FRIDAY, MARCH 21

SATURDAY, MARCH 14

Ravel's Octatonic Scripts
Damian Blättler, Rice University

Abstract: This paper investigates the use of the octatonic scale as a framework for pan-triadic motion in several works by Ravel. In these pieces, motion within or across chord/key cycles by minor third, or the more abstract linking of triads through shared membership in specific octatonic scales, informs the work’s tonal trajectory; these pan-triadic scripts then interface with and are animated by octatonic scales and sonorities at the musical surface. Ravel’s structural use of the octatonic spans his compositional output; works discussed include the first movements of the String Quartet, Piano Trio, and 1927 Violin Sonata, Introduction et allegro, À la manière de… Chabrier, and the Scherzo from the Piano Concerto for the Left-Hand. Analyzing these octatonic scripts moves discussion of Ravel’s use of octatonic scales beyond the surface details to which research has generally been confined, and also suggests a particular thread of technical inheritance present in Ravel’s professed admiration for the music of Liszt, Schubert, and Chopin.

Harmony, Rhetoric, and Linearity in Morton Feldman's Piano and String Quartet
Ryan Howard, William Paterson University

Abstract: Morton Feldman spoke early in his career about his desire to create a music free from “compositional rhetoric,” yet examination of the works written late in the composer’s life reveals a far more complex relationship with musical rhetoric than has often been acknowledged. In his later writings Feldman hinted at the notion of illusory function and directionality in his music, as well as to the phenomenon of “negation”—suggestive statements that, I contend, are richly reflected in his extended-length compositions of the 1980s, which frequently feature tantalizing suggestions of conventional musical argument and narrative. In Piano and String Quartet, composed in 1985, these characteristics are, I argue, most centrally evinced in the domain of harmony, frequently in the form of contrasts between highly chromatic and more consonant, at times diatonic, sonorities; this paper uses Ian Quinn’s theory of “fuzzification” of prototypical genera to measure Feldman’s harmonies in terms of their proximity to the chromatic, octatonic, and diatonic genera, in order to illuminate how harmonic contrasts in Piano and String Quartet fulfill formal and rhetorical functions on both a small and large scale. On a local level, Feldman’s harmonies fluctuate between degrees of chromaticism, octatonicism, and diatonicism to form arrangements that are, at times, suggestive of familiar phrase structures, while over larger time-spans, temporally separate harmonies suggest trajectories by means of incremental increases or decreases in chromatic, octatonic, or diatonic force, and occasional sudden and substantive shifts in harmonic qualities seem to articulate formal divisions. 

Jean Langlais's Sharpwise Inflections
Nathan Lam, Indiana University

Abstract: Sharpwise inflections—Lydian #4^ from major and Dorian #6^ from minor—have been a staple of Modernist French harmony. For French organist-composer Jean Langlais, sharpwise inflections not only were an integral part of his diatonic language, but their modal and harmonic implications were also creatively employed. In this study, I show five interrelated modal techniques frequently seen in his diatonic music: (1) surface emphasis of the rare interval, (2) general sharpwise trajectories, (3) oscillations between adjacent diatonic collections on the line of fifths, (4) the use of these oscillations to cross mode-family boundaries, (5) and supermodes that accrue from gradual sharpwise inflections. I begin with the minor modes in his hymn Dieu, nous avons vu ta gloire, Suite bréve for organ, and Cinq mélodies for voice and piano. Together they demonstrate a range of techniques, from simple oscillations to complex maneuvers that involve shifts in centricity, mode family, and diatonic collection. Then I discuss Langlais’s alternative sharpwise tactics in a Lydian environment; the thornier sharpwise departure from the Lydian mode, unlike the Dorian mode, obliterates the tonic.

In this paper I deliberately equate inflection and mixture as mode, since Langlais’s harmony seemingly fuses the three interrelated concepts. This study, then, is an account of his modal techniques through inflections and scalar shifts.

Brahms and the Construction of the Ballad Genre
Jacob Gran, Louisiana State University

Abstract: In 1854, Brahms composed four ballades for piano that he published as his op. 10—a set of pieces that have been criticized for their problematic projection of genre (Parakilas 1992, 139).  Although the first ballade conforms to its generic expectations by projecting epic narrativity and topical associations of the ancient past, the three subsequent pieces frustrate the genre expectations that Brahms seemingly endorsed in the first ballade. Did Brahms mislabel these pieces? Following the theories of genre proposed by Jeffrey Kallberg, Jim Samson, and Robert Pascall, I suggest that the pieces of op. 10 carve out their own generic space for which the term “ballade” is entirely appropriate.  Over the course of op. 10, Brahms tropes the signifiers of epic narrative that are common to the genre he inherited with signifiers of lyric interiority. The end result of Brahms’s troping is the fusion of the three poetic genres—epic, dramatic, and lyric. Goethe identifies this fusion as the central feature of modern balladry in his 1821 essay “Ballade: Definition and Reflection.” The genre of op. 10 is not the ballade in the narrow, traditional sense, but a modern, Romantic ballade that Brahms actively constructs.

