Music Theory Society of New

York State
Annual Meeting
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
899 10th Avenue
New York, NY 10019

10–11 April 2010

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

Saturday, 10 April
8:15–9:00 am Registration
9:00 am–12:00 Modernism
pm
9:00 am –10:30 Between Cultures
am
10:30 am –12:00 Pop Music
pm
12:00–2:00 pm Lunch
2:00–5:00 pm Musical Spaces
2:00–5:00 pm Vienna
5:15–5:30 pm Business Meeting
Sunday, 11 April
9:00–9:30 am Registration
9:30 am –12:30 Schoenberg and Stravinsky
pm
Rameau, Riemann, and Schenker
12:30–1:30 pm MTSNYS Board Meeting

Program Committee: John Covach (University of Rochester), chair; Jonathan Dunsby (ex officio,
Eastman), Timothy Johnson (Ithaca College), Shaugn O’Donnell (CUNY), Jamuna Samuel (SUNY
Stony BrooK), and Eric Wen (Mannes).
Saturday, 9:000 am–12:00 pm
Room 2

Modernism

Chair: Timothy Johnson (Ithaca College)

Lutoslawski's Harmony and Affinity Spaces in Works of the 1950s

José Martins (Eastman School of Music)
Aesthetics and Practice at Odds? Selected Works of Luciano Berio Reconsidered Under the
Lens of Serial Procedures
Irna Priore (University of North Carolina, Greensboro)
Disruption and Reconciliation in the Formal, Tonal, and Pitch­Class Organization of
Ginastera's Piano Sonata, first movement
Ian Bates (Guelph, Ontario)
Experimenting with Circles and Spirals of Fifths: Diatonic Structure in Roslavets's Nocturne
Quintet and Sonata No. 1 for Viola and Piano
Inessa Bazayev (Louisiana State University)

Program

Lutoslawski's Harmony and Affinity Spaces in Works of the 1950s

This paper proposes a new theoretical framework for Witold Lutoslawski’s harmonic explorations of
the second half of the 1950s. In pieces of this period (Illakowicz Songs, Musique funèbre, and Three
postludes), Lutoslawski shifted away from previous work on extended scales and became interested in
the harmonic potential of various intervallic arrangements of 12­note chords. While analytical attention
to pieces of this period has focused on the disposition of intervallic patterns within 12­note chords and
on the tracing of some linear strategies, we have not yet explained satisfactorily the relation between
chord construction and chord progression, and what might constitute a harmonic space that
appropriately models chord progressions. The argument advanced here claims that 12­note chords
(and their partitions) are modeled by certain combinations of interlocked interval cycles (affinity
spaces) and are structured by two operations (transpositio and transformatio). These properties set up
a framework for analytical accounts that render coherent exploration of those spaces. The
development of Lutoslawski’s harmonic language in this period set up resourceful procedures
regarding chord construction and harmonic syntax that reverberated in works for the remaining of his
life.

Top

Aesthetics and Practice at Odds? Selected Works of Luciano Berio Reconsidered Under the
Lens of Serial Procedures

Evident in Luciano Berio’s writings after 1967 is a public rebellion against the practice of serialism.
Several times, he openly spoke of serialism as an artificial device, a practice void of musical meaning.
Although Berio disliked the connotations brought along by the label “serial,” he used the system
throughout his life. By studying his sketches, that we can observe the hidden serial structures of his
late compositions, including major works such as Requies, Continuo, and his last piano sonata of
2001.

As we carefully study Berio’s works and contextualize his written statements, a new insight and
understanding of his serial aesthetics emerge. To him, composition was to be distinct from
organization, although organization does take place in composition at a deep structural level or at the
early stages of the process.
In this article, I present a revisionist view on Berio’s aesthetics regarding serialism and his use of it.
For this, I will examine formal texts; analyze some of the sketches of works written from the 1970s to
the late 1980s; and show that Berio did still use serial techniques for the basis of his works. I will
conclude that if his statements seemed conflicting at first, this is not so after careful examination. I will
end my illustrations with an analysis of the sketch of Requies, a work composed in 1984 in memory of
Cathy Berberian.

