The Pen as Camera

The photographic effect of overexposure is analogous to Michael Finnissy’s technique of selective musical borrowing. Just as a photographer uses the camera to allow an overabundance of light to wash out pictorial details, Finnissy uses his transcriptive pen to allow an overabundance of silence to alter and fragment his borrowed sources. Case studies demonstrate Finnissy’s borrowing of cadential phrases by J. S. Bach, Beethoven, and Bruckner in his solo piano works Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sind (1992) and The History of Photography in Sound (1995–2001). Comparing original sources, unpublished sketches, and published autographs reveals the composer’s precise transcriptive mechanisms. Measuring the alteration of tonal function enacted by specific harmonic and rhythmic distortions illuminates Finnissy’s pre-compositional practice while celebrating the sonic experience of his music on its own terms.

A Transformational Approach to Gesture in Shō Performance

Through an analysis of contemporary shō performance practice, this article explores the relationship between instrumental gesture and modal theory in contemporary gagaku. I demonstrate that the idiosyncratic arrangement of the pipes on the shō is closely related to the pitch structure and tonal function of the aitake pitch clusters. My analysis synthesizes two approaches. First, I adopt David Lewin’s (1987) transformational attitude to conceptualize the aitake not as static musical objects but as processes of motion enacted by the te-utsuri—standardized fingering movements for shifting between two aitake. Second, I treat the aitake as sonic byproducts of a performer's instrumental gestures to examine how the aitake are related to one another kinesthetically, and whether these relationships correlate with the pitch structures of the aitake. I argue that relatedness between aitake is determined by the parsimony of te-utsuri. The most parsimonious movements can be enacted between four aitake: bō, kotsu, ichi and otsu. These aitake are identical to the clusters that accompany the fundamental tones of five of the six modes: Ichikotsu-chō, Hyōjō, Taishiki-chō, Oshiki-chō and Banshiki-chō. These findings demonstrate that the pipes of the shō, while seemingly arranged in no discernable order, prioritize parsimonious te-utsuri between each of the aitake accompanying the fundamental modal degrees. An analysis of the pitch structure of aitake through the lens of te-utsuri reveals a striking correlation between gestural parsimony and tonal function.

Romantic Provenance

The chapter considers how seventh chords, half-diminished chords, and diminished chords might fit into the book’s root–theoretical model of tonal function, grounded in the Romantic tradition of Schubert, Beethoven, and Chopin. The chapter works toward a full functional analysis of the Vorspiel and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. The phantasy involved in Isolde’s transfiguration is explored from a Lacanian perspective, leading to reflections on how phantasy works to support tonal function. An addition to the canon of analyses of Hugo Wolf’s “An den Schlaf” covers the theme of death, sleep, and the land of limbo in between, offering a corollary to Isolde’s desire for death. These themes weave their way into the outlined theory of harmonic function and offer a precursor to the psychodynamics to come.

Determination of Structure

How can a performer’s voice complement that of a theorist in the analysis of a musical work? This chapter takes the opening cadenza of Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand as a case study. Certain performance considerations—embodied facets, instrumental affordances, and affective implications—comprise warp and weft not only of the Concerto’s execution and interpretation, but also of its structure and meaning. The chapter explores the cadenza: visual and kinesthetic aspects, rhetorical and tonal function, form and structure, rhythmic features and performance issues. The analysis is informed by the authors’ experiences of performing the Concerto and by historical recordings of the work. Video performances and audio examples complement the written text.

What is a Function?

This article discusses Hugo Riemann's notion of a tonal or harmonic function, which he first introduced into musical-theoretical discourse, Vereinfachte Harmonielehre in 1893. Riemann's notion of a tonal function refers to either the chords or properties of chords, classified as: tonic, dominant, and subdominant. In this article, the focus is on the equation of “function” with “meaning”, because it is in this connection that the term “function” occurs for the first time, and because the equation forms the core of the later references to the idea. What follows is a critical appraisal rather than history of the concept. The aim in this article is to consider within broad but specific historical boundaries, the discursive potential of the term in Riemann's theoretical writings.

Tonal Hierarchies in Jazz Improvisation

Statistical methods were used to investigate 18 bebop-styled jazz improvisations based on the so- called Rhythm Changes chord progression. The data were compared with results obtained by C. L. Krumhansl and her colleagues in empirical tests investigating the perceived stability of the tones in the chromatic scale in various contexts. Comparisons were also made with data on the statistical distribution of the 12 chromatic tones in actual European art music. It was found that the chorus- level hierarchies (measured over a whole chorus) are remarkably similar to the rating profiles obtained in empirical tests and to the relative frequencies of the tones in European art music. The chord- level hierarchies (measured over single chords) suggest that in the chord progression the improvisers have certain cognitive reference points that are outlined more carefully than the rest of the chords (strong local hierarchy vs. weak local hierarchy). Furthermore, in both analyses, it was found that the metrical structure was used to emphasize or de- emphasize tones, depending on their tonal function.