Annual Meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the AMS
March 26-27, 2004
University of Northern Colorado
Greeley, CO
Abstracts
Friday Afternoon (1:30-5:00)
ON SEEKING CLARITY AND MISTRUSTING IT:
CATEGORIZATION AS A PROBLEM IN PEDAGOGY
Sonya Lawson
Greeley, CO
One of the goals of pedagogy in the history of music is to lead students to a deeper and richer understanding of musical forms. Preventing the teacher from attaining this goal is the tendency of students to categorize cultural phenomena in highly restricted ways. Cognitive psychologists describe how our minds typically categorize cultural phenomena. They show that the actual process of categorization does not conform to the normative concept of categorization that philosophers (e.g. Aristotle) have proposed. The Aristotelian notion of categorization (the “classical” view) insists that musical form must specify necessary and sufficient conditions.
One solution to avoiding the narrow confines of the classical approach is to tap into another tendency of human minds—thinking prototypically. The “prototype” approach is known as the “probabilistic” approach because we also employ graded concepts. When teaching students about the historical development of musical forms this tendency to employ graded concepts can modify the approach which demands the specification of necessary and sufficient conditions. Although the prototypical approach is more flexible than the classical approach it, nevertheless, still favors some examples over others.
A third cognitive tendency is known as case-based reasoning Much of what we learn about the natural and cultural worlds come from our tendency to develop more and more sophisticated judgments as we move from case to case. This cognitive tendency is even more flexible than the prototype approach because it permits us to include a developmental dimension to learning what counts as examples of a musical form.
A combination of the classical, the prototypical and case-based approach is useful pedagogically when teaching music history both to first time and to advanced students because it encourages students to think critically about categorizing music
JOHN CAGE AND IMPROVISATION: AN UNRESOLVED RELATIONSHIP
Sabine Feisst
Arizona State University
Improvisation, a neglected phenomenon in Western art music in the first half of the twentieth century, was rediscovered and reconsidered by many composers after World War II. John Cage, key figure and catalyst in the musical avant-garde movement, was among the first to embrace the indeterminate, unpredictable and singular elements of a musical process—all characteristics of improvisation. Yet, in the course of his career his idea of improvisation underwent a considerable metamorphosis. He embraced improvisation in the 1930s and 1940s, rejected it vehemently in the 1950s and 1960s and approached it again under new premises from the 1970s on. For most of his career, however, he showed ambiguity and adversity towards improvisation. Cage’s skepticism was symptomatic among avant-garde composers and casts light on the complex and problematical nature of improvisation. This paper examines Cage’s experience with improvisation, his reasons for his dislike of improvisation, his definitions of improvisation and performance problems. It investigates how Cage circumvented, toyed with or used improvisation in his works, including Quest, Atlas Eclipticalis, and Inlets, and in his performances of text pieces such as Mureau and One12. His “musical meeting” with Sun Ra in 1986 is also discussed. Cage not only found manifold ways in dealing with improvisation, but he also created a greater awareness of its implications and elucidated the challenges and illusions of improvisation.
QUOTATION AND ALLUSION IN ALFRED SCHNITTKE’S
CONCERTO GROSSO NO. 3
Tim Sullivan
University of Northern Colorado
Recently, music scholars have taken an interest in studying the function of quotation and allusion. While this is a somewhat new development in the study of 19th-century composers, it has long been a topic of research in music of the 20th century (particularly with Ives and Mahler). A special case occurs in the music of Alfred Schnittke, where an entire aesthetic is based on the systematic use of quotation and allusion. Schnittke’s article, “Polystylistic Tendencies in Modern Music,” while primarily concerned with other composers, indirectly offers a great deal of insight into this aesthetic. In short, Schnittke developed a system where quotations and allusions are deeply imbedded in the structure, and are rarely audible to the listener.
