2011 n Mf Proceedings

UCM New MUsiC Festival 2011: OLD AND NEW

2011 soCiety oF CoMposers, iNC.regioN vi CoNFereNCe

FEAturiNg:AthENs sAxOphONE quArtEtkccONtiNuum

prOcEEDiNgs

uNivErsity OF cENtrAL missOuriDEpArtmENt OF music

ApriL 8-10, 2011

UCM New Music Festival 2011: olD aND New2011 Society of Composers, Inc.

Region VI Conference

Festival Featured guest artists:atHeNs saXopHoNe QUartet

KCCoNtiNUUM

april 8-10, 2011

University of Central MissouriCollege of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

Department of MusicAn All-Steinway School

proCeeDiNgs

UCM New Music Festival 2011: olD aND New

April 8-10, 2011University of Central Missouri

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social SciencesDepartment of Music

proCeeDiNgs

table oF CoNteNts

Paper Session Abstracts 1Concert Programs 11Papers Submitted for Inclusion in Proceedings Volume Mike Junokas One Plus One Equals One: Jonathan Harveys Advaya Model 21 Timothy Stulman A Cultural Analysis of Chen Yis Si Ji (Four Seasons) for Orchestra 26 Robert Gross Prolongation in Stravinskys Movements for Piano and Orchestra 35 Athanasios Zervas Messiaens Vingt Regards sur lEnfant-Jsus (III. Lchange): Pedal Sonorities Versus Complete Rotations 62 Jeremy Baguyos Utilizing Electronics in the Performance of Druckmans Synapse>Valentine 71 Christopher Gainey Historical Foundations for the Development of Spectral Music 79 Wendy Wan-Ki Lee Camouflaged and Diluted Pentatonicism in Piano Works by Chinese/American Composers 97 Theodore Karathodoros Comments and Observations on Dimitri Terzakis work Rabasso: Correlations and Critical Approaches to the Pitch Material Based on the Theory and Practice of Byzantine Music 106 Zachariah Zubow Beat Class Modulation in Ligetis Piano Etude, No. 4 124

1PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEW

paper sessioN i: abstraCtsFriday, April 8, 2011 8:00AM Utt 008

8:00AM Jessica Balik, Remembering Expressivity: Henri Pousseurs Mnemosyne I (1968)

In Greek mythology, the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, mothered the nine muses. Therefore, she personifies the idea that recollection of the past can engender creative innovation for the future. Similarly, in the early years of the nineteenth century, the German poet Friedrich Hlderlin (1770-1843) created a new and idiosyncratic poem, which is about the process of remembrance, and which he called Mnemosyne (ca. 1804). Finally, in 1968, the Belgian composer Henri Pousseur (1929-2009) set lines from Hlderlins aforementioned poem within a musical composition, which he also called Mnemosyne. Pousseurs work lasts about five minutes, but despite both its brevity and its monophonic texture, aspects of its underlying construction are nonetheless complex. My presentation explains several ways that Pousseurs intricate construction recollects elements from earlier eras of music history. They include the idea of monody, familiar from vocal and dramatic music around the turn of the seventeenth century; principles of tonal harmony, such as the sheer ideas of diatonicism and chromaticism; and serial techniques, such as operations involving recombination and permutation. I also explain how various aspects of this piece, including both the structure of its text and the sequence of its pitches, can be understood to emphasize a single phrase that lies at its center. The phrase reads die deutungslose Sprache (the meaningless or uninterpretable language). I relate Pousseurs apparent emphasis on this phrase to his critique of so-called total or integral serialism from the 1950s. Although Pousseur himself had once composed such music, he came to regard it as being like an uninterpretable language too difficult to comprehend. Beginning around 1960, he forged this critique both in prose essays and in musical compositions. Even though Pousseurs Mnemosyne is a short and relatively unknown piece, it is nonetheless worthy of consideration because it productively illustrates broader historical trends. They include Pousseurs own interest in reconciling serial technique with tonal harmony, an interest which occupied him throughout the 1960s, and which culminated in a large-scale dramatic work called Votre Faust at the end of that decade; the idea of postserial composition, a term that I understand to connote music that was not merely music composed after the 1950s, but that also somehow critiques that decades serialism; and the marked popularity of Hlderlin with composers of the later twentieth century. Finally, Mnemosyne reflects Pousseurs concern with recovering a direct and readily comprehensible form of musical expression. Although this same concern was also significant to other composers who were active in the 1960s, such as Wilhelm Killmayer (b. 1927), arguably the ideal of direct and immediate comprehensibility has become particularly associated with a younger group of German composers who matured in the 1970s. Therefore, just as the goddess Mnemosyne embodies recollection while spawning creative inspiration, so too do I understand Pousseurs Mnemosyne to reflect critically on music of the past while simultaneously pointing toward this music of the future.

8:30AM Mike Junokas, One Plus One Equals One: Jonathan Harveys Advaya Model

In referring to Advaya(1994), Jonathan Harvey states:

Advaya is a first-century Buddhist term meaning not two, and it points to the transcendence of duality. We conventionally harbour the illusion that things exist naturally in their own right. Buddhism shows that ultimately this is untrue, and even the subjective self is an empty thing in the same way. All objects are the coloured illusions of a false duality.

As every sound in Advaya derives from the cello, and the duo onstage is unreal, it was important to articulate the illusion of multiplicity as vividly as possible so that the inherent unity lying behind would be all the more remarkable

Harvey is able to create a modern-day ode to the concerto in which the cello accompanies itself, without losing any of the virtuosic character found in romantic concertos, in his work for cello and electronics, Advaya. Harvey presents a model for todays performers and composers in developing a work that integrates the composers creativity in compositional methods, the virtuosity of a solo performer, and the potential

2PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWpresented by modern electronics. This multi-media presentation will showcase how Harvey uses a specific electronics setup, advanced cello techniques, and electronic techniques to advance the central concept of not two in his work, Advaya.

9:00AM Angela Lickiss, The Meeting of Prt and Bach in Collage ber B-A-C-H

Arvo Prts Collage ber B-A-C-H, written in 1982, represents the height of Prts obsession with Bach. Collage is solidly situated in Prts post-modern aesthetic utilizing his tintinnabuli style and serialist techniques, however all three movements, Toccata, Sarabande, and Ricercare, carry certain connotations referring to older music. The Toccatas compositional process is simple and clear, like both the Baroque style and Prts tintinnabuli. The Sarabande contains the most overt reference to Bach and his music. Prt includes the B-A-C-H motif throughout the movement and lifts entire sections of Bachs Sixth English Suite, orchestrated from the original solo harpsichord into a more typical Baroque instrumentation. The Ricercare is the movement that closest resembles the early definition of a ricercare, a polyphonic work utilizing contrapuntal imitation. This blending of the old and new material and techniques gives this work a feeling of disjuncture while still maintaining two distinct voices. As Lyn Henderson states in A solitary genius: the establishment of Parts technique (1958-68), far from undermining the serial element, [tonality] will be required to cohabitat with it, in a free association of styles. I will first break down the inherent meanings to the titles given to each of the movements and identify specific examples, in each movement, of the blending of old and new compositional styles. I will also examine Collage to identify compositional practices more commonly associated with Prts post-1964 style. Then I will compare one of Bachs, the Adagio from Bachs Easter Oratorio BWV 249, instrumentation examples that is similar to Prts Sarabande. I will then use both of these results to demonstrate how the juxtaposition of Baroque and modernist aesthetics re-contextualizes both on a audible level.

9:30AM Timothy Stulman, A Cultural Analysis of Chen Yis Si Ji (Four Seasons) for Orchestra

Chen Yi, a prominent composer of the 20th and 21st century, has been the subject of a considerable amount of musical study; however, her orchestra piece, Si Ji (Four Seasons) for full orchestra, has yet to be inspected with a great deal of scrutiny. The aim of this study is to provide a musical and cultural analysis of Si Ji, paralleling the composition to the traditional Chinese concept after which the piece is named. The cycle of the seasons has been an important concept throughout Chinese history, for both agricultural and philosophical purposes. According to traditional Daoist philosophy, the seasons are produced by the interaction between yin and yang, polar opposites that provoke each other into a continuous cycle of movement. Chen Yis Si Ji relies on these polar opposites not only for the overall structure of the piece, but also to create relationships within the harmony, melody, and rhythm. It is the authors aim to present Si Ji as a multi-dimensional layering of polar relationships that provoke and balance each other, creating a harmonious and inevitable flow of energy.


paper sessioN ii: abstraCtsFriday, April 8, 2011 1:00PM Utt 107

1:00PM Scott Brickman, KOed by the Octatonic Scale

Allen Forte, writing in The Structure of Atonal Music (1973), tabulated the prime forms and vectors of pitch-class sets (PCsets). Additionally, he presented the idea of a set-complex, a set of sets associated by virtue of the inclusion relation. Post-Tonal Theorists such as John Rahn, Robert Morris and Joseph Straus, allude to Fortes set-complex, but do not treat the concept at length. The interval vector, developed by Donald Martino (The Source Set and Its Aggregate Formations, Journal of Music Theory 5, no. 2, 1961) is a means by which the intervals, and more specifically the dyads contained in a collection, can be identified and tabulated.There exists no such tool for the identification and tabulation of collections other than dyads that are contained in larger collections. My presentation will be a study of the properties of a set, commonly known as the octatonic scale. The study will examine the properties and relationships among the subsets of the octatonic scale. The goals of the paper will be twofold: first, to construct a model that summarizes the properties of the subsets of the octatonic scale in a collection vector, and second, to theorize about pitch-class set networks that allow the navigation from one octatonic hexachord to another.

