The architect Bruce Goff (1904–82) is often associated with Frank Lloyd Wright and Organic Architecture, but his concept of organicism was equally influenced by his interest in modern music, and in particular the work of Claude Debussy. Goff maintained correspondence with musicians throughout his life—including with composers Edgard Varèse and Harry Partch—and in the 1920s and 1930s, he actively composed works for piano and player piano. In Tulsa and then Chicago, Goff developed connections to other writers, artists, and musicians (notably Richard San Jule and Ernest Brooks) who cultivated modernist sensibilities across the arts. Following close consideration of his papers at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago, I examine Goff’s approaches to music and architecture as expressed not only through his correspondence, pedagogical writings, and architectural designs, but also through the analysis of some of his musical compositions. I also discuss a piece by Burrill Phillips that was inspired by the house Goff designed for John Garvey, violist of the Walden Quartet. By investigating the manifold contexts of these artworks as revealed by archival research, we can shed light on the divergent use of the term “organicism” as it is applied across the arts.
建筑师布鲁斯·高夫(1904-82)经常与弗兰克·劳埃德·赖特和有机建筑联系在一起，但他的有机主义概念同样受到他对现代音乐的兴趣的影响，尤其是克劳德·德彪西的作品。戈夫一生都与音乐家保持通信，包括作曲家埃德加·瓦尔瓦尔兹和哈里·帕奇，在20世纪20年代和30年代，他积极为钢琴和自动钢琴创作作品。在塔尔萨和芝加哥，戈夫结识了其他作家、艺术家和音乐家(尤其是理查德·圣朱勒(Richard San Jule)和欧内斯特·布鲁克斯(Ernest Brooks))，他们在艺术领域培养了现代主义情感。在仔细考虑了他在芝加哥艺术学院的瑞尔森和伯纳姆图书馆的论文之后，我研究了戈夫对音乐和建筑的方法，不仅通过他的信件、教学著作和建筑设计来表达，还通过对他的一些音乐作品的分析来表达。我还讨论了伯里尔·菲利普斯(Burrill Phillips)的一件作品，它的灵感来自戈夫为瓦尔登四重奏(Walden Quartet)的中提琴手约翰·加维(John Garvey)设计的房子。通过调查档案研究揭示的这些艺术品的多种背景，我们可以阐明“有机主义”一词在整个艺术领域的不同使用。
{"title":"Material Connections","authors":"Benjamin R. Levy","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.3.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.3.7","url":null,"abstract":"The architect Bruce Goff (1904–82) is often associated with Frank Lloyd Wright and Organic Architecture, but his concept of organicism was equally influenced by his interest in modern music, and in particular the work of Claude Debussy. Goff maintained correspondence with musicians throughout his life—including with composers Edgard Varèse and Harry Partch—and in the 1920s and 1930s, he actively composed works for piano and player piano. In Tulsa and then Chicago, Goff developed connections to other writers, artists, and musicians (notably Richard San Jule and Ernest Brooks) who cultivated modernist sensibilities across the arts. Following close consideration of his papers at the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries at the Art Institute of Chicago, I examine Goff’s approaches to music and architecture as expressed not only through his correspondence, pedagogical writings, and architectural designs, but also through the analysis of some of his musical compositions. I also discuss a piece by Burrill Phillips that was inspired by the house Goff designed for John Garvey, violist of the Walden Quartet. By investigating the manifold contexts of these artworks as revealed by archival research, we can shed light on the divergent use of the term “organicism” as it is applied across the arts.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45084586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines macroharmony through the lens of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) using computational analysis. It first introduces the DFT, giving an interpretive framework to understand the theory of chord quality first introduced by Ian Quinn (2007) before extending the theory to macroharmonies. Subsequently, the paper discusses different approaches—including different weighting and windowing procedures—to retrieving pitch data for computational analysis. An analysis of macroharmony in Domine Jesu from Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, Op. 9 follows. I show that the DFT reflects intuition, reveals form-functional macroharmonies in the movement, and provides us with a perspective to find novel hearings.
