▼ The complexity of atonal musical structures has led theorists to offer varying analyses of atonal works. This ambiguity stems from the intricacies of human perception: Is it possible to state a definitive analysis when perceptions differ? In order to justify a segmentation, the analyst must provide supporting evidence in the music. Due to the wide range of perception, this evidence yields analyses that are more or less persuasive, but neither correct nor incorrect. David S. Lefkowitz and Kristin Taavola, however, propose a mathematical model that defines a correct segmentation. This thesis briefly compares Lefkowitz and Taavola’s mathematical theory to James Tenney and Larry Polansky’s perception-based theory. Tenney and Polansky’s theory is rooted in visual Gestalt perception and provides the foundation for Dora A. Hanninen’s segmentation theory. I then employ Hanninen’s analytical framework to identify segmentational boundaries that support published analyses of two atonal works: the fourth of Anton Webern’s Fünf Sätze, Op. 5 and an excerpt from Arnold Schoenberg’s Klavierstücke, Op. 11, No. 1. I apply two of Hanninen’s three segmentational criteria: the sonic, which refers to acoustical properties, and the contextual, which refers to categorizations, such as set-classes. Lefkowitz and Taavola note that Tenney and Polansky’s theory cannot be applied to polyphony. Although Tenney and Polansky concede this point, Hanninen encourages the use of her theory for polyphonic segmentation. She does not, however, provide a method for addressing polyphony. Thus, I combine aspects from Lefkowitz and Taavola’s simultaneous analysis with Hanninen’s theory in order to formulate a basic method for segmenting polyphonic music. I find that sonic and contextual criteria in the music strongly support the analyses by George Perle, Allen Forte, Gary Wittlich, and Charles Burkhart. Due to the emphasis of set-class theory for atonal analysis, there is an inherent reliance on contextual criteria; however, sonic criteria also reinforce their segmentations and sometimes may even support their contextual criteria in places lacking local sonic criteria. Thus, the musical structures strongly support the segmentations, validating the diversity of analyses and suggesting that atonal music can legitimately be heard in different ways. Advisors/Committee Members: Broman, Per F.

▼ Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed several ballets over the course of his career, including two based on well-known written works: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare and Cinderella. Their parallel characters and somewhat parallel storylines allow for comparative analysis of certain pieces. Because the ballets are both love stories, pieces characterizing the lovers individually and as couples are considered. The purpose of this work is to determine what musical structures contribute to characterization, if the use of those structures is consistent across the ballets, and if/how they match aspects of Prokofiev’s musical language described by other analysts. The pieces from Romeo and Juliet examined in this paper are “Romeo,” “Juliet,” and “Love-Dance.” Parallel pieces from Cinderella are “Cinderella,” “The Prince,” and “Duet – The Prince and Cinderella.” Form, phrase structure, melodic tendency, motive, tonal center, cadence, and chromatic displacement are all considered in the analyses. Of these, the structures that contribute most to characterization are form, phrase structure, motive, tonal center, and cadence. Melodic tendency sometimes plays a role in defining a character, but not consistently; chromatic displacement has no significant effect. Few of the structures are used to the same effect in both ballets. Advisors/Committee Members: Engebretsen, Nora.

▼ This document discusses the benefits of performance analysis in general and the need for a method for performance analysis of twentieth-century music. To help satisfy this need, it presents analytical techniques that aid performers in segmenting post-tonal music on multiple hierarchical levels as well as determining the intensity shapes (the increases and decreases of intensity) of the segments at all levels. The document begins in chapter 1 with a discussion of reasons and goals for performance analysis, which include aiding a performer in the creation of an interpretation that is logical, coherent, and personal. Performance analysis can also aid memorization as well as provide the performer with a greater ability to speak clearly about music. The second chapter is a discussion of the techniques used in selected performance analyses of twentieth-century music. The articles range from highly performance-oriented to highly theory-oriented (and everything in between). Both the merits and the shortcomings of the articles are discussed. The third chapter presents the method, which includes techniques and guidelines for segmentation on a number of hierarchical levels (phrases, phrase groups, subsections, sections), determination of intensity shapes within each of those segments, and graphic representation of the results of these analyses. The segmentation technique relies heavily on the grouping preference rules established by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff in their book, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. The determination of intensity is loosely based on the concepts of progression and regression put forth by Wallace Berry in his book Structural Functions in Music. For the purposes of illustration, in chapter 4 the method is applied to Charles Wuorinen’s Divertimento for alto saxophone and piano. (An appendix including the analytical results in graphic form is located at the end of the document.) The chapter focuses on points in the composition that illustrate aspects of the method put forth in the previous chapter. Following chapter 4 is chapter 5, which presents a conclusion and suggestions for further research. Advisors/Committee Members: Lake, William.