1:30PM Robert Gross, Prolongation in Stravinskys Movements for Piano and Orchestra.

While contemplating the ways in which older composers influence todays composers, it is important not to neglect thinking about the ways older theorists have influenced modern music theory. Heinrich Schenker was an aesthetic jingoist and unapologetic nationalist, and would likely be appalled to see his prolongational theories extended to a repertory he sought to discredit. Schenker famously used Stravinskys Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments as a cautionary tale against too much post-tonal liberality. Nevertheless, post-tonal prolongation remains a topic of considerable interest to modern music theory. Ever since Felix Salzer included neo-classical works in Structural Hearing, living theorists continue to explore new vistas of post-tonal prolongation. Building on the four principles of post-tonal prolongation presented by this author at the November 2010 SCI national conference, the paper investigates the first movement of Stravinskys 1959 Movements for Piano and Orchestra from the perspective of the four principles (extrication, fixed-register assertion, projection-construction and recursion). I look at a background structure particularly derived from the salience of the E/E invariance, extricated strongly by non-pitch parameters. The paper concludes by observing the ambivalent relationship post-tonal prolongational analysts have with Schenker. He is owed an inestimable debt, as without him prolongational analysis would not be possible; yet, we have no obligation to respect his pronouncements about the lacking viability of post-tonal prolongation.

2:00PM Athanasios Zervas, Messiaens Vingt Regards sur lEnfant-Jsus (III. Lchange): Pedal Sonorities Versus Complete Rotations

Olivier Messiaen is considered by the international art-music community to be the most influential French composition teacher of the 20th century, along with Nadia Boulanger. His composition methods, selections of rhythmic and pitch material, harmonic formations and functions, and contrapuntal treatment are subject to analysis and study even more frequently than his compositions are performed. Refusing to adopt a single system in his compositions, Messiaen instead epitomizes a creative approach to traditional formal archetypes. For example, his uses of the traditional two-reprise form and fugue are infused with sound material borrowed from ancient and non-Western historic and geographic regions, serialism, and his scalar models of birdsongs.

4PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEW Messiaens Vingt Regards sur lEnfant-Jsus for piano (1944) a collection of twenty pieces is considered a major work for its masterful composition, theological symbolisms, and exploration of new aesthetics. The minimal use of rhythmic and pitch material projects a rather static surface -pedal sonorities; while at the same time the continuous evolution -complete rotations, of the musical elements at fundamental levels (middle ground and background) achieve continuity and flux, making the work subject to analysis. The overriding goal of this analysis is to explain why and how balance between the pedal sonorities and complete rotations is achieved. Pitch-class set analysis will be applied to the 3rd composition (III. Lchange) and further critical analysis will compare subsections and elements of all eight pieces.


paper sessioN iiI: abstraCtsSaturday, April 9, 2011 8:30AM Utt 100

Jeremy Baguyos, Utilizing Electronics in the Performance of Druckmans Synapse>Valentine

Although Jacob Druckmans Synapse >Valentine was conceived as a single electroacoustic work, Synapse is the often omitted and forgotten electronic prelude to Jacob Druckmans Valentine. Many of the reasons for its omission are usually related to the logistics of public performance and publication, and these concerns have overridden Druckmans vision for the works. However, the performance of Synapse along with Valentine is still and always has been an appropriate and effective pairing, and it should be encouraged. Performers have an obligation to seek out the composers notion of his or her work in its ideal and pristine state, even though the composer may have accepted or is willing to accept compromises to the ideal artistic vision for a work. Apart from composer intent, the pairing of Synapse and Valentine has many advantages. One of the advantages would include more variety of timbre. In addition, the pairing provides cohesiveness. A performer has a better chance of communicating the form of Valentine if the gestures are properly mimicked and the form properly measured and delineated. A performer has an even more improved chance of delineating the form of Valentine by taking turns with the Synapse tape and alternating in pairs similar musical statements between Synapse and Valentine. Ultimately, the works would not sound as random, and the listeners experience would be enhanced.

Christopher Gainey, Historical Foundations for the Development of Spectral Music

The purpose of this article is to show evidence of historical foundations for the development of spectral music as a fresh attitude towards composition that rose to prominence in the last quarter of the Twentieth Century. This article will characterize the development of spectral music as the coagulation of aesthetic and theoretical ideas of pioneering composers and scholars, and place spectral music in context as a reaction to the prevailing musical avant-garde of the mid-Twentieth century. This article will begin by discussing how the development of spectral music was influenced by the research and theoretical writings of scholars such as Jean-Philippe Rameau, Hermann von Helmholtz, Arnold Schoenberg, Henry Cowell, Joseph Schillinger, Paul Hindemith, Olivier Messiaen, and Harry Partch. Next, proto-spectral aspects of works by composers such as Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Edgard Varse, Gyrgy Ligeti, Giacinto Scelsi, La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and Pierre Boulez will be discussed as a way of tracing the evolution of aesthetic goals later pursued by the first spectral composers. Then, spectral music will be characterized as one reaction to the prevailing structuralist avant- garde of the 1960s. Thirty years after the initial spectral explorations, the composers of today are tasked with synthesizing the resources discovered through the development of spectral music and the technical advances of other compositional approaches. Future generations of composers, regardless of stylistic preference, will be able to use the example set by the development of spectral music as a basis for the refinement of their own attitude towards composition.


paper sessioN iv: abstraCtsSaturday, April 9, 2011 1:00PM Utt 100

Wendy Wan-Ki Lee, Camouflaged and Diluted Pentatonicism in Piano Works by Chinese/American Composers

The pentatonic system has served as the primary organizational principle of many early piano works by composers of Chinese descent. With its innate ability to achieve a variety of tone colors and sustain an openness of sound, pentatonicism has enabled the piano, an emblematically Western percussion instrument, to carry out long, seamless melodic lines much more effectively than it could otherwise. After the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, many Chinese composers began to study Western musical models and became fascinated by the compositional possibilities that they opened up. Music incorporating Western compositional techniques with Chinese musical heritages gradually grew in prevalence as a result. In particular, works that were written for the piano by Chinese composers in the past twenty years have taken a drastic turn. Unlike before when pentatonicism no doubt occupied the musical forefront, post-1980 piano compositions were often intentionally camouflaged under Western musical idealssuppressing or diluting traces of pentatonicisim while enabling Western harmonic and structural principles to direct the overall musical flow. In Nancy Raos article written in 2002, she suggested that the noticeable dilution of pentatonicism in the works by Chinese composers in recent years was partly caused by their preoccupation with the numerous musical and organizational possibilities that the twelve-tone system could offer to them. These composers became fascinated by how a twelve-tone row can be partitioned into combinations of pentatonic collections, or into trichords and tetrachords that exhibit pentatonic forces, as these would allow them to associate more freely with Chinese traditional elements. While I agree completely with Raos observations, I think that the extent of pentatonicism that exists in these composers worksthose that involve a combination of Chinese and Western musical elementshas not been diminished nor rubbed out during the process of amalgamation. Instead, I propose that pentatonicism is in camouflage, hiding behind and become comfortably fused in with its predominantly Western musical environment. Two piano works written in the 1980s by Chinese/American composersDuo Ye by Chen Yi and My Song by Bright Shengdemonstrate the above phenomenon each in its own unique way. Both modeled on the coherent formal structures of Western music, Duo Ye resembles a one- movement Western sonata, while the four movements of My Song can be analogous to the arch- form design of Bartks string quartets. In Duo Ye and My Song, their composers have camouflaged their uses of the pentatonic collections, and utilized various compositional techniques to soften the musical effect produced by these anhemitonic scalesdiminished- seventh chords within particular octatonic collections were used in Duo Ye; whereas 01, 02, and 06 dyads were used to counteract the rotational pentatonic forces in My Song. Interpreting a piece that involves a combination of Chinese and Western musical influences is challenging. Through a detailed study of Duo Ye and My Song, this paper intends to offer an analytical approach that is user-friendly and one which will preserve the composers individuality yet reveal the core musical elements in the amalgamation of Western compositional techniques and Chinese aesthetics.

Pin Hsin Lin, Chen Yis Unique Manipulation of Pitch Materials in Symphony No. 2

In my presentation, I would like to discuss the special Chinese language, combining four pitch materials, within the Western music in Chen Yis Symphony No. 2. Through my analysis, I discover that Chen Yi combines Chinese folk tunes, her personal Chen Yi Theme from her Piano Concerto, twelve-tone row, and tone clusters together. Her special textural manipulation not only makes her Symphony No. 2 an excellent example of cross-cultural fusion, but also appeals to both Western and Eastern audiences, for the strong central ideas and the colorful timbre through the whole piece. I would like to discuss her textural manipulation in this piece, which makes this piece distinctive from other contemporary orchestral works. In the meantime, Chen Yi also absorbed the aleatoric techniques from the works of Lutoslawski and Penderecki and adopted the texture produced by the heterophonic variation of Chinese instrumental ensembles into her orchestration for the Western orchestra, since it is similar to the texture created by aleatoric techniques in contemporary Western orchestral practice. By assimilating the techniques of Western texture-oriented composers like Ligeti, Penderecki, and Lutoslawski, Chen Yi pays more attention to the texture process in Symphony No. 2.

7PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWTheodore Karathodoros, Comments and Observations on Dimitri Terzakis work Rabasso:

Correlations and Critical Approaches to the Pitch Material Based on the Theory and Practice of Byzantine Music

Undoubtedly, due to the absence of a uniform language in 20th century musical creation, musicologicaltheoretical study of this music through the spectrum of a common analytical system is practically impossible. Musical streams, schools, and especially the idiomatic musical language of many composers, raise reasonable questions for researchers and set a challenge for the field of musical analysis. In order to formulate a scientifically documented theoretical view of any specific piece of music, the issues of terminology, hierarchy, parameter classification and data evaluation of a piece must always be on the front line. Dimitri Terzakis, one of the most distinguished Greek composers, turned his attention to Greek tradition. Early in his musical career, he realized the imperative need to change his orientation toward contemporary musical creation, in order to avoid the influences of Western culture.

My relation to Western music is negative in a fruitful way. Having ascertained early enough the causes that led it to the grave (because it is already dead), I tried to avoid them, and this effort helped me find my own musical language.

By turning to account the constitutive principles of Byzantine melody and technical elements such as tetrachords, microtonal intervals, elxis* and the like, he formed a personal music language and creatively assimilated the elements of Greek and Byzantine musical culture. Rabasso for saxophone quartet, viola, violoncello and contrabass was written in 1992 in Cologne and commissioned by the German Radio Broadcasting Service. After his Fourth String Quartet, Rabasso is the second work introducing the fourth phase of Terzakis mature compositional technique. The basic characteristic of this composition in relation to the pitch material organization is the use of what Terzakis calls his melodic axis technique. The predominant and direct result of this technique is the shrinkage of melodic structures. More specifically, central tones are encircled with different speeds by their satellite tones, the intervallic structures of which determine the character and the sound context of the tonal spaces. In this paper, a dialectic is developed between Rabasso and the theoretical systems of Byzantine music and chanting tradition. Through specific excerpts the paper demonstrates a valuable analytical approach to the piece, leading to significant new insights into this work and Terzakis compositional methods.

* The quality of the melodys predominant pitches to attract pitches that are above and below them, depending on the melodys direction.


paper session vSunday, April 10, 2011 8:00AM Utt 100

Peter Gillette, Minimalism and the Textural Debt to Neo-Classicism in Albert M. Fines Keyboard Works for David Tudor (1965)

Obscure Fluxus composer Albert M. Fine (1932-1987) has a vast, diverse, and scantily published oeuvre that has yet to receive musicological attention. Trained as a young man by Nadia Boulanger, the Boston native received a masters degree in conducting from Juilliard in 1959, also working with composer Vincent Persichetti and befriending Peter Schickele and Philip Glass. Glass would subsequently describe Fine as a wonderful teacher, and yet a quixotic figure whose personal eccentricities doomed his interactions. Throughout the 1960s, Fine sought employment as a conductor or composer through many mainstream institutions, but also fell in with the Fluxus crowd, became a true believer, and eventually transitioned into a transient yet occasionally notable existence in the art world. This paperone of several arising out of an extended archival study of Fines extant sources and a planned edition of his unpublished, conventionally-notated scores focuses on two keyboard works Fine wrote for David Tudor late in 1965, contextualizes them within the history of New York minimalist styles, and considers his works as a locus between neo-classical training and post-Cagean attitudes towards notation. Rather than viewing Fine as a seminal figure within minimalism, I consider Fine as an early, prescient illustration of minimalisms stylistic paradox: texturally, Fine favors neo-classic cleanliness while formally, his notational strategies for repetitions struggle to move beyond the teleological confines of periodic structures. Fines two works for David TudorSymphonic Sketch and Three Movements for Pianostrikingly anticipate the clean, minimalist two-part texture that would rise to ubiquity in Steve Reichs Violin Phase (1967) and, later, in Philip Glasss Music in Fifths (1969) and related works. Finesand his piano worksobscurity precludes us from viewing them as lost evolutionary phenotypes. Fine had been writing tonal keyboard works; and yet, Fines documented encounter with the music of La Monte Young suggested new formal, textural, and notational strategies to be explored. Fines composition notebooks and drafts of keyboard works from 1964 and 1965, then, record his attempts to reconcile two apparently incompatible compositional approaches. His careful and richly documented attempts to work out solutions to the notation repetition and the creation of subtle timbral changes throughout a predominantly uniform texture suggest a composer who, while deep in the musical underground, still called upon his neo-classical training. Fines affinity for two-part counterpoint even informed his pathbreaking work as a mail-artist, Flux-filmmaker, and word-score composer. Fines works for Tudor, then, represented the composers negotiation between two-part counterpoint, the blending of conventional notation with repetitive and aleatoric elements and strategies, and Fines unique visual style. Fines synthesis of his training in tonal counterpoint with his work in a self-consciously post-Cagean milieu can serve as an instructive, entirely unexamined episode of early minimalism that balances midtown texture with downtown spirit. A handout will include a table of Fines extant works and several score examples, in manuscript and (where beneficial on account of idiosyncratic notation) transcription.

Patricia Morehead, Rhythmic Practice in the Music of Ralph Shapey

Shapeys definition of rhythm:

Regular or irregular recurrences of groups, phrases, patterns and motions in relation to each other, pulses, meter, stress durations, accents, pitch, contours, designs and time, functioning within the architectural structure of the artistic whole.

During the first quarter of study, Ralph Shapey asked each of his graduate students to write a paper on the various aspects of rhythm that we thought were important. In addition, we were asked to write the most demanding rhythms we could invent in one- through four-part rhythmic studies. This happened as part of the course of our basic studies with him during the first quarter of lessons at the University of Chicago. These rhythms we had to be able to perform in class in front of our peers. It was important to Shapey that we should only write what we could perform ourselves, but that we should always be aware of challenging our abilities and expanding them as a basic resource for creating music. The studies made us very conscious of the composite rhythm in not just one rhythmic line and of how important this rhythm is to bringing contrast and definition to music, not only in solo composition, but also in multiple-voiced works.


paper session viSunday, April 10, 2011 1:00PM Utt 100

Gillette, Peter. Ur-Tonality and Neo-Tonality as Musical Modes of Adornian Critique in Luciano Berios O King and Sinfonia

Despite Luciano Berios intermittent reliance on serial compositional techniques late into his career, by 1968, Berio was sounding an early alarm about what later became known, pace Joseph Kraus, as (the myth of) serial tyranny. While composing his Sinfonia, a famous rapprochement with the music of the past, Berio wrote a scathing and overheated newspaper editorial decrying serialism as an analytical, fascistic, academic fetish and arguing for a regeneration of diversity. Given Adornos critical affection for serialism and the importance of fascism and fetish to his thought, it would seem, at first blush, that Berio was using Adornos critical tools against Adornos chosen music. And yet, the contours of Berios belief that tonal genres, forms, and syntaxes could still bear meaning and trouble listeners grew directly out of the composers encounter with Adorno. This paper will deal with Adornos writings about Samuel Beckett, Bertold Brecht, and Gustav Mahler in the early 1960s and view Berios engagement with and employment of these texts in print and in composition. Adornos writings on Samuel Becketts The Unnameable, Brecht, and Mahlers Scherzo to the Second Symphony (in Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy) inform the composition of Sinfonia and give us a frame through which to consider Berios choice of quoted texts. By viewing Adorno as a unifying source for several (though, to be sure, not nearly all) of Berios quoted materials, we can better reconstruct the political messagenegative though it may be at timesof Sinfonias third section. This paper assumes a basic knowledge of Sinfonias third section and will not rehash now-familiar explications of quotation. Instead, the third sectionand the analogous relationship between Mahler and Beckettwill create a template for an entirely new reading of the second section, a threnody for Martin Luther King, which uses a defunct formthe isorhythmic motet this time, but with several fixed compositional parameters borrowed from integral serialist practicein order to self-consciously model an Adornian paradigm of the black community constructing its own institutions in order to resist the hegemonic force of assimilation. This model is the negative image of Berios bitterly humorous critique of revolutionary pretensions in the third section. Drawing on fresh documentary evidence, I will demonstrate howin order to historicize Kings assassination and contextualize his movement as one that stands apart from hegemonyBerio sought a uniquely pre-tonal, formal means of organization as a dynamic means of mediating historical time while stepping outside of the serial/neo-classical polemic. Though the times in which Berio composed presented new revolutionary challenges, the composer filtered his experience through the music of the past by drawing an analogue between his own situation and the context that animated Adornos writing1930s Germany, a time when political and artistic stakes were even higher.

