Term
| Prominent composers using chance techniques |
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Definition
John Cage
Pierre Boulez
Christian Wolff
Stockhausen and Boulez both wrote pieces where they demonstrated the continuum between chance music using tonality rules and serial techniques
A serial partisan says that if you use dice, you give up the generating principle (the row, like DNA) that creates cohesion in the piece |
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May be more or less indeterminate
Any or all musical parameters could be determined by chance
Radomizer "machines" often employed
So the question is: at what point does the indeterminacy occur? And who is making the decision? Also, which musical elements are indeterminate? |
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Term
| Chance, Indeterminacy, Improvisation, Aleatory: what do these words mean? |
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Definition
Indeterminacy means something that is not determined in the score
Chance and Improvisation are two different ways to implement indeterminacy
Chance is using a source to get data to use in music, from random numbers to elaborate equations
Aleatory is just another word for chance
Improvisation like in jazz, but people often associate the word “aleatory” with improvisation |
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Term
| Definition of musical "texture" |
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Definition
everything in music that contributes to the steady state of sound: rhythm melody harmony tone color repetition tempo volume register etc
Number of voices originally
Types of tone color
Layers
How present and active each voice is
Linearity and depth
Difference: Not static in time like visual textures--not a steady state in time
Evolves in time, may only last for two bars |
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Original idea was that everything blew up: we won’t use inherited principles, start from scratch without using traditional principles
Equal temperament was only 50 years old
Why are we stuck in piano half and whole steps?
What are all the ways we can combine these 12 tones?
Free atonality
12 tone music--notes are only related to each other
Freeing classical music from its constraints (liturgical and societal also) |
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Term
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Definition
Studied with Schoenberg
No melody, harmony, counterpoint
Why not Schoenberg? Schoenberg’s textures were still firmly rooted in the 19th c.
Still had melody, harmony, rhythm, and counterpoint
Webern used pointilism
Absolute music
Stravinsky on Webern’s heroism: the concept of writing music that no one will ever perform. |
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Term
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Definition
Absence of self-pity:
Choosing what to leave out
Choosing to rise above emotional indulgence
Music as individual points of sound
Very sparse texture
Individual notes and sounds
All notes and sounds are intimately connected to the tone row and tone row methods
Schoenberg still has melodies, accompaniments, and harmonies. Webern took things to the extreme, losing all of the above. Schoenberg used extremely romantic phrasing etc., Webern very intellectual
Schoenberg still has melodies, accompaniments, and harmonies. Webern took things to the extreme, losing all of the above. Schoenberg used extremely romantic phrasing etc., Webern very intellectual |
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Term
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Definition
12 transpositions
Each can be manipulated into these forms:
Prime
Inversion
Retrograde
Retrograde inversion
For a total of 48 versions of each row |
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Term
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Definition
with any 12-tone row paired with its inversion about an index number, we will always get equivalencies (ordered pairs (C, F#) and (F#, C). These pairs are duplicated for any row pairs with the same index number, ie P0 with i0, P3 with i9, P5 with i7, etc.
Schoenberg would choose pair row forms where the first hexachord of 1 was complimentary to the first hexachord of 2.
Webern was obsessed with dyadic invariance.
In different movements, Webern varies the symmetry: maybe the axis, maybe the index number |
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Term
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Definition
eye music
Using unnatural ways of writing music to get somewhere novel. As much appeal to the eye as to the ear.
Pointilism is one form
Stasis and change: this kind of music is perceived more as a static object than as moving in time |
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Definition
Monophony
Polyphony
Homophony
Heterophony
Pointilism
Sound Mass
How are the last two different? Others are based on melody |
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Definition
new textures
Augenmusik
Chunking music
Stasis |
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Term
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Definition
Stasis and change: this kind of music is perceived more as a static object than as moving in time
Traditionally, development is assumed to be a value
Starting with Debussy (and other French composers), moved away from development. More like highlighting different sounds, chords, etc. Like highlighting a single flavor in cooking.
