Music Commons^™

Tone And Tune: The Evidence For Northern Ewe Music, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Abstract:

One of the most intriguing features of most African languages is that of tone, by which variations in speech tone generate different meanings (Pike, 1948, offers a valuable introduction to this subject and includes an extensive bibliography; Fromkin, 1972, is a comprehensive evaluation of specialised studies). In the Ewe language, for example, the word to [H] pronounced with a high tone means ‘ear’, as in To le venye (HLMM), ‘I have an earache.’ To can also mean ‘through’, Meto akɔnta me [MHLHML], ‘I have gone through the accounts.’ But as soon as the high tone is replaced by a …

Music In The Funeral Traditions Of The Akpafu, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

"Nna lo senu kuwe, fie oresire somoloo?" ("Who laid a mat for him, so that he slept so deeply?") With this rhetorical question, the Akpafu of Southeastern Ghana initiate a period of public mourning occasioned by the death of one of their number.1 The philosophic significance of death in Akpafu culture is twofold. First, it marks the completion of the earthly cycle of existence, birth-circumcision-puberty-marriage-death. Second, it opens the door to a higher, spiritual realm in which the deceased, as an ancestor, takes his place alongside the lesser gods and the Supreme Being in the higher reaches of the hierarchy …

The Rhythmic Structure Of West African Music, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

The music of Africa has long intrigued many Westerners. From scattered comments in the accounts of explorers of the so-called Afrique Noire to the full-fledged ethnomusicological studies of the last fifty years, the constant theme has been the fundamental role of music-making in African life and society. And of all the elements of that music, rhythm has received the most attention.

There is something to be gained from looking closely at the early writings on African music, for although they represent the work of non-specialists, and for all their ethnocentricism and anthropocentricism, these accounts touch on the fundamental questions regarding …

Ives On His Own Terms: An Explication, A Theory Of Pitch Organization, And A New Critical Edition For The "3-Page Sonata", Carol Kitzes Baron

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ives's musical vision is tied to the expression of programmatic content. He believed that all music is program music. The first part of this study, "An Explication," shows how the extramusical dimensions are articulated in the formal design of the music. The formal, motivic, textural, and tonal techniques relate to the program. The program for the 3-Page Sonata is found in three literary sources: a note Ives pinned to his copy of the first edition, the marginal notes on the composing score, and "Memo 5" from Ives's Memos, which contains a parody of the writing of the critic W. J. …

Sinfonia Brevis (Original Composition), Jeffrey Lynn Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sinfonia Brevis. A work for orchestra (2d1 2 2 2 - 4 2 2 0, timpani, 2 percussionists, strings) in one movement divided into four sections (Andante Moderato, Allegro, Adagio, Allegro), with a duration of approximately 17 minutes.

Voice-Leading Patterns In The Fugal Expositions Of J. S. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier", William Jonathan Michael Renwick

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although Heinrich Schenker's theory of tonal music goes very far towards uniting the traditionally independent domains of counterpoint and harmony, it does not deal directly or deeply with the connective role which imitative texture often plays in this synthesis. The obligations inherent in a canonic or fugal texture may limit compositional choices, but they also provide an underpinning of control and direction to voice leading. This dissertation demonstrates the structural role of imitation in tonal music by comparative analysis of a selected body of imitative music: the fugues of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.

A consistent and close interrelationship exists …

An Analysis Of Roberto Gerhard's "Libra", Jeffrey Lynn Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Libra (1968), for mixed chamber ensemble, is one of the last works by the Anglo-Spanish composer Roberto Gerhard (1896-1970). Analysis of this work reveals that it employs a variety of compositional techniques, including pitch cells, serialism, folk elements, and structures based primarily on texture and timbre. This multiplicity of means reflects Gerhard's background, which included beginnings in Spanish nationalism and later work as a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. Libra is unified through the dramatic combination of the various elements, the use of a limited number of motives, and the possible influence of a secret autobiographical program.

Sinfonia Brevis. A work …

Tonal Strategy In The First Movement Of Mahler's Tenth Symphony, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

During his summer retreat of 1910, Mahler sketched a five-movement symphony in F# major that was to be his tenth. He did not live to see the work completed. In spite of this, or rather because of it, the Tenth has accumulated a fascinating history, evident in the series of attempts to "realize" Mahler sketches, the best known of which is Deryck Cooke's "performing version."

Jaipongan: Indigenous Popular Music Of West Java, Peter L. Manuel, Randall Baier

Publications and Research

The advent of mass media - particularly cassettes and films - in Indonesia has led to the flowering of two mass popular music forms, namely, dangdut and jaipongan. Kroncong, an older urban popular form, presents a mixture of Portuguese folksong style and Indonesian features; dangdut style, while in some respects an extension of the orkes melayu tradition, is heavily influenced by Hindi film songs and Western pop; only jaipongan is purely Indonesian - or more properly speaking, Sundanese - in origin and style. While kroncong and dangdut have received some scholarly attention (Becker 1975, Heins 1975, Frederick 1982), jaipongan has …

"'Gi Dunu,' 'Nyekpadudo,' And The Study Of West African Rhythm", V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Rhythm has remained the focus of much study of West African music since the pioneering studies of Ward (1927), Hornbostel (1928), Waterman (1948), Brandel (1951), Cudjoe (1953), Merriam (1959), and Jones (1959).

