The Heart's Portrait is a twelve movement composition for SATB choir and string quartet. The eight poems selected as the text for this work were penned by the eminent American poet Emily Dickinson. The text for the first movement, Dickinson's poem "If I can stop one Heart from breaking," succinctly describes the themes she commonly expounded upon in her writings: life, love, aching, pain, and purpose through faith. The remaining seven poems were chosen because they also explore these elemental themes. The main poem returns in variation throughout the piece, resulting in a modified rondo. To complement the four-part consort of voices, I selected a consort of strings in the form of a string quartet. The role of the quartet varies throughout the work from subservient to the vocal part, to dominant of the entire texture, to an equal partnership with the voices; these relationships are dictated by the text. Throughout the movements, I was able to explore a range of compositional techniques, both traditional and contemporary, while maintaining the primary purpose of unifying the text and music. This paper illustrates the initial compositional decisions made to begin the piece, the texts chosen and their placement within the work, the poet's history as it relates to the composition, a brief discussion on composers who have set Dickinson's words, and a thorough analysis of the work itself.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Two sets of recordings included, each in its own container. The first work is for string quartet; the second for bangdi, soprano sheng, yangqin, pipa, guzheng, erhu, gehu and percussion; the third for harmonica quintet, sheng, harp, piano and percussion. "Symphonic poem-Genesis" is for orchestra with piano and celesta. "Ghost opera" is for string quartet and pipa, with water, stones, paper and metal. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

xiii, 188 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Beethoven's last five string quartets have engaged the imagination and curiosity of performers, listeners, and critics at a level that has rarely been touched in the world of chamber music, or beyond. Throughout the late quartets' history, musicians have scrutinized the works in search of a logic that might demystify their stylistic and structural peculiarities. This present study continues this pursuit as it examines analytically (through Schenkerian techniques) the harmonic, contrapuntal, and motivic procedures in Beethoven's last complete composition, the String Quartet in F major, op. 135. Most of the published analytical commentaries on the F major quartet approach the work more or less exclusively from a motivic standpoint. Arnold Schoenberg (1941), Rudolf Reti (1951), Deryck Cooke (1963), and Christopher Reynolds (1988) have all praised op. 135 for its highly unified motivic structure; what their studies show--at least in a general sense--is that there is undoubtedly a motivic strategy that ties much of op. 135 together. But what are we to do when the details of one motivic reading opposes another? Or what if a particular reading contradicts the way we understand a passage aurally (which happens often when the proposed reading is incongruous with the music's harmonic-contrapuntal structure)? What criteria should we use to evaluate a motivic analysis? Clearly, we need a set of principles and standards that will help answer these questions and advance us beyond mere intuition. The position taken in this study echoes John Rothgeb's argument that "proposed thematic relationships must bear scrutiny in the light of the Schenkerian theory of structural strata," and that incompatible readings should be "dismissed as spurious" (1983, 42). In the pages that follow, Schenkerian approach is adopted to help assess existing motivic readings of op. 135 within the requisite contexts of harmony and voice leading. The method is also used to help generate a rational, hearable analysis that reveals motivic relationships that reside at deeper, hidden levels of structure. / Adviser: Jack Boss

As attention on the music of Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996) has increased in the years after his death, so has the need for an analytical study of his musical style and language. This thesis surveys Weinberg’s changing style through a genre that spans almost his entire output: the string quartet. His close friendship and artistic affinity with Shostakovich helps make his music accessible to a wider audience, though closer examination reveals Weinberg’s individuality and a quite distinct language from that of his mentor. In support of this contention, a wide range of analytical approaches is deployed in this dissertation, along with a pragmatic methodology for presenting a holistic overview of Weinberg’s quartets. Weinberg’s quartet cycle occupies an important place in twentieth-century music, with parallels to Shostakovich, Bartók, and other Soviet composers, including Myaskovsky, Shebalin, Levitin, and Boris Chaykovsky; correspondences and distinctiveness are explored in the second chapter. The third chapter surveys Weinberg’s musical narratives, with recourse to theories from Kofi Agawu, Boris Asafiev, and Jacques Derrida. Form is the focus of the fourth chapter, where ideas from Mark Aranovsky, and James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy are deployed to highlight Weinberg’s problematising of traditional forms in his music. Chapter five explores Weinberg’s multi-faceted approach to harmony, with concepts expanded from Lev Mazel, Yury Kholopov, and the neo-Riemannian school of analysis. The picture that emerges is of Weinberg’s individuality and distinctive voice, manifested in a controlled experimentalism and a tendency towards extended lyricism. His affinity with better-known composers may prove an approachable entry-point for wider audiences, but many of the most striking elements in his quartet cycle are of his own invention. His quartets stand as an important contextual dimension for understanding Shostakovich’s cycle, and also for appreciating the broader repertoire of Soviet chamber music. As his centenary approaches, engagement with Weinberg’s music continues to increase: this thesis provides contexts and analysis-based conclusions to complement this ongoing revival.