Top

Disruption and Reconciliation in the Formal, Tonal, and Pitch­Class Organization of Ginastera's
Piano Sonata, first movement

This paper explores the interrelationships among the form, tonal centres, and pc collections of the first
movement of Alberto Ginastera’s Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 22. In the process, it gradually uncovers a
single narrative of disruption and eventual reconciliation in which the movement’s form, tonality, and pc
content all participate. The paper first examines the movement’s sonata form and tonal organization
and shows that both are relatively straightforward when considered separately from one another.
However, when the movement’s formal and tonal plans are considered together, a more complex
interpretation emerges, one that casts tonal centres C and G as consistently disruptive to the sonata
process. The paper then notes the close association between the disruptive tonal centres C and G and
hexatonic and octatonic pc collections, which contrast with the pentatonic and diatonic pc collections
associated with the movement’s other tonal centres. Finally, after noting both the symmetrical
arrangement of the movement’s principal tonal centres about its overall tonic A and the symmetrical
voicing exhibited by the work’s opening, the paper closes by examining symmetrical pc collections in
the movement and assessing the interaction between axes of symmetry and tonal centres. This leads
to the conclusion that it is only by purging the movement of its octatonic and hexatonic elements that
the work’s disruptive tonal centres ultimately are reconciled with its primary and secondary tonal
centres.

Top

Experimenting with Circles and Spirals of Fifths: Diatonic Structure in Roslavets's Nocturne
Quintet and Sonata No. 1 for Viola and Piano

Nicolai Roslavets (1881–1944)—one of the leading composers of the early twentieth­century Soviet
avant­garde and whose music was long repressed in the Soviet Union—has recently begun to surface
in the West. Perle 1962, Kholopov 1981, Ferenc 1993, and Sitsky 1994 provide useful accounts of
Roslavets’s music, but all focus primarily on its use of idiosyncratic twelve­tone methods to structure
the chromatic aggregate. I will show, however, that Roslavets’s early works are experiments with
diatonic structure, and they are best understood as extensions of the traditional tonal system rather
than its radical repudiation. As Roslavets 1927 himself stated, “My ‘New System,’ in essence, is the
result of the further evolution of the classical system, an evolution which has now been carried to its
inevitable historical stage, a synthetic of the creative effort of the past with that of the present.” My
paper is divided into two sections: section one describes Roslavets’s compositional system along the
circle and a spiral of fifths; and section two shows Roslavets’s earliest attempts composing within this
system in the Nocturne Quintet (1913) and Sonata No. 1 for Viola and Piano (1926).

Program
Saturday, 9:00–10:30 am
Room 1

Between Cultures

Chair: John Covach (University of Rochester)

Shakti's Common Ground: Scalar Conception and Usage in a Cross­Cultural Musical

Endeavor
David Claman (Lehman College,CUNY)
Tonal Prolongations in Bartók's Hungarian Folktunes for Violin and Piano
John Koslovsky (Oberlin College)

Program

Shakti's Common Ground: Scalar Conception and Usage in a Cross­Cultural Musical Endeavor

In 1976 "Shakti" released the first of three record albums. Shakti was arguably the most ambitious and
successful instance of a genre often dubbed Indo­Jazz Fusion. Since jazz and India’s classical music
make extensive use of improvisation, having musicians from these traditions come together to make
music seems a potentially fruitful and relatively straightforward undertaking. The ensemble consisted
of English guitarist John McLaughlin, Hindustani percussionist Zakir Hussain, and Carnatic musicians
Ramnad Raghavan, L. Shankar, and T. H. Vinayakram. Despite Shakti’s enduring reputation among
fans and critics, little serious scholarly work on Shakti’s music has been undertaken. Gerry Farrell
claimed Shakti’s music was “one at all times” and that unlike previous attempts at Indo­jazz fusion, “an
actual synthesis” was achieved. Careful examination of Shakti’s music demonstrates that such notions
are vague and problematic. Scalar forms play fundamental roles in the two musical traditions that
informed Shakti’s music, but the ways in which jazz and Indian classical musicians conceive of and
make use of scalar forms differ considerably. Several of Shakti’s pieces will be examined in order to
highlight these differences. Shakti's music is interesting because it is fraught with tensions; it succeeds
and also fails, exhibiting novel properties of its own while retaining stylistic contrasts and aesthetic
tensions stemming from the different musical backgrounds of the ensemble's members.

Top

Tonal Prolongations in Bartók's Hungarian Folktunes for Violin and Piano

The issue of “post­tonal prolongation” has been one of the most widely­debated topics in modern
music theoretical scholarship. One of the key figures in the debate is Felix Salzer, whose 1952
Structural Hearing was among the first to push the boundaries of Schenker’s method in music before
and after the Common­Practice Era. While studies have pointed out many of the inherent difficulties in
analyzing modern music with Schenkerian techniques (notably Baker 1983 and Straus 1987), the
history and motivation that lay behind this work remain to be fully exposed. Such a history shows that
Salzer’s principal agenda in analyzing modern music lay not in expanding Schenker’s theory but in
discovering a future style of tonal music—in fact, Schenker himself may have given Salzer the initial
impetus to take on such a task.

