Twelve-tone tonality and the music of George Perle.
Item
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Title
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Twelve-tone tonality and the music of George Perle.
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Identifier
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AAI9326795
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identifier
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9326795
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Creator
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Carrabre, Thomas Patrick.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Philip Lambert
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Date
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1993
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Music
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Abstract
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A great deal of confusion exists regarding "twelve-tone tonality," the musical "language" or "system" utilized by George Perle as the structural basis for pitch relationships in most of his mature compositions. This situation results, for many, quite simply because he has chosen to join the terms "twelve-tone" and "tonality." For many contemporary musicians these terms are mutually exclusive, connoting antithetical approaches to the organization of music.;From the beginning of his compositional career (in the late 1930s) Perle was convinced of the need for a comprehensive system of tone relationships that would permit the establishment of normative structural relationships between the whole range of pitch combinations contained within the chromatic scale. However, whereas diatonic tonality offered a coherent hierarchical system which was referable to the basic building blocks of the language (the triad and scale), there was little evidence of a comparable network of relationships for voice-leading and harmonic progression in atonality. Twelve-tone tonality represents Perle's attempt to establish a tonality for music based on the collection of notes available within the chromatic scale. He felt a need to have a musical language that would allow for an important component of continuity with western musical tradition.;This study is intended to place Perle's theoretical and compositional activities within the context of the broad spectrum of contemporary musical life. Chapter 1 is an attempt to present the theoretical principles of twelve-tone tonality in a systematic and pedagogical way. Chapters 2 and 3, use a chronological approach to highlight specific aspects of Perle's exploration of this musical language. The ultimate goal is an understanding of Perle's compositional method through the definition of a reductive analytical method, using parallels to musical-linguistic analysis. It is my hope that this will increase the accessibility of twelve-tone tonality to composers and theorists alike.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