Les nombreux écrits théoriques d’Antoine Reicha sont bien connus de la musicologie, qui voit dans le théoricien un personnage central du XIXe siècle. Sa production musicale reste cependant encore largement ignorée. Ainsi, les 20 quatuors à cordes de Reicha édités de son vivant n’ont encore fait l’objet d’aucune étude approfondie : les 8 premiers sont publiés en 1804-1805 lors du séjour viennois de Reicha, les 12 suivants paraissent dans les années 1820, après son installation définitive à Paris. Leur publication entre deux grandes capitales de la musique s’étend des derniers quatuors de Haydn aux derniers quatuors de Beethoven : ces quatuors constituent donc un corpus d’étude privilégié pour la connaissance de l’œuvre musicale de Reicha, mais aussi pour celle du genre du quatuor à l’époque. Cette thèse s’appuie sur l’établissement d’une édition critique des quatuors de Reicha ; leur étude se poursuit par la mise au jour des présupposés esthétiques qui sous-tendent les écrits théoriques de Reicha et se clôt par l’analyse des phénomènes d’intertextualité entre ses quatuors et des œuvres de Haydn et Mozart ainsi que par l’observation de leur écriture à travers le prisme des écrits théoriques de la fin du XVIIIe siècle. L’étude proprement analytique révèle les constantes et les variantes stylistiques entre les « Quatuors viennois » du début du siècle et les « Quatuors parisiens » des années 1820. La comparaison systématique avec un large contre-corpus formé de quatuors contemporains permet de situer les quatuors de Reicha par rapport à l’héritage viennois revendiqué, mais aussi par rapport aux musiciens français actifs sous la Restauration. / Anton Reicha’s numerous theoretical writings are well-known in musicology today. Though Reicha is seen as a central theorist of the 19th century, his proper music nevertheless remains largely unknown. This PhD dissertation studies Reicha’s twenty string quartets published during his lifetime – which up to now have not been investigated in depth. The first eight quartets were published in 1804-1805 during Reicha’s stay in Vienna, whereas the last twelve were published in the 1820’s, after the composer settled in Paris: that is, they were published during a period lasting from Haydn’s last quartets to Beethoven’s last quartets. As a consequence, these quartets represent a corpus of particular relevance of knowledge of Reicha’s musical work, as well as for the history of this genre in the 19th century. This PhD dissertation, based on both an aesthetic and an analytical approach, creates a critical edition of Reicha’s quartets. This study starts by shedding light on the aesthetic premises of Reicha’s theoretical work and then analyses intertextual phenomena between his quartets and some of Haydn’s and Mozart’s works. Eventually it examines the composition process of Reicha’s quartets in the light of late 18th-century theoretical writings. The study of the constants and the variations of style between the early 19th-century “Vienna quartets” and the 1820’s “Paris quartets” is at the core of this study. The systematic comparison between the Reicha’s corpus and a counter-corpus made of quartets by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Onslow and Cherubini helps situating Reicha as regarding his claimed Vienna legacy, but also as regarding French musician from the “Restauration” era.

