Digital Commons Network^™

The “Rebuff Chorus” In 1960–2000 Pop Music, David Heetderks

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

In some verse–prechorus–chorus (VPC) songs from 1960–1990, the prechorus sets up an expectation for tonic arrival, only to have the subsequent chorus reject this tonal implication and either withhold tonic resolution, abruptly change to a new key, or contain a passage whose relation to the previous one is tonally ambiguous. I call this event a “rebuff” chorus. Formal analysis and intertextual comparison show how rebuff choruses use absent-tonic passages or modulatory “breakout” passages in order to swerve away from the implications of the previous section. The formal device often transforms the expressive effect of the chorus from arrival and sincerity …

Review Of Coherence In New Music: Experience, Aesthetics, Analysis, By Mark Hutchinson. (New York, Ny: Routledge, 2016)., Orit Hilewicz

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

A review of Mark Hutchinson's book from 2016, Coherence in New Music: Experience, Aesthetics, Analysis.

Developing Variation In The Late Work Of Morton Gould And Why It Matters, J. Wesley Flinn

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

American composer Morton Gould (1913-1996) was remarkably consistent stylistically over the course of his compositional career; this project examines certain motivic transformational techniques used in two of his last works, Stringmusic (1993, winner of the Pulitzer Prize) and Remembrance Day (Soliloquy for a Passing Century) (1995). These techniques, which can generally be filed under the principle of developing variation, are: 1. Mirroring and reversal; 2. Rotation; 3. Motivic expansion and contraction; 4. Additive sets; and 5. Asymmetric injection. After an overview of each technique, I give a full analysis of the fourth movement of Stringmusic using the approaches described …

Intriguing Interpretation Of Dyads In Common-Practice Tonal Music, Yosef Goldenberg

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

The study offers a systematic exploration of situations in which dyads in common-practice tonal music change their meaning, when repeated or as pivots. The most common such situation is thirds that serve as either the upper or the lower pair of consonant triad members, most often with the tonic as one of the options. Sometimes, however, an implied harmony turns out to be dissonant. Occasionally, dyads other than thirds are also subject to reinterpretation. In exceptional circumstances, dyads do not imply complete harmonies.

Gesualdo’S Moro Lasso And The Freudian Repetition Compulsion, Michael Lively, Mary Lena Bleile

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

We explore the complex psychological condition of the first-person experiencing subject (both literary and musical) presented in Carlo Gesualdo’s madrigal Moro lasso. We compare the textual and musical repetitions within Moro lasso to Sigmund Freud’s concept of the repetition compulsion, in which a person repeats a traumatic event over and over again, either in thoughts or actions, including dreams and hallucinations. Gesualdo’s technique of repeating small elements many times in preparation for larger structural patterns of repetition may perhaps represent or allegorize a version of the Freudian repetition compulsion. We specifically do not address the possible psychoanalysis …

Those Boring, Arcane Part-Writing Exercises, L. Poundie Burstein

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Music theory students and teachers alike have long complained about the sterile part-writing exercises that are a staple of music theory classes. With glee people love to point out how works from the repertoire frequently feature elements that are forbidden in exercises, thereby seeming to prove the ineptitude of the arcane rules forced upon generations of students. Considering the glaring divide between compositional practice and the guidelines for these exercises, are there truly any benefits for continuing to teach in this old-fashioned manner? If their purpose is to mimic a specific artistic style, such as witnessed in the chorales of …

A Diminished-Seventh Bassbrechung: Tonal Ambiguity And The Prolongation Of Function In Edward Elgar’S String Quartet, 1st Movement, Oliver Chandler

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Analysis of the Allegro moderato from Edward Elgar’s String Quartet op. 83 gives rise to a number of interpretative ambiguities, typical of late-romantic repertoire. Essential to these are the sophisticated interactions which the movement effects between its diatonic and chromatic voice-leading processes. Viewed abstractly, the result of this syntactic mixture on the movement’s overall tonality can be interpreted in three ways:

1. The Allegro moderato is monotonal; chromaticism is ultimately an attractive surface distraction from its deeper-level diatonic structure. One can produce a traditional Schenkerian analysis of the movement’s middleground from which chromatic discrepancies can be responsibly erased.

2. The movement is …

   ---

   Go to article

Editor's Message, Michael Baker

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

We are pleased to present Volume 9 of GAMUT: The Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic.

Review Of Carola Nielinger-Vakil, Luigi Nono: A Composer In Context (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Jamuna Samuel

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Review Of Jonathan D. Kramer, Postmodern Music, Postmodern Listening (Bloomsbury, 2016), Philip Duker

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Inter-Cardinality Voice Leading Using Voice-Leading Zones And The Extended 4-Cube Trio, Hon Ki Cheung

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Chord-Scale Networks In The Music And Improvisations Of Wayne Shorter, Garrett Michaelsen

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Übergreifen, Nicolas Meeùs

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

To Be Or Not To Be: Schenker's Versus Schenkerian Attitudes Towards Sequences, Stephen Slottow

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Musical Style On The Development Of Schenkerian Methodology, Joseph Lubben

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Schenker's Leading Linear Progressions, Peter Franck

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Introduction, William Marvin

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Editor's Message, Keith P. Salley, Michael Baker

