Theory and practice in the works of Howard Hanson.
Item
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Title
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Theory and practice in the works of Howard Hanson.
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Identifier
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AAI9630450
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identifier
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9630450
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Creator
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Cohen, Allen Laurence.
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Contributor
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Adviser: John Graziano
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Date
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1996
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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 | Biography
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Abstract
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Although Howard Hanson (1896-1981) is generally known as a composer, conductor, administrator, and teacher, he also made a small but significant contribution to music theory in a 1960 book entitled Harmonic Materials of Modern Music: Resources of the Tempered Scale. This book proposed a system of classification for every possible set of pitch-classes with two or more elements, a theory which anticipated, in significant ways, musical set theory as expounded in the works of Allen Forte and other writers. This dissertation summarizes and evaluates the theory, both on its own terms and in comparison to set theory. Two works written by Hanson to demonstrate the use of his theory as a basis for composition are examined. In the light of an assertion he made years later that all or most of his later compositions were influenced by the theory, the scores and sketches of three of Hanson's later works--Sinfonia Sacra, Elegy, and Symphony no. 6--are analyzed to show the nature and extent of the theory's influence on each. Two of his earlier works--Symphony no. 2 and Symphony no. 3--are also examined to throw light on the converse question of what influence his characteristic methods and concepts of composition may have had on his development of the theory.
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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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D.M.A.