La question de l’ontologie s’est cristallisée en philosophie de la musique autour de la notion d’œuvre, mais il est possible de centrer le raisonnement sur d’autres objets, tels que la formation instrumentale ou le genre musical. Il est ainsi possible de construire une ontologie du quatuor à cordes. Le quatuor est à la fois une formation, un genre né à l’époque classique et un ensemble de quatre musiciens, ces trois niveaux sémantiques constituent les éléments fondamentaux de ce système. La formation est une instrumentation cristallisée, plus techniquement, elle est une structure des moyens d’exécution devenue autonome, potentiellement séparable de la structure sonore pure qui lui était adjointe dans les premières œuvres pour ces instruments. Il s’est formé, au fil des ans et des œuvres, une réalité quatuor à cordes ontologiquement dense. Cette densité ontologique s’explique en partie parce qu’un genre a découlé de cette formation. Le genre « quatuor à cordes » a un fonctionnement historique qui peut être comparé à celui des autres grands genres de la musique savante occidentale, grâce à deux concepts : la cristallisation et la plasticité. Tout genre oscille en effet entre ces deux tendances antagonistes : la cristallisation qui transforme l’inédit, le nouveau et l’occasionnel en norme, règle et tradition et la plasticité qui, elle, pousse à l’innovation, à l’exploration et à la recherche compositionnelle. Le quatuor à cordes n’est pas un genre paradigmatique, il est exceptionnel, puisque son histoire montre un équilibre spécifique entre une forte plasticité et une forte cristallisation. Si la formation peut être définie en termes d’autonomisation d’une structure des moyens d’exécution, le genre, lui, gagne à être pensé comme une réunion d’archi-structures. Une dernière partie est consacrée au corps et au geste musicien. Il s’agit alors de voir si les outils conceptuels platonistes permettent de penser les réalités plus concrètes, physiques et matérielles, du quatuor. Tout comme l’équilibre dialogique des quatre voix est une caractéristique essentielle du quatuor à cordes, le dialogue entre les analyses conceptuelles, les développements historiques, les observations esthétiques et les études musicologiques constitue la spécificité de ce travail. / The aim of this thesis is to build an ontology of the string quartet. The designation ‘string quartet’ can refer to three different meanings: a group of four musical instruments (formation), a genre, or a group of four musicians who play together. In musicology, a string quartet is distinguished by the homogeneity of the timbres, the individuality of voices, the quaternity and the specific dialogism of the voices. This work proposes to describe these three semantic levels and their essential characteristics, hence a wide selected corpus: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Reicha, Bartók, Schönberg, Feldman, F.Baschet amongst others. The first part consists of an ontology of the instrument formation and shows that a quartet is a “structure of performing means” which became autonomous with regard to the “pure structure” as defined by Jerrold Levinson. From that point of view, the string quartet is a reliable paradigm to think of the birth of other formations and their historical developments. The second part consists in constructing an ontology of the genre and demonstrates that the historical evolution of the string quartet is not paradigmatic but exemplary; and that its development is determined by a balance between plasticity and crystallisation. The final part examines the ontological limits of the string quartet: on the one hand, the timbre, and on the other, the musicians’ bodies through specific physical gestures. This thesis, therefore, aims to develop an ontological system that is characterised by its different essential elements, its specific rules (plasticity versus crystallisation), and its limits. These philosophical analyses not only relate to existing musicological research, but also involve a consideration of dance performance, film and various other artistic works.

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No description available.

This thesis sets out to investigate new notation symbols, systems, and string techniques in some one hundred 20th century string quartets, selected from a variety of composers. The analysis includes compositions that have, through contemporary aesthetic ideals, extended musical and technical resources and stimulated the development of compositional methods in such a way as to influence later works in the genre. k The thesis divided into two parts : Histoiy and Research Part One is a brief history of 20th century music, and includes the development o f the string quartet from earliest times up to the mid-century. Part Two researches string techniques and notation from the turn of the century up to 1990. The historical perspective demonstrates that after World War n, with the emergence o f the electronic age and a changing social and intellectual climate, traditional concepts were being challenged. Composers facing the dilemma affecting music in general, and the string quartet in particular, had to adapt to radically developing techniques and styles. Sounds and syntax o f a different type were initially, but unsuccessfully, sought to unify the divergent thinking o f the time. Ultimately, the developmental paths took shape from the problem itself and different approaches emerged to master the multi-faceted dimensions available to composers. Part Two investigates music syntax from the viewpoint of recording new symbols, notation systems and string techniques. Quartets of the first half of the century show that both the dissolution and the extension o f traditional processes were contained, importantly, within the continued use of conventional notation. The impact and significance of these quartets within the context of 20th century development cannot be ignored. However, the quartets researched post-1960 demonstrate that composers have enlarged all parameters of the genre through the extension of traditional resources and by radical innovation. This research demonstrates that the emergence of new symbols and string techniques in the second half of the century has been largely on an arbitrary basis. Nevertheless^ broad classification of these elements is undertaken. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / D.Mus. (Musicology)