An excellent example is Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 3, which features a complex web of quotations and allusions. In a description for the first recording, Schnittke revealed that the work was dedicated to five composers: Schütz, Scarlatti, Bach, Handel, and Berg. Almost every feature of the work is derived either from the monograms of these composers (used to generate twelve-tone rows), or from several quotations and allusions (particularly of Bach). Schnittke uses this pre-existing material primarily on a structural level, and thereby generates the basic melodic and harmonic content of the work. However, the way that the content is employed—an abundance of clusters and close counterpoint—is unique to Schnittke’s style. Because of his extraordinary use of borrowed materials, the work never sounds derivative, or like a pastiche, but rather completely unique, and thus exemplifies Schnittke’s mature style.
TEXT AND MUSIC IN DREI SATIREN, OP. 28:
SCHOENBERG’S ATTACK ON STRAVINSKY AND THE NEW CLASSICISM
Tabitha Heavner
University of Connecticut
Both Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky premiered new compositions at the 1925 Festival of the International Society of New Music. Schoenberg was annoyed by the enthusiasm with which Stravinsky’s neoclassic sonata was received, and also by derogatory remarks Stravinsky made about “modernism.” In response, Schoenberg composed Drei Satiren für Gemischten Chor, Op. 28.
The three satires are twelve-tone works with original texts, written in forms associated with J. S. Bach. The first, “Tonal oder atonal,” reflects the methodological dilemma facing composers in the 1920s. Set as an exact canon, the movement’s row consists of diatonic, whole-tone, and octatonic subsets that emphasize the text’s message. The second satire, “Vielseitigkeit” (“many-sidedness”), mocks Stravinsky’s physical appearance and his efforts to “return to Bach,” utilizing a retrograde-inversion canon that reads the same forwards, backwards, and upside-down. The final satire is a “kleine Kantata” with basso continuo and an elaborate triple fugue section. It focuses on the pitch-class C and the white-key diatonic collection as a metaphor for classical perfection, contrasting it with a black-key set centered around D-flat.
Schoenberg never intended for the Satires to be performed, yet they merit serious study because they employ not only text and classical forms, but also details of pitch relationships and musical structure, to ridicule Stravinsky and the neoclassic movement. In these movements, Schoenberg eloquently attempts to demonstrate the superiority of his own methods and present himself as the true heir to the classical tradition.
Saturday, March 27
Morning Session I, 9:00-12:00
SHEDDING LIGHT ON JEAN-DELPHIN ALARD,
19TH CENTURY VIOLINIST, PEDAGOGUE, AND COMPOSER
Deborah Weagal
University of New Mexico
The nineteenth century had its share of musical icons such as Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod, Franz Liszt, Jacques Offenbach, Gioachino Rossini, Clara Wieck Schumann, Giuseppe Verdi, and Richard Wagner, to name a few. It is therefore understandable that the French violinist, pedagogue, and composer, Jean-Delphin Alard was somewhat eclipsed by such powerhouses. However, Alard made a substantial contribution to the nineteenth century musical world in France, and was an integral part of the fabric that made up the creative community. It is therefore important to more adequately recognize him for his contributions and accomplishments. The purpose of this presentation is to shed light on his life, and provide some of the recognition which he has well deserved.
Alard was born in Bayonne, France in 1815, and died in Paris in 1888. He was appointed to the post of professor at the Paris Conservatory, where he worked from 1843-1875. He experienced much success in this position, and emphasized the Italian-French tradition of Viotti in this teaching. He had a number of prominent students, including Sarasate, who won first prize in 1857. He also wrote a teaching method called, Ecole du violon: méthode complète et progressive, which was published in 1844, and translated into several languages. Some of his compositions include caprices, violin concertos, opera fantasies, and duets for two violins. He put together an anthology entitled, Maîtres classiques du violon (1863), which consists of 56 compositions. He played the violin throughout most of his life, and performed in his last concert in 1884. His father-in-law was the well-known luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, and through him Alard owned some excellent instruments, including the “Alard” Stradivari and the famous “Messiah” Stradivari.