This paper offers an analysis of a single work by Béla Bartók, the Hungarian Folktunes for violin and
piano. A striking example of tonality in Bartók, Schenker alludes to this piece in a personal
correspondence with Salzer after hearing a recording, and lauds it for its beautiful use of “line.” I first
discuss the genesis of the composition and recording of the piece. Next, I provide a close analysis of
the work from a formal and a Schenkerian perspective. Finally, I close with some remarks on the
aesthetic underpinnings of Schenker’s remark, discuss the application of Schenkerian analysis to
modern tonal music in light of such a piece, and consider whether we can better come to grips with the
nature of Salzer’s later work and the debate surrounding “post­tonal prolongation.”

Top

Program
Saturday, 10:30 am–12:00 pm
Room 1

Pop Music

Chair: Shaugn O'Donnell (City University of New York)

Rockin' Out: Expressive Modulation in Verse­Chorus Form

Christopher Doll (Rutgers University)
The Role of the Producer in Hip­Hop: An Ethnographoc and Analytical Study of Remixes
Noriko Manabe (Princeton University)

Program

Rockin' Out: Expressive Modulation in Verse­Chorus Form

The breakout chorus is a hallmark of rock music. Such a chorus contrasts with its preceding verse by
conveying an increase in intensity with regard to loudness, rhythmic and textural activity, timbral noise,
and/or pitch level. The last and most sophisticated of these four techniques, modulating the pitch level,
often entails a full­scale change of tonal center, toward either the relative major or minor. Additionally,
such modulations frequently correspond to positive or negative themes expressed in the lyrics. In light
of myriad examples of this phenomenon, we can safely assert that the breakout chorus is, for rock
music in general, a predictable spot at which to encounter an expressive modulation.

Yet expressive modulations in verse­chorus form are not always so formulaic. Variations on the
technique abound, and this paper lays out some common alternatives as well as some notably unique
treatments. Modulations to more distant keys, modulations that are oblique or ambiguous, and
modulations that work against the breakout stereotype will be identified in verse­chorus songs
representing all six decades of rock history.

Top

The Role of the Producer in Hip­Hop: An Ethnographoc and Analytical Study of Remixes

Analytical publications on hip­hop have tended to focus on the skill of the rapper while overlooking the
contribution of the DJ/producer. This bias has led to a misunderstanding of the creative process in hip­
hop. While Adams' analyses (2008) are a welcome step in the development of analytical studies in
hip­hop, he makes the assumption that a completed musical track is given to the rapper, who records
onto this track. He therefore credits all text­music interaction to the skill of the rapper.

In contrast, several dozen hip­hop artists I have interviewed have said that the rapper receives a
simplified track. After the rapper and the producer try different versions in the studio, the producer
refines the track, adding (and deleting) instruments to emphasize the rapper's words or scratches and
fills when the rapper pauses. Some producers also change the key of the track to fit the pitch contour
of the rapper. With the advent of easy editing through ProTools, the producer's control over the work
has increased. Hence, the musical aspects of the rapper's timing are often the result of the producer.

My paper will show the central role of the producer in hip­hop recording through a combination of
ethnography and close musical analysis. I will first provide an overview of the creative process through
quotes from my interviews with Pete Rock and DJ Krush. I will then provide an analytical comparison
between versions of "Only the Strong Survive," where DJ Krush fitted CL Smooth's rap from 1995 to a
completely different musical track in 2006. Through analysis, I demonstrate that the creation of a hip­
hop track does not end with the rapper, but with the producer who edits the work.
Saturday, 2:00–5:00 pm
Room 1

Musical Spaces

Chair: Jonathan Dunsby (Eastman School of Music)

Hybrid Analysis Interprets Multi­Transformational Form in Brahms's "Wir Wandelten"

Josh Mailman (Eastman School of Music)
Seeing Clearly: Ten Principles of Music Visualization
Eric Isaacson (Indiana University)
Contour Vector Space
Rob Schultz (Northampton, MA)
Musical Space and the Spatial Character of Modernity
Holly Watkins (Eastman School of Music)

Program

Hybrid Analysis Interprets Multi­Transformational Form in Brahms's "Wir Wandelten"

Like so many works by Brahms, the song Wir wandelten woos the listener through its richness of
melody, harmony, and texture. These seemingly generic facets relate very specifically to the form and
text­setting of this song, not in any single musical dimension, but rather through a multivalent
coordination that is unusually nuanced—so much so, that its analysis demands a synthesis of diverse
analytical tools: a hybrid analysis. Such a hybrid analysis shows how the song’s form is richly
developmental, not merely sectional. Aspects of this development suggest metaphorical
interpretations of the music that are supported by the content of the poem.