Hanson-Dvoracek, Andrew. The [B]lessing is Miracle: Quotation and Structure in Julius Eastmans Gay Guerilla

Activism and extramusical intention are two qualities rarely associated with instrumental minimalist music, even though the aesthetic rose out of the clear racial issues highlighted in pieces such as Steve Reichs Come Out and Its Gonna Rain. Despite these beginnings and subsequent works such as Philip Glasss Satyagraha, strictly instrumental works began to more closely resemble the austerity and opacity of minimalism in the visual arts. However, by the late 1970s New York-based composer Julius Eastman began composing minimal works with titles such as Gay Guerilla, Crazy Nigger and Evil Nigger, resulting in unavoidable implications to the reception of his music. These three works were all performed and recorded during Eastmans residency at Northwestern University in 1980, at which he acknowledged the provocative effect that such titles had on otherwise inscrutable music. Contrary to stylistic expectations, there are musical elements in these works that can aid in forming an interpretative stance. In particular, Gay Guerilla concludes with a climactic quotation of the chorale melody Ein feste Burg as it is stated in Johann Sebastian Bachs cantata BWV 80. This not only provides the listeners with a recognizable melody after nearing half an hour of minimalist textures, but further analysis shows that it provides the structure of much of the work prior to its obvious statement. By examining the quotations use in the context of the larger piece in light of comments by Eastman about the works title, I will show how Gay Guerilla is Eastmans attempt to use musical intertextuality to reintroduce a sense of meaning and personal interpretation to minimalist music.

10PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEW I will address a multiplicity of ideas that Shapey brought to his own rhythmic practices by using his examples from the standard repertoire, which will include Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Messiaen, Mozart, Schoenberg, Varse and Webern.

Zachariah Zubow, Beat Class Modulation in Ligetis Piano Etude, No. 4

Listening to Gyrgy Ligetis tude number 4, titled Fanfares, from his Piano tudes: Book 1 written in 1985, one cannot dismiss the rhythmic gestures developed throughout the movement. The rhythmic structure of the piece is centered on the ostinato figure that can be found throughout the movement. The meter defines the grouping of the eighth notes as 3+2+3/8, by which the ostinato gains its character. While this ostinato figure continues, rhythmic transformations occur in the opposite hand that directly interact with the ostinato figure. The rhythmic transformations that occur are similar to the rhythmic analysis described by Richard Cohn in his article, Transpositional Combination of Beat-Class Sets in Steve Reichs Phase Shifting Music. Cohns method of beat-class transformation will be used to provide better insight to the rhythmic transformations of Ligetis Fanfares.


Concert iFriday, April 8, 2011 10:00AM Hart Recital Hall

Shades of Red Austin JaquithUCM Trumpet Ensemble

J. Steven Moore, conductor

Ice Town Michael DAmbrosioUCM Trumpet Ensemble

Alan Wenger, director

Judgments Nicola MonopoliElectroacoustic music

Blue River C. James SheppardMia Hynes, piano

Miniature n2 Martin LoridanJames Gai, clarinet; Frank Fenley, flute

John Rutland, violin; Carla Maltas, piano

Piano Rap Music Scott BrickmanScott Brickman, piano

Three Movements for Trombone Quartet Allen BringsJohn Check, Dan Wyman, Ben Sachs, and David Stagg, trombones

Hallucination Andy FrancisJustin Robinson, saxophone

Light Motives Anthony GreenJohn Rutland, violin; Kathy Scherer, piano

Brahma Viharas Timothy Stulman I. Loving Kindness II. Compassion III. Equanimity IV. Sharing-Joy

Jeff Heisler, saxophones


Concert ii Friday, April 8, 2011 3:00PM Hart Recital Hall

Laus Trinitati Felicia Sandler

Song of the Moon Kris MaloyUCM Concert Choir

Dr. Alan Zabriskie, director

Prelude and Excursion Kevin McCarterCentral Brass, the UCM Faculty Brass Quintet

Alan Wenger and David Aaberg, trumpets; Gary Moege, horn;John Check, trombone; Jon Gregory, tuba

Reasons for Existence Curtis WorzallaCurtis Worzalla, guitar

Stalking the Wild Metaphor Warren GoochPrologueI. Jumping to conclusionsII. Talking to the wallIII. Flying off the handleIV. Getting up on the wrong side of the bedV. Running around in circlesVI. Turning over a new leaf

Ilia Radoslavov, piano

Character Sketches of the Usual Suspects Katie Lakner James Thompson, flute

Is There Some Way We Can Set Things Straight? Joseph Post Electroacoustic music

Voices Jonathan PosthumaJesse Looper, baritone; Veronica Snow, piano

Sonnet III: The Unbearable Lightness of Not Being Garrett ShatzerJacob Sentgeorge, tenor; Andrew Stephens, piano

sopranosKari BraggAngelina DeFeoLaurel Eisler Libbie Kaufman Alyssa Oparnico Cassie Pettigrew Kelsey Sweitzer Callie Vandegrift April Wilson

tenorsMaxwell BirdnowNick BissenTyler Busick Robert Curry Nathan Gearke Joshua Krause Andrew StephensTravis White Collin Woroniak

bassesDan Audley Tim BillingsleyPaul BlanchardMicah DunningKendall Holsten Joel Jeffries Alex Kolster Jesse LooperJacob RollerTaylor Scarff Austin Winnett

altosSara BillingsleySarah BrinkleySarah BryantTashina CaylorParry Hough Amilia Metcalf Barbara SolomonHaley SteeleKimberly Tackett Krystal ThurmCaitlin Walker

13PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWBrass Quintet No. 1 Christopher Wicks

I.II.

Malanca Igor IachimciucCentral Brass, the UCM Faculty Brass Quintet

Alan Wenger and David Aaberg, trumpets; Gary Moege, horn;John Check, trombone; Jon Gregory, tuba


Concert iiiFriday, April 8, 2011 8:00PM Hart Recital Hall

Dreamscape for tenor viola da gamba and electronics David MendozaDavid Mendoza, viola da gamba

Highway Coda Michael Pounds (text by Matt Mullins)Matt Mullins, recitation

Improvisation Environment for Accordion and Electronics Mike JunokasMike Junokas, accordion

Scrap Metal Jason BolteKari Johnson, piano

Orbit Daniel EichenbaumJonathan Borja, flute

The Ends of Histories Christopher BiggsKari Johnson, piano

the world falls asleep William LackeySascha Groschang, violincello

Beyond Joao Pedro Oliveira Cheryl Melfi, clarinet; Sascha Groschang, violoncello

Kari Johnson, piano


Concert ivSaturday, April 9, 2011 10:00AM Hart Recital Hall

SoundCloud Hsiao-Lan WangUCM Laptop Ensemble and Guests

Eastern Hymn Adrienne AlbertUCM Student Saxophone Quartet

Icarus for solo piano Chris Arrell

Landscapes Brandon Hendrix

Between Stream and Hills Chih-Chen WeiSlawomir P. Dobrzanski, piano

Crosstalk Travis GarrisonElectroacoustic music

Linemusic Lee HartmanJeremy Darnell, bassoon; Caitlin Walker, horn; Joseph Piontek, piano

Sonata No. 1 for Horn and Piano Pin Hsin LinCandace Thomas, horn; Hye Young Kim, piano

Affektenlehre Harry WardJimmy Pecher, clarinet; Harry Ward, marimba

White Night Shuai YaoElectroacoustic music

Pas de Deux Charles DittoSheri Mattson, oboe; James Gai, clarinet


Concert vSaturday, April 9, 2011 3:00PM Hart Recital Hall

Festival Featured Guest Artists: kccontinuum

Enhanted Preludes (1988) Elliott CarterJonathan Borja, flute; Alice Huang, cello

Invisible Worlds (2009) Nicholas OmiccioliGrace Lai, flute; Charl Louw, piano

Acquiesce (from Pieces of Mind and Matter, 2006) Paul LombardiYouming Chen, violin; Alice Huang, cello

Jumpin, Coolin, and Fugin (2003) Jason BahrKeel Williams, bassoon; Kari Johnson, piano

INTERMISSION

mandala prismatica Christopher LevinKeel Williams, bassoon; Kari Johnson, piano

Deux Prludes (1966) Karel HusaI.AdagioII.Allegro

Jonathan Borja, flute; Mauricio Salguero, clarinet; Keel Williams, bassoon

Small Worlds (2006) James Romig Jonathan Borja, flute; Mauricio Salguero, clarinet; Youming Chen, violin

Alice Huang, cello; Kari Johnson, piano

KCContinuum was founded to present works written after 1945 by established and emerging international composers. KCContinuum believes in promoting the music of today and exposing audiences to infrequently performed contemporary music as well as music we just love to play. The ensemble consists of a rotating group of members selected according to the particular needs of concerts and events. Many of the current musicians have been involved in various new music projects in the Kansas City area including A Schoenberg Retrospective, Carter and Messiaen at 100, and the George Crumb Festival; all held at the University of Missouri - Kansas City within the past five years.


Concert viSaturday, April 9, 2011 8:00PM Hart Recital Hall

Festival Featured Guest Artists: Athens saxophone quartet

Schism Athanasios Zervas

Hanging Onto the Vine Zae Munn

Stigmata Theodore Karathodoros

STL-Reed Kristin Shafel

All About Sax James Yannatos

Event Horizon Patricia Morehead

Evymnon Michael Adamis

Ok-Ok Lansing McLoskey

here is no water but only rock Eric Honour

Athens saxophone quartet Athanasios Zervas, soprano saxophone Dionisios Roussos, alto and soprano saxophones Leo Saguiguit, tenor saxophone Eric Honour, baritone and alto saxophones

The Athens Saxophone Quartet (ASQ) was founded by Athanasios Zervas in 1997 and is considered one of the finest chamber music ensembles of Greece. The ASQ has frequent appearances internationally in music festivals and concert halls, and has premiered more than one hundred compositions. Although the repertory of the ASQ comprises works of

different eras and styles, the majority of its repertory is music composed after 1945.


