This document examines Luciano Berio's Cinque Voriationi for solo piano (1952-3, rev. 1966) from the perspective of a performer seeking to convey something of the organization of its musical material to a broad audience. Criteria for identifying elementary partitioning (pulse) and grouping (gesture, phrase segments, and phrases) are explored. In analysing relationships between phrases and phrase groups several things must be considered: specific pitch issues, distinctions between primary and auxiliary or accompanimental material, and contour. Throughout the document, suggestions are given for successful realization of fundamental grouping structures in performance. Although the piece has elements of serial construction, it is primarily underlying linear motion which gives sections cohesiveness. Also, certain pitch classes are given special emphasis and become vital reference points. The placement of and linear movement around these emphasized pitch classes create traditional tonal implications, to varying degrees throughout the work. Cinque Variationi is a set of variations for which no theme is provided, and it is far from obvious what is being varied. After examining the grouping structures of this piece, it becomes clear that variations refer to each other in unsystematic ways, and that pitch centers serve as reference points across variations.

This document examines Luciano Berio's Cinque Voriationi for solo piano (1952-3, rev. 1966) from the perspective of a performer seeking to convey something of the organization of its musical material to a broad audience. Criteria for identifying elementary partitioning (pulse) and grouping (gesture, phrase segments, and phrases) are explored. In analysing relationships between phrases and phrase groups several things must be considered: specific pitch issues, distinctions between primary and auxiliary or accompanimental material, and contour. Throughout the document, suggestions are given for successful realization of fundamental grouping structures in performance. Although the piece has elements of serial construction, it is primarily underlying linear motion which gives sections cohesiveness. Also, certain pitch classes are given special emphasis and become vital reference points. The placement of and linear movement around these emphasized pitch classes create traditional tonal implications, to varying degrees throughout the work. Cinque Variationi is a set of variations for which no theme is provided, and it is far from obvious what is being varied. After examining the grouping structures of this piece, it becomes clear that variations refer to each other in unsystematic ways, and that pitch centers serve as reference points across variations. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

The discovery of the autograph of Fibich's Variations in B-flat major for piano from 1877 not only extends the collection of known and completed compositions by Zdeněk Fibich, but they also present the single preserved concert variations for piano within his oeuvre. Thanks to the Variations, we can have a better insight into Fibich's compositional technique, for in 1883, he reworked them for a string quartet. Among other things, the comparative analysis reveals the latter work to be an unjustly neglected treasure. Also interesting is the fact that the origin of other significant sets of variations for piano by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and Leoš Janáček falls into the same period as Fibich's opus. Following the discovery in 2008 and the consequent study in Hudební věda ('Musicology') magazine, this thesis further focuses on the dedicatee, Prof. Josef Sallač (1849 - 1929), and reveals him as a prominent figure of the musical world, esp. in the 2nd half of the 19th century. This is one of the reasons why a search for Sallač's archive would be advisable, as it might contain valuable manuscripts. It was, after all, thanks to him that Fibich's Sonata in D major for violin and piano from 1875 was preserved. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)