Both the structure and content of the song’s text suggest a developmental setting in the music: the
topic is “wandering” and the punctuation delineates a three­stage trajectory of introspection. Brahms’s
musical setting also has a trajectory—a long range developmental trajectory significant enough to
color the song’s form. Simple but diverse transformations underlie the development. Call it multi­
transformational developmental form.

Hybrid analysis: Three strains of music theory propel the interpretation of the song’s multi­
transformational development. (1) Schoenberg’s Grundgestalt theory provides the framework for
interpreting the motivic melodic material. (A contextual transformational network also plays a role
here.) (2) Hauptmann/Oettingen/Riemann­derived harmonic functional dualism, as renewed by
Harrison, provides the framework for interpreting harmonic substitutions between each half of the
song. (3) Rudimentary concepts of meter (beat vs. offbeat) and voice­leading together with basic
notions of metaphor and gender provide ample basis for interpreting a rhythmic­submetric
transformation that occurs between the two halves of the song.

Top

Seeing Clearly: Ten Principles of Music Visualization

Drawing primarily on the work of Edward Tufte, the paper presents a number of principles for music
scholars to consider when creating graphical representations of musical information. These include the
elimination of unnecessary graphical elements, improving the ratio of data to ink, strategies for the
tabular presentations of data, the use of small multiples, the importance of graphical integrity, uses for
color and for animation, when to provide instructions at the point of needs, and the value of data­rich
graphics. The principles are demonstrated by presenting exemplary illustrations of a principle,
comparing multiple visualizations of the same phenomenon, taking existing visualizations and
rendering them anew to show how even minor tweaks can improve information design, and presenting
freshly crafted examples.

Top

Contour Vector Space

Upon initial glance, contour space (c­space) appears to be a decidedly impoverished musical habitat.
Indeed, “a pitch­space consisting of elements arranged from low to high disregarding the exact
intervals between the elements” (Morris 1987, 340) inherently lacks many of the defining features that
make music recognizable as such. A significant corpus of theoretical and analytical studies, however,
has nevertheless emerged, proving the study of musical contour to exhibit a surprising degree of
sophistication and complexity.

The bulk of this research has focused primarily on equivalence­class and similarity relations, thus
yielding a multitude of compelling methods for relating two or more contours with one another, but no
concrete means of situating them within a larger c­space framework. The various contour vectors
introduced by Michael Friedmann (1985), however, in fact provide fertile ground for developing the
tools with which to do so. The goal of this paper is to execute this task by applying techniques
developed in musical transformation theory to Friedmann’s contour vectors to generate contour vector
spaces (cv­spaces). The paper then cites two crucial weaknesses of the methodology—its inability to
account for repeated notes and the lack of inter­cardinality communication—and constructs new cv­
spaces that rectify these points. Finally, it deploys these new cv­spaces in analyses of the main
secondary theme from the first movement of Johannes Brahms’s String Sextet in B flat, Op. 18 and
the opening section of Pierre Boulez’s Messagesquisse (1976) in order to illustrate how cv­spaces can
inform and enhance our understanding of these, and no doubt numerous other musical passages.

Top

Musical Space and the Spatial Character of Modernity

In the parlance of contemporary music theory, space is everywhere—recent literature includes studies
of pitch space, combinatorial space, compositional and voice­leading spaces, and the musical spaces
of transformation theory. In his groundbreaking study The Production of Space (1974), Henri Lefebvre
observed that “We are forever hearing about the space of this and/or the space of that: about literary
space, ideological spaces, the space of the dream, [and] psychoanalytic topologies”—theoretical
constructs that in his view confirmed the status of space as the “worldwide medium of the definitive
installation of capitalism.” As a close cousin to the architectural, plastic, and literary spaces mentioned
by Lefebvre, musical space enjoys a similar currency and appeal along with a lack of social or
economic contextualization. Drawing freely on Lefebvre’s insights, this paper interprets Schenkerian
musical space as positioned between two modes of space Lefebvre associates with
religious/monarchial and modern worldviews, respectively: absolute space and abstract space. The
paper shows how Schenker’s treatment of space in Der Tonwille and Der freie Satz expresses the
“ambivalent modernism” Walter Frisch identifies in the work of many late nineteenth­ and early
twentieth­century cultural figures. I conclude that Schenker’s approach to musical space should be
viewed not simply as an attempt to safeguard “aristocratic” values from the leveling effects of
Americanization and capitalism (as he clearly intended it), but as a symptom of a larger tendency
toward spatialization his theory shares with modernity’s dominant cultural and economic mechanisms.

