Many opera directors and commentators continue to view Hindemith’s 1921 one-act opera as a straightforward if shocking tale of sexual hysteria among repressed celibates. This paper proposes a more complex interpretation of the opera’s libretto as a study of the battle between female sexuality and celibacy inspired by religious fervor. It also examines ways in which Hindemith’s setting reveals his attitude toward the sexuality/celibacy question, and discusses ways in which Hindemith’s musical expression of these attitudes affords him a unique means of tonal organization in the opera, one which clearly tracks the dramatic curve of the libretto.

The paper examines the procedures used to secure cadence and to differentiate the relative strengths of these articulations in the opening movement of Sessions’s cantata.
    After a presentation of the harmonic resources employed in the movement, the discussion centers on the way in which referential sonorities are employed in the construction of phrases, periods, and sections. The effectiveness of a particular cadence at any one of these levels is a function of expectation, rhythmic impulse, linear events, and the use of referential harmonic structures. The resultant network of phrase and cadence procedures is designed to produce a musical structure that is responsive to the demands of the text while providing an anacrusis to the downbeat of the second movement.

This interdisciplinary study, drawing form the fields of music, psychology, parapsychology, linguistics, acoustic phonetics and neurology represents the first thorough attempt to analyze the fundamental frequency content of American English speech from a musical perspective. While the inherent musicality of American English speech’s pitch fluctuations may seem obvious to many musicians, no scientific study has, to date, confirmed their intuitive perceptions. This scholarly void is due, in large part, to technological limitations that have only recently been overcome, to the interdisciplinary nature of such a study and to the pervasive view in the linguistic and acoustic phonetic communities that the fundamental frequency content of spoken American English, a non-tone language, is not a “distinct feature.”
    Examples of American English monologue and dialogue were taken from recordings of early jazz and blues performers and contemporary talk shows. These recordings were first transcribed into micro-tonal musical notation and then fed into a computer for a non-subjective analysis utilizing the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) system of spectral analysis. This latter analysis showed the aural transcription to be extremely accurate.

The genesis of Luigi Dallapiccola’s Concert per la notte di Natale dell’ anno 1956 can be traced from early sketches and drafts to the unpublished first-version score (October 1957), thence through short-score revisions for the published version (1958).
    Movements I, III, and V are instrumental; nos. II and IV are vocal settings of lauda verses by Jacopone da Todi. Early sketches show the priority of the vocal conception in the genesis of the climax of movement II, and of the original beginning of movement IV.
    Hidden text-painting occurs in the Concerto: the note g-flat is linked to the poem of the Primo Inno, and in the Secondo Inno Dallapiccola portrays the line “Amor, amor, tu se’ cerchio rotondo” (“Love, love, you are a round circle”) graphically in the score.

    This paper shows that twelve-tone operations form a mathematical structure called a group and how Milton Babbitt realizes this structure in his ground-breaking twelve-tone work, Three Compositions for Piano. A sub-group of these operations, mathematically known as a Klein 4-group, is shown to generate the trichordal structure of the row as well as the work’s rhythmic series. It is also argued that Babbitt consciously uses the Klein 4-group to create a network of twelve-tone operations that is hierarchically generated by the actions of the 4-group on itself.

Ben Johnston’s Diversion (1979), a divertimento for eleven instruments, is a unique amalgamation of microtonal and serial techniques. The pitch structure of the piece is governed by a combinatorial twelve-tone row in which the second hexachord is a retrograde inversion of the first. However, the row is not equal-tempered, but in extended just intonation:

C  Bb7  G  D  F↓  E  A+  G#↑  B  F#+  D#↓  C#+

    Diversion uses an 11-limit just intonation, which means that it is based upon the intervals found up through the eleventh partial of the harmonic series. Each consecutive row is related to the previous one either by a common tone or a low-number interval ratio (e.g., 4:3, a perfect fourth). Within a row, each trichord is framed by the interval of a perfect fifth (3:2) or a major second (9:8), and trichords within the same hexachord are joined by a perfect fifth. Overall, the piece is divided into twenty-one sections, delineated by differences in instrumentation, row use (including trichordal reordering), meter, rhythm, dynamics, and articulation.

