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A study of tonality in selected works of Aaron Copland

The analytical literature posits a dichotomy between Copland’s “popular” and
“serious” music. Despite different motivic and hannonic structures on the surface,
however, these styles are consistent in their underlying use of tonality. Tonics in both
styles are defined by the same set of tonicizing techniques; and tonics in both styles serve
the same function — to define the changing scale-degree function of pcs that are emphasized
in various ways as common to the collections of successive tonics. The most important of
these changes in scale-degree function are summarized in pitch-class continuity graphs that
show the relation of the changes to thematic and harmonic form. Detailed analyses, which
cover two “popular” and two “serious” works by Copland, demonstrate the consistency
between the two styles. Besides demonstrating an underlying stylistic consistency these
graphs provide useful information about structure in Copland’s music because they confirm
striking features of Copland’s thematic and tonal designs. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/7009
Date11 1900
CreatorsCreighton, Stephen David
Source SetsUniversity of British Columbia
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis/Dissertation
Format7381635 bytes, application/pdf
RightsFor non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

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