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Offers readers new ways of conceptualizing music and new insights
into music created in Russia. Since its original publication in
1983, Russian Theoretical Thought in Music has become the standard
English-language source of information about music theory as it
developed in Russia. Because of the distance of culture and
language, music theory developed there largely independent of the
traditions of Western Europe. Over the decades of Soviet rule,
those traditions flourished and were refined even further into a
fascinating world of ideas. Exploring this world offers the reader
new ways of conceptualizing music and new insights into music
created in Russia. This compelling volume includes Ellon
Carpenter's overview of the development of music theory in Russia,
followed by a look into the ideas of six particularly important
theorists. Nicolas Schidlovsky examines the theoretical
underpinnings of Russian Orthodox chant; Gordon McQuere probes the
remarkable ideas of Boleslav Yavorsky and the seminal contribution
of Boris Asafiev; and Roy Guenther explores the analytical system
of Varvara Dernova. Contributors: Ellon D. Carpenter, Allen Forte,
Roy G. Guenther, Gordon D. McQuere, and Nicolas Schidlovsky. Gordon
McQuere is Professor of Music and Dean of the College of Arts and
Sciences at Washburn University.
The book begins with a thorough coverage of a number of
elementary matters. This may be regarded either as a review or as a
reorientation in preparation for the systematic presentation that
follows.
Beginning in Part Two ideas that are more specifically
Schenkerian are developed and applied to the analysis of short
compositions. Since the book is also intended to cover all of the
basic standard form it has seemed logical to use this feature in
organizing the material. Thus, Part Two ends with longer forms and
Part Three covers the main large forms (sonata, rondo, and so on).
The various types of Schenkerian prolongations are introduced
gradually and discussed and illustrated thoroughly in the text.
Each chapter ends with a set of exercises keyed to the topics
that have been presented, and the student is given precise
instructions for completing the exercises as well as occasional
hints about pitfalls and special problems that they contain.
"For some years now, a group of American composers and theorists
including Babbitt, Teitelbaum, Martino, and Lewin, have been
elaborating mathematically based procedures for the analysis of
pitch structures in atonal music. In this book, Allen Forte expands
the results of their work into a comprehensive theoretical survey
illustrated with examples from a wide range of composers."-Times
Higher Education Supplement "An attempt to 'provide a general
theoretical framework' for the description and analysis of musical
pitch-structures that resist interpretation in terms of
conventional tonal or 12-note serial systems.... Not the least
achievement of this book may be to establish the limits for a
positive meaning for atonality.... Forte always moves forward with
elegant clarity, explaining even quite conventional terms and
illustrating his points with directness and care."-The Musical
Times
The Austrian composer Anton Webern (1883-1945) is one of the major
figures of musical modernism. His mature works comprise two styles:
the so-called free atonal music composed between 1907 and 1924, and
the twelve-tone serial music that began in 1924 and extended
through the remainder of his creative life. In this book an eminent
music theorist presents the first systematic and in-depth study of
the early atonal works, from the George Lieder, opus 3, through the
Latin Canons, opus 16. Drawing on music-analytical procedures that
he and other scholars have developed in recent years, Allen Forte
argues that a single compositional system underlies all of Webern's
atonal music. Forte examines such elements as pitch, register,
timbre, rhythm, form, and text setting, showing how Webern
displaced the functional connections of traditional tonality to
create a totally new sonic universe. Although the main thrust of
the study is music-analytical in nature, Forte also considers
historical context and significant biographical aspects of the
individual works, as well as word-music relations in the music with
text.
When The Rite of Spring was first performed in Paris in 1913, it
was greeted with a riot. After the shouting died down, it became
possible to discern that Igor Stravinsky had created a monument of
modern music, and the work has been universally regarded as such
for half a century. Although it is widely studied in classes in
music theory, no effort has yet been made to comprehend the
extraordinary way in which its pitch materials are organized. This
book will correct that omission. Allan Forte set forth his
analytical approach fully in The Structure of Atonal Music (1973).
Here he applies it in detail to a large-scale work that is familiar
to every student of music. In his introduction Forte reviews
certain technical aspects of his method in order to prepare readers
for the close analysis that follows. He particularly
considers general features of pitch and interval structures and the
ways in which those structures may be interrelated to form coherent
musical spans. Together the introduction and the analysis, with its
more than 100 musical examples, both illuminate the structure of
the music and demonstrate the way in which Forte's method may be
applied in the analysis of complex music.
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