{"title":"Macroharmonic Progressions through the Discrete Fourier Transform","authors":"Matt Chiu","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.3.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.3.1","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines macroharmony through the lens of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) using computational analysis. It first introduces the DFT, giving an interpretive framework to understand the theory of chord quality first introduced by Ian Quinn (2007) before extending the theory to macroharmonies. Subsequently, the paper discusses different approaches—including different weighting and windowing procedures—to retrieving pitch data for computational analysis. An analysis of macroharmony in Domine Jesu from Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem, Op. 9 follows. I show that the DFT reflects intuition, reveals form-functional macroharmonies in the movement, and provides us with a perspective to find novel hearings.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49163643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Among Brahms’s solo Lieder that depict a piece-spanning shift between parallel minor and major tonics, “Todessehnen” (op. 86, no. 6), “Schwermut” (op. 58, no. 5), and “Dämmrung senkte sich von oben” (op. 59, no. 1) stand out for setting poetry that portrays a duality between burdensome life and transcendent death, or darkness versus light. This article explores how Brahms’s paradoxical treatment of the life-versus-death theme (associating death with an escape from suffering and the major mode, as noted in related analyses by ".fn_cite($platt_1992)." and ".fn_cite($suurpaa_2003).") correlates with a “tragic-to-transcendent” expressive genre (".fn_cite($hatten_1994).", 69) and enacts a series of poetic “turning points” (".fn_cite($huhn_2005).") that reflect the protagonist’s changing perception of temporality. I argue that the major mode emerges gradually in each song, first as an “implicit” (or “nascent”) tonic, then as a cadentially confirmed (or “realized”) key at the structural cadence. Close Schenkerian analyses of all songs show that their minor-to-major progressions are neither immediate nor direct. Rather, the songs share four tonal features that facilitate the modal change, enact a shift from “tragic” to “transcendent” expression, and actualize “poetic turning points:” 1) the parallel major emerges as a cadentially unconfirmed, nascent tonic; 2) prolongations of ".fn_flat('')."VI or IV delay a cadence in the parallel major key and convey the speaker’s entrance into new temporalities and perceptions; 3) the structural cadence confirms the major key and lays the modal conflict to rest; and 4) the postlude echoes the minor form of ".fn_scaledegree("6").", as if recalling the protagonist’s earlier struggles. The elevated expression of cadential ".fn_figbass("",64)." chords near the structural cadence—treated in the manner of “arrival six-four” chords (".fn_cite($hatten_1994).", 15)—suggests the actualization of a “transcendent” expression and either a future or intensified present temporality that the poem implies but does not realize.
勃拉姆斯的独奏作品《Lieder》描绘了一首跨越平行小调和主音之间转换的作品，其中《Todessehnen》（作品86，第6号）、《Schwermut》（作品58，第5号）和《Dämmrung senkte sich von oben》（作品59，第1号）因其描绘了沉重的生活和超凡的死亡，或黑暗与光明之间的双重性的诗歌而脱颖而出。这篇文章探讨了勃拉姆斯对生与死主题的矛盾处理（如“.fn_site（$platt_1992）.”和“.fn_cite（$suurpaa_2003）.”的相关分析所指出的，将死亡与逃离痛苦和主要模式联系起来）与“悲剧到超越”的表达流派（“.fn_ite（$hatten_1994）.”，69），并创造了一系列诗意的“转折点”（“.fn_site（$huhn_2005）”），反映了主人公对时间感的变化。我认为，主模式在每首歌中都是逐渐出现的，首先是作为一种“隐含的”（或“新生的”）主音，然后是作为结构节奏中一种有节奏的确认（或“实现的”）键。对所有歌曲的近距离申克分析表明，它们从小到大的进步既不是直接的，也不是直接的。相反，这些歌曲共有四个音调特征，它们促进了语气的变化，实现了从“悲剧”到“超越”的表达，并实现了“诗意的转折点”：1）平行主音作为一种抑扬顿挫的、未经证实的、新生的主音出现；2） “.fn_flat（''）.”VI或IV的延长延迟了平行主键的节奏，并传达了说话者进入新的时间和感知的入口；3） 结构抑扬顿挫确定了主基调，使语气冲突得以平息；4）尾曲呼应了“.fn_scaledegrede（“6”）”的小调形式，仿佛在回忆主人公早期的挣扎。抑扬顿挫的“.fn_figbass（“”，64）.”和弦在结构抑扬顿抑附近的高级表达——以“到达六四”和弦（“.fn_site（$hatten_1994）.”，15）的方式处理——表明了一种“超越”表达的实现，以及这首诗所暗示但没有实现的未来或强化的当下暂时性。
{"title":"Emergent Modality","authors":"Loretta Terrigno","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.3.3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.3.3","url":null,"abstract":"Among Brahms’s solo Lieder that depict a piece-spanning shift between parallel minor and major tonics, “Todessehnen” (op. 86, no. 6), “Schwermut” (op. 58, no. 5), and “Dämmrung senkte sich von oben” (op. 59, no. 1) stand out for setting poetry that portrays a duality between burdensome life and transcendent death, or darkness versus light. This article explores how Brahms’s paradoxical treatment of the life-versus-death theme (associating death with an escape from suffering and the major mode, as noted in related analyses by \".fn_cite($platt_1992).\" and \".fn_cite($suurpaa_2003).\") correlates with a “tragic-to-transcendent” expressive genre (\".fn_cite($hatten_1994).\", 69) and enacts a series of poetic “turning points” (\".fn_cite($huhn_2005).