“Oh, good, the development section. Now I can go out for a smoke break.” (quote from Debussy) |
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Definition
Sound mass is one type
In classical music, the notes are supreme.
In 20th c music, the primary building blocks are bigger
How much of our musical structure has been determined by the discrete nature of notation and keyboards? |
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Term
| Musical Collage composers |
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Definition
Charles Ives (Central Park in the Dark)
John Zorn (Speed Freaks
Luciano Berio (Sinfonia) |
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Definition
explored polytonality
collage composition |
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Collage music
non-directional, determined completely by momentary action. Like cartoon music.
Horizontal collage, not vertical like Ives
Used game pieces to determine performance |
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Definition
Italian
Music based around only one pitch, altered in all manners through microtonal oscillations, harmonic allusions, and changes in timbre and dynamics,
Quattro pezzi su una nota sola |
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Definition
Draw a line and follow curves
microtones
Sharps: tilde on its side, single sharp, triple vertical sharp
Flats: backwards, forwards, double with a slash, back plus forward |
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Definition
Up = doit
Down = fall
Down into the note = plop
Up into the note = scoop |
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Definition
Pioneer of indeterminate music
Used graphs and invented notation
rhythms that seem to be free and floating;
pitch shadings that seem softly unfocused;
a generally quiet and slowly evolving music;
recurring asymmetric patterns.
also begins to explore extremes of duration. |
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Term
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Definition
Micropolyphony
The effect is of slowly evolving sound mass
Polyrhythm
treats pulse as a musical "atom," indivisible
2001 Space Odyssey
Atmospheres |
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Term
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Definition
Texture is a similar to that of polyphony, except that the polyphony is obscured in a dense and rich stack of pitches.
Micropolyphony can be used to create the nearly static but slowly evolving works such as Atmosphères in which the individual instruments become hidden in a complex web of sound. |
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Definition
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more conflicting rhythms, that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter.
The rhythmic conflict may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhythm), or a momentary disruption.
Polyrhythms can be distinguished from irrational rhythms, which can occur within the context of a single part; polyrhythms require at least two rhythms to be played concurrently, one of which is typically an irrational rhythm. |
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Definition
Pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory
Mathematics give it a shape, but also a justification--very European/German need
Important influence on the development of electronic and computer music.
Integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances.
Metastaseis (1953–54) for orchestra, which introduced independent parts for every musician of the orchestra;
Compositions that introduced spatialization by dispersing musicians among the audience, such as Terretektorh (1966);
Electronic works created using Xenakis's UPIC system; Massive multimedia performances Xenakis called polytopes. |
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| Difference between Sound Mass and Pointilism |
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Definition
Sound Mass has so many notes that it creates a texture and gesture, not just individual sounds
Densities and colors |
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Definition
First works based on dense tone clusters, sound mass
Later works based on semitones and tritones |
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Term
| Metronome time vs. stopwatch time |
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Definition
Ligeti uses “metronomic time” to accomplish “stopwatch time”
Kevin was forced to create graphic metronomic time to avoid accidental synchronization and silences in stopwatch time
Takes the sound completely out of time, like a cloud of sound
Removes all sense of pulse--requests no accents whatsoever |
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Term
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Definition
Cecil Taylor,
Thelonious Monk,
Ornette Coleman
Albert Ayler |
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Term
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Definition
percussive and very flat-handed, stiff piano technique.