Top

Program
Saturday, 2:00–5:00 pm
Room 2

Vienna

Chair: Eric Wen (Mannes School of Music)

The Tonic 5­6 Shift: A Venue for Schubert's Chromatic Exploits

David Damschroder (University of Minnesota)
"I have tried to capture you . . .": Rethinking the "Alma" Theme in Mahler's Sixth Symphony
Seth Monohan (Eastman School of Music)
Who Said That? Dialogue and Repetition in the Soldier Songs from Das Knaben
Wunderhorn
Brian Moseley (CUNY, Graduate Center)
Viennese Classicism and the Sentential Idea: Broadening the Sentence Paradigm
Mark Richards (Toronto)

Program

The Tonic 5­6 Shift: A Venue for Schubert's Chromatic Exploit

This paper undertakes a major overhaul of the scale­step (Stufentheorie) approach to harmonic
analysis by developing various compelling notions that, though promoted by musical thinkers of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, were never successfully integrated into the mainstream modern
analytical practice. Distinctive perspectives on root, hierarchy, embellishment, and chromaticism by
Kirnberger, Louis and Thuille, Momigny, Scheibe, and Vogler, among others, help shape a reformed
analytical practice that I demonstrate in the context of music by Franz Schubert. Two specific tonal
trajectories are explored: I5–6–5 and I5–6 II. The analytical response to chromatic alterations, added
dissonance, and omitted roots emphasizes commensurability of analytical symbols and the distinction
between chords that function as dominants and chords that are built like dominants yet function in the
role of submediant or supertonic within the broader progression. Several examples demonstrate how
connective chords may come between tonic’s 5­ and 6­phase chords, how I5–6 II# V may serve as the
foundation for an entire exposition, and how the 5–6 shift may be deployed on other scale degrees.
New terminology for analysis, including assertion, chordal evolution, dominant emulation, unfurling,
wobble, and 6­phase chord, is introduced.

Top

"I have tried to capture you . . .": Rethinking the "Alma" Theme in Mahler's Sixth Symphony

Since the 1940s, Mahler’s Sixth Symphony has been transmitted with an informal “domestic” program
centered on several claims first made in Alma Mahler’s Erinnerungen. In the work, she writes, Gustav
meant to depict their children (in the Scherzo), himself (in the Finale), and finally her, in the first
movement’s swooning secondary theme. Whether this was actually Mahler’s intention, we can never
know. But given the well­known credibility gap of Alma’s reports—and considering the lack of
corroborating evidence—it is surprising how widely critics have taken Alma at face value, and allowed
her program to become a permanent fixture of the work’s reception. My contention is that Alma’s
comments have led to skewed hearings of the opening movement, and that a close examination of the
“Alma” theme itself—and especially the narrative it unfolds—calls into question any image of the
theme as a straightforward or heartfelt nuptial portrait. I begin by illuminating grotesque, parodistic,
and even caricaturistically “feminine” aspects of the theme’s construction and presentation. I then
show how over the course of the movement, Mahler first proposes an idealized fantasy­version of the
theme, then brings back the original version only to saddle it with a glaring sonata malfunction, and
finally, after symbolically exiling its most grotesque elements, finally settles on a triumphant but
decidedly “masculinized,” martial derivative. In closing, I propose several possible alternate “domestic”
readings, ones that link the above narrative to the documented ambivalence and dissatisfaction
pervading Mahler’s marriage at the time.

Top

Who Said That? Dialogue and Repetition in the Soldier Songs from Das Knaben Wunderhorn

The songs in Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn are not unified through a common poetic theme as
are many of his other song collections. Nonetheless, certain subjects and poetic themes in Arnim and
Brentano’s Wunderhorn anthology clearly captured Mahler’s imagination. In addition to the children’s
songs, serenades and dance music, songs about military life represent a sizable portion of the
collection. It seems likely that the composer was attracted to the themes of death, longing, and
persecution associated with soldiers, prisoners, and loves left long ago. Quite frequently, these songs
are set as dialogues, a poetic technique common among Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs; usually
imaginary, these dialogues often occur in the character’s minds, representing inner thoughts.