\") that reflect the protagonist’s changing perception of temporality. I argue that the major mode emerges gradually in each song, first as an “implicit” (or “nascent”) tonic, then as a cadentially confirmed (or “realized”) key at the structural cadence. Close Schenkerian analyses of all songs show that their minor-to-major progressions are neither immediate nor direct. Rather, the songs share four tonal features that facilitate the modal change, enact a shift from “tragic” to “transcendent” expression, and actualize “poetic turning points:” 1) the parallel major emerges as a cadentially unconfirmed, nascent tonic; 2) prolongations of \".fn_flat('').\"VI or IV delay a cadence in the parallel major key and convey the speaker’s entrance into new temporalities and perceptions; 3) the structural cadence confirms the major key and lays the modal conflict to rest; and 4) the postlude echoes the minor form of \".fn_scaledegree(\"6\").\", as if recalling the protagonist’s earlier struggles. The elevated expression of cadential \".fn_figbass(\"\",64).\" chords near the structural cadence—treated in the manner of “arrival six-four” chords (\".fn_cite($hatten_1994).\", 15)—suggests the actualization of a “transcendent” expression and either a future or intensified present temporality that the poem implies but does not realize.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49178522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jonathan Harvey debuted several novel techniques and elements in his String Quartet No. 2—“temperature” and gender markings, unique to this piece, and the melodic chain technique, a method which he continued to use in his subsequent quartets. Though the melodic chain technique is decipherable from score analysis, and has been explained by the composer in interviews, Harvey’s temperature and gender markings have continued to puzzle scholars, due to vague descriptions that obscure their meaning (especially in the case of the temperature markings) and to the implied stereotypes of themes that are gendered feminine and masculine (more shocking to the modern eye than it was in 1988). The question thus arises: did Harvey engage in a sexist trope with his gendered stereotyping of the themes, or was he ahead of his time by offering a nuanced and fluid approach to understanding gender, guided by his spirituality, presenting the constraints of binary stereotypes before dismantling them? Building on the scholarship of gender theory and musical gesture and embodiment, this article examines the meaning of gender in this piece.
{"title":"Gender Identity and Gestural Representations in Jonathan Harvey’s String Quartet No. 2","authors":"Laura Emmery","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.3.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.3.11","url":null,"abstract":"Jonathan Harvey debuted several novel techniques and elements in his String Quartet No. 2—“temperature” and gender markings, unique to this piece, and the melodic chain technique, a method which he continued to use in his subsequent quartets. Though the melodic chain technique is decipherable from score analysis, and has been explained by the composer in interviews, Harvey’s temperature and gender markings have continued to puzzle scholars, due to vague descriptions that obscure their meaning (especially in the case of the temperature markings) and to the implied stereotypes of themes that are gendered feminine and masculine (more shocking to the modern eye than it was in 1988). The question thus arises: did Harvey engage in a sexist trope with his gendered stereotyping of the themes, or was he ahead of his time by offering a nuanced and fluid approach to understanding gender, guided by his spirituality, presenting the constraints of binary stereotypes before dismantling them? Building on the scholarship of gender theory and musical gesture and embodiment, this article examines the meaning of gender in this piece.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47006619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Archival Research in Music","authors":"Benjamin R. Levy, Laura Emmery","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.3.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.3.4","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43545022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This analysis interprets Crumb’s setting of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” as a musical memorial. I situate this song within larger memorial culture, Civil War memory, and musical memorials to show how it commemorates and criticizes official narratives of the Civil War. While the first three verses present an earnest version of the song that celebrates military power, the fourth quotes Mahler to transform the song into an ironic funeral march. I draw on scholarship on the musical grotesque to show how this grotesque funeral march critiques conventional perceptions of the Civil War, and how Crumb extends this critique to more recent American wars.