    Iannis Xenakis is commonly perceived as a composer who writes according to strict mathematical procedures and logical operations; almost all of the scholarly literature on his work, including many of Xenakis’s own writings, tends to support this view. This paper takes issue with this picture, arguing with the aid of an analysis of the piano piece Herma that a purely mathematical approach cannot give a satisfactory account of either the music’s composition or its perception. Moving beyond this argument, an alternative understanding of Xenakis’s music is discussed, one that is based upon his aesthetic ideas. It is argued that these ideas, which have largely been ignored by commentators, can provide the basis for a richer and more subtle view of Xenakis’s position in contemporary music.

Instructors of course in music theory and aural skills face new challenges in teaching rhythmic skills. Not only do music students need more remedial attention, but the level of rhythmic complexity at which they are expected to function continues to rise. Teachers of theory, therefore, need pedagogic techniques that not only teach elementary concepts and skills, but also provide a strong foundation for professional musicians who will practice their art well into the next century. In order to address these concerns, we suggest that an effective rhythm pedagogy should promote accuracy and musicality in performance, require and reflect understanding of rhythmic/metric structures, facilitate aural identification of rhythmic patterns and meters, provide precise and consistent language for the discussion of temporal phenomena, and accommodate various musical styles.
    We propose a system of rhythmic “solfége” that addresses these goals. The system features two related sets of syllables, one for simple meter (subdivision = “ta-ka-di-mi”) and one for compound (subdivision = “ta-va-ki-di-da-ma”), that correspond to attack points within each beat of a meter. Based fundamentally on aurally perceived rhythmic patterns, the syllables transfer among meters, division types, and complex combinations of the two. Thus, the system promotes rhythmic fluency in aural, visual, and written contexts in traditional and nontraditional styles. It has proven effective in several years of classroom application.

This paper will present the pedagogical method and specific exercises for tonal sightsinging known as the “Jersild Approach,” named after the contemporary Danish composer Jorgen Jersild, who first developed his method in the 1950s. This approach represents an unusually powerful, detailed, and systematic version of the “scale degree function” methodology that is favored by many teachers. Although it is virtually unknown in the United States, it is used in many of the world’s most prestigious foreign conservatories.
    The core of his teaching technique revolves around a set of tetrachord patterns (4-note scalar exercises), whose shifting whole- and half-step dispositions are used to evoke a variety of tonal orientations and contexts. Along with these short melodic “motifs,” a set of ten resolution and tendency-tone patterns are used to enculturate tonal bearings be representing basic location points or “moves” within a key.

The primary purpose of this paper will be to serve as a practical guide to teacher of ear training who are using the University of Delaware GUIDO music learning program. It specifically addresses teacher who would like to make use of the Instructor Utility for edition the drill units or creating new units, but have found themselves either a bit timid or just too busy to digest adequately the manual’s information. My presentation will give a concise overview of the organization and functions of the Curriculum Editor, give some helpful hints, including some quirks to avoid, as well as outlining in a few steps successful procedures gleaned from five years of experience. In addition, I shall share a method of effectively enlarging the capacity of the program beyond its inherent limitations— specifically, by enhancing the number of “work slots” available through attaching very simple DOS programming. The session will close with a brief demonstration of the creation of a new Melodies Unit with restrictive atonal patterns.

The teaching of music theory is changing. We are no longer teaching common practice harmony using a few Bach chorales, inventions, and fugues. The old tools of music theory pedagogy (the textbook, the blank manuscript page, and the piano) will soon yield to computers and multi-media technology.
    This paper will discuss and demonstrate the utilization of computer and multi-media technology in classroom instruction using a Macintosh Quadra 660A V with interval CD-ROM, HyperCard, Finale, a digital scanner, and Audio Media. For the purposes of this paper applications of computer technology will be directed primarily toward instruction in music theory and will include a demonstration of 1) a data base of musical examples, 2) an analysis of an electro-acoustic composition, and 3) the creation and performance of a complex, multi-layered African ensemble piece.