Through close analysis of repetition in three of the soldier songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, this
paper discusses interpretive questions raised by the interaction of musical and poetic dialogue. The
paper confines itself to three works: “Lied des Verfolgten im Turm,” “Wo die schönen Trompeten
blasen,” and “Der Schildwache Nachtlied” share a common heritage in their use of poetic dialogue,
and each of Mahler’s settings grapple with the dialogue in different ways. Among other things, my
analyses examine various types of musical repetition not only to understand the identity of the
protagonist, but also to question the real versus imagined state of each character.

Top

Viennese Classicism and the Sentential Idea: Broadening the Sentence Paradigm

Only recently has the form of the sentence been recognized in English­language music scholarship as
an important structure in the music of the classical period, and this recognition is due in large part to
the work of William E. Caplin, whose seminal book and several articles on classical form revive the
Formenlehre tradition of Arnold Schoenberg and his pupil Erwin Ratz. Many of the defining features of
the sentence, as Caplin describes it, were established by these two predecessors, but it is Caplin who
gave the sentence greater analytical power by defining the three formal functions of presentation,
continuation, and cadence. At the same time, this highly specific definition brings with it a narrow
range of applicability that leaves a vast number of structures that closely resemble the sentence
outside of its borders. I therefore argue that Caplin’s sentence describes but one type of structure
among many that may all be classified under a broader sentence paradigm that consists of any
number of basic ideas (even a single one), a continuation, and an optional cadence. This formal
outline, which I call the sentential idea (or simply the sentence in its most basic form), is so ubiquitous
in the classical repertoire—as epitomized by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven—that it may well be
understood as one of the most important structural principles of the period.

Top

Program
Sunday, 9:30 am–12:30 pm
Room 1

Schoenberg and Stravinsky

Chair: Anton Vishio (New York University)

Semitonal Pairings and the Performance of Schoenberg's Atonal Piano Music

Ben Wadsworth (Kennesaw State)
Dysfunctional Diatonicism: The Use of Quartal Hamonies in Stravinsky's Pulcinella
Rebecca Hyams (Queens College, CUNY)
Placing and Displacing Syllables: What Meter Tells Us About Stravinsky's "Notorious" Text
Settings and Vice Versa
Chandler Carter (Hofstra University)
Broken Communication, Hebrew Syllables, and Other Themes in Act I, Scene 1 of
Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron
Jack Boss (University of Oregon)

Program

Semitonal Pairings and the Performance of Schoenberg's Atonal Piano Music

Questions of tonal function in Schoenberg’s so­called “atonal” works have proven difficult for analysts,
as they contain tonal residues that are frequently not given structural support in harmony or voice
leading. Previous tonal approaches such as Von der Nüll 1932, Leichtentritt 1959, Brinkmann 1969,
and Ogdon 1981 have generally favored tonal centers that are suggested by traditional major and
minor scales, an approach that has overlooked rich relationships possible between tonalities and pc
set structures. To link tonal and pc set structures, a promising starting point is the layering of tonalities
in different registers, a flexible “polytonality” that is dealt with informally in Leichtentritt 1959.
Leichtentritt implies a dialectic between two tonal layers that results in three possible types of overall
harmonic states: 1) no mixture; 2) one of the two layers functions as added notes to the other layer;
and 3) the two layers assert the same tonality. This paper formalizes Leichtentritt’s implied dialectic
through a new model of Semitonal Pairings (SPs), sustained conflicts between layered tonalities,
symmetrical collections, or intervals related by ic 1. SPs show how tonal residues are integrated into
the chromatic, dissonant motivic structure of atonal works by considering a layered, polytonal texture
as equivalent to the subset/superset relationship from set theory. Due to changing relationships
between subset layers, the supersets range from traditionally dissonant (2 or more instances of ic 1) to
relatively consonant (no instances of ic 1). Successions of these harmonic states may be interpreted
as a narrative within the tradition of the Schoenbergian “tonal problem” (Schoenberg 1995) and its
extensions in Carpenter 1983 and Dineen 2005. This paper will classify types of SPs, trace their
different types in Schoenberg’s Op. 11 and 19, and interpret their performance implications. This
approach demonstrates 1) that some (but not all) tonal centers relate to pc sets in a consistent
manner, and 2) these relationships may help inform an effective performance.