{"title":"War and the Musical Grotesque in Crumb’s “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”","authors":"Abigail Shupe","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.2.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.2.8","url":null,"abstract":"This analysis interprets Crumb’s setting of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” as a musical memorial. I situate this song within larger memorial culture, Civil War memory, and musical memorials to show how it commemorates and criticizes official narratives of the Civil War. While the first three verses present an earnest version of the song that celebrates military power, the fourth quotes Mahler to transform the song into an ironic funeral march. I draw on scholarship on the musical grotesque to show how this grotesque funeral march critiques conventional perceptions of the Civil War, and how Crumb extends this critique to more recent American wars.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43842534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Music Theory’s Visceral Turn: A Review of Roger Matthew Grant, Peculiar Attunements: How Affect Theory Turned Musical (New York: Fordham University Press, 2020)","authors":"Stephen M. Kovaciny","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.2.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.2.13","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42405004","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article focuses on the perception and cognition involved in music listening skills as essential criteria in selecting solmization systems. Drawing on many aural key-identification studies performed by various researchers, and on the model for music perception developed by Karpinski (".fn_cite_year($karpinski_1990).") and formalized in Karpinski (".fn_cite_year($karpinski_2000)."), it concludes that the first and most fundamental process listeners carry out while attending to the pitches of tonal music is tonic inference. In addition, a tonic is inferable without reference to a complete diatonic pitch collection. Melodies that are unambiguous with regard to their tonic might never employ all seven diatonic pitch classes, they might state those pitch classes only gradually, or they might even change the collection without changing tonic. Nonetheless, listeners are able to infer tonics quickly and dynamically under any of the above conditions. According to Butler (".fn_cite_year($butler_1992).", 119), “listeners make assessments of tonal center swiftly and apparently without conscious effort” certainly well in advance of inferring or perceiving entire diatonic pitch collections. This article examines the means through which do-based minor movable-do solmization most closely models this mental process and contrasts that with la-based minor and its inherent inability to model the pitches of a musical passage until all seven of its diatonic members are explicitly stated (or at least implicitly present). This is not to say that la-based minor is ineffective, but simply that do-based minor most closely reflects and represents the way listeners infer tonality.
{"title":"A Cognitive Basis for Choosing a Solmization System","authors":"Gary S. Karpinski","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.2.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.2.1","url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on the perception and cognition involved in music listening skills as essential criteria in selecting solmization systems. Drawing on many aural key-identification studies performed by various researchers, and on the model for music perception developed by Karpinski (\".fn_cite_year($karpinski_1990).\") and formalized in Karpinski (\".fn_cite_year($karpinski_2000).\"), it concludes that the first and most fundamental process listeners carry out while attending to the pitches of tonal music is tonic inference. In addition, a tonic is inferable without reference to a complete diatonic pitch collection. Melodies that are unambiguous with regard to their tonic might never employ all seven diatonic pitch classes, they might state those pitch classes only gradually, or they might even change the collection without changing tonic. Nonetheless, listeners are able to infer tonics quickly and dynamically under any of the above conditions. According to Butler (\".fn_cite_year($butler_1992).\", 119), “listeners make assessments of tonal center swiftly and apparently without conscious effort” certainly well in advance of inferring or perceiving entire diatonic pitch collections. This article examines the means through which do-based minor movable-do solmization most closely models this mental process and contrasts that with la-based minor and its inherent inability to model the pitches of a musical passage until all seven of its diatonic members are explicitly stated (or at least implicitly present). This is not to say that la-based minor is ineffective, but simply that do-based minor most closely reflects and represents the way listeners infer tonality.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138517003","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tigran Hamasyan (b. 1987) is an Armenian jazz pianist and composer whose music has been described as “grounded in serious reinterpretations of Armenian culture via his take on Bach, French romantics, jazz, dubstep, metal, and modern electronic music” (".fn_cite_year($manukian_2018).", 637). Hamasyan has recorded thirteen studio albums between the years of 2006–2020, and analyzing these recordings suggests that asymmetrical meter, ostinati, and cycles are not a random occurrence in Hamasyan’s music but rather a crucial component of his compositional language. This article defines three types of cycles—phrasal, structural, and developmental—each of which has a unique compositional function. Another important distinction made in this article is the difference between “complete” and “incomplete” cycles. Complete cycles are those that repeat two metrical layers without disruption until they return to a shared point of alignment, while incomplete cycles are those in which the meter used in one or more of the layers is disrupted before returning to a shared point of alignment. Several of my own transcriptions of Hamasyan’s music are analyzed to discuss how asymmetrical meter, ostinati, and cycles are used to create various formal processes in Hamasyan’s compositions.