Developments in the field of artificial intelligence provide tools for investigating how people acquire, store, and employ knowledge. These developments facilitate the concept of knowledge-based programming, referring to computer programs that encode and utilize human knowledge to solve problems. Such knowledge is usually stored in the form of rules that are used by the computer to logically deduce solutions to a problem, thereby resembling human reasoning. Knowledge-based programs are not new, but a lack of sophisticated computer programming languages on microcomputer platforms have limited their use in music research until recently.
    Knowledge-based programs have the potential to increase our understanding of, and perhaps reshape our thinking about certain theories and the music they attempt to explain. The process of contracting a knowledge-based simulation of music theory provides a powerful tool for investigating and criticizing that theory. It is not unusual for theories to give an appearance of completeness and logical consistency. Their weaknesses may not be apparent until someone attempts to put them to a crucial test, to draw firm inferences from them, or to build a model based upon them. Generating a computer simulation frequently reveals flaws by highlighting inconsistencies or a lack of complete specificity in the theory. By studying the output generated by such a simulation, combined with the information learned through the process of constructing the system, we have a foundation for criticizing and perhaps reformulating the theory.

This paper will contribute to the small but growing body of analytic research on electro-acoustic music by investigating Milton Babbitt’s claim that “What led most of the composers to the electronic domain originally [was] the whole rhythmic question—rhythm in every sense of the aspect.” The rhythmic organization of timbral elements in serial electro-acoustic music composed during the 1960s and 1970s serves as an essential structural feature. The uncovering of this organizational procedure yields a deeper understanding of the complex textures that this music typically exhibits. Through detailed analyses of several short sections from Babbitt’s Reflections (1974) for piano and tape and Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronism No. 6 (1970) for piano and tape, this paper investigates: first, the rhythmic relationships between pitch, timbre, register, dynamics; secondly, the relative rate of change of these sound color parameters; and thirdly, the relationship between the electronic timbral rhythm and musical form. When the analytic observations are categorized according to general timbral characteristics, the correlation between sound color and definition of music structure can be further developed. My paper concludes with a discussion of how these examples suggest a beginning for a general theory of sound color in electro-acoustic music.

    One of the central tenets of Schenkerian theory is that the two-voice Ursatz constitutes the fundamental structure of all well-wrought tonal compositions. Many of the Lieder of Franz Schubert, however, resist reconciliation to the three traditional forms of the Ursatz. Their primary structures are better accommodated by a three-voice contrapuntal model which I term the composite fundamental structure. Its three voices are composed of a linear descent from scale-degree 3, a linear ascent from scale-degree 5, and a bass arpeggiation. In this paper, I shall discuss the theoretical viability of this alternative model of fundamental structure and consider its manifestation in three songs by Franz Schubert—An Sylvia, D. 891, Täuschung, D. 911/19, and Die Jägers Liebeslied, D. 909.

    Anton Webern’s Six Bagatelles for String Quartet are composed in the aphoristic style typical of his works form this period—their texture is sparse and fragmented. Consequently, this identification of convincing melodic contour segments is sometimes difficult. Too often the listener (and the analyst) is confronted with an array of seemingly disconnected sound events. However, by utilizing the Gestalt grouping principle of belongingness. this dilemma can be addressed. This principle is most often associated with the perception of visual stimuli and states that a common border between two percepts must belong to one or the other. In the analogous musical situation (where, for instance, a well-formed contour segment occurs concurrently with a grouping of unrelated tones), various auditory streams are formed by our perception, and they compete for the tones to be included in them. Therefore, tones can be said to “belong” to a specific segment. In this paper I explore the concepts of belongingness and auditory streaming and the ways in which they can be utilized as heuristics for contour segmentation. By applying this principle to Webern’s Op. 9, No. 6, ambiguous passages within the “pointillistic” texture can be segmented is accomplished, a detailed structural organization is revealed.