Top

Dysfunctional Diatonicism: The Use of Quartal Hamonies in Stravinsky's Pulcinella

Igor Stravinsky used many compositional techniques in transforming a disparate group of eighteenth­
century works into his ballet Pulcinella. On the surface, Pulcinella appears to be a straightforward
adaptation of its source materials. However, while the sources for Pulcinella operate within the norms
of common practice tonality, there are many instances where Stravinsky subverts the sources’ original
tonal implications. One such way is through the addition of non­functional diatonic harmonies, used in
conjunction with other compositional techniques such as pedal points and dissociative layers.

Beyond the tertian harmonies that mostly come from the source materials, quartal sonorities are the
most prevalent harmonic additions. They are interesting because while they can be easily created
within the diatonic collection, they are seen as non­functional byproducts of voice­leading within a
traditional tonal context. These quartal harmonies are discussed in an assortment of twentieth century
treatises, perhaps most notably in Schoenberg’s Theory of Harmony, but also in the in the work of
Hindemith, Caner, Persichetti, and Harris. Schoenberg’s reference to “quartal triads” is then
extrapolated in this paper to include other pentatonic subsets.

Stravinsky’s use of quartal harmonies in the ballet is then examined. In some instances Stravinsky
uses entire quartal sonorities as pedal points. Instances where quartal harmonies are used as one
element of complex, layered textures will also be looked at in detail. Lastly, the end of the Tarantella
will be discussed, where the combination of the aforementioned techniques and the original tonal
implications conflict with how non­functional harmonies are perceived.

Top

Placing and Displacing Syllables: What Meter Tells Us About Stravinsky's "Notorious" Text
Settings and Vice Versa

Two central and related features of Stravinsky’s music are his metrically displaced accents and his
idiosyncratic text settings, the latter of which often result from the former. Building on Pieter van den
Toorn’s long­standing work on displacement, I examine Stravinsky’s practice of displacing syllables in
works spanning from the late 1910s to the early 1950s. The strict displacement that van den Toorn
analyzes — in which themes, motives, and chords are retained “in order that alignment itself (and its
shifts) might be set in relief” — occurs mostly in the Russian­period settings. A close examination of
Stravinsky’s later displaced settings shows Stravinsky loosening his grip on pitch, rhythm and even
dynamics. I propose to survey these more subtle and varied uses of displacement in the post­Russian­
period text settings, including Oedipus Rex (1926­7), Perséphone (1934), The Rake’s Progress (1948­
51) and Cantata (1952), the last of which spans Stravinsky’s controversial transition to serialism.
Drawing on some revealing sketch material, I will show not only how Stravinsky’s approach to setting
text evolves, but also how his use of displacement develops even as it remains key to his highly
distinctive treatment of rhythm, meter and text. By surveying examples from many works composed
over a span of years, I offer another perspective by which to gauge the striking variety and remarkable
evolution of Stravinsky’s music.

Top

Broken Communication, Hebrew Syllables, and Other Themes in Act I, Scene 1 of

Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron

The opening scene of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron introduces four issues that are elaborated
through the opera—1) Moses’ inability to grasp the idea of God perfectly; 2) God's continual attempts
to win His argument with Moses and convince him to prophesy; 3) the powerful effect of visual images
in representing God for good or evil, and 4) the Jews' unique status as "chosen people” and model for
other nations. Schoenberg portrays each of these issues effectively using different transpositions and
partitions of his basic row in the first scene, and though previous authors have described some of his
depictive processes, there are still many left to illustrate.

Moses’ inability to understand God is pictured by the six singing voices from the burning bush
introducing a partition in mm. 11–15 (David Lewin’s “X + Y”) that Moses’ music first approximates, then
gradually “gets wrong” in the measures immediately following. God’s attempts to win Moses over give
rise to passages in which the six voices take over first the harmonic areas and then the partitions
originally associated with the reluctant prophet (mm. 26–28, 30–35, 41–47, and 53–66).

The power of visual images to represent God is depicted by gradually allowing a “chromatic
tetrachord” partition (so named by Michael Cherlin) to take over the texture, as the voices predict the
three signs Aaron will do to convince the people that God is real (mm. 41–47). Finally, the special
status of the Hebrew people as model for the nations around them is portrayed (in mm. 71–85) by
giving correctly­ordered hexachords from P9, I0, or their retrogrades to certain “chosen” voices,
doubled by the strings, and leaving reorderings or fragments of those same hexachords for the
remaining voices and instruments.