Linear Analysis Of Selected Posttonal Works Of Arnold Schoenberg: Toward An Application Of Schenkerian Concepts To Music Of The Posttonal Era (And) String Quartet, No. 2 (Original Composition), Edward M. Smaldone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The analysis of posttonal music is approached through a method (which originated with Henry Weinberg) utilizing Schenker's approach to tonal music as a conceptual model. This method differs from all other methods of analysis in that voice leading is combined with a unique approach to nontonal harmony. The presentation of the analytical method is given a historical perspective through the analysis of "Jimbo's Lullaby," by Debussy. There follows detailed analyses of Op. 15 no. 1 (The Book of the Hanging Gardens) and Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19 by Arnold Schoenberg.

Part II of the dissertation is an …

String Quartet, No. 2, Edward M. Smaldone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Three movements (Vibrant, Exalted, Recitative: Scherzo) for two violins, viola, and 'cello. Part I of this dissertation is an essay entitled "Linear Analysis of Selected Posttonal Works of Arnold Schoenberg: Toward an Application of Schenkerian Concepts to Music of the Posttonal Era."

Listening To Babbitt, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

The discussion that follows will take a listener-oriented, not a composer-oriented approach, and will concentrate on how a single passage of Babbitt's music, the first eighteen measures of the String Quartet No. 2, might be taken in, not on how it might have been made. Instead of beginning with precompositional materials (sets and arrays) and showing how they are musically concretized, we will begin with certain striking attractions of the musical surface. Furthermore, our efforts won't be directed toward deducing the underlying sets and arrays, a goal Babbitt himself derides as a sterile form of musical cryptanalysis. Instead, we …

Formal Structure In Popular Music As A Reflection Of Socio-Economic Change, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Language On Musical Composition In Ghana: An Introduction To The Musical Style Of Ephraim Amu, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

In most cultures of the world, the creative act of composition may be defined simply as the transformation of pre-existing material into new, individualized structures. The precompositional resource may be a system such as the hierarchical arrangement of triads that forms the basis of Western tonality, a set of formulas that generates such genres as Gregorian chant and West African storytelling, or even a rigidly defined set of relationships such as those inherent in a twelve-tone row. In each case, the precompositional elements provide a framework for the analysis and interpretation of the composition.

Heinrich Schenker As An Interpreter Of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas, William Rothstein

Publications and Research

There was a time when it seemed necessary for admirers of the work of Heinrich Schenker to remind the musical community periodically that it had grown out of a lifetime of practical musical experience—that is, that Der freie Satz did not represent a self-contained system of theoretical speculation. Schenker himself tried repeatedly throughout his career to impress this point upon his readers. In recent years, fortunately, this reminder—which had threatened to become merely ritualistic—has become somewhat less necessary. The change in Schenker's reputation may, it seems, be dated precisely to 1975, when Dover Publications issued an inexpensive reprint of his …

The Concept Of Tala In Semi-Classical Music, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

This article explores certain rhythmic features distinctive of the concept of tal in North Indian light-classical music, especially thumri. Particularly salient is the way that ambiguity of beat counts in tals called dipchandi, addha, and jat reflect how these tals are traditionally conceived in terms of drum strokes (dha dhin dha dha dhin etc.) instead of beat counts, which are in fact variable. Published in: National Centre for the Performing Arts: Quarterly Journal (Bombay) 12(4), December 1983. pp. 7-14.

The Musical Language Of Kindertotenlieder No. 2, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Three times during his compositional career, Mahler turned to the medium of the orchestral song cycle either to experiment with or to refine certain technical procedures. This resulted in a variety of methods for establishing large-scale tonal coherence, using song as a resource for later symphonic composition, and stylizing folk material, melodically and rhythmically. These compositional techniques are clearly exemplified in Mahler's three cycles, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (1883-85), Kindertotenlieder (1901-04), and Das Lied von der Erde (1907-08).

Instruments In Sacred Vocal Music At Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel: A Study Of Changing Tastes In The Seventeenth Century, James Leonard Brauer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

The Short Piano Works Of Edward Macdowell, Francis Paul Brancaleone

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Edward MacDowell (1860-1908) was thought by many to be America's leading composer. His fame rested on his personal appearances, performances of his orchestral suites, piano concertos, and other piano works, as well as his teaching position at Columbia. This study presents a style analysis of the complete body of short piano works (160), including the unpublished juvenilia (32 compositions) and those works published under the pseudonym of Edgar Thorn (13 compositions).

MacDowell's published short piano compositions consist of 115 pieces in 19 sets, composed over the period 1880-1902. These pieces constitute a significant …

The Relationship Between Prosodic And Musical Rhythms In Urdu Ghazal-Singing, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

A study of how prosodic meter in Urdu ghazal is treated in light-classical singing

Radhagovind Sangitsar Of Maharaja Pratap Singh, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

The Radhagovind Sangitsār (or simply Sangitsār) completed in Jaipur around 1800, is a significant musical treatise regarding North Indian classical music. Its special importance lies in its status as one of the very few writings on Hindustani music in the nearly two centuries between the 16^th-17^th Sanskrit and Persian texts and the early modern writings commencing in the decades around 1900. In the interests of disseminating it to interested students and scholars I have digitized chapter seven, on rāga, which is the chapter that has proved to be of most use and interest to musicologists.