Construction, Cognition, and the Role of the Surface

What do Babbitt’s theoretical commitments tell us about how to listen to his music? This chapter excavates Babbitt’s reading in analytical philosophy (particularly of Rudolf Carnap) and cognitive psychology (particularly of George A. Miller) in an attempt to answer that question. Babbitt’s compositional techniques are reviewed in this light: array construction, interdimensional parallelism (e.g., the use of the time-point system to complement the twelve-tone system), and cross-references are shown to be motivated by a desire to write music amenable to rational reconstruction (in Carnap’s term) and sensitive to theories of memory and information processing. Babbitt’s views on Schenker are revisited: he found Schenkerian analysis to represent a model for musical memory. His understanding of language, too, is conditioned by his reading of philosophy and cognitive science. The chapter ends with a discussion of the limitations of Babbitt’s psychology as a guide to the analysis of his music.

Tristan und Isolde at the Margins of Music-Analytical Discourse: A Dialogic Perspective

Whether or not the Prelude to Richard Wagner's 1859 music drama Tristan und Isolde is the most analyzed piece in the history of Western music, owing to its ongoing canonical status, it behooves us to consider how it has affected the field of music analysis over the past 150 years. More than any other piece, Wagner's Prelude is able to expose the many conflicts that arise between analytical approaches: while it can demonstrate the limits of one particular approach vis-à-vis another, it may also reveal new potentialities that divergent analyses offer when seen from an intertextual point of view.<br/> As a test case, this article will position three contemporaneous analyses of the opening measures of the Prelude against one another: Horst Scharschuch's post-Riemannian harmonic analysis and Jacques Chailley's style-historical analysis, both from 1963, and William Mitchell's Schenkerian analysis of 1967. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's concepts of "dialogism" and "heteroglossia," I will trace a broader historiographical and intertextual network surrounding the history of analyzing Tristan, with the goal of refocusing our analytical priorities around this work and penetrating the continuities and discontinuities between competing analyses. In this way, the article aims at opening up a further dialogic space in music analysis, both in our historical considerations and in the way we approach analysis as an intertext—that is, by traversing the fissures in the reified verities of a "unified" analysis and the multiple interpretative transpositions underlying our deciphering of analytical texts. It will conclude by offering yet another interpretation of Wagner's famous chord.

Form as Harmony in Rock Music

This book offers a theory of form aimed at rock and pop songs of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The core claim is that rock form derives from the interaction between thematic design and harmonic structure. Many aspects of a rock song—lyrical structure, instrumental texture, melodic design, etc.—ultimately trace back to the relationship between harmonic trajectory and formal layout. The book begins with a theory of rock harmony rooted in an adaptation of Schenkerian analysis and proceeds to demonstrate that rock music is based on a small set of formal-harmonic patterns used consistently across genres and decades. It is these formal-harmonic patterns—not generic successions of sections—that define rock’s individual forms. These forms provide a backdrop framing interpretations of specific songs, a lens through which we may comprehend their particular lyrical narratives, timbral signifiers, and broad expressive content. Though broadly theoretical in scope, this book is deeply analytical, demonstrating the value and utility of close reading of rock songs. Ultimately, the book defends a structural approach to rock analysis, arguing not only that such an approach is an important and valuable mode of engagement for rock but also that rock’s structural aspects deeply affect the way we perceive and interact with the repertoire.

Analysing Mozart's Fantasia K.475 through Intersections of Schematic and Schenkerian Thought

This article orientates an investigation of the late eighteenth-century fantasia around a case study of Mozart's Fantasia in C Minor K.475, relating its findings to an array of historical contexts generating new insights into a genre, which remains 'an inherently problematic object of study' compared to formally closed genres of sonata and rondo (Richards 2001:15). Musicological literature on the subject has focused mainly on keyboard fantasias by C.P.E. Bach (1714-1788) as well as on nineteenth-century fantasias by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt et al. The dearth of analytical engagement with the Mozartian model is perplexing, given its potential impact on the genre’s development; unlike the preceding free fantasias of C.P.E. Bach, K.475 combines structural logic and formal coherence with quasi-fantastical effects more typical of the Bachian fantasia. To this end, the article first provides a brief overview of musicological, theoretical and analytical contexts, drawing out conceptual frameworks in the work of Annette Richards (2001) and Matthew Head (2014), which have not yet been employed in a study of the Mozartian fantasia. The case-study analysis of K.475 that follows, engages critically with two established methodologies: Robert Gjerdingen's schema theory (2007) and Schenkerian Analysis. Lastly, analytical discourse remains sensitive to the performance process, with a view to discovering if and how theoretical knowledge gained through analysis translates into a fantasia performance, and scrutinising ways in which performative introspection continues to influence a theoretical understanding of the piece.