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

The Early Schenkerians And The "Concept Of Tonality", John Koslovsky

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

This essay investigates the role that a single expression played during the years when Schenker’s ideas began to disseminate en masse, the so-called “concept of tonality.” In particular, it examines how three key Schenker disciples—Oswald Jonas, Felix Salzer, and Adele Katz—used the expression to promote his/her own vision of Schenkerian analysis and pedagogy during the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. While considering the writings that gave birth to the expression, the essay also points to the common sources these early Schenkerians drew on in forming their narratives around Schenker, and it goes on to explore the divergent paths those narratives …

On The Slow Movement Of Brahms's F-Minor Clarinet Sonata: Thirds-Cycles, Diatonie, And Todesangst, Edward Klorman

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

The slow movement (Andante un poco adagio) of Brahms’s Sonata in F Minor for Piano and Clarinet, op. 120, no. 1, poses two significant challenges for a Schenkerian analysis: (1) pervasive, surface-level rhythmic displacements throughout the A section obscure the relationship between melody and bass; and (2) the B section is organized as a major-thirds cycle, a procedure that has often been regarded as incompatible with the underlying Diatonie of Schenker’s framework. This study develops two plausible interpretations of the ambiguous A section, of which one is selected for its clearer alignment of outer-voice counterpoint with formal function. …

Essays From The Fifth International Schenker Symposium (Part I), William M. Marvin

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Do It Again: Sequences In Gershwin And Kern’S Popular Songs, Maxwell Ramage

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Melodic sequences can create musical unity, enhance extra-musical drama, and make a piece memorable. In constructing their popular songs for Broadway and Hollywood, Gershwin and Kern both employed melodic sequences, but did so in mutually differing ways. This article opens with a broad-brushed comparison between the composers’ most popular songs and finds that Kern had a greater predilection for sequences than did Gershwin. Next, I closely analyze several songs by each composer in order to specify differences between the two songsmiths’ approaches to sequence. It is determined that Gershwin often reserves melodic sequence for musical climaxes, whereas Kern tends to …

Concise Manual Of Harmony, Intended For The Reading Of Spiritual Music In Russia (1874), Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, Liliya Shamazov (Ed. And Trans.)

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Preface To Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, Concise Manual Of Harmony, Intended For The Reading Of Spiritual Music In Russia (1874), Liliya Shamazov

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Edward D. Latham

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

No abstract provided.

To Allen Forte From His Former Advisees: Tributes And Reminiscences, David Carson Berry

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Testimonials are collected from forty-two former doctoral advisees of Allen Forte, whose Yale graduation dates range from 1968 to 2002. Although the style and focus of individual tributes vary, many convey something about Forte, both professionally and personally, at the time in which the advisee studied with him. The results are ordered chronologically (by Ph.D. dates) so that collectively they suggest the evolution of Forte himself, as well as North American music theory, across the decades. The contributors include (in alphabetical order): Baker, James M.; Ballan, Harry R.; Beach, David W.; Bergman, Rachel; Bernard, Jonathan W.; Berry, David Carson; Black, …

Structural Phenomena As Agents Of Text Expression In A Pair Of Songs From Schumann’S Liederkreis, Op. 39, J. Randall Wheaton

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

In the great store of masterful songs that came from the pen of Robert Schumann (1810–56) is his second song cycle entitled Liederkreis (op. 39, the first one being op. 24), a particularly rich trove of innovative settings of poems by Joseph Eichendorff (1788–1857). Composed in 1840, Schumann’s so-called year of song and the year that he married the virtuoso pianist Clara Wieck (1819–96), these works have not received the degree of scholarly attention, and particularly not the level of analytical focus, that they really deserve. An exception would be the startling and tonally problematic setting of “Auf einer Burg,” …

Invented Tradition In Anton Webern’S String Trio, Op. 20, Catherine Nolan

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Webern’s String Trio, Op. 20, completed in 1927, marks his return to instrumental composition after over a decade of vocal writing (from Op. 12 to Op. 19), and also demonstrates his technical mastery of the twelve-tone method with which he had been experimenting during the preceding few years. In the absence of a text, Webern’s compositional procedures adapted to the instrumental medium, and the two movements of the String Trio reveal formal designs deeply reminiscent of the traditions of tonal instrumental music. This essay examines the String Trio, particularly its first movement, using the trope of “invented tradition” articulated by …

Theorizing The Golden Age Musical: Genre, Structure, Syntax, Kim H. Kowalke

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

In 1956 Leonard Bernstein opined to his Omnibus audience that “the American musical theater has come a long way, borrowing this from opera, that from revue, the other from operetta, something else from vaudeville—and mixing all the elements into something quite new.” Although he suggested that “each [new musical] is a surprise; nobody ever knows what new twists and treatments and styles will appear next,” at this midpoint in the Golden Age of the American musical theater (roughly the quarter century between Oklahoma! [1943] and Hair [1968]), the art form had evolved its own elaborate set of generic expectations, structural …

Compositional Strategies In Popular Song Form Of The Early Twentieth Century, John Graziano

Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic

Popular song at the beginning of the twentieth century exhibited several new tendencies that, over time, became audience favorites. A new type of rude song, with syncopated melodies and vernacular lyrics (called by the unsavory term “coon song”), took audiences by storm. The general form used in the earlier songs—verse/chorus—still provided the basic structure. But the harmonies and internal structure of both sections moved in a new direction. As the popular music of Tin Pan Alley developed, song composers looked for new ways to vary the basic harmonic progressions in phrases that usually spanned eight measures. Among the variety of …