Concert viiSunday, April 10, 2011 10:00AM Hart Recital Hall

Migratory Patterns Devin FanslowUCM Percussion EnsembleMichael Sekelsky, director

Time and Tide Stephen YipDan Wyman, trombone; Michael Sekelsky, percussion

Sonata for Stereos Simon FinkElectroacoustic music

Remnants Joseph Dangerfield

Uwohali Kris Maloy

Preludes of Pace Molly JoyceI. Medium PianoII. Fast PianoIII. Slow Piano

Stacey Barelos, piano

Spiral/A Thousand Years Igor KaracaElectroacoustic music

Impromptu Andrew SmithIan Gottlieb, violoncello

Les Battements Jacob ReedJacob Sentgeorge, tenor; James Gai, clarinet; Richard Smith, piano

Winter Waltz Victoria MalaweyDionisios Roussos, alto saxophone; Kristen Hirlinger, piano

Byzantine Chant (improvised)Nefeli Roussos, voice; Dionisios Roussos, alto saxophone

The Battle of Marathon Dimitris GouziosDionisios Roussos, alto saxophone; Mia Hynes, piano


Concert viiiSunday, April 10, 2011 3:00PM Hart Recital Hall

Five Songs from Carl Sandburgs Prairie Robert FleisherEmily Truckenbrod, soprano; Linda Perry, piano

...of Glass Frank FeliceTouchHeartHouse

Electroacoustic music

Smorgasbord Nicole ChamberlainNicole Chamberlain, flute

Fugitive Yellow Shirt Zachariah ZubowJason Gregory, violin; Zachariah Zubow, computer

Ballad for alto saxophone Ulf GrahnLeo Saguiguit, saxophone

Quirk Eric Honour

Rushing Toward the Singularity Andrew ColeMauricio Salguero, clarinets

Open Circuit Mike McFerronRebecca Ashe, flute

Bapu Asha SrinivasanRebecca Ashe, flute; Mauricio Salguero, clarinet


Concert iXSunday, April 10, 2011 8:00PM Hart Recital Hall

Maybe? Aaron Perrine

Legends Jack BallardUCM Jazz Ensemble 1David Aaberg, director

Viologen Matthew Dotson (audio) Bart Woodstrup (video)

Electroacoustic music

Pastoral Horn Trio Anne NeikirkJohn Rutland, violin; Gary Moege, horn; Richard Smith, piano

Pushing Buttons Andrew WaltersEric Honour, alto saxophone

19-Tone Clusters Hubert HoweElectroacoustic music

Liberation Joel LoveDionisios Roussos, alto saxophone

Concertina No. 1: Cathedrals Jessica RudmanEric Honour, baritone saxophone

Punk-Truck-Love Daniel ZajicekJames Gai, bass clarinet

saxophonesJustin Robinson Paris Rucker Thomas Hobbs Nick Bissen Jessie Riggins

trombonesBen Sachs Michael Sticken Bryan Campbell Richard Marshall

rhythmKevin Haberberger -

guitarMichael Martin - pianoJacob Crouse - bassBryant Waner bass Jim Lower drums

trumpetsGreg Blakeman Chris Fischer Michael Cervantes Mark Lavinge


tHe Use oF eleCtroNiCs iN JoNatHaN Harveys ADVAYA

MiKe JUNoKas

In Jonathan Harveys Advaya for cello and electronics, the central purpose of Harveys expan-sive sonic environment and electronic setup is to advance the conceptual properties attached to the work. In the programme note, Harvey says this of the title:

Advaya is a first-century Buddhist term meaning not two, and it points to the transcendence of duality. We conventionally harbour the illusion that things exist naturally in their own right. Buddhism shows that ultimately this is untrue, and even the subjective self is an empty thing in the same way. All objects are the coloured illusions of a false duality. As every sound in Advaya derives from the cello, and the duo onstage is unreal, it was important to articulate the illusion of multiplicity as vividly as pos-sible so that the inherent unity lying behind would be all the more remarkable1

Harveys principal objective in Advaya can be seen as an attempt to transcend the co-loured illusions of a false duality by creating an ambiguous sonic atmosphere that leans towards multiple and complex meaning, rather than direct answers. This is achieved through the illusion of multiplicity portrayed through the electronics setup and specific electronic techniques.

ColoUreD illUsioNs oF a False DUality

Harvey challenges and embraces the concepts of duality throughout Advaya, approaching an ambiguous soundscape that is constantly evolving and changing from moment to moment. Harvey embraces duality in several passages, showing the cello functioning as a lyri-cal soloist against accompanimental elements in the electronics. This texture is set up as two distinct parts, one against the other; the essence of duality. This duality is also established through the instrumentation and presentation of ensemble. All sonic material created by the electronics is traced back to the solo cellist, whether through sampling or live manipulation. With the cello acting as the principal sound source, the piece can be interpreted as featuring a solo cello with electronic accompaniment. However, Harvey challenges the duality concept by using the ensemble as a collective instrument at times. The cellist and the electronics often work together to create specific, uni-fied timbres rather than distinctly separate layers. In this interpretation, the cellist and the elec-tronics act as a part of a macro-instrument. The use of the cello as the only sonic source then acts as a unifying element rather than a division. Harvey glides back, forth, and between these interpretations, skirting definition and remaining ambiguous. The presence of duality and its purpose are further blurred through a variety of illusions Harvey constructs.

1 Harvey, Jonathan. Advaya. London: Faber Music, Limited, 2004

22PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWtHe illUsioN oF MUltipliCity

Harvey weaves a sonic environment that at times obfuscates and at times clarifies the duality constructed between the cello and the electronic material. This obfuscation/clarity is purported through the electronic setup and specific electronic techniques.

electronic setupThe electronic setup in Harveys work lends to the illusion of multiplicity. The solo cello is run through a mixer. The live cello sound is then run back through the aux out to a special effects processor (Yamaha SPX1000), which is then run back into the mixer. The special effects pro-cessor is controlled by a computer MIDI interface, with optional pedal control. This is com-puter is also run through the mixer in order to play large resynthesized samples. Additionally, a MIDI keyboard, with two pedal controls, is run into a sampler (AKAI S2000), which is run through the mixer. This is all amplified through a minimum of two loud speakers. The complexity of this setup is vital in aiding the conceptual goal of Advaya. The ensem-ble setup has four principal parts: the cello, the special effects processor, the computer, and the sampler. By functioning in their own unique roles, the parts are all distinct and physically separated. However, being processed by the same mixer and being sent out the same loud-speakers unifies all parts. In effect, the four principals of the ensemble act as a whole, creating a multi-faceted instrument, while serving their own specialized roles. While the ensemble setup shows distinctions through physical separation, the ensemble acts also as a unified whole, setting up a dichotomy that advances the concept of ambiguity.

electronic techniquesSpecific electronic techniques are used in generating multiplicity and developing ambiguity. Those techniques include overlapping samples, electronically harmonizing cello pitches, and adding reverb to the cello.

Overlapping SamplesBy overlapping samples with the cello part, Harvey often makes it difficult to distinguish be-tween the cello and the electronics. The similarities between the sounds generated and the placement of those sounds amongst the principal parts of the ensemble creates an environ-ment that is capable of a clear, uniform sound or a diverse cloud of multiplicity. This interplay lends to the ambiguity desired in the not two concept. All rehearsal letters refer to the Faber Music, Limited publication of the Advaya score. In the second measure of the piece, the cello plays A3 at piano. Two seconds later, an overtone rich sample with fundamentals at A3 and A4 fades in and eventually replaces the cello, which proceeds to fade out. The event is reciprocated one measure later, with the cello coming back to the foreground. The delicate sonic exchange in the first events of the piece display the principal conceptual material Harvey works with in Advaya. Is the cello playing the material or is the material an electronic sample? Is the sound a fusion of cello and electronics to create a rich sonority or is the sound of the cello in opposition to the richer spectrum of the sample? Ambiguity reigns. A3 is a central pitch throughout the work and a similar interplay is seen frequently around the pitch (a-b). The cellos introduction deals only with the open A3, eventually coming to an abrupt stop a measure before a. After a two second silence, the A3 returns, but as a sample played back by the computer with the cello playing crunchy, unpitched noises; noises that would be more expected from electronic manipulation rather than the cello itself. A precedent is set for using extended technique in the cello to achieve sounds atypical to the lyrical romantic cello and more typical of inharmonic spectrum.

23PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEW High pressure is applied to the bow to make stuttering utterances of the unpitched material come from the cello between a and b. This is played against knocking samples in the computer and sampler, creating a cloud of aural material, uncertain in designation. The knocking samples reoccur and develop as a main character of the sampler. Just before C, the computer plays a clear statement of the harmonic spectrum based on the fundamental pitch of G0, with the cello highlighting the seventeenth partial. This proceeds to C, which serves as an immediate contradiction to the clarity just heard. Spectra gliss up and down in the computer part as the cello plays microtonal lines, making it impossible to settle on specific spectrum. The cello line and an inharmonic computer counterpart echo and anticipate each other in pitch and rhythm at D. This is similar to the interplay with A3 heard at the beginning, but an inharmonic spectrum is incorporated into the computer part, creating a clearer distinction between the two sounds. However, as the lines progress ultimately to H, the interaction is less of a counterpoint and more of a merging of sounds. Often, the spectrum of the cello line and the computer generated line overlap, creating a uniform sound. A grating electronic sample, first heard just after H, is sonically similar to the accom-panying pizzicato and the distortion in the cello. A pizzicato canon is set up in the computer samples from the initial pizzicato figure in the cello. Knocking sounds, previously only heard from the sampler, are now introduced into the cello part by knocking on the belly of the cello. From K to M, the computer electronics take on a high, bell sound, distinct from the cello part. In the cello, contrasting phrases are set against each other while being played by the same instrument, in a Bach-esque solo instrument counterpoint between registers. From N to w, all principals of the ensemble interact and create a unified sound mass, in one of the most active sections of the piece. The cello and sampler combine to make a uni-form sound that progressively separates into distinct parts. This separation occurs through a loosely coordinated progression through rhythm, meter, and tempo. Harvey even specifies at one point for the sampler to play at the same tempo as the Vc. but not necessarily the same place. A triple forte electronic mass washes out the cello just before w. It eventually fades to a continuous high bell atmposphere. The cello emerges from the atmosphere with a lyrical solo against the chiming bell backdrop, creating one of the clearest occurances of duality within the work. y to aa takes on a pointillist counterpoint where pre-recorded samples, computer gen-erated samples, and cello lines intertwine, reverting to fusing sounds together to create com-plex timbres. aa to CC presents a pulsing, rhythmic cello always centering around open A3. Another counterpoint is highlighted through the cellos use of pizzicato against the rhythmic tremolos. At CC, the cello once again emerges as a lyrical soloist against a converging spectral accompaniment in the computer. DD to the end, return to ambiguity. The pointilistic texture is highlighted by unified attacks by the ensemble.

Electronic HarmonizationThroughout Advaya, Harvey utilizes a double harmonizer around the cello input. The harmo-nized pitches often fit in specific spectra and are principally used to highlight partials of or against the spectra. The harmonizer reinforces spectrum and challenges spectrum at specific points of the work, again lending to the presence of ambiguity in duality. The following table lists the har-monic program number, it the corresponding harmonization (in halfsteps), what spectrum fun-damental it relates to, and what partials of that spectrum it specifically reinforces (sometimes with the aid of the cello), if any.


Program Number Harmonization Spectrum Fund. Partials1 0/-2 G0 8;92 +11/-2 G0 8;9;173 +1.5/-2 Multiple 9;10;114 -1/+1 G0 (Full) 16;17;185 -6.3/+1 Multiple 14;19;206 +0.6/-0.7 Microtonal N/A7 -6/+5 D0 9;13;178 0/+15 C#0 3;79 -11/-3.3 Multiple 9;1410 +5.8/-4 D-1 8;10;1411 -12/+0 Multiple F12 +6/-9.1 Unclear N/A13 -2/+1.5 Multiple 9;10;1114 +2.5/-3 Multiple 11;13;1515 -6/+4 Unclear N/A16 +5.5/-8 Multiple 5;8;1117 -2/+1.5 Multiple 9;10;1118 +2.5/-3 Multiple 11;13;1519 -6/+4 Unclear N/A20 +5.5/-8 Multiple 5;8;1121 -2/+1.5 Multiple 9;10;1122 +2.5/-3 Multiple 11;13;1524 -2/+1.5 Multiple 9;10;1125 +2.5/-3 Multiple 11;13;1527 +5.5/-8 Multiple 5;8;1128 -2/+7 Multiple 9;10;15 or 7;8;1229 +1.5/-2 F 9;10;1130 +12/+7 A2 2;3;431 +12/+19 A3 F;2;3

As evident through analysis, the work uses the harmonizer to support a specific spec-trum when the cello plays and sustains a single note and clouds specific support by sustaining harmonization as the cello plays multiple pitch sequences, creating a blur of spectra. Several times, Harvey utilizes harmonization to back several spectrum at the same time, not clearly highlighting any partials of any specific spectrum. With the last program number (31), the har-monizer ultimately supports the spectrum built upon A3, the pitch the piece is centered around and the pitch that is first heard.

ReverbHarvey also applies reverb to specific sets of pitches in order to transition between spectra. A seven second reverb is applied in two places, at program number 23 and 26. In both passages,

25PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWthe cello is playing a similar figure: double-stop tremolos between two different dyads. The first tremolo crescendos into the second tremolo providing momentum for the reverb. Once the second tremolo is begun, the cello starts a decrescendo that is coupled with the reverb of the first tremolo. In this manner, Harvey is able to have the first tremolos spectra fade out with the spectra of the second tremolo, making a rich timbre by combining both sets of spectra in decay.

CoNClUsioN

In Jonathan Harveys Advaya, Harvey embraces the notion of ambiguity in dualism. He sets this up in a variety of ways: orchestrating a multi-part/member ensemble that works to create unified sounds but also ventures into solo and accompaniment textures; using overlapping electronic samples in order to support complex timbres but also to act as counterpoint to me-lodic lines; electronically harmonizing the cello to highlight specific spectra but also to make an array of notes, clouding the specific spectra; adding reverb so as to create a fading eight-note complex in the cello but also using it to make those specific pitches difficult to define. Throughout the work, Harvey approaches and backs away from clear definition, embracing ambiguity and highlighting the concept of not two.


A CulturAl AnAlYSiS of Chen YiS si Ji (FoUr seasoNs) For orCHestra

TIMOTHY STULMAN

The aim of this study is to provide a musical and cultural analysis of Chen Yis Si Ji (Four Sea-sons) for Orchestra, comparing the composition to the traditional Chinese concept (si ji) after which the piece is named. The cycle of the seasons has been an important model throughout Chinese history, for both agricultural and philosophical purposes. According to traditional Chinese philosophy, the seasons are the result of the interaction between yin and yang, polar opposites that provoke each other into a continuous cycle of motion. Si Ji for Orchestra relies on these polar opposites not only for the overall structure of the piece, but also to control the flow of intensity from one seasonal section of the composition to the next.

In this presentation, I will discuss yin and yang energy flow within the traditional cycle of the seasons and compare it to the flow of musical intensity in Si Ji for Orchestra.

background on the ComposerChen Yi is among the most prominent Asian composers living in America today. She has

been heralded by the New York Times as one of the most distinctive composers of her gen-eration, 1 and a formidable composer, a true modernist with an acute ear and keen imagina-tion. 2 Chen Yi was born in 1953 in Guangzhou, a city in southeast China. She received rigorous musical training during her early childhood, but her studies came to abrupt halt in 1966 at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. After an intensive time of manual labor, she was recruit-ed to be concertmaster of the Beijing Opera Troupe in 1970. When the Cultural Revolution end-ed in 1976, Chen Yi was admitted to the Central Conservatory in Beijing for violin performance, but later changed her major to composition. Shortly after graduation, Columbia University professor Chou Wen-Chung recruited her through his United States-China Arts Exchange. She left China for America and became a doctoral student at Columbia under his direction.

Since her graduation in 1993, she has been the composer-in-residence for the Womens Philharmonic, Chanticleer, and Aptos Creative Arts Center in San Francisco. She taught at the Peabody Conservatory from 1996 to 1998, and is currently the Distinguished Professor in Com-position at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. 3

background on Si Ji (four Seasons) for orchestraChen Yi composed the piece in fulfillment of the 2005 Roche Commission, a prestigious

prize offered by Switzerlands Roche health company. The composition is a single-movement piece with four distinct sections, each representing a season. The duration of the piece is ap-proximately 14 minutes, and each sectional season is inspired by a poem from the Song Dy-nasty. 4

1 Anthony Tommasini, CRITICS DIARY; Generations and Traditions Intersect in a Musical Week, The New York Times, 28 April 2004.

2 Anthony Tommasini, New Operas at the Met: What Works? The New York Times, 11 January 2007. 3 John de Clef Pieiro, An Interview with Chen Yi (New York: 26 July 2001), New Music Connoisseur, Vol.

9, No. 4 (Fall 2001), http://www.newmusicon.org/v9n4/v94chen_yi.htm (1 January 2010).4 Roche, Roche Commissions, 2009 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., http://www.roche.com/factsheet_roche_

commission.pdf (accessed 4 October 2009).

27PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWbackground on the traditional Cycle of the seasons

Finally, before i turn to the analysis, lets examine the traditional seasonal cycle a little bit closer. Scholars generally agree that the roots of nearly all of the ancient chinese schools of thought are represented within the book of changes, or the yi jing (i-ching). The i-ching and its subsequent commentaries greatly develop the concept of yin and yang, on which the theory of the seasons is based. 5

The traditional Chinese calendar is structured differently than the standard western cal-endar, particularly in regard to the beginning and end of seasons. While the solstices and equi-noxes commence seasons in the west, they come precisely in the middle of each season in the Chinese calendar. The spring equinox, therefore, divides spring into two equal parts. Likewise the summer solstice comes precisely in the middle of summer, and so forth. The phases of yin and yang, however, are initiated by the solstices.

One seasonal cycle is represented by a phase (a half cycle) of yin and a phase of yang. It is important to remember that yin and yang are inversely related. Whenever yin rises, yang must decline, and whenever yang gains strength, yin must yield. Yin and yang can be applied to nearly any duality, and their roles are, therefore, very flexible. In terms of seasons and ag-riculture, yang represents life, brightness, and heat, while yin represents death, darkness, and cold.

As light is a yang characteristic, the yang phase is marked by increasingly long days. It begins on the winter solstice, the day with the least amount of sunlight, and increases to the summer solstice, the day with the most sunlight hours. After the summer solstice, the amount of sunlight hours decreases each day until the winter solstice. As darkness is a primary yin characteristic, this half of the year represents the yin phase.