▼ In his book Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, William Caplin codified phrase structure and defined formal function from the phrase level to that of complete movements in the Classical style. Matthew BaileyShea, though still in a tonal context, expanded these theories in relation to Wagner as well as further defining the principal phrase-unit in this work, the sentence. This document applies and expands these theories to the post-Impressionistic music of André Jolivet. Chant de Linos (1944) was written on the cusp Jolivet’s third compositional period making it a mature work to serve as a case study demonstrating sentence structure in a post-tonal environment. After a brief history of Jolivet, this document studies these theories in a tonal context. Additional examples expand outside Classical tonality. This thesis concludes that the components of the sentence (the basic idea, repetition, and continuation) do not require tonality at all. The content and contour of the melody may be equally, if not more important, than tonal cadences in determining phrase structure. This document studies the essential formal elements with respect to the melodic contour. In this post-impressionistic work, the harmonic cadential support specified by Caplin is not present. Therefore, other aspects of cadences, namely melodic pause, are given precedence in determining what constitutes each phrase. The bulk of this thesis, a detailed phrase analysis, allows the reader to review the components of each phrase. Often, the reader is provided with several interpretations in regards to local and larger-scale units. This information enables the soloist to make performance decisions based upon these findings. Although a single, perfect interpretation does not exist, a background structure creates a solid departure for music making. The performance suggestions in this text highlight the analytical findings in relation to phrase structure. Despite a lack of harmonic support in determining cadences, clear and balanced phrases are readily apparent and interpreted accordingly in Chant de Linos. The performer must then decide whether or not he wishes to underline the phrase structure and what musical tools will execute the desired effect. I have provided a set of options to promote my analysis. Advisors/Committee Members: Broman, Per.

▼ Puccini’s Suor Angelica is a work that has received minimal attention from music theorists and analysts. James Hepokoski has proposed a rotational structure based on four of the work’s forty-nine themes, though it covers only one third of the opera. Michele Girardi and Andrew Davis have made note of some motivic relationships but in an unsystematic way. Harmonic planing is a major feature of Suor Angelica yet it has not been given any specific analytical attention. This thesis expands these previous analyses by providing a detailed thematic time-line that includes all of the opera’s themes, by showing that many of these themes can be unified through a three-note motive, and by exploring the types of planing Puccini used most often and the contexts in which he used them. The resulting thematic time-line shows that only fourteen of the opera’s forty-nine themes are ever repeated and that James Hepokoski’s rotational analysis explains only a small portion of the entire work’s thematic structure, leaving thirty-five themes unaccounted for. The motivic analysis demonstrates a relationship between many of the opera’s themes and demonstrates that the opening and ending of the opera have a particularly strong motivic connection, though themes including a recurring three-note motive are shown to occur consistently throughout the opera. Themes containing the motive are then proven to occur consistently throughout the opera when its appearances are placed against the thematic time-line. Finally, a survey of all passages involving planing, identifying their location, the type of planing and the type of chords used, reveals that planing is likewise a consistent feature of Suor Angelica. Advisors/Committee Members: Engebretsen, Nora.

▼ In 1952, Luciano Berio studied with Luigi Dallapiccola for six weeks at Tanglewood; it was his first experience studying under a composer of serial works. Reacting to his study, he composed a number of works, among them, Chamber Music.Composed in 1953, Chamber Music is a setting of three poems by James Joyce, an author whose work was a favorite of both Dallapiccola and Berio. Notable in that it is Berio’s first work composed using twelve-tone technique, Chamber Music predates his study of serialism at Darmstadt. The piece is freely serial, and offers a rare chance to see how Berio treated the concepts of twelve-tone organization before his more intense study of serialism. Though there is a cursory analysis of the first movement of Chamber Music in David Osmond-Smith’s Berio, to date there has not been a comprehensive analysis of the work. In this thesis, I examine the ways in which Berio alters and transmutes the serial structure of Chamber Music to create ambiguities and associations between row forms – which helps to reflect the “associative epiphanies” and “phantasmagoric entanglement of different forms” that he believes are the hallmarks of Joyce’s work. His treatments of serialism within the work range from the conventional (unaltered row statements that make up parts of the first and third movements), to the unconventional (the dominance of a single note in the second movement, followed by half-step motion that is not immediately identifiable as being based in the row), to a synthesis of the two (large parts of the third movement, which synthesize material from the previous two movements). Whereas Berio claims that Dallapiccola represents Joyce’s literary style using a static formal structure, Berio uses every aspect of his composition as source material to be changed, transformed, and developed. In this way, Berio is able to better represent his view of the nature of Joyce’s writing style. Advisors/Committee Members: Engebretsen, Nora.