Program
Sunday, 9:30 am–12:30 pm
Room 2

Rameau, Riemann, andSchenker

Chair: Howard Cinnamon (Hofstra University)

Rameau's Changing Views on Supposition and Suspension

Nathan Martin (Columbia University)
Function, Stufen, and Analytical Crisis in Chromatic Music
Jill Brasky (University of South Florida)
Heinrich Schenker's Early Theory of Form, 1895–1914
Jason Hooper (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Problems of Contrapuntal Representation in Schenkerian Theory
Jason Yust (University of Alabama)

Program

Rameau's Changing Views on Supposition and Suspension

Rameau's doctrine of supposition has given his exegetes no end of trouble. The composer admits, in
addition to our familiar triads and seventh chords, a class of "chords by supposition" formed by placing
a new bass note either a third or a fifth below a seventh chord. That much is unambiguous. Where the
difficulties arise is in grasping what motivates this peculiar music­theoretical artifice.

The available literature suggests two conflicting interpretations. Rameau's "chords by supposition" are
either: 1) straightforward ninth and eleventh chords; or 2) a means of accounting for melodic
suspensions. The former is the traditional view, the latter the modern consensus.

In reconstructing Rameau's shifting conception of supposition through his published and unpublished
treatises, his disputes with early critics, and a consideration of the harmonic idioms (many of them
peculiar to the music of eighteenth­century France) that the doctrine is meant to cover, this paper tries
to problematize certain aspects of our modern consensus while refining our understanding of this facet
of Rameau's thought.

Top

Function, Stufen, and Analytical Crisis in Chromatic Music

This paper examines the distinctions between abstract and analytical theories, in particular, how what
we claim to do in analysis and what we actually do can be at odds. Those who analyze post romantic
music often choose between Schenkerian or (neo­)Riemannian analytical techniques, yet despite
explicit or implicit claims of methodological rigor, influences beyond the chosen theory often infiltrate
analyses. Here, I briefly examine the analysis of Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen in Daniel
Harrison’s Harmonic Function in Chromatic Music (1994). What follows is a discussion of how
unintended historical influences form a critical point in the analysis of late chromatic music—and how
we may move beyond the problems created by these influences.

Top

Heinrich Schenker's Early Theory of Form, 1895–1914

This paper reconstructs Heinrich Schenker’s early approach to form based on his published and
unpublished work dating from 1895 to 1914. I begin with Schenker’s early views on the relationship
between music and language and discuss the artistic laws of repetition, abbreviation, and association.
I then consider Schenker’s thoughts on the motive, the motive’s role in group formation
(Gruppenbildung), and the motive’s ability to define formal sections. Next, I present Schenker’s formal
archetypes, including antecedent­consequent construction, three­part song form, four­part sonata form
without development, five­part rondo form, and six­part sonata form. Representative analyses by
Schenker—most based on unpublished archival material—provide examples to illustrate his ideas.
Works considered include: Beethoven, Piano Sonatas, Opp. 90, 106, and 110; Chopin, Etude in E
Major, Op. 10, No. 3; W.A. Mozart, Rondo in A Minor, K. 511 and Don Giovanni, Act 2, Scene 3;
among others. I conclude with brief thoughts regarding how Schenker’s early theory of form relates to
his later work in Free Composition (1935) and its reception in North America.

Top

Problems of Contrapuntal Representation in Schenkerian Theory

Schenker’s long preoccupation with developing a theory of tonality based on the traditional teaching of
counterpoint led to many of his most compelling ideas. But what essential features make a theory or
analytical perspective “contrapuntal” and what is the relationship between Schenkerian analysis and
traditional counterpoint?

Schenker’s theory of voice­leading levels integrates traditional notions of counterpoint with the concept
of tonal hierarchy in a non­trivial way, such that neither retains its original character in the marriage. It
includes not only the internal structure of voices, but also a hierarchy on voices themselves, arranged
into a fixed set of voice­leading levels. Schenker’s actual theory is therefore at odds both with simple
reductionist models of tonal theory, and also with a simple­minded notion of “linear” or “contrapuntal”
analysis that ignores the modifications to traditional notions of counterpoint required by the theory of
levels.

The phenomenon of tonal sequence challenges Schenker’s notion that contrapuntal hierarchies
organically unify entire tonal compositions. Sequences exhibit a hierarchic tonal structure that is
clearly non­contrapuntal. Schenker’s attitude towards sequence reflects the challenge that it poses to
his conviction that the entire masterwork is organically unified by means of voice­leading levels alone.
It is not the concept of contrapuntal hierarchy that is at fault here, however, but rather the claim of
organic unity. Discarding the latter conviction opens the door to analytical accounts sensitive to the
individuality of the work and capable of drawing on multiple conceptual tools.

Program