Chinese spring exists entirely in the yang phase. This is logical considering rising yang has characteristics of increasingly warm temperatures and growing plant life. Autumn, on the other hand, exists entirely in the yin phase. The growing yin characteristics of increasingly cold temperatures and decay of life can clearly be seen in this season. Summer witnesses the rise, climax, and decline of yang, and winter witnesses the rise, climax, and decline of yin. 6

Ex. 1. Traditional Chinese Cycle of the Seasons

5 Liu JeeLoo, An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy: From Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Buddhism (Mal-den, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2006), 26.

6 Juliet Bredon and Igor Mitrophanow, Moon Year (New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp., 2001), xxi.

28PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWMethod of analysis

In my analysis of Si Ji for Orchestra, I compare flow of energy in the traditional cycle to flow of intensity in Chen Yis composition. Through creating a link between the two forms, one can see their similarities and differences. I define musical intensity here as the sum of all dynamic values on any given beat. To measure this, I created a chart with time as measured in beats across the top and the name of every staff used in the score down the side. On each beat, I entered the given dynamic for every staff of the score as a numeric value. I calculated the dynamics with resting as 0, triple piano as 1, double piano as 2, and so forth up to triple forte, which was 8.

Ex. 2. Dynamic Values

Dynamic Value

Resting 0

ppp 1

pp 2

p 3

mp 4

mf 5

f 6

ff 7

fff 8

This methodology was especially helpful in cases of crescendi, because I could use deci-mals. For example, if a line began at mezzo piano and grew to mezzo forte over three beats, the dynamic values would be 4, 4.5, and 5. After inputting the values for each line, all lines were summed for a total intensity measurement for that given beat. I used this data to create a line chart, allowing one to easily see the flow of intensity over the course of a seasonal section, or the composition as a whole. Then, I converted the x-axis from beats to seconds in order to make the chart time-accurate.

There were several limitations to this form of analysis, such as variance between the dy-namic ranges of the orchestral instruments (for example, a trumpet at triple forte is louder than a flute at triple forte, but would receive the same dynamic value). Also, variance in decay time of percussion instruments such as the gong is difficult to measure. Finally, the quantization errors occurred during passages with multiple dynamic changes per beat; however, in the end, those details did not detract from the overall effectiveness of the study. The total number of dy-namic entries was so large (over 10,000 per season), that these issues were easily absorbed by the study without significant influence.

springWell begin with spring, the first musical season in Chen Yis composition. In the tradi-

tional cycle of the seasons, Spring is represented by growing yang. Yang characteristics are brightness, heat, and life, and Spring fulfils these qualities with an increase in daylight hours, temperatures, and plant growth.

Chen Yis Spring is characterized by unrelenting expansion and growth as well. Chen Yi represents masculine yang energy with a strong sense of pulse, rhythmic drive, and powerful, accented lines.

29PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWChen Yi maintains this constantly growing tension by following each growth with a col-

lapse in energy, after which the growth begins anew. In terms of dynamics, this translates as dramatic crescendi followed by stark cut-offs. At any given moment there are multiple layers of crescendi, each of a different length. The longest is in the xylophone part, which grows from piano in measure one to forte in measure 55, ending only four measures before the following Summer section.

The following chart represents musical intensity in Chen Yis spring section. As you can see, just as spring in the traditional cycle witnesses an increase in yang energy, Chen Yis spring demonstrates an uneven increase of musical intensity.

Ex. 3. Intensity Graph for Spring

summerIn the cycle of the seasons, summer represents the growth, climax, and decline of yang

energy. This climax occurs at the summer solstice, the day with the most hours of sunlight dur-ing the year. In the traditional calendar, the peak of yang energy is observed by means of festi-val Duan Wu Jie. 7

The Summer section of Chen Yis Si Ji is full of explosive sound and relentless energy. Growth is perpetuated by layers of sound that emerging one by one, beginning with low, vio-lent chromatic cluster and forceful, high accents, followed mid-range thematic fragments, and finally a high soaring melody. All of these elements intermingle and crescendo into a climax that comes directly before the midpoint of the section. The instrumentation suddenly thins, leaving only a snare drum and the soaring melody in the strings. This reduction in instrumen-tation also causes a drop in intensity. The string melody twists downward to a cadenza-like violin solo that climbs upward in pitch and finally disappears into the soft, mysterious autumn section. Here is the chart of musical intensity within Chen Yis summer section. Again, the flow of intensity closely mirrors that of the energy flow in the traditional si ji. They both feature a growth to a climax point about half way through, and subsequently witness a dramatic de-crease.

7 Michael R. Saso, Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal, 25.

30PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWEx. 4. Intensity Graph for Summer

autumnIn the traditional si ji, autumn consists of growing yin. Remember that yin is associated

with darkness, cold, and death, qualities that can be seen in the reduction in daylight hours, falling temperature, and the gradual decay of crops.

Chen Yi emulates yin characteristics in her autumn section through the use of dark, clouded textures, dense chromatic woodwind and string chords, and otherworldly timbres. While Chen Yi does effectively portray the dark, mysterious yin energy of autumn, for the first time, there is a slight divergence from the traditional cycle. Autumn in the traditional si ji features constantly rising yin energy. In Chen Yis autumn, the musical intensity rises slightly and then abates. When looking at the piece as a whole, reasons for this departure become ap-parent. Ill discuss this more in my final comparison.

Ex. 5. Intensity Graph for Autumn

winterIn the traditional cycle, winter represents the growth, climax, and decline of yin. The

peak of yin comes at the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. This date is marked by the Dong Zhi festival. Although yin is associated with darkness and death, this is a joyful cel-ebration, as it marks the beginning of the decline of yin and the increase of positive yang en-ergy. 8

Chen Yis Winter features a build to a climax through the use of faster tempos, thicken-ing textures, and rising dynamics. The violent climax is followed by a dramatic decline in inten-

8 Joseph Yeh, The Winter Solstice (23 December 2008), http://www.culture.tw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1053&Itemid=157 (2 March 2010).

31PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWsity caused primarily by a reduction in dynamics. In the final measures of the pieces, a majority of the orchestra is instructed to sing breathy sound without pitched voice. In the last mea-sure, the solo harp comes through the clouded, dark yin texture, symbolizing the bright, clear infant yang. In this chart you can see a clear rise, climax, and decline of intensity in Chen Yis winter section.

Ex. 6. Intensity Graph for Winter

global ComparisonNow lets compare the composition as whole to the traditional form. In this chart, I have

taken the overall yin and yang energy flow within the traditional cycle of the seasons and stretched it out horizontally, using the traditional white and black to represent yang and yin phases. Below that, Ive charted out the flow of intensity in Chen Yis Si Ji, again using white for yang and black for yin.

Ex. 7. Overall Comparison Charts

The similarities are clear. The traditional cycle has two distinct phases, a yang phases, marked by heat, light, and growth, and an yin phase, characterized by darkness, coldness, and decay. Chen Yis piece also has a yang phase, marked by intense, pulsating rhythms and forceful accents, and a yin phase containing lyrical woodwind melodies, beatless rhythm, and clouded chromatic harmonizes.

32PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWIn the traditional si ji, energy is relatively low in Spring and Autumn and grows steadily

to a climax and decline in Summer and Winter. The same phenomenon occurs in Chen Yis piece, only with musical intensity.

However, there are also differences. Yin energy in the traditional cycle consistently rises, while the intensity in Chen Yis Autumn rises slightly and then falls. All seasons in the tradition-al cycle are of the same length, while Chen Yis Autumn is longer than the other seasonal sec-tions. Final, the climax of winter and summer in the traditional cycle are equally strong while the climax in Chen Yis Winter is much higher than the climax of her Summer section.

The reason for these inconsistencies is likely musical rather than philosophical. The considerably longer Autumn section has a slower tempo marking than the flanking seasons of Summer and Winter. This is reminiscent of symphonic form: fast/slow/fast. Spring and Sum-mer together form the fast section; Autumn stands on its own as the slow section; and the increasingly high tempo markings of Winter represent a gradual return to a faster tempo. As for the unequal peaks of intensity, the musical rationale is clear: If the first climax were equal in intensity to that of the second, the ending would seem weak and unsatisfying. Here, one can see that Chen Yi is not attempting to write a treatise on the flow of energy within the dualistic construct of the universe; she is composing a piece of music. Instead of attempting to replicate the traditional cycle of the seasons, she received inspiration from it.

ConclusionChen Yi is an important composer whose music has had an enormous impact on the

field of bicultural music in America. In her composition Si Ji (Four Seasons) for Orchestra, she remains faithful to the traditional cycle of the seasons by having four seasonal sections, two phases with yang and yin characteristics, and by manipulating intensity to match the flow of energy within the traditional form. The piece is not a replica of the traditional si ji, but rather a creative and magical interpretation of the ancient form.


bibliograpHyScoresChen Yi. Si Ji (Four Seasons) for Orchestra. King of Prussia, PA: Theodore Presser Co., 2005.

ArticlesChou Wen-Chung. To Create a New Chinese Music Idiom. The New York Times, 9 Sept. 1973.Fleming, Shirley. The Roche Commissions Principle. Playbill Arts, 1 February 2005. http://

staging.playbillarts.com/features/article/1243.html. Accessed 4 October 2009.Guo Xin. Eastern and Western Techniques in Chen Yis Qi. Journal of Music in China (Oct.

