Saturday, 2:45 pm–5:00
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This paper explores the use of melodic contour analysis to relate non-adjacent chords in Schoenberg's Op.11, no. 2. Though this analytical model uses pcset theory to associate chords, it does not use pcset analysis as a primary criterion for segmentation. Furthermore, the model asserts a type of hierarchy that is unusual for pcset analysisóand does so without invoking notions of atonal prolongation. This approach to Op.11, no. 2 constitutes an example of a more general Representational Hierarchy Associational Model (RHAM), that is also proposed and defined.
Schoenberg's theoretical project on the "musikalische Gedanke" is concerned primarily with tonal music. The connection of his twelve-tone method with his general theory is tentative. Patricia Carpenter and Severine Neff interpret Schoenberg's treatment of his twelve-tone method in his Gedanke manuscripts as aiding him in formulating his theory of the musical idea. I shall argue that, contrary to appearances, Schoenberg's 'Gedanke' manuscripts may actually represent his attempts to explain his twelve-tone method.
Comments Schoenberg made about his 'Gedanke' project and five unpublished 'Gedanke' manuscripts will be examined. Schoenberg's comments reveal that by 1934 he was working on a theory of his twelve-tone method and that the underpinnings of this theory were contained in "Der musikalische Gedanke und seine Darstellung." Three 'Gedanke' manuscripts from 1925 will be shown to be the execution of the theoretical task Schoenberg had set in connection with twelve-tone music in 1923: "to find the form in which the laws of the earlier art can be applied to the new." Two other Gedanke manuscripts treat metaphysical aspects of the musical idea: how an immaterial idea pervades a musical structure, the problem of creation, and the idea's eternal nature. Schoenberg's incorporation of versions of these ideas into his 1941 essay "Composition with Twelve-Tones" supports my position that these manuscripts are part of Schoenberg's attempts to explain his twelve-tone method.
This re-interpretation of Schoenberg's Gedanke project calls for a re-assessment of its position in the history of theory.
The paper takes as a starting point David Lewin’s story of the “falling ninth” motif in Schoenberg’s Piano Piece, Op. 19, No. 6. The gist is that the network of intervals –5 then –9 (overall –14) appears twice. It can be heard within the initial chord and then it governs the transposition of the falling ninth motif over much of the rest of the piece—and so with one penetrating insight the relationship of detail to large-scale structure becomes clear. This paper develops interpretations of other works by Schoenberg based on Lewin’s analytic model, adapting it as needed to suit various contexts. For example, instead of directed pitch intervals such as “falling ninths” and a network of intervals (–5 then –9 overall –14), the analysis of Op. 19, No. 2 studies interval classes represented as two-pc set-types [03] and [04] and the series of pitch-class transformations T4–T6–T11 in order to elucidate large-scale structure. Other kinds of adaptations include the consideration of sets larger than dyads (both ordered and unordered), more than two levels of structure, and passages shorter than an entire piece. In addition to Op. 19, No. 2, the paper deals with No. 4 from the same set of pieces, as well as excerpts from Op. 11, No. 1, and “O alter Duft” from Pierrot Lunaire.