Anton Webern’s famous assertion that as early as 1911 “he had the feeling, ‘when all twelve notes have gone by, the piece is over’” suggests that he may have anticipated the serial concept of aggregation before Schoenberg. Unique among Webern’s works, the 1910 composition of Op. 7/3 appears to support such a conclusion: it actually unfolds a single aggregate and ends precisely once all twelve pitch classes are heard.
    This paper explores the remarkable history of Op. 7/3, and examines how and why it came to embody a single aggregate. As a result of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, Universal suspended its imminent publication of Op. 7 under an “Act of God” condition in its publishing agreement. Prior analyses of Op. 7/3 by Allen Forte, David Lewin, and other have all addressed the 1922 post-war publication. Based on new research at the Webern archives in Switzerland, analytic comparison between the published score and Werbern’s original 1914 manuscript reveals that he made critical revisions in 1922. These revisions are scrutinized from a set-theoretical perspective and a new analytic model for assessing aggregational unfolding in a non-serial atonal work. The result shows that unlike the revised version, the original consisted of two aggregate cycles rather than one. Op. 7/3 only became a uni-aggregational piece through revision in 1922, long after Webern’s aggregational feeling of 1911. Based upon this analysis, questions are raised as to the credibility of Webern’s famous remark, his anticipation of Schoenberg’s serial thought, and possible reasons for his curious revision of the atonal work to embody a single aggregate years after it was composed.

    Western art music in the twentieth century has manifested an unprecedented mixture of cultural influences. In addition to musical styles that were cultivated in Europe, composers have resorted to non-Western cultures for the expansion of musical vocabulary and redefinition of compositional aesthetic. My paper examines the application of Chinese metaphysical principles in the first movement of of Chou Wen-chung’s Metaphors (1960). Based upon the composer’s sketches, I will discuss the derivation of the eight modes, which form the pitch basis of the composition, from the eight trigrams Yi Jing (“Book of Changes”). This includes the motivic bases of yin and yang, the modal representations of the eight trigrams (trilinear arrangements of yin/yang symbols), and modal pairing. Pitch-class set terminology is invoked to illuminate modal transformations and motivic interactions from the surface to deeper levels. Superpositions and juxtapositions of modes and their relation to hexagram formations reveal Chou’s concern for invariance structure. The analytical findings lead us to a better understanding of how traditional Chinese concepts and materials function in Chinese music, how they combine with twentieth century Western techniques, and, within a broader context, how they contribute to the realization of what Chou calls re-merger—the confluence of musical cultures in the formation of a new style.

Ruth Crawford’s String Quartet 1931 has had an important influence upon contemporary composers. Elliott Carter, for one, has documented the influence of the third movement on his own music. Recent analytic studies of the string quartet have provided valuable insight into the unique use of serial technique, melodic structure, dynamics, registral space, etc. Also, biographical information on the life of and musical influences on Crawford are beginning to emerge. One area that has received less attention, though, is the individual role these various techniques play.
    In this paper I will discuss the competing roles of serial technique, “dissonant counterpoint,” and gestures concerning registral space in the second movement of String Quartet 1931. This movement illustrates interaction of pitch structure of the motives, wedging motion in both the melody and the overall structure, and the use of registral space. The manner in which one compositional approach seems to take priority over the other may well indicate Crawford’s reliance on a strategy of clarity.

This paper examines issues of formal process and discontinuity in De Staat for female voices and chamber ensemble, written in 1976 by the contemporary Dutch composer, Louis Andriessen. Concepts presented by Jonathan Kramer in The Time of Music have provided an important framework in my analytical approach to this work. In this paper, I explore the issues of temporality in De Staat specifically by examining: 1) the interdependence of musical parameters in generating different levels of formal discontinuity; 2) the interplay of linear and nonlinear musical factors in weighing the formal balance of this work.
    Consideration will also be given to the evaluation of Kramer’s categories of temporality, i. e. moment form, multiply-directed time, and how the formal conception of the works fails to fit into any of those categories. While De Staat presents a stylistic amalgamation in its blending of minimalist language with Stravinskian techniques of “block” juxtaposition and stratification of musical material, it transcends these stylistic norms in its bold experimentation with stasis and formal discontinuities. Various aspects of temporality in this work may be compared to those of Stravinsky’s works to show the similarities and differences in the manifestation of linearity and nonlinearity as well as formal balance.