ITALIAN VIOLIN VIRTUOSI BEFORE PAGANINI
Jared Church
University of Northern Colorado
Much has been written about Niccolò Paganini’s influence upon the virtuosi of the nineteenth century, but little work has been done concerning the influence of previous violin virtuosi upon Paganini. While he often presented himself as self taught, telling writer Boucher de Perthes that “great ideas sprang spontaneously from the inner flame that animated him,” an examination of works by earlier violin virtuosi suggest that Paganini was not without antecedents, but rather was heavily influenced by the virtuosi that came before him. One such influence is Pietro Locatelli (1695-1764); a comparison of Locatelli’s Op.3 and Paganini’s Op.1 reveals many striking similarities between both composers’ use of figures and in some instances harmonic progressions. A violinist that may have influenced Paganini’s performance style is Antonio Lolli (1725-1802), who imitated certain animal noises during the performance of his concertos (Paganini would later only do this between pieces). Moreover, in his sonatas Lolli made use of scordatura and harmonics, techniques often thought absent from violin literature between Locatelli and Paganini. The influence of Giovanni Viotti (1753-1824) and his pupils Rode and Kreutzer can be seen in Paganini’s instrumentation. Viotti was the first violin composer-virtuoso to take an interest in instrumental color and to compose orchestral accompaniments for more than just strings. A broad view of eighteenth-century violin virtuosi, then, indicates that Paganini did not appear ex nihilo but instead was the inheritor of several different virtuosic traditions, which he synthesized into the technique and musical personality that would take Europe by storm in the nineteenth century.
REMINISCENCE IN THE THIRD MOVEMENTS OFBRAHMS’S
STRING QUARTETS, OP. 51
Marie Sumner Lott
University of Northern Colorado
Brahms’s interest in the music of the past is well documented, as is its influence on his own compositions. Archaic gestures abound in his music, especially in works from the 1860s and ’70s, such as the German Requiem, the Magelone Lieder, and Rinaldo. Also at this time, Brahms’s composition of his first symphony and his string quartets Op. 51 required him to come to terms with the historical weight of two very different genres. Although the First Symphony’s composition has been widely discussed, the string quartets have received much less attention. The string quartet’s history as the foremost venue for serious musical thought and masterful craftsmanship caused it to stagnate and decline throughout the nineteenth century, as composers who did publish string quartets were consistently compared to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
A topical reading of Brahms’s quartets shows that Brahms met the genre’s demand for historical awareness by evoking the past in a variety of ways, including gestures that refer to Beethoven and Mendelssohn. However, Brahms’s evocation of various “pasts” in these works goes well beyond mere reference to earlier composers. Rather, many passages in both string quartets suggest not only antique genres and styles, including Baroque string and vocal writing, hymn- and lied-like passages, suggestions of lute accompaniments, and the alla breve style, but the very remembrance of them. Thus, Brahms’s evocations of the past fulfill a generic requirement of the string quartet, but they also evoke the act of reflection and the ways that individuals reconstruct the past.
KASTNER’S Méthode Complète Et Raisonnée De Timbales:
SOME OBSERVATIONS FOR MORE AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE PRACTICE
Harrison Powley
Brigham Young University
Scattered references to the timpani appear in diverse 17th- and 18th-century sources. None, however, treat the pedagogical and technical aspects of the timpani in an extended or comprehensive manner. The most informative of these is the short final chapter of Johann Ernst Altenburg’s Versuch einer Anleitung zur heroisch-musikalischen Trompeter- und Pauker-Kunst printed in 1795. It is not until the 1840s, with the publication of two timpani manuals, one in Italy, the other in France, that timpanists had specific written methods of instruction. The Italian text, Manuale pel timpanista (1842) by Carlo Antonio Boracchi, is primarily devoted to a discussion of his newly invented technical advancements that were to facilitate more rapid tuning. The French tutor, Méthode complète et riasonnée de timbales (ca. 1845) by Jean Georges Kastner (1810–1867) is a compendium of historical data, basic music theory, explanation of technical matters, practice etudes, and finally advice to composers on the use of the timpani in the orchestra. This method appears to be the first practical guide for the orchestral timpanist and as such deserves to be more widely known since it provides much information useful to the proper interpretation of timpani parts of the classic and romantic eras.