Monk's compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twists and are consistent with his unorthodox approach to the piano, which combined a highly percussive attack with abrupt, dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, and hesitations. |
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| Cecil Taylor influenced by Thelonious Monk (tone clusters), and by trends in 20th c classical music. Still had jazz chord changes underneath, but followed neither rhythms nor harmony. Dissonant chords, great variety of moods, melodies, etc, great technically. |
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Definition
Got beat up by bandmates for not playing “properly”
Alto Saxophone
Started by sounding a lot like Bebop
Breakout Album: The Shape of Jazz to Come
No piano (so chords are not overt)
More in a single key area than strict changes
Form is kind of gone--no 32-bar structure
Rubato over a steady quarter note
theory of harmolodics: harmony + motion + melodics
Talked about different transposing instruments, embracing the transpositions to generate music
When you are improvising or even accompanying (“comping”), focus on melodic motives rather than harmony to structure the improvisation
Simultaneity: in the same zone, but not lined up exactly
Simultaneous improvisation with just a slight harmonic or melodic connection between parts |
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Definition
Not widely known, active in 1960s, died in 1970, body found in east river, unsolved
Was a musician in the army
Liked almost folk music sounding heads, then absolutely no holds barred improvisatory sections
Quasi-spiritual titles |
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Definition
MaCarthur Fellowship, very interesting
Afrocentric music theory which is more of a philosophical system
Doesn’t believe in binaries, opposites
No beginnings and ends, everything in terms of cycles
History, race, music, destiny
Doesn’t just compose music, composes musical worlds
His own musicologist -- categorizes his own music and musical plans
Composition 124 (+30 + 96….) And that’s not even the real title
Often has graphic titles for pieces, symbols, graphs, flow charts, etc
Pieces where a large ensemble of transposing instruments all play from the the same staff in their different keys, with some freer segments
almost entirely melodically or motivically based--no swing, no chord changes, chromatic, atonal/12-tone. |
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Term
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Definition
| neumes with more than one note in them--indicated a lot of information, not just pitch and duration. Individual puncta, notes, not part of the thinking original. Multiple parts dictated a need for final control, which eventually evolved into mensural notation. Braxton goes back to earlier forms, less specific. |
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Term
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Definition
Lamont Young
Steve Reich
Philip Glass
Satie proto minimalist: gentle, little motion, repetitive, modal
John Cage was obsessed with Satie. Cage known for prepared piano, electronic music, repetitions, minimalism, chance, indeterminacy, percussion ensemble pieces, silence
Lamont Young was a disciple of Cage, drones, long tones, just intonation, Eastern music
Riley was a disciple of Young
Glass, Reich have a feud going over who was first |
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Term
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Definition
Kinda Mormon
Gilgal gardens
interested in drones and in the harmonic series
"I still remember the exact location and circumstances where I first heard a chord on a piano that was tuned to the harmonic series."
Lamont Young, and other minimalists, are interested in removing us from our time into eternal time. Many pieces are very long in duration, and hard to study. Coaxes us to be aware of another realm
The virtual fountainhead of minimalism, constructed of hushed chords, built and sustained over incredibly long spans, separated by silences lasting up to 40 seconds |
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Definition
Schoenberg, Brahms, Wagner used developing variation: every time you repeat something it was a little bit different
This paradigm was inescapable in the early 20th century: never repeat anything. Everything must be developing variation, playing out Schoenberg’s dream but without his flair |
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Term
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Definition
Like God: create the algorithm and the soundscape, then let it roll. But if you don’t like what’s happening, definitely tweak the algorithm, over and over and over….
Phasing pieces use a minimal algorithm
Phased simultaneous identical melodies create compound melodies as they go in and out of phase
Art that goes beyond the intellect, where you can actually hear what is going on
Seemed barbaric at the time
Surrendering intellect to a process seemed bad, animalistic
Music as a gradual process |
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Term
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Definition
very spartan textures, in which every note can be clearly heard;
carefully chosen timbres, often resulting in very detailed instructions to the performers and use of extended instrumental techniques;
wide-ranging melodic lines, often with leaps greater than an octave;
brevity
Serialized everything: pitch, rhythm, register, timbre, dynamics, articulation, and melodic contour |
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Term
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Definition
Webern
Karlheinz Stockhausen
John Cage
Christian Wolff
Morton Feldman in 1960s |
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Definition
All is melodic if you perceive it that way: a succession of events in time
Cage was kind of anti-composition: don’t want to impose my will on sounds (so why compose?)
Cage was a student of Schoenberg--he studied the 12-tone method, and composed using that at first.