This paper introduces a new analytical tool. which I call temporal disjunction, to the arsenal of Schenkerian techniques of analyzing rhythm. Like most analytical approaches, Schenkerian theory tends to emphasize coherence and continuity over conflict and discontinuity. Yet disruptions to the even flow of time can be a fundamental element of the music of many composers, Beethoven prominently among them.
    Of course it is commonplace to speak of disjunct rhythms where any greatly differing durations values appear in succession. The concept of temporal disjunction generalizes this still further: is assumes that musical time (as opposed to chronological time) is continually created not just by durational values but also by pitch, texture, dynamics, articulation, and any other factor that might be deemed musical.

    Equivalence-class approaches to analysis have yielded many fruitful insights regarding pitch and contour in musical contexts. In this paper I adopt and equivalence-class approach to rhythm in order to produce a mechanism for analyzing rhythm in music and also to provide an exhaustive, but limited, list of rhythms to be employed as a compositional resource. Analyses of two early non tonal works by Schoenberg—the twelve-tone theme from the Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31 and the Minuet from the Suite for Piano Op. 25—reveal that rhythms in these pieces stem from one or two rhythm classes and their subsets. In addition, the analysis of Op. 25 shows how rhythm-class motives emerge not only at the beat level, but at deeper levels as well. These analyses suggest that rhythm in the early nontonal pieces is as highly structured as its pitch component.

    In the course of defining this theories of formalized music, Iannis Xenakis distinguished outside-time and in-time structures. Outside-time structures represent an aggregate of sonic characteristics that admit quantitative expression and which may, therefore, be given a totally order structure but which, themselves, do not inherently imply an specific temporal arrangement. The ordering of these materials into a coherent entity, the in-time structure, remains a function of time and results from the mapping of the outside-time structures onto an abstract structure of temporal organization. The outside-time structures used in composing Psappha (1975), a work for solo percussion, were generated using elementary sieves based on the Sieve of Erastosthenes. Initial in-time ordering was accomplished with the aid of complex sieves in the form of logical (algebraic) expressions and self-generating cycles through a group structure. The resultant polyrhythmic constructions were then subjected to direct manifestations by the composer to produce “arborescences,” or “branchings,” of the in-time structures.

    “Ohimè dov’è il mio ben” is the only piece Claudio Monteverdi composed on the Romanesca, a Renaissance ostinato that combines a melodic descent comprised of scale-degrees 5-4-3-2, 5-4-3-2-1 with a tetrachordal bass comprised of scale degrees 3-7-1-5, 3-7-1-5-1. The linear motion of the Romanesca makes in congenial to theorists favoring a Schenkerian approach, such as David Gagnè in his article “Monteverdi’s Ohimè dov’è il mio ben and the Romanesca” (Music Forum 6/1 [1987], 61-91). Gagnè demonstrates that Schenker’s principle of interruption, found in all four sections of the work, acts as a unifying device for the entire composition; however, pitch organization is not the sole agent of long-range cohesion in this piece. Rather, Monteverdi’s development of rhythm into balanced, arch like schemes of intensification and relaxation contributes forcefully to the cohesiveness Gagnè ascribes to pitch events alone. My paper amplifies Gagnè’s study with an analysis that uncovers the rhythmic process operating within each section and throughout the work as a whole. The process is generated by such diverse parameters as surface rhythm, distance of imitation, and pacing of text. Also of consequence in this Romanesca are the disparate alignment of vocal phrases and bass tetrachords, the relationship of poetic and rhythmic sections, all of which contribute significantly to the long-range cohesion of the piece.