Canons and Contestable Cadences in Brahms's Op. 118 No. 4

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-152
Author(s):  
Caleb Mutch

Brahms's F minor Intermezzo, Op. 118 No. 4 prominently employs the fusty compositional technique of strict canon at the octave. Yet Brahms embeds this canon in music that is anything but fusty: as I demonstrate, unexpected features abound in the textures, dissonance treatment, modulatory schemes, and motives with which Brahms girds the canon. The movement's approach to cadences is also remarkable. The presence of a continuous canon automatically precludes all voices coming to rest simultaneously, but Brahms further attenuates the piece's cadences. Most notably, in this movement Brahms avoids traditional authentic-cadence closure entirely, writing not a single cadential progression from a root-position C major chord to a root-position F chord. Instead, I argue that Brahms effects tonal closure by using the augmented sixth chord, which supplants the dominant's usual function. He does this most obviously by repeating the augmented sixth sonority in prominent positions within the ternary form's final A section. I also show that Brahms artfully foreshadows this chord's importance in the initial A section, where he successively tonicizes each member of that harmony.

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Neimoyer

1924 was one of the most demanding years of George Gershwin’s career. In addition to the wildly successful premiere of the Rhapsody in Blue that led to numerous additional performances of the work throughout the year, he wrote the music for three hit musicals, all of which opened during that year. Given this context, a manuscript notebook in the Gershwin Collection at the Library of Congress dating from March and April 1924 is particularly intriguing. Because this notebook contains the earliest known sketch of “The Man I Love” (one of Gershwin’s best-loved popular songs), it has been acknowledged in passing by Gershwin scholars. “The Man I Love,” however, is only one of nine short pieces in the notebook and is the only entry written in what is now defined as Gershwin’s compositional style. This article briefly addresses the entire contents of this “March–April 1924 notebook,” exploring the possibilities of what Gershwin’s purposes in writing these undeveloped works might have been. Were they unused stage music, ideas for the set of piano preludes he was writing off and on during this era, or were they exercises focused on correcting weaknesses in compositional technique uncovered while writing the Rhapsody in Blue? Whatever their purpose, the pieces in this notebook provide clues as to what Gershwin’s creative priorities may have been, as well as further insights into how Gershwin honed his musical craft.


Author(s):  
Benjamin R. Levy

This chapter examines Ligeti’s breakthrough orchestral works Apparitions and Atmosphères. These successful compositions translate some of the ideas developed in the electronic music studio into orchestral writing, in particular, techniques for organizing rhythm and for handling sound masses to create a static surface with a sense of internal motion. In interviews Ligeti claimed to have attempted to move in this direction while still in Hungary with the unfinished pieces Víziók and Sötét és Világos. A comparison of the extant sketches for these works shows the degree to which his experiences in the electronic studio resulted in a refinement of compositional technique, nuanced textures, and original orchestration.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-183
Author(s):  
Diana B. Archangeli ◽  
Jonathan Yip

AbstractBased on impressionistic and acoustic data, Assamese is described as having a phonological tongue root harmony system, with blocking by certain phonological configurations and over-application in certain morphological contexts. This study explores physical properties of the patterns using ultrasonic imaging to determine whether the impressionistic descriptions match what speakers actually do. Principal components analysis (PCA) determines that most participants produce a contrast in tongue root position in the appropriate contexts, though there is less of an impact on tongue root with greater distance from the triggering vowel. Analysis uses the root mean squared distance (RMSD) calculation to determine whether both blocking and over-application take effect. The blocking results conform to the impressionistic descriptions. With over-application, [e] and [o] are expected; while some speakers clearly produce these vowels, others articulate a vowel that is indeterminant between the expected [e]/[o] and an unexpected [ɛ]/[ɔ]. No speaker consistently showed the expected tongue root position in all contexts, and some speakers appeared to have lost the contrast entirely, yet all are considered to be speakers of the same dialect of Assamese. Whether this (apparent) loss is a consequence of crude research methodologies or accurately reflects what is happening within the language community remains an open question.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyungmin Lee ◽  
Gyu-Hyoung Lee

Abstract Background Radiographs are integral in evaluating implant space and inter-root distance. The purpose of this report is to introduce a method for evaluating the 3D root position with minimal radiation using a 3D tooth model composed of an intraoral-scanned crown and a cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-scanned root. Materials and methods Intraoral scan and CBCT scan of the patient were obtained before treatment. In the CBCT image, tooth segmentation was performed by isolating individual teeth from the maxillary and mandibular alveolar bone using software program. The 3D tooth model was fabricated by combining segmented individual teeth with the intraoral scan. Results A post-treatment intraoral scan was integrated into the tooth model, and the resulting position of the root could be predicted without additional radiographs. It is possible to monitor the root position after a pretreatment CBCT scan using a 3D tooth model without additional radiographs. Conclusion The application of the 3D tooth model benefits the patient by reducing repeated radiation exposure while providing the clinician with a precise treatment evaluation to monitor tooth movement.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Virtala ◽  
Minna Huotilainen ◽  
Esa Lilja ◽  
Juha Ojala ◽  
Mari Tervaniemi