The Tonal Problem as a Source of Narrative in Brahms's “Unbewegte laue Luft,” Op. 57 no. 8
Loretta Terrigno, City University of New York Graduate Center

Abstract: In seeking ways to explain music’s ability to express narrative—or events unfolding in time—scholars have invoked chromatic pitches’ progress through a piece as a metaphor for dramatic events (Cone 1982; Carpenter 1988; Schachter 1999), defining “tonal problems,” or “promissory notes” as chromatic pitches that: (1) enter early in a piece; (2) threaten the governing tonality’s “sovereignty,” and (3) signify a conflict that the piece’s narrative must resolve. Edward Cone’s reading of Schubert posits E-natural’s inability to be fully assimilated, expressing “the occurrence of a disquieting thought to one of a tranquil, easy-going nature.”

Building upon these interpretive models, this paper shows how meaning ascribed to “tonal problems” in Brahms’s song “Unbewegte laue Luft” (Op. 57 no. 8) interacts with Daumer’s poetic portrayal of narrative time, conveyed by two opposed emotional states: nature’s calm external rest and the protagonist’s passionate internal desire. Brahms’s E-major song models the poem’s progression from internal to external and present to future, invoking F-natural and C-natural to signify (1) the poetic protagonist’s suppressed desire (the present tense); and (2) later respelled as E# and B#, emergent desire and its implied fulfillment (an imagined future). This change occurs in three stages: (1) The piano’s motives (E–F-natural and B–C-natural) signify the protagonist’s perception of his dormant passion in nature’s deep rest; (2) C-natural becomes V of bII, stabilizing F-natural as the protagonist’s latent desires become conscious ones; (3) F-natural transforms into E# in the C section, preventing F-major’s arrival as the protagonist imagines future fulfillment.

Reconsidering Style Register in the Late Baroque
Gregory Decker, Bowling Green State University

Abstract: Recognition of style register has become part and parcel of the music-and-meaning literature. Semiotic analyses and hermeneutic readings often incorporate musical references to the high, middle, and low styles. But the ways in which style register is determined reveal an implicit dichotomous methodology: stylistic level is gleaned from musical topics but also from musical structure, specifically its relative complexity, equating attributes like contrapuntal writing with “sophistication” (Newcomb 1997, 150–52). To be sure, topic, style, and musical structure are not separate entities, and a work’s structure may be bound up in the original function of the style. But analysts tend to prioritize either cultural implications or musical sophistication. Further, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century sources share this entangled yet divergent categorization (see especially Palisca 1983). These differing signifiers for style register call for more consistent interpretive strategies and for investigating demarcations among topic, structure, genre, and style register. In this paper, I move toward this goal in proposing that a piece may have two “levels” of style register: one grounded in the expectations for musical structure at the level of genre and another based on piece-specific uses of topic and style. I focus on the solo-voice aria because the frequent use of dance and other topics in these works provide fertile ground for stylistic interpretation. I posit that genre in the late Baroque suggested generalized compositional rhetoric that composers could elevate or lower relatively through strategic stylistic allusions. Unraveling these issues will provide insight into musical discourse and interpretation in the late Baroque with more accuracy.

How to Forge a Missing Link: Winfried Michel's “Haydn” and the Style-Historical Imagination
Frederick Reece, Harvard University

Abstract: Forged musical works are surprisingly common. Since Guido Adler’s (1911) assertion that authorship and historical periodization are always legible in the styles of works themselves, authentication has been haunted by expert endeavors to court authorial misattribution through compositional mimicry. This paper explores one such case from 1994, when, at the height of the new-musicological moment, the news broke that six recently rediscovered Haydn sonatas (dubbed “The Haydn Scoop of the Century” by H. C. Robbins-Landon) were not by Haydn at all.

The forgeries, produced in the early 1990s by Winfried Michel, were compelling not only because they were based on 4-measure phrases recorded in Haydn’s Entwurfkatalog, but also because these incipits corresponded to a crucial yet ill-documented period in Haydn’s chronology. The radical technical innovations posed by the Sonata Hob. XVI: 20 of 1771 have no precedent in the authenticated corpus of Divertimento Sonatas dated prior to 1767, making the discovery of lost works from the 1767-1770 “missing-link” period a style-historical holy grail.

In exploring how Michel’s sonatas rang true against a background of established authentication methodologies and theoretical accounts of the Galant and Sturm und Drang paradigms, my own detailed stylistic analyses of the forgeries are complemented by original interviews with Sotheby’s manuscript specialists whose testimony was responsible for their falsification. Reading Michel’s sonatas as artifacts of aesthetic prejudice, the practice and reception of forgery is adopted as a lens through which to contemplate the style-historical imagination as a construct that continues to shape musicological discourse.