{"title":"Asymmetrical Meter, Ostinati, and Cycles in the Music of Tigran Hamasyan","authors":"S. C. Schumann","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.2.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.2.5","url":null,"abstract":"Tigran Hamasyan (b. 1987) is an Armenian jazz pianist and composer whose music has been described as “grounded in serious reinterpretations of Armenian culture via his take on Bach, French romantics, jazz, dubstep, metal, and modern electronic music” (\".fn_cite_year($manukian_2018).\", 637). Hamasyan has recorded thirteen studio albums between the years of 2006–2020, and analyzing these recordings suggests that asymmetrical meter, ostinati, and cycles are not a random occurrence in Hamasyan’s music but rather a crucial component of his compositional language. This article defines three types of cycles—phrasal, structural, and developmental—each of which has a unique compositional function. Another important distinction made in this article is the difference between “complete” and “incomplete” cycles. Complete cycles are those that repeat two metrical layers without disruption until they return to a shared point of alignment, while incomplete cycles are those in which the meter used in one or more of the layers is disrupted before returning to a shared point of alignment. Several of my own transcriptions of Hamasyan’s music are analyzed to discuss how asymmetrical meter, ostinati, and cycles are used to create various formal processes in Hamasyan’s compositions.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48579095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
I argue that current models of aural skills instruction are too strongly linked to music theory curricula. I examine harmonic dictation as a case study, demonstrating that the system of roman-numeral/inversion-symbol labels can interfere with our ability to determine what exactly students are hearing and can distract students from more directly perceptual goals. A pilot study suggests that focusing on bass lines and schemata may make our harmonic dictation training more relevant to perception. I propose that a skill is “truly aural” to the extent that it engages working memory with minimal knowledge-based mediation. Finally, I consider the current state of aural skills instruction and suggest a number of curricular revisions. The more radical proposals call for redesigning aural skills classes to focus on perceptual skills and relocating knowledge-mediated listening to the music theory classroom. Other proposals take a more measured approach to integrating perceptual skills with otherwise traditional curricula.
{"title":"What Are the Truly Aural Skills?","authors":"T. Chenette","doi":"10.30535/mto.27.2.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.30535/mto.27.2.2","url":null,"abstract":"I argue that current models of aural skills instruction are too strongly linked to music theory curricula. I examine harmonic dictation as a case study, demonstrating that the system of roman-numeral/inversion-symbol labels can interfere with our ability to determine what exactly students are hearing and can distract students from more directly perceptual goals. A pilot study suggests that focusing on bass lines and schemata may make our harmonic dictation training more relevant to perception. I propose that a skill is “truly aural” to the extent that it engages working memory with minimal knowledge-based mediation. Finally, I consider the current state of aural skills instruction and suggest a number of curricular revisions. The more radical proposals call for redesigning aural skills classes to focus on perceptual skills and relocating knowledge-mediated listening to the music theory classroom. Other proposals take a more measured approach to integrating perceptual skills with otherwise traditional curricula.","PeriodicalId":44918,"journal":{"name":"Music Theory Online","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41375608","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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