Guitar distortion used in rock music modifies a chord so that new frequencies appear in its harmonic structure. A distorted dyad (power chord) has a special role in heavy metal music due to its harmonics that create a major third interval, making it similar to a major chord. We investigated how distortion affects cortical auditory processing of chords in musicians and nonmusicians. Electric guitar chords with or without distortion and with or without the interval of the major third (i.e., triads or dyads) were presented in an oddball design where one of them served as a repeating standard stimulus and others served as occasional deviants. This enabled the recording of event-related potentials (ERPs) of the electroencephalogram (EEG) related to deviance processing (the mismatch negativity MMN and the attention-related P3a component) in an ignore condition. MMN and P3a responses were elicited in most paradigms. Distorted chords in a nondistorted context only elicited early P3a responses. However, the power chord did not demonstrate a special role in the level of the ERPs. Earlier and larger MMN and P3a responses were elicited when distortion was modified compared to when only harmony (triad vs. dyad) was modified between standards and deviants. The MMN responses were largest when distortion and harmony deviated simultaneously. Musicians demonstrated larger P3a responses than nonmusicians. The results suggest mostly independent cortical auditory processing of distortion and harmony in Western individuals, and facilitated chord change processing in musicians compared to nonmusicians. While distortion has been used in heavy rock music for decades, this study is among the first ones to shed light on its cortical basis.


2002 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Hayes Edwards

The literary plays an indispensable role in the creative process and compositional technique of the great jazz composer and orchestra leader Duke Ellington. It is well known that he based a number of his pieces on literary sources and that many of his larger works in particular rely on narrative written by Ellington and/or his collaborator Billy Strayhorn, whether it was programmatic, recitative, or lyric. In all his music, Ellington was concerned with ''telling tales'' in language, not only in sounds - or more precisely, in both: composing in ways that combined words and music. This imperative is evidenced in the pieces Ellington called ''parallels,'' a word he chose in particular to highlight the formal relationship between music and literature. In some, such as the ''Shakespearean Suite'' known as ''Such Sweet Thunder,'' he used various structural approaches and instrumental techniques to achieve portraiture through the interrelationship between the musical and the literary. In other pieces, such as ''My People'' and especially ''Black, Brown and Beige,'' Ellington attempted to integrate literary texts into his music in a manner that is not programmatic. The longer pieces demonstrate that for Ellington's aesthetic, the representation of African American history necessitated a mixed, multimedia form.


2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 562-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcela Tonini Venturini ◽  
Vanderlei da Silva Santos ◽  
Eder Jorge de Oliveira

Abstract: The objective of this work was to define procedures to assess the tolerance of cassava genotypes to postharvest physiological deterioration (PPD) and to microbial deterioration (MD). Roots of six cassava genotypes were evaluated in two experiments, during storage under different environmental conditions: high temperature and low soil moisture; or low temperature and high soil moisture. Roots were treated or not with fungicide (carbendazim) before storage. Genotype reactions to MD and PPD were evaluated at 0, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 30 days after harvest (DAH), in the proximal, medial, and distal parts of the roots. A diagrammatic scale was proposed to evaluate nonperipheral symptoms of PPD. Fungicide treatment and root position did not influence PPD expression; however, all factors had significant effect on MD severity. Genotypes differed as to their tolerance to PPD and MD. Both deterioration types were more pronounced during periods of higher humidity and lower temperatures. The fungicide treatment increased root shelf life by reducing MD severity up to 10 DAH. Whole roots showed low MD severity and high PPD expression up to 10 DAH, which enabled the assessment of PPD without significant interference of MD symptoms during this period.


Muzikologija ◽  
2007 ◽  
pp. 295-302
Author(s):  
Marija Masnikosa

This paper discusses the compositional technique and the poetic level of the composition Glasovi Zemljana (Voices of Earthmen) composed by Vladan Radovanovic in 1995. The work is based on the composer?s own musical principle, which he called hyperpoliphony, established in his early work Polyphony No. 9, and applied in his entire musical opus to date. The composition contains three movements, although the disposition of each section implies integration at a higher level of its structure, enabling us to interpret this work as an organic, textually unified three-part whole. Even though so-called hyperpolyphony creates and pervades the whole composition, this music is not the outcome of some rigid system. It breathes and it has its own ?warm? and even ?confessing? sections, especially in the unexpected instrumental and vocal ?solo-episodes?. Although this work was composed in an age of musical postmodernism, and shows a very strong imprint of musical expressionism, its atonality and very specific modernist musical technique define it as a modernist work, which places it in the huge trajectory of musical modernism of the second half of the twentieth century.


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