Improving Retention Through Curricular Revision at a Small Comprehensive University
Anna Stephan-Robinson, West Liberty University

Abstract: Many first-year students lack a solid grasp of theory fundamentals such as scales, key signatures, rhythmic notation, intervals, and chords. Students lacking fluency may fail a Theory or Ear Training class, and may ultimately drop out of a music program. The solution implemented by my department in a public, comprehensive regional university was a curricular revision. The new theory curriculum begins with Musicianship, a four-credit course designed to introduce the fundamental reading, listening, performance, and study skills students will need to succeed. In this presentation, I will address the impetus and logistics underpinning the revision, assess preliminary results, and examine student and faculty feedback. I will also present suggestions and warn against potential pitfalls for faculty who may wish to consider spearheading a similar change. Every department faces unique challenges, but recruitment, retention, and student readiness may be universal concerns at all but the most high-profile music schools. Though institutions such as mine may face some inevitable rate of attrition, my department believes it is our mission to provide each of our students with every opportunity to succeed. The present curricular revision shows great promise in this regard, and can provide useful lessons for faculty in a wide range of situations.

Harmonic Function in Popular Music
Ian Quinn, Yale University; and Christopher White, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Abstract: This paper presents an empirical model of harmonic function in pop/rock music. Using machine-learning techniques to analyze a corpus of songs from the “Billboard Hot 100,” we find that four primary functional categories ideally describe this repertoire. The model is characterized by several novel features. First, it does not rely on a traditional three-function foundation: while much scholarship has attempted to adapt pop music’s idiomatic practices to traditional functional models, our data driven approach has no such predispositions, deriving a model solely from the properties of the corpus. We will argue that this model is particularly attractive due to its applicability to analysis, paying focusing on Meat Loaf’s 1977 “Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” We will end with a discussion of the pedagogical and sociopolitical benefits of this model: a corpus-derived model mitigates the hegemonic influences of the Western-European common practice, an invaluable asset to music theory teaching and academic discourse.

Functional Neo-Riemannian Theory and Perceptual Voice-Leading Distance - A Lewinian Perspective
Andrew Aziz, Florida State University; and Trevor Haughton, Eastman School of Music

Abstract: Within the past decade, the concept of voice-leading distance has been described by Tymoczko as essentially a Euclidean concept, measured as a “magnitude” in geometric space. Prior to Tymoczko, scholars such as Lewin, Hyer, and Cohn—among others—have adapted Riemann’s functional concepts by re-defining them as transformational voice-leading operations (Neo-Riemannian theory). Our work serves to provide a different perspective on Tymoczko’s claim that voice-leading size should depend “only on how far the individual voices move, with the larger motion leading to larger voice leadings” (Tymoczko 2011, 50). This will be done through a model that generates contextual voice leading intervals, a Lewinian GIS based on the recent work of Cohn, who shows (2012, 128) that each triad can function within a “Weitzmann” or “Hexatonic” context

Part I of the paper proposes a direct-product GIS (S, IVLS, int), modeling motion through both Weitzmann and Hexatonic spaces. Each of the twenty-four triads can be partitioned into eight pitch-class sums: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, with the remaining four sums representing respective augmented triads. Every major or minor triad can thus be viewed as an “upshift” or “downshift” (by 1) of an augmented triad, or, alternatively, as belonging to one of four Hexatonic regions. “S” represents both the Weitzmann and Hexatonic triads as three-dimensional ordered triples, taking into account the pitch-class sum, the up/downshift increment, and pitch-class root. To demonstrate the value of this approach, Part II provides sample analyses of Schubert’s Sonata in Bb, D. 960 as well as Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier.”

“Promissory Note” Narrative Strategies in Schubert's Three-Key Expositions
Aaron Grant, Eastman School of Music

Abstract: Recent analytical work has shown that Schubert’s “three-key expositions” find their origins in the eighteenth-century trimodular block strategy. Such an understanding invites the listener to partake in a musical narrative in which the secondary thematic zone (S) must overcome a particular “flaw” before arriving at the “correct S” and achieving resolution at the moment of essential expositional closure (EEC).

This study demonstrates how Schubert developed this narrative strategy within his employment of the three-key exposition, showing that the early-S tonal digression can be seen as more than simply the middle of a trimodular block. Instead, this material may be viewed as part of an overarching conflict narrative spanning the entire movement, involving a fundamental opposition between a problematized pitch-class (à la E.T. Cone’s “promissory note”) and the surrounding sonata, which endures incursions on multiple scales. Furthermore, though both Cone and Fisk associate Schubert’s “promissory note” strategy with his mature works, this study demonstrates not only that the composer employed this narrative tactic as early as 1813, but also suggests that this strategy may have driven his initial conception of three-key expositions.

Part one of this paper gives a brief overview of the origins of three-key expositions while concurrently establishing the narratives typical of trimodular blocks. Later, I show Schubert’s mature appropriation and elevation of this narrative tactic within his later works. Finally, I demonstrate how even from his first attempts at this expositional strategy, the young composer imbued his compositions with this embedded conflict.

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