This piece is a journey from quasi-serialism to chance, a first step toward chance
Cage also wrote “Music of Changes”
Completely determined by chance
Ideas: Music can be any kind of sound
The composer is not that important
Music is not music until it is heard--a score is not a piece of music
Cage as a Buddhist
Sense of nothingness as begin open to the divine
All is melodic if you perceive it that way: a succession of events in time
Cage was kind of anti-composition: don’t want to impose my will on sounds
Silence as important as sound--started by John Cage in the 30s, before Stockhausen
Cage was really interested in unpitched sounds, noises. Noises can’t be ordered--multidimensional |
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Term
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Definition
Stockhausen looking for the smallest unit of meaning. Modernism is trying to figure out what you can do with those units.
Point, Group, and Mass
Cage, Feldman, and Wolff kept going with pointilism
P. 44 Stockhausen replacing structure with texture even early on
Can’t say exactly when pulse, dynamics will occur--just tendencies, curves
But adding curves together creates a mass, with a distinctive shape
Combining statistically similar shapes--like regression to a curve
Examining fundamental properties of sound--sometimes naive, sometimes not, very influential
Trying to replace traditional musical “chunks” with new ones: points, groups, masses instead of themes, motifs--
Can we form coherent music without resorting to any traditional forms?
Grundgestalt--German idea of form, traditional. Instead he creates a conceptual form for each piece-- each one must have its own logic, since you can’t fall back on traditional ones.
In his music we hear densities, crowds coming together and then coming apart
Kreuzspiel serialized nearly everything
In Kreuzspiel there are only a very few alterations (see paragraphs in Morgan and in Stockhausen On Music). Makes a few alterations on purpose. For instance, there are 24 quasi-intuitive sfz notes corresponding with entrances of woodwinds. |
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Definition
Total serialism, serialization of parameters other than pitch.
First composer to do this was Ruth Crawford Seeger
Two movements in this: Post Darmstadt
Milton Babbitt and his students--more mathematical
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Pointillism: all possible characteristics must be differentiated from note to note. Otherwise, the notes form a group. Maximize contrast. |
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| Dr. Asplund and polyrhythms |
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Definition
Polyrhythm is 2 meters superimposed on each other, so that they sometimes are coherent and sometimes interfere. For instance, 12 12 12 simultaneously with 123 123. If you sped it up you could actually hear the interference and coherence
Loop Isorythm species
Modification of adding a non-loop player: Loops are frequently used as a rhythmic texture, and often use a non-loop player simultaneously |
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| Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time |
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Definition
Piano has a talia (a rhythmic series) and a colour (a pitch series), like Medieval counterpoint
Other three instrument also each have their own isorhythms.
Result: each instrument is looping with itself (pitch and rhythm) and also with the other instruments
Never the same, creates a sense of timelessness |
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Term
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Definition
| in indeterminate music, a collection of notes that always happen together |
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Term
| Reading tone row matrices |
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Definition
letters are transpositions of the row
numbers are the number of half steps from the first pitch
matrix consists of all the transpositions, either all letters or all numbers. So it is a 12X12 matrix |
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Term
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Definition
Creating a tone row by applying a combination of transposition, retrograde, and/or inversion to a set of notes with fewer than 12 pitch classes; used to generate the rest of the row.
A derived row will often result in some form of invariance when contrapuntal operations are performed on it, due to the close relationship of its various trichords |
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Definition
| When a row creates some sort of matching row to itself (by dyads, trichords, pentachords, etc) after contrapuntal operations such as inversion or retrograde are performed on it. |
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Definition
| a tone row that contains exactly one of each type of ascending interval, from 1 to 11 half steps |
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Term
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Definition
A method of creating music from a snippet of a wave form
Take a snippet of a wave form and repeat it--a way of freezing a sound as it is sounding. But you don’t want exact repetitions or you hear the beginning and ends--actually sounds a pitch if it gets fast enough.
Instead, layer (similar to micropolyphony) |
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Definition
| the mirror inversion of the original set |
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Term
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Definition
| the original set in reverse order |
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Term
| Retrograde Inversion of a tone row |
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Definition
| the inversion in reverse order |
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