The framing interval and its role in the integration of melody and *form in four early works by Aaron Copland.
Item
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Title
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The framing interval and its role in the integration of melody and *form in four early works by Aaron Copland.
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Identifier
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AAI9997089
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identifier
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9997089
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Creator
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Gamble, Charles W.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Joseph N. Straus
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Date
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2001
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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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Several movements from four of Copland's early pieces are examined. The four pieces are the Piano Variations, the Piano Sonata, the Sextet, and Statements. In each case, surface melodic events can be understood at least in part as the embellishment of a particular interval. The same interval also serves a structural role in the large-scale coherence of the movement in which it appears. That is, in each case, musical form is generated by the long-term embellished unfolding of this interval. In some cases, this unfolding occurs at the deepest background level; in other cases, it appears only in a relatively shallower middleground.;These observations about the music are situated relative to recent developments in the theory of post-tonal music. An analytical approach inspired by Heinrich Schenker's reductional/hierarchical approach to tonal music is employed, but without Schenker's insistence upon rigorous tonality, or traditional harmonic practice. The framing interval can play a role in post-tonal theory analogous to that of the tonic triad in Schenker's theory of common practice tonality. That is, the framing interval is present at all or most of the hierarchical levels in the music. After a reductional analysis identifies and eliminates subordinate tones, what is left is the two tones of the framing interval. The framing interval may also be integrated into a transformational theory of post-tonal music: important transformational events in the music involve (possibly embellished) motion up or down by this same interval.
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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.
