Diss.--Frankfurt-am-Main, 1996. / Bibliogr. p. 345-348. Index.

Writing in 1970 of Robert Simpson's music, Hugh Ottaway said, "Simpson's ideal is a Beethovenian dynamism and comprehensiveness, an active unity in which powerful forces are embraced and subdued: a sense of re-engagement with the humanist mainstream, clear-headed and unsentimental is implicit in everything he writes." Simpson's dogged musical integrity has resulted in a high degree of consistency and homogeneity in his compositional development. But in the thirty-seven years that he has been writing symphonies his approach to the ideals mentioned by Ottaway has deepened in strength and subtlety and his achievement has steadily increased in breadth and power. This dissertation traces his development as a symphonist. The discussion of Symphonies 1-3 demonstrates how their dynamic approach to tonality is expressed in terms of sustained keyconflict. Particularly close attention is given to the Third Symphony - probably the finest of the three. From the early 1970s onwards a change is detectable in the way In which Simpson organises his music. Emphasis upon keyconflict gives way to a concern with the generative powers of certain intervals and the analyses of the symphonies from No.4 onwards reflect the increasing concentration with which Simpson derives his material from a small group of intervals. The analytical approach to each work is essentially a narrative one in keeping with the organic manner in which Simpson's music grows. The dissertation ends with a brief commentary upon Symphony No.10 which, at the time of writing has only just been completed and remains unperformed.

Three Units is a symphony in three movements: fast-slow-fast. The general shape or large form of each unit is noticeably different from its counterparts, although all three exhibit a common feature: an evolutionary process in which one or more musical genres form the basis for the entire movement.

Symphony Number Five is a composition in three movements for orchestra. It is characterized by an economy of materials and a clarity of presentation of those materials. Further, the materials are expressed in a simplistic manner which avoids intricate textural content and complex melodic and harmonic structures. The symphony was chosen as a pattern of structure for this composition since it represents a microcosm of the history and development of musical style since 1760.

This symphony consists of three distinct movements in contrasting tempos. The total duration is approximately fifteen minutes.

Diss.--Berlin, 1995. / Bibliogr. p. 194-207.

The Symphony has been composed using traditional Korean idioms and Western style four-movement arrangement. The Symphony requires Western instrumental forces. The discussions about Far Eastern music raised by Western and Eastern scholars, and about some Korean rhythmic aspects, articulations, and ornamentations help explain how the Symphony is constructed. The pitch materials, melodic styles, rhythm, form, and structural materials that are used in the composition are presented. Heterophony, embellishment, articulation, and mutation are also discussed.

Sergey Rakhmaninov wrote three symphonies in different periods of his life. The First Symphony in D Minor, opus 13 (1895) reflects his style as an apprentice and beginning composer; the Second Symphony in E Minor, opus 21 (1907), his mature style of the early 1900's; and the Third Symphony in A Minor, opus 44 (1936), his style at the end of his life in the United States. Each symphony is representative of his musical style at its time of composition. In addition, the evolution of his musical language can be traced through a study of various components of these three works. Structural, harmonic, and tonal aspects of each of the three symphonies are the musical components examined in this dissertation. The formal and tonal structures are examined and concisely presented in a series of charts for the individual movements of each symphony. The examination of the formal structure of the symphonies shows Rakhmaninov's gradual expansion and alteration of the symphonic plan, as well as the formal construction of the individual movements. The First Symphony stays within the boundaries of the student composer, while the Second Symphony expands every aspect of the symphonic blueprint. The Third Symphony is the antithesis of the Second Symphony and turns away from the excesses of that Symphony. Some of the changes in the composer's style can be seen in the tonal relationships and plans of each work. The tonalities of the symphonies and the individual movements are related to and helps determine the formal structure of the movements. For these reasons the important tonalities of each movement are presented on the formal charts. Rakhmaninov's harmonic language, in his early years, was considered daring and progressive, but, at the end of his life, anachronistic and conservative. The harmonic analysis traces and helps evaluate his progression from a daring to an anachronistic composer. The harmonic analysis will include a tabulation of sonority and modulation types, according to type and frequency of use, as well as investigation into some of the representative harmonic progressions of each symphony.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston University

According to the critical tradition, Gustav Mahler’s music is full of memories, memories portrayed most frequently as being Mahler’s recollections of his own childhood. My study interrogates this trope—that Mahler’s entire oeuvre is an autobiographical puzzle waiting to be solved—using each of his first four symphonies as a case study. To accomplish this, I offer interpretations of each symphony, which rely on an analysis of the musical substance of the piece, and also refer to Mahler’s programs, potential allusions to preexisting material, and critical reception. Chapter 1 lays the theoretical foundation for these analyses, which draws on cultural memory, nostalgia studies, and the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur. In Chapter 2, by proposing connections between the Third Symphony and both the antisemetic political climate in Vienna and Mahler’s hopes for a conducting career in the city, I suggest that interpretation can make recourse to the composer’s biography without focusing on his childhood. Moreover, I use Mahler’s biography to suggest new avenues for approaching his music, rather than using his music to shed light on his life. In Chapter 3, I move interpretation away from details of the composer’s biography: I analyze his First Symphony with Freudian repression as a theoretical framework, but I focus on how repression might eludicate both the musical processes in the piece itself and the persistent recourse made to the suppressed program in reception of the piece, rather than attempting to explain Mahler’s own supposed neuroses. After proposing several ways in which music processes might resonate with forgetting in the form of repression, in Chapters 4 and 5, the Second and Fourth Symphonies are discussed in terms of mourning and nostalgia respectively, defined as two specfic types of remembrance. Turning in the final chapter to the later Seventh Symphony, I unwind the implications of the standard image of Mahler as a figure obsessed with the past. Mahler’s music grants us no access to his memories, but it does allow us to remember him. Our memories are all that remains, and the Mahler that we hear has always been merely our own construction. / text