This paper focuses on one of the most interesting and historically valuable sections, Art de blouser “The Art of Beating.” Kastner recognizes the gradual loss of the old style of playing improvised pieces in favor of the orchestral usage of the timpani. He writes “earlier the art of beating the timpani was more difficult and complicated than today. At the time when the main role of the timpani was to accompany bands of trumpets, or to execute preludes or interludes to celebrate the entrance of some great personage, it was thought that the dexterity of the artist should substitute for the imperfection of the instrument. This, we have the origin of all these various strokings again so difficult to perform: The bearings of five, cross stickings, twirling or cross strokes, mixed beats, rolls on two timpani, fantasias, etc., with which a timpanist had to be acquainted on order to deserve the name of maestro and to find employment” (p. 27). Berlioz’s timpani parts will be analyzed in light of Kastner’s observations.
Saturday Morning Session II, 9:00-12:00
THE ENCHIRIADIS ORGANA: A HOAX OR A CEREBAL MISXTURE OF THEORY AND PRACTICE?
Hendrik van der Werf
Tucson, AZ
The Enchiriadis scale with its identically-shaped, conjunct tetrachords is well known. Here and there an organum or two are presented in a book on the history of music or on medieval notation, but as far as I know, no one has published a comprehensive study of what both authors call “organa.”
Contrary to bad press, the daseia notation is fairly simple. The application thereof may seem inconsistent but is actually clever; it is used, partially used or completely omitted according to a system that, by implication, is explained in the authors' convoluted discourse. It all suggests that there is little or no relation between the tetrachord theory and the Enchiriadis organa. I will show a few transcriptions, in which the daseia symbols will mercifully be replaced by our pitch letters. In addition, I will quote from the discourse, all of which will show that the organa actually are in a diatonic scale. This in turn raises some interesting questions about polyphonic practice of the time.
Common sense and adequate analysis will probably put an end to what little is left of the old notion that the Enchiriadis organa represent the beginning of western polyphony.
RENAISSANCE OF THE MEDIEVAL: EARLY MUSIC AND MODERN FILM
Brian M. Choc
University of Montana
A survey of American film will reveal a generous portion dedicated to the Middle Ages and the general fantasy surrounding that time period. A sampling of these films reveals rich and varied (sometimes) scores. What is most musically striking about this abundance of Medieval movies, however, is not a brilliant use of early (pre-Baroque) music, rather it is the thorough absence of early music. In fact, it is safe to say that authentic Medieval music in movies is occasional at best and entirely nonexistent in many, many of these films. As movies play an immeasurable role in shaping the public’s view and understanding of cultures and concepts beyond everyday experience, the importance of how history is painted in this medium cannot be overstated.
I contend that the music used in medieval genre films serves the dual purpose of establishing a relationship between the viewer and the film and at the same time creating distance between them. I suggest that these seemingly divergent goals are accomplished in large part with the contrasting use of diegetic and nondiegetic music. Typically, nondiegetic music is very modern, accessible, and promotes “universality” of the film and concepts. Diegetic music attempts to be more accurate to the period, is exotic at the expense of authenticity, and is far less common. Illustration is drawn from a handful of films in a modern, romantic medieval idiom, notably Ladyhawke (1985) and Braveheart (1995).
FIDELIO: BEETHOVEN’S PHILOSOPHY REFLECTED
Elli Gauthier
Lamont School of Music, University of Denver
Throughout the extensive literature on Beethoven's only opera Fidelio, scholars repeatedly make connections between the opera’s content and elements of the French Revolution. While correlations can be made, I will argue that Beethoven’s commitment to the work stemmed not from a particular affiliation or desire to portray the revolution specifically, but rather from his general political and philosophical ideals, which encompassed those of liberty, equality, and fraternity. An understanding of his strong moral sense—as made evident in documented conversations and letters he penned—leads one to understand his views concerning European political events of the late 18th century, and how the music of Fidelio manifests these views. This morality is evident in both the text he chose, and the treatment of that text. His search for a libretto was extensive, and his choice of Leonore is paramount. Inherently flawed, it required extensive revision and rewriting, but the democratic ideals underlying the story appealed to Beethoven. Furthermore, the text’s musical treatment conveys to his audience how significant these ideals were to Beethoven. Using soaring melodic lines and intense crescendos, he emphasizes freedom and brotherhood above all—including the love story Fidelio depicts. However, Fidelio was not written as a specific response to the French Revolution, and numerous inconsistencies arise within such a limited interpretation. Nowhere in the opera are the French Revolution’s two defining conflicts—between the monarchy and republicanism, and between the classes—represented. Beethoven simply shared the lofty ideals upon which it was based. How much of the French Revolution Beethoven intended his audience to see in Fidelio is only marginally important in relation to the grander, more universal ideals that Fidelio encompasses.
