Polymetric Layering and Tonal Language in the Piano Etudes of Gyorgy Ligeti
Year of Dissertation:
2013
Gyorgy Ligeti's eighteen piano etudes were composed over a period of fifteen years, yet they constitute a coherent body of music literature. In this dissertation I explore recurring compositional elements that are significant unifying factors in these works, particularly the following six properties: referential collections, pulsation patterns and rhythmic cycles (including continuum and polymetric layering), aksak rhythms, intervallic orientation, melodic structures, and canon (in the later etudes), After a brief outline of these components in the etudes as a whole, I focus in greater depth on polymetric layering and continuum in "Entrelacs," and elements of continuum, rhythmic cycles, pitch collections, and structural design in "Der Zauberlehrling." My original analytical techniques include rhythmic reductions of continuum layers, mapping of durational cycles, and pitch-range graphs.
Diasporic Jeliya in New York: A Study of Mande Griot Repertoire and Performance Practice
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Beginning in the late 1980s, many hereditary professional musicians (griots) from Francophone West Africa began moving abroad, first, to France, and then to North America. In my study, I explore the ways in which Mande griots' experiences in the most recent African diaspora in New York have affected their trade, which embraces some of the most significant musical traditions in sub-Saharan Africa. I examine the degree to which their collaboration with non-griot musicians has reshaped the parameters of their repertoire and performance practice in the New York milieu and world music sphere. Although jeliya in the Mande sphere is conceived as a verbal art, it is recast as groove-based "jam music" in clubs and concert halls; even a vocalist's part is judged upon the basis of its musical merits alone, allowing jeliya to flourish as a vocal art as well. Diasporic jeliya inspires listeners in the Western milieu to respond, act, and reflect in spite of their inability to understand the words of the griot, which are lost or neglected in transit. My work entails a detailed view of their music from the vantage point of a close collaborator (as a guitarist) with extensive professional experience working with griots and their Western associates. Collaborators learn the tools of the griot trade through "intensity of contact" with griots and their music. An array of artists determines the form and content of diasporic jeliya in New York, allowing it to grow and flourish in multiple permutations as marketable entertainment.
CARL BERGMANN IN NEW YORK: CONDUCTING ACTIVITY 1852-1876
Year of Dissertation:
2011
Carl Bergmann (1821-1876), a cellist and conductor born in Ebersbach, Saxony, emigrated from Vienna to New York in November 1849, a refugee from the political turmoil of 1848. In April 1850 he joined the cello section of the Germania Orchestra, which was then based in Baltimore; in July he was elected conductor of that ensemble. After the dissolution of the Germania in 1854, Bergmann briefly served as the conductor of the Philharmonic Society of Chicago before settling in New York. There he had a profound impact on concert life, establishing himself as the pivotal figure in the integration of the symphonic and operatic works of Liszt, Wagner, Schumann, and Berlioz into the standard repertory.
Pitch-Class Multisets
Year of Dissertation:
2009
The pitch-class multiset (pcmset) is a collection in which pitch classes may appear as elements more than once and in which any single appearance of a pc represents one and only one instance of that pitch class. For example, pitch classes 1, 2, and 4 comprise the pcmset {1,2,4,4}; pc4 occurs twice. This represents some musical situation with two instances of pc4 and only one instance each of pcs 2 and 3. The pcmset has appeared sporadically in the theoretical literature, yet there has been no systematic examination into the ramifications of the distinction between a pitch class and the number of its representatives. This study considers existing music theory in light of pcmsets and considers their use in analysis.
Rong Ngeng: The Transformation of Malayan Social Dance Music in Thailand Since the 1930s
Year of Dissertation:
2011
This is a historical and musicological inquiry into how rural performers, at the confluence of two distinctly different cultural and linguistic areas, created traditional repertoires from multiple sources. It examines the migration of the well-known ronggeng social dance music of Malaya and Indonesia to southwest Thailand in the 1930s, and the distinctive song and dance genre, called rong ngeng, that subsequently developed there. Rong ngeng was sung and danced to violin and hand-drum accompaniment in public dances where male patrons paid a token fee for an approximately three-minute round with a professional female dancer. It was a popular medium for rural courtship, and performing it was a rite of passage for many young men and women.
Analytical Fragments Concerning György Kurtág's "...concertante..." opus 42
Year of Dissertation:
2009
Despite the many apparent differences between it and the majority of compositions in his oeuvre, György Kurtág's ...concertante..., op. 42, (2002-2003, rev. 2006) offers analysts a profound and welcome opportunity to explore his approach to large-scale form. While ...concertante... reflects a formal tightening relative to Kurtág's famous song cycles, its approach to form remains the same: fragments are grouped into sections which in turn comprise the entire work. The difference is that taken together the fragments in ...concertante... bear strong traces of conventional formal paradigms. Because ...concertante...'s fragmentary nature is not as apparent as other pieces, the analyses in this essay draw attention to Kurtág's many techniques of musical interruption-an idea central to the concept of fragment advanced here. Because of the difficulties inherent in the word "fragment," the analyses alternate with discussions about how the term is applied in Kurtág's music.
John Field's Piano Sonatas Op. 1, Nos. 1 - 3
Year of Dissertation:
2011
ABSTRACT
Liszt's Mazeppa: Examining a Composer's Conception Through His Orchestration
Year of Dissertation:
2010
Franz Liszt composed three complete versions of his Études d'execution transcendante over the span of twenty-five years, the Étude en douze exercices (1826), the Grandes Études (1837), and the final form of the Études in 1851. In addition, Liszt wrote another piano version of the fourth Étude, Mazeppa, most likely in 1840, as well as a symphonic poem in 1854. This document attempts to direct the understanding of Mazeppa's compositional development, especially that of the symphonic poem, into an informed interpretation of the 1851 piano version of Mazeppa.
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY IN AMERICA FROM 1938 to 1965 AS REPRESENTED IN LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS OF THE DISPLACED UNIVERSAL EDITION COMPOSERS AND THEIR PUBLISHING AGENTS
Year of Dissertation:
2009
This dissertation explores the music publishing industry in America from 1938 to 1965 as seen through the letters and documents of the Universal Edition émigré composers and publishers. It presents a previously unpublished collection of letters by the composers Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg, George Antheil, Kurt Weill, and Ernst Krenek, and by the publishing agents Ralph Hawkes, Hans Heinsheimer, Felix Greissle, and Hugo Winter. These documents have been sparingly edited from the original and are surveyed and discussed in each chapter. The documents include a wealth of information on music publishing during this period and show how market trends shaped the music of the Universal Edition composers in the United States from the time of the 1938 Anschluss of Austria, throughout World War II, and into the post-war era.
MUSIC FOR THE (AMERICAN) PEOPLE: THE CONCERTS AT LEWISOHN STADIUM, 1922-1964
Year of Dissertation:
2009
MUSIC FOR THE (AMERICAN) PEOPLE: THE LEWISOHN STADIUM CONCERTS, 1922-1964