Formal processes in post-tonal music: A study of selected works by Babbitt, Stockhausen, and Carter
Item
-
Title
-
Formal processes in post-tonal music: A study of selected works by Babbitt, Stockhausen, and Carter
-
Identifier
-
d_2009_2013:a10e3f447dfb:10601
-
identifier
-
10892
-
Creator
-
Howland, Patricia L.,
-
Contributor
-
Joseph N. Straus
-
Date
-
2010
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Music | Babbitt | Carter | form | parameters | post-tonal | Stockhausen
-
Abstract
-
Most previous studies of musical form have focused on tonal music. Little attention has been given to formal organization in post-tonal music, especially the challenging, systematic repertoire of the postwar period. Many of these works avoid the traditional rhetoric of form, and for this reason they have seemed unapproachable from the standpoint of phrases and larger formal structures. This study seeks to demonstrate that, despite its apparently resistant nature, this music can be meaningfully heard in terms of perceptible formal design.;In the absence of well-established harmonic and melodic processes, formal structures in post-tonal music are created by parametric processes, that is, shapes and patterns that occur in what were previously considered secondary parameters, such as dynamics, register, density, and texture. Similarities and changes within these parameters, singly and in combination, produce audible formal units such as small segments, phrases, and phrase groups. Phrases are formed by the combination of segments, and phrases themselves combine to form larger structures. At all levels, these combinations take place as a result of parametric relations and processes.;This study defines a "phrase" in post-tonal music as a formal unit exhibiting initiation, coherence, and completeness. Aspects of these three features, especially coherence and completeness, are developed and illustrated in detailed musical analyses. The works examined include Babbitt's Composition for Four Instruments (1948), the opening clarinet solo; Stockhausen's Kontra-Punkte for ten instruments (1953), the first 116 measures; and Carter's String Quartet No. 2 (1959), the Introduction and the first movement, Allegro fantastico. The study finds five general phrase types based on methods for creating coherence, and demonstrates that the particular type of coherence gives rise to one of three general means of ending the phrase so as to achieve a sense of wholeness or completeness. Throughout the study, an emphasis is maintained on the listener's perspective and the perceptibility of these formal elements.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
2009_2013.csv
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
-
Program
-
Music
