancy November
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Careful Attention ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Art And Science ◽  
Fourth Movement ◽  
Middle Period ◽  
Unique Nature

Chapters 3 and 4 focus on Beethoven’s two statements that the work shows “a new kind of part writing” and “not less fantasy” than his previous works. The chapters explore, respectively, what each of these statements might have meant in terms of Beethoven’s compositional perspective, and in terms of performance and reception in his day. His comment on a “new kind of part-writing” is especially noteworthy, given that Op. 131 was his penultimate quartet. In light of the considerable experimentation in the middle-period quartets, one might have thought that by the 1820s Beethoven would have exhausted most possibilities for innovating in string quartet part-writing. To further explore what Beethoven meant, I go back to sketches and notes relating to the middle-period quartets, in particular his new idea of composing and hearing all four parts at once, which he noted down in a sketchbook around the time he was composing Op. 74. How does this new idea about the compositional process relate to the late quartets and Op. 131 in particular? I consider evidence from the sketches for Op. 131 as well as the early reception of the finished product. Adolph Bernhard Marx, for example, draws attention to the late quartets’ “Bachian counterpoint.” I focus in particular on the variations of the fourth movement. My analyses draw attention to the unique nature of all four voices, and the sense in which each part is crafted with careful attention to the art and science of listening.

scholarly journals Sublime and precise: Mind sonorities of Vlastimir Pericic

Muzikologija ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 167-183
Author(s):  
Dragana Stojanovic-Novicic
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
New Music ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Theoretical Studies ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Professional Recognition ◽  
Technical Realization ◽  
The Moment

Author discusses the course and results of the professional activity of Serbian composer and musicologist Vlastimir Pericic (1927-2000). At the beginning of his career Pericic was a promising young composer who won a prestigous Vercelli Competition Prize in 1950 for his String quartet. His style was characterized by post-romantic musical expression. He was convinced that a tonal system was the only acceptable base for making new music. In that sense, he came close to Paul Hindemith's approach to the world of new sonorities. The author explains Pericic's position in the context of Serbian music of the second half of the 20th century. He was considered somewhat conservative because he never accepted avant-garde techniques and procedures. His imagination and concentration on compositional process made him competent in the technical realization of his rich musical ideas. On the other hand, he was a shy personality who had never been penetrating enough to promote his own works. Hence, during the last decades of his life (when he stopped composing) almost no one was conscious of the great value of his works. Pericic suddenly interrupted his compositional career in the mid 1960s and thereafter devoted himself to theoretical work. His books on counterpoint harmony, and Serbian composers, many articles on contemporary Serbian composers, as well as his major multilingual dictionary of musical terms which includes seven languages, were among the finest fruits of Serbian theoretical achievements in the field of music. Now is the moment to reexamine Pericic's opus because his compositional achievements, as well as his theoretical studies, were of the highest quality. Pericic was a real part of the European music elite as a composer and musicologist, but he never received adequate professional recognition, especially in a broader European context.

scholarly journals Carl Nielsen, Quartet for two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 5. A Glance into the Composer’s Workshop

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elly Bruunshuus Petersen
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Central Section ◽  
Final Version

The first part of this article describes the compositional process in Nielsen’s String Quartet Op. 5, on the basis of an examination of the sketches, additions and deletions found in the draft score. In the majority of cases the sketches are short and closely related to the musical material beside which they are notated. Close examination shows that Nielsen evidently had a sufficiency of ideas but that he often had problems working them into context. Apart from the short sketches there are three versions of a central section in the second movement. On the basis of an analysis of the entire movement – including the motivic working in the various middle sections and their relationship to the outer sections – the second part of the article gives a rationale for Nielsen’s third and final version.

scholarly journals Reading Textural Functions, Instrumental Techniques, and Space Through Partition Complexes

2020 ◽  
Vol IV (2) ◽  
pp. 80-97
Author(s):  
Pauxy Gentil-Nunes
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Relations ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Concert Music ◽  
Musical Practice ◽  
Partition Analysis ◽  
Repertoire Analysis ◽  
Musical Texture

Partitional complexes are sets of discrete textural configurations (called shortly of partitions in Partition Analysis) that successfully interact to construct a global textural structure. This textural mode is called the Textural Proposal of a piece, where referential partitions (those that represent the main features of textural configurations in the excerpt) stand out. This conceptual environment, developed in musical texture formalization through observation and musical repertoire analysis, is now applied to musical practice. In the present work, we highlight three of these situations. The first one deals with the creative flow (compositional process) and its relation with textural planning. The second observes how these same textural functions condition the body's physical coupling to the instrument (fingers, hands, pedals, instrumentation). Finally, just as an introduction, we envisage some spatial relations, involving instrument distribution on stage, emphasizing historical concert music.

From Trinidad and Tobago to the World: Determining the role of Calypso in a new Era

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 7-11
Author(s):  
Malek Abdel-Shehid
Keyword(s):  
Trinidad And Tobago ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
West African ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
New Era ◽  
Transatlantic Slave Trade ◽  
Cultural Sovereignty ◽  
Caribbean Culture ◽  
Musical Cultures

Calypso is a popular Caribbean musical genre that originated in the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The genre was developed primarily by enslaved West Africans brought to the region via the transatlantic slave trade during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although West-African Kaiso music was a major influence, the genre has also been shaped by other African genres, and by Indian, British, French, and Spanish musical cultures. Emerging in the early twentieth century, Calypso became a tool of resistance by Afro-Caribbean working-class Trinbagonians. Calypso flourished in Trinidad due to a combination of factors—namely, the migration of Afro-Caribbean people from across the region in search of upward social mobility. These people sought to expose the injustices perpetrated by a foreign European and a domestic elite against labourers in industries such as petroleum extraction. The genre is heavily anti-colonial, anti-imperial, and anti-elitist, and it advocated for regional integration. Although this did not occur immediately, Calypsonians sought to establish unity across the region regardless of race, nationality, and class through their songwriting and performing. Today, Calypso remains a unifying force and an important part of Caribbean culture. Considering Calypso's history and purpose, as well as its ever-changing creators and audiences, this essay will demonstrate that the goal of regional integration is not possible without cultural sovereignty.

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