Composition Commons^™

Flocking In The Time-Dissonance Plane, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

This paper describes a technique for the sonification of an idealized model of the flocking behavior of birds, fish, and insects. Flocking agents are represented by pitches that move through time to produce chords of variable dissonance. The objective of each agent is to move toward more consonant chord formations with other agents. The output of the sonification is intended to provide material for use in musical composition.

“Etc. Etc.” Reliquias Y Fragmentos De Una Sonata De Schubert, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Resumen:

Tomando como ejemplo el caso de Reliquie, Sonata para piano en do mayor D. 840 de Schubert, este ensayo explora los entresijos que generan las obras musicales incompletas. ¿Qué diferencia hay entre un fragmento amputado y uno inacabado? ¿Qué autoridad tienen las reconstrucciones de obras incompletas? ¿Qué opciones tiene el intérprete a la hora de ejecutar esta obra? ¿Por qué nos atraen los fragmentos? La Sonata para piano en do mayor consiste en dos movimientos completos y otros dos inconclusos. Si bien algunos pianistas como Paul Badura-Skoda han grabado esta obra con su propia compleción, Sviatoslav Richter interrumpe su …

A Symbolic Sonification Of L-Systems, Adam James Wilson

Publications and Research

This paper describes a simple technique for the sonification of branching structures in plants. The example is intended to illustrate a qualitative definition of best practices for sonification aimed at the production of musical material. Visually manifest results of tree growth are modelled and subsequently mapped to pitch, time, and amplitude. Sample results are provided in symbolic music notation.

Structural Analysis Or Cultural Analysis? Competing Perspectives On The "Standard Pattern" Of West African Rhythm, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Polyrhythmic dance compositions from West Africa typically feature an ostinato bell pattern known as a time line. Timbrally distinct, asymmetrical in structure, and aurally prominent, time lines have drawn comment from scholars as keys to understanding African rhythm. This article focuses on the best known and most widely distributed of these, the so-called standard pattern, a seven-stroke figure spanning twelve eighth notes and disposed durationally as <2212221>. Observations about structure (including its internal dynamic, metrical potential, and rotational properties) are juxtaposed with a putative African-cultural understanding (inferred from the firm place of dance in the culture, patterns of verbal discourse, …

Review Of William Blake, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Although William Blake is the quintessential multidisciplinary artist – his achievements in literature and the visual arts are for the most part uncontested – as far as we know, he was never particularly interested in music. Indeed, neither his poetry nor his pictures describe or depict music directly. Yet, in the last 200 years or so, his work has made an astounding mark on composers and music. One sees Blake's influence primarily in the numberless musical settings of his poems, but also in more general, indefinite, and ineffable way – a very Blake-ian one, I am tempted to say. I …

Carlos Chávez: A Guide To Research [Book Review], Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

There is no doubt that Robert Parker's Carlos Chávez: A Guide to Research is an important contribution to music scholarship. A guide dedicated to the most important Mexican composer of this century has long been overdue.

Robert Gerhard I La Seva Obra [Book Review], Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

The music of the Catalan composer Robert Gerhard (Valls, 1896–Cambridge, 1970) has been the object of increasing attention from both audience and critics. With several recent doctoral theses and numerous monographs and articles devoted to him (see, e.g., Jeffrey Miller, "An Analysis of Robert Gerhard's 'Libra'" [Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 1987]), Gerhard is becoming one of the most highly venerated Iberian composers and perhaps the most outstanding successor of the lineage begun by Isaac Albeniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla. Joaquim Homs's Robert Gerhard i la seva obra, one of the latest contributions to the …

Two "Mistakes" In Stravinsky's Lntroitus, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

During the 1950s and 60s, Stravinsky learned, mastered, and significantly transformed a musical language that was, for him, entirely new—the language of twelve-tone serialism. As the abundant compositional sketches from this period in the Paul Sacher Foundation make clear, this process was not always an easy one for Stravinsky. Indeed, the sketches show him groping for solutions to basic compositional problems, including particularly the problem of creating meaningful vertical harmonies from the essentially linear nature of the twelve-tone system.

Variation Procedures In Northern Ewe Song, V. Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

The major organizational principle of Northern Ewe song is one shared by numerous African, Oriental, and European musical traditions: a small number of models (variously described as "basic shapes," "archetypes," "background structures," "basic designs," "core patterns," "deep structures") is transformed in a wide variety of ways during performance. Variation takes place on different hierarchic levels both within and between songs and includes practically all of a song's dimensions (rhythm, interval, register, contour, harmony, and so on). This principle, although widely demonstrated in the literature on African song (see, among others, Jones 1976; Kauffman 1984; Schmidt 1984; and Erlmann 1985), is …

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 …

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.

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."

"'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).

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."

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.