▼ In 1964, Italian film director Sergio Leone forever influenced the Western genre with his landmark film Per un pugno di dollari (A Fistful of Dollars). With its stylized violence, barren landscapes, endless deserts, crafty villains, and rogue hero with no name, this film established a new kind of Western: austere, stylish, cynical, and violent. Complementing this new style was an eclectic and abrasive music track by composer Ennio Morricone. His unique orchestration, timbres, and pacing defined a style of film composition that would influence innumerable films to come. A Fistful of Dollars grossed over $4.3 million in its domestic run, and acted as the launching point for two more immensely successful spaghetti Westerns, Per qualche dollaro in più (For a Few Dollars More, 1965), and Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966). These films also featured scores by Morricone, and all three together are frequently referred to as the Dollars trilogy. In his Dollars trilogy, Leone emphasizes dramatic episodes through careful musical placement. The cues created by Morricone and utilized by Leone help accentuate the plot line of each film by using material developed in the main title theme throughout the movie. This method is referred to as developmental scoring, a compositional type first described by Roy M. Prendergast in Film Music: A Neglected Art. There, he defines the “developmental score” as a compositional method of unification where the title theme serves the function of an exposition in a classical sonata-allegro form, presenting material to be used throughout the score. Naturally a developmental score cannot contain the same musical functions as the classical sonata or rondo form, as there are not any preconceived formal musical expectations in a film’s soundtrack. There are, however, similar generic characteristics. The episodic nature of a Western aligns itself well with that of a sonata or rondo; different zones and action-spaces are carefully placed into an overarching dramatic line that set forth important ideas, repeats them over time, provides contrast and tension, and finally builds toward a triumphant return of thematic material to close out the work. Using the title music as a starting point, this document aims to address the local and long-term dramatic structures created by the soundtracks of the Dollars trilogy. Drawing on two important bodies of analytical work – Philip Tagg and Bob Clarida’s Ten Little Title Tunes and William Caplin’s Classical Form – each title theme is shown to contain micro-cells of musical gestures that carry associations of other musical forms, particularly pop songs, folk tunes, and television and film themes connected to the Old American West. Fragments of these titles carry coded messages of the West, as well as important information regarding the protagonists, villains, and locations of the three films. These musical cells – as well as their instrumentation, timbres, tonal areas, and melodic shape – are then used to generate the remaining tunes of the soundtrack. The result is a highly inter-connected score that shapes the dramatic episodes of the Dollars trilogy films while magnifying the mythology of Leone’s American West. Advisors/Committee Members: Broman, Per F.

▼ In linguistics, the study of discourse coherence is concerned with identifying the connections that exist between discrete segments of text within the context of a larger discourse. These connections, or relations, contribute to the unity of the discourse as a whole and articulate a level of meaning beyond the grammatical and syntactical relationships and lexical meanings of the words themselves. In Coherence, Reference, and the Theory of Grammar, Andrew Kehler set forth a taxonomy of discourse coherence relations using as an organizing factor David Hume’s three principles of connection among ideas: resemblance, contiguity, and cause-effect. Aniruddh Patel, in his book, Music, Language, and the Brain, has suggested the possibility of applying the principles of linguistic discourse coherence to the medium of music. Following this suggestion, this study constructs a theory of musical discourse coherence by proposing a set of musical coherence relations comparable to those set forth by Kehler, situating these relations within an analytical method, and using this method in the analysis of two pieces of music: the minuet section of the second movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata K. 331, and the fourth movement of Bach’s Keyboard Sonata BWV 964. This method of analysis draws upon all aspects of the musical surface of a piece, including motivic content, harmonic function, and expression, operates at all hierarchical levels, from surface-level processes to large-scale organization, and is potentially applicable to music from a wide range of genres, styles, cultures, and time periods. Advisors/Committee Members: Engebretsen, Nora.

▼ Chick Corea has been and remains one of the most influential jazz pianists of the last 50 years. Throughout his career, he has had a distinct voice in the jazz community and is recognized for his incorporation of many different types of keyboard instruments into his compositions. Beyond timbral innovations, he has composed hundreds of pieces that represent a variety of styles, notably hard bop, post-bop, fusion, and classical. He also took part in the avant-garde jazz movement, through extensive, free group improvisations. Despite his large oeuvre, a surprisingly small amount of scholarly analysis and writing has been devoted to his music. A few theses and articles have examined his improvisations, but even less attention has been paid to his harmonic language. Steven Strunk has presented on Corea’s compositions of the 1960s, but these represent only a small portion of his musical output, and Ramon Satyendra’s article on “Starlight” focuses on a single composition. This thesis first discusses the styles in which Corea has composed and some of the musical attributes of these styles. The bulk of this paper is then devoted to the analysis of several pieces and excerpts of pieces containing specific harmonic features: functional harmony, chromatic-third relationships, harmonic planing, line-based progressions, pedal points, ostinati, and vamps. Within each chapter, general conclusions are made concerning the styles in which specific harmonic structures are evident. Advisors/Committee Members: Lake, William.