THE CREATION OF A GENUINE COMIC OPERA AESTHETIC IN 17TH-CENTURY BOLOGNA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON 18TH-CENTURY OPERA BUFFA
James Leve
Northern Arizona University
Around 1680 librettists and composers in Bologna began to create an indigenous comic opera repertory. They were the first writers to incorporate dialect into opera to any significant degree. Earlier Florentine comic operas—like all serious opera from the century—relied on standard literary (Florentine) Italian, only using dialect to distinguish secondary characters; but the Bolognese works achieved the full comic potential of dialect in operatic terms, and thereby influenced later Neapolitan opera buffa. I argue that the Bolognese repertory’s divergence from the linguistic patterns and tropes of mainstream opera created a new musical aesthetic for comic opera.
My discussion centers on Li diporti d’amore in villa. Its plot mixes cittadino and contadino characters; both types speak Bolognese, with the exception of two Italian-speaking innamorati. I show that the preponderance of Bolognese probably had a major impact on the musical style. The verbal tendencies of dialect characters provide a contrast to the stylized poetry of the innamorati, who sing the only authentic romantic arias.
Music for the dialect operas has not survived, but I use a musical passage in dialect from an earlier Florentine comic opera to establish the likelihood that Bolognese composers created a musical dialect that correlated with Bolognese. Second, my close reading of the intrinsic poetic structures of Li diporti’s dialect arias illustrates that the music had to differ from the operatic lingua franca. Finally, my analysis of dialect passages from Adriano Banchieri’s madrigal comedies suggests rhythmic and melodic possibilities for the aria of Li diporti.
Saturday Afternoon Session, 2:00-5:00
OFF-TONIC RETURNS IN SCHUBERT’S SMALL FORMS
Amy Holbrook
Arizona State University
Numerous studies have examined the recapitulations of Schubert’s sonata forms, particularly those that begin in some key other than the tonic. In these movements, the thematic return is not coordinated with the tonal return, the material of the primary theme being re-introduced while the process of modulation back to the tonic key is still underway. Approximately 30 wonderfully different examples of off-tonic recapitulations appear in Schubert’s instrumental music, ranging from the earliest works, the string quartets of 1812-1815, to the last, the Symphony No. 9 in C Major of 1828.
Although the sonata-form examples have understandably been the focus of attention, Schubert’s technique of returning thematic material in non-tonic keys can be found in the other types of forms that have an element of departure or contrast followed by return, namely ternary, rounded binary, and rondo. These sectional formal types are more concentrated and less fluid than sonata form, and so the effect of an off-tonic return is more marked. Among the results are greater tonal variety infused into the conventional form, colorful local harmonic effects, and a softening of the moment of return that downplays this sectional division.
Only a very small sample of works with this Schubertian device can be examined here, including the Andante of the early String Quartet in B-flat Major, D. 36, the Menuetto and Trio from the Piano Sonata in G Major, D. 894, and the Allegretto quasi Andantino from the Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 537. The effect of the off-tonic returns in these works illustrates in miniature the effect on a much grander scale of off-tonic recapitulations in sonata form. Finally, instances of this device appear also in Schubert’s vocal works. The song Nacht und Träume, D. 827, is one example in which an off-tonic return contributes to the musical expression of poetic meaning.
ABT. VOGLER’S LATE-CLASSICAL THEORY OF SCALE MODULATION AND ITS NINETEENTH-CENTURY DESCENDANTS
Paul Coleman
Albuquerque, NM
While the harmonic system of Jean-Philippe Rameau is usually considered to be the theoretical foundation of tonal harmony, the system of Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler (1749-1814), which is an intriguing departure from that system, is still relatively unknown. Dissatisfied with current theoretical systems, Vogler constructed a system of harmony that could account for both contemporary musical styles utilizing slower, variable harmonic rhythm and music containing modal inflections. Despite similarities between Vogler’s system and those of his contemporaries, certain conceptual differences allow for strikingly different musical practice and analytical results.