1999), 121.Oestreich, James R. The Sound Of New Music Is Often Chinese; A New Contingent Of Ameri-

can Composers. The New York Times, 1 April 2001. Pieiro, John de Clef. An Interview with Chen Yi. New Music Connoisseur, Vol. 9, No. 4, Fall

2001. http://www.newmusicon.org/v9n4/v94chen_yi.htm. Accessed 1 January 2010.Roche. Roche Commissions: Fact Sheet. F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., 2009. http://www.roche.

com/factsheet_roche_commission.pdf. Accessed 4 October 2009.Sparrer, Walter-Wolfgang. Chinese Concert Music Chen Yi and the Music of China. Roche

Commissions, Roche (Roche, 2005), 55-87.Theodore Presser Company. Chen Yi (24 February 2010). http://www.presser.com/Compos-

ers/info.cfm?Name=CHENYI. Accessed 2 March 2010.Tommasini, Anthony. CRITICS DIARY; Generations and Traditions Intersect in a Musical

Week. The New York Times, 28 April 2004. ________. New Operas at the Met: What Works? The New York Times, 11 January 2007. Xue Jinyan. Baban, a Long-standing Form in Chinese Traditional Music. Journal of Music in

China (Oct.1999), 77-92.

DissertationsChen Yi. Piano Concerto. D.M.A. diss., Columbia University, 1993. Chen Moh-Wei. Myths From Afar: Chinese Myths Cantata by Chen Yi. D.M.A. diss., Univer-

sity of Southern California, December 1997.Guo Xin. Chinese Musical Language Interpreted by Western Idioms: Fusion Process in the

Instrumental Works by Chen Yi. Ph.D. diss., The Florida State University, Fall Semester, 2002.

Li Songwen. East Meets West: Nationalistic Elements in Selected Piano Solo Works of Chen Yi. D.M.A. diss., University of North Texas, August 2001.

Li Xiaole. Chen Yis Piano Music: Chinese Aesthetics and Western Models. Ph.D. diss., Univer-sity of Hawaii, 2003.

Wang, Hsin-Yi Susan. Volume I. The Intercourse of Water and Fire: A Critical Analysis of Se-lected Orchestral Works by Tan Dun, and Chen Yi. Tan Dun: On Taoism (1985); Chen Yi: Ge Xu (Antiphonyrdquo;) (1994). Volume II. Shadow Moon. Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2003.

Yeung Hin-Kei. Chen Yi and her Choral Music: A Study of the Composers Ideal of Fusing Chi-nese Music and Modern Western Choral Traditions. D.M.A. diss., University of North Texas, December 2006.

Chinese Philosophy General ReferenceAudi, Robert, ed. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University

Press, 1995.Bo Mou. History of Chinese Philosophy. London: Routledge, 2009.

34PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWFung Yui-ming. Philosophy of the Han Dynasty, from History of Chinese Philosophy, edited by

Bo Mou. London and New York: Routledge, 2009. Honderich, Ted, ed. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

1995. Lai, Karyn. An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy. New York: Cambridge University Press,

2008.Liu JeeLoo. An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy from Ancient Philosophy to Chinese Bud-

dhism. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub, 2006.Sommer, Deborah. Chinese Religion: An Anthology of Sources. New York: Oxford University

Press, Inc, 1995. Wilhelm, Richard. Lectures on the I Ching: Constancy and Change, translation and introduction

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Seasonal CycleBredon, Juliet, Igor Mitrophanow. The Moon Year. New York: Paragon Book Reprint Corp.,

1966.Saso, Michael R. Taoism and the Rite of Cosmic Renewal. U.S.A: Washington State University

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proloNgatioN iN straviNsKys MoVeMentS for PiAno AnD orCheStrA

robert gross

In the spirit of the theme of the 2011 UCM Festival of New Music conference, Old and New, I thought it might be interesting to contemplate the theme from a theoretical, rather than com-positional, perspective. It is a happy coincidence, then, that the conference theme fits neatly with an area of particular theoretical interest to me: post-tonal prolongation. Prolongation itself, of course, is a concept pioneered by Heinrich Schenker, partially mo-tivated by the desire to discredit the increasingly post-tonal music that was emerging during the latter part of Schenkers life.1

At the Texas Society of Music Theory conference in February, 2011 I was asked whether I considered my ideas about post-tonal prolongation to be prolongation with a big P or with a little p. I asked my questioner to clarify what he meant by either. He said that Prolongation-with-a-capital-P referred to proper, established, orthodox, bona-fide Schenkerian prolongation; prolongation with a little p is everything elseall the unorthodox, adaptive methods theo-rists have used to deploy prolongational analyses to music beyond the common practice.2

However, I think exactly the opposite should be the case. Prolongation is a technical concept, and as such, is beyond the ownership of any one theorist, even Schenker. In my view, Schenkerian analysis is one means of analyzing prolongation in a very specific repertory, and toward very specific goals. A broader concept of prolongation that is at work in myriad aes-thetic landscapes merits the capital P. Schenkerian analysis is a subset of this broader concept of prolongation, not the other way around. The primary critic of post-tonal prolongational schema proposals is Joseph Straus. In his 1987 article The Problem of Prolongation in Post-Tonal Music, Straus outlines four pro-longational conditions: first, the consonance/dissonance condition; second, the scale-degree condition; third, the embellishment condition; and fourth, the vertical/horizontal condition. His point is that inevitably, most post-tonal music fails to meet one or more of these necessary conditions for true prolongation to exist. As an alternative to post-tonal prolongation, Straus proposes the associational model. In this model, hierarchically extricated pitches merely associate with one another, but they do not have the propulsive power of a background prolongational structure, nor do they have the power to create any hierarchical levels above the level at which they associate. Straus says this model, while more modest, is also more defensible.

1 Schenker also had extra-musical motivations for what he sought to discredit, particularly having to do with countering nascent and intense anti-semitism in late 19th and early 20th Century Vienna. This particularly influenced his views on Wagner, who is often considered by theorists as the earliest example of a consistently post-functional composer and whose work is usually considered beyond the purview of truly orthodox Schenker-ian analysis. See Cook 2007.

2 Examples are too myriad to list comprehensively, but some of my own influences include Baker 1983, Boss 1994, Forte 1988, Kelley 2005, Larson 1997, Lerdahl 1989, Losada 2009, Morgan 1976, Morrison 1991, Pears-all 1991, Santa 1999, Travis 1970, Visl 1999 and Wilson 1984.

36PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2011 UCM NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL: OLD AND NEWWhile I have enormous respect for Strauss many contributions to post-tonal analysis,3 I think he is wrong about this. I find his reasoning to be circular.4 The conditions he lists as requi-sites, particularly the scale-degree condition, are inherent aspects of tonality and only tonality. Then, failing to find these conditions in any music that is not tonal, he concludes post-tonal prolongation is not possible. Yet, the conclusion is assumed in the premise. He believes, in principle, there might be music that fulfills these four conditions but which is not tonal; but it is nearly impossible to conceive any music that fulfills a scale-degree condition that is not at least pan-diatonically tonal if not functionally tonal altogether. So, I should like to offer my own model, which I have stated elsewhere (Gross 2010, 2011) but as preludes to the prolongational analyses of other post-tonal pieces.5 My underlying prin-ciple is that post-tonal prolongation, and resultant hierarchical levels, must occur somehow. Otherwise, all post-tonal music would be nothing but surface and an incoherent stream of moment-form (since broader architectonic connections cannot occur). Therefore, any conclu-sion that prolongation can only occur in tonal musicassumed in the premise that conditions of prolongation derive from the conditions of tonalityis both tautological and inadequate to the task of defining what prolongation really is (since this conclusion shrinks from the task of explaining how it is that post-tonal music also achieves its own coherence, large-scale architec-ture, broadly spanned arrival points,6 etc.). All writers on the subject from Schenker onward agree on one thing: prolongation is the continued exertion of influence by a note or sonority when it is not literally present. Edward Pearsall notes that Schenkers view of the head tone, for instance, combines within itself a mental retention, that is, a motionless state, and an actual motion of the linear progression. I observe that nearly all writers assume the synonymity of prolongation and linearity, with one exception: Forte and Gilbert 1982 notably do not use the word linear in their definition of prolongation; they merely define prolongation as mental retention of a note or sonority when not literally present.

3 I should also acknowledge Strauss indispensible contributions to the important emerging field of disabil-ity studies in music. Post-tonal composers furthermore offer him a considerable debt for debunking that worn old saw of serial tyranny in the 1950s and 1960s (1999).

4 I am not the first to point this out. See also Lerdahl 1989, 67-68; Travis 1990, 380; Cinnamon 1993, 128-29; and all three documented by Visl 1999, 243. The (recently late) theorist Steve Larson directly challenged Straus on this in 1997, pointing out the tautology in Strauss 1987 statement a prolongational analysis proceeds by paring away the relatively dissonant tones at each successive level of structure. Larson points out that relatively dissonant always means less structural, so Straus may as well be saying a prolongational analysis proceeds by paring away the less structural tones at each successive level of structure, which is always trivially true whatever less structural actually means. Strauss response (1997b), that consonant stability and prolonga-tion act in reciprocal, mutually reinforcing ways, strikes me a

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