▼ In his book, Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, William Caplin developed a model for describing formal structure from the level of the phrase to that of an entire piece. Scholars such as James MacKay, Matthew BaileyShea, and Per F. Broman have expanded Caplin's discussion of phrase structure to encompass works by composers outside of the Classical era, including William Byrd, Richard Wagner, and Béla Bartók. Little scholarship has bridged the gap between the Renaissance and Classical eras, however.This document considers the applicability of Caplin's model to the motivic and canonic Baroque phrase structure. After an overview of Caplin's terms and ideas, it discusses the primary ideological and compositional similarities, as well as the obvious differences, between the Baroque and Classical periods, drawing upon the perspectives of historical writers including Johann Mattheson, Joseph Riepel, Johann Philipp Kirnberger, and Heinrich Christoph Koch. Then, it illustrates the Baroque sentence, using examples from Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and Arcangelo Corelli, and introduces the concept of sentential cycling in relatively simple movements by Corelli and Vivaldi. It culminates in the application of this concept to a complicated piece by providing a multi-level analysis of the Andante con moto section of J.S. Bach's Motet II, "Der Geist hilft unsrer Schwachheit auf," BWV 226. Advisors/Committee Members: Broman, Per F.

▼ A knowledgeable performance comprises of several components; it involves facets concerning the composer and patterns found in music. This thesis examines Donald Martino’s A Set for Clarinet from those angles to create an informed performance analysis. However, before addressing analysis or performance, this paper begins with historical background relevant to the creation of the piece and its constituents. This research and the analytical tools and methods link to the theoretical analysis in chapter 4. In this chapter, several graphical representations assist in the cohesion of each movement, independently and holistically. Later these illustrations aid in the various interpretations to support or oppose the analysis. Prior to this, chapter 5 presents research and material on performance analysis in preparation for chapter 6 where the performance decisions come to fruition. This chapter employs and compares four performers, Jonathan Cohler, Michael Webster, Michael Parola, and Rebecca Wunch, to the data presented earlier in the thesis. Ultimately, the goal is to construct a knowledgeable performance as a result of the endeavors of the performer. Advisors/Committee Members: Trantham, Gene.

▼ In their book Ten Little Title Tunes: Towards a Musicology of the Mass Media, Philip Tagg and Bob Clarida build on Tagg’s previous efforts to define the musical affect of popular music. By breaking down a musical example into minimal units of musical meaning (called musemes), and comparing those units to other musical examples possessing sociomusical connotations, Tagg demonstrated a transfer of musical affect from the music possessing sociomusical connotations to the object of analysis. While Tagg’s studies have focused mostly on television music, this document expands his techniques in an attempt to analyze the musical affect of Howard Shore’s score to Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. This thesis studies the ability of Shore’s film score not only to accompany the events occurring on-screen, but also to provide the audience with cultural and emotional information pertinent to character and story development. After a brief discussion of J.R.R. Tolkien’s description of the cultures, poetry, and music traits of the inhabitants found in Middle-earth, this document dissects the thematic material of Shore’s film score. The first part of the analysis focuses on Shore’s incorporation of the music and culture of Tolkien’s text into his film score through instrumentation and style. The second part of the analysis incorporates Tagg’s musematic analysis to argue the musical affect of Shore’s major themes that is projected on the audience. Additionally, leitmotiv analysis is used to trace the major themes throughout the trilogy, and to investigate how Shore’s alterations of the themes modify their musical affect. By comparing Shore’s film score to Tolkien’s text, considering the visual representation the score accompanies, as well as by comparing Shore’s themes to other music possessing connotations, an argument is made that Shore’s score does more than accompany Jackson’s screen. Since Shore’s score reflects music and culture as described by Tolkien, and the themes correlate appropriately to other music which reflect similar cultures, Shore’s score plays an integral part in influencing the audience’s perception of the inhabitants of Middle-earth. Additionally, Shore’s modification of established themes throughout the trilogy aid in the audience’s emotional understanding of the evolution of the characters of the films Advisors/Committee Members: Broman, Per F.