Vogler’s absence from theoretical discussion and analysis is especially remarkable, considering he numbered many important musical figures among his students, including Carl Maria von Weber, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Maria Theresa von Paradis, and Gottfried Weber. Although Vogler’s system continued to evolve in their hands, it seems they did adopt his unusual modulatory techniques that allowed the scale degree, not just the triad, to function as a pivot. This system of scale modulation can be traced well into the nineteenth century, through Gottfried Weber to Pierre Maleden, who taught Camille Saint-Saëns and the young Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Although distant modulations are not particularly characteristic of music by Saint-Saëns and Gottschalk, there are passages in works by both composers that defy traditional analytical techniques. Application of Vogler’s system, however, provides a clear explanation for such passages. Given his influence, this harmonic theory (perhaps refined) might profitably be combined with traditional analysis to better explain problematic harmonic passages by nineteenth-century composers both inside and outside the Vogler circle.
FOSTER, WORK, AND HAYS IN JAPAN: A CROSS-CULTURAL CURIOSITY
Hidemi Masushita
Arapahoe Community College
The songs by nineteenth-century American composers Stephen Foster (1826-64), Henry Clay Work (1832-84) and William Hays (1837-1907) have shown a decline in popularity today in the United States. Except for several of Foster’s 200+ songs (such as “Oh! Susanna!” and “Camptown Races,” which are found in many music lesson books for beginners), many of their songs have fallen out of favor. Work composed over 75 songs and Hays wrote at least 332.
Some of the reasons for this decline in popularity are that today’s listeners, singers, and performers seem to be alienated from the sentimental quality of their songs, or that they find some words and subject matters politically incorrect or even objectionable. One exception may be Foster’s song, “My Old Kentucky Home,” which is the theme of the Kentucky quarter.
However, in Japan, the songs by Foster, as well as at least one song by Work and Hays, remain very popular today. Amazingly, Henry Clay Work’s name is known by many ordinary Japanese people; his 1876 song, “Grandfather’s Clock” was a hit there in 2002!
Why in a country like Japan, whose people are quick to imitate current western trends in pop, rock, rap, and reggae music, are they so fond of these 19th century sentimental American songs while many Americans are not?
Some of the songs are popular because they were used by Luther Whitig mason when he helped initiate music education in Japan in 1880. These songs have remained in Japanese music textbooks and songbooks to this day. However, “Grandfather’s Clock” was not one of them. Cultural and political climates, as well as historical events of the two countries will be compared and examined.
FRANK LOESSER: MUSIC IN TIME OF WAR
Thomas L Riis
University of Colorado
The authoritative musical theater scholars Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball have noted, “Of all the major [American popular] songwriters, Frank Loesser is the one with a career most sharply divided in two: his early period in Hollywood, writing lyrics to other composers’ music [1936-1941], and his later Broadway career as composer/lyricist of an extraordinary group of ambitious hit shows [1948-1961] (Reading Lyrics, New York: Pantheon Books, 2000, p. 447). The perceived contrast between the two halves of Loesser’s career appears odd, even mysterious, when one realizes how thoroughly steeped in music his early years were. In a musical household, where both his father and older brother had made substantial careers in classical piano teaching and performance, apparently young Frank never learned more than tonal basics and pursued other non-musical interests intensively. The resolution of this conundrum of career direction can be found in the least studied period of his creative life, the span encompassing World War Two.
This paper will explore the first songs for which Frank Loesser wrote both words and music, 1939-1942, and discuss his heretofore unknown wartime musicals prepared for servicemen overseas from 1943 to 1945. For a variety of reasons the war years were extremely productive as well as instructive for Loesser. His remarkable ear, his keenness to learn new things, and his passion for all theatrical elements prepared him well when Broadway opportunity knocked not long after the war’s end. The success of Where’s Charley? In 1948 and especially Guys and Dolls in 1950—he wrote both lyrics and music for both New York shows—raised his name to Broadway fame and signaled not so much a change in creative direction as a coming together of many strands of his earlier efforts and interests