Submerged Urlinien, Shadow Urlinien, and Urlinie Play in the Left-Hand Melody Piece

Piano pieces with the principal melody in the left hand pose interesting challenges for Schenkerian analysis, which generally favors outer voices for the components of the Ursatz. In the left-hand melody piece, the accompaniment is positioned above the melody, and bass lines may not be literally present. Middleground sketches of such pieces often featured a submerged Urlinie, which is a fundamental line that is positioned in an inner voice of the work’s texture (after Schachter 1994). These pieces also quite frequently involve “shadow Urlinien,” which are potentially viable fundamental lines in an upper voice that are perceptually weaker than Urlinien positioned in the principal melodic register. “Urlinie play” describes the analytical and phenomenological interplay between two potential fundamental lines, such as a submerged Urlinie and a shadow Urlinie. The analyses in this article examine aspects of Urlinie play in left-hand melody pieces by Schumann, Massenet, Beethoven, and Chopin, and describe that play in terms of four narrative categories: shadowing, role reversion, denial, and competition.

Analisis Schenkerian Pada Komposisi L’Armonia Opus 148.5 Gitar Klasik Karya Mauro Giuliani

Ada beragam jenis cara analisis musik namun yang selama ini lebih dikenal dan dipelajari di lingkungan penulis, adalah analisis bentuk musik. Ada cara lain dalam bidang analisis, salah satunya adalah analisis schenkerian. Melalui cara analisis tersebut maka akan didapatkan struktur tonal yang terdalam dari sebuah sistem musik tonal. Cara ini sama sekali belum umum di Indonesia untuk saat ini. Maka dari itu penulis ingin mempelajari lebih dalam mengenahi cara analisis schenkerian. Untuk materi pembahasan akan dibatasi pada karya Mauro Giuliani komposisi L’Armonia opus 148. 5 untuk gitar klasik. Adapun pertimbangan mengenahi objek pembahasan tersebut karena era keemasan musik tonal adalah jaman klasik. Karya tersebut dibuat pada waktu jaman klasik dan diciptakan oleh seorang komposer arus utama untuk musik instrumen gitar. Selain itu karya tersebut dimainkan dalam resital tugas akhir yang dilakukan oleh penulis. Sehingga harapan penulis dengan analisis karya Mauro Giuliani dapat melihat gambaran komponis gitar lainya pada era tersebut. Dgn menggunakan metode kualitatif desriptif dengan pendekatan musikologis, khususnya teori musik dapat disimpulkan bahwa bentuk background komposisi L’Armonia karya Mauro Giuliani adalah bentuk kedalaman yang merupakan hasil reduksi dari bentuk-bentuk sebelumnya. Di dalam bentuk ini terdapat interruption yang berfungsi sebagai penyela dan dikembalikan lagi ke kopfton 3 yang disebabkan oleh adanya struktur yang diulang. Bentuk tersebut dapat dilihat pada pembahasan background.There are various types of music analysis, but what has been better known and studied in the writer's environment, is the analysis of musical forms. There are other ways in the field of analysis, one of which is Schenkerian analysis. Through this method of analysis we will get the deepest tonal structure of a tonal music system. This method is not yet common in Indonesia at this time. Therefore the writer wants to learn more about the schenkerian analysis. For discussion material will be limited to the work of Mauro Giuliani the composition of L 'Armonia opus 148. 5 for classical guitar. The consideration of the object of discussion is because the golden era of tonal music is the classical era. The work was made in classical times and was created by a mainstream composer for guitar instrument music. In addition, the work is played in a final project recital carried out by the author. So the hope of the writer with the analysis of the work of Mauro Giuliani can see the picture of other guitar composers in that era. Using qualitative descriptive methods with a musicological approach, especially music theory, it can be concluded that the form of the background of L'AAmonia's composition by Mauro Giuliani is a form of depth that is the result of reduction from previous forms. In this form there is an interruption that functions as an interrupter and is returned again to Kopfton 3 caused by a repeated structure. This form can be seen in the background discussion.Keywords: schenkerian analysis; L'Oronia opus 148. 5.

Music as Ruled by Primary Processes: Condensation

Of all the arts, music is the closest to primary processes and the archaic modes of mental functioning. Consequently, condensation as one of the basic primary process mechanisms plays an important role in music. It manifests as the condensation of different musical entities (themes, scales etc.), of different principles of organization, and also as an underlying logic of those analytic strategies that postulate the existence of structural layers, where events at deeper levels condense several more superficial events (e. g. Schenkerian analysis).

Tonal Structure

The concept of tonal structure is intimately associated with the person of Heinrich Schenker, but ultimately in order to enter dialogue with Schenker the theory of tonal structure must take the place of “Schenkerian analysis” in our discourse. A number of useful principles of tonal structure may be derived from Schenker’s theory: Schenkerian notation agrees with the network representation for temporal structure, and linear progressions are a good starting point for a tonal structure discovery procedure. The theory of the Ursatz, however, cannot be understood as an empirical claim but rather as a collection of grammatical norms. Also, Schenker’s dismissal of the concept of key is disputed, and a theory of tonal structure to which keys and modulation are integral is presented.