Concepts related to style change have been discussed thoroughly by theorists such as Leonard Meyer and others. In the case of Czech scholar, Antonín Dvořák, this change relates directly to his pentatonic style. While many musicologists suggest that the composer's travels to the United States in the early 1890's had a profound effect on the birth of his pentatonic style, this thesis posits that Dvořák's pentatonicism is apparent from even his earliest works. In examining evidence of this pentatonicism it becomes clear that, for Dvořák, there are two types: thematic and cadential.
Thematic pentatonicism arises from themes of works or movements which only include pitches found within the traditional Western pentatonic scale (scale degrees 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6). Cadential pentatonicism is more abstract in that it only makes an appearance during the close of phrases, sections, or melodic gestures. In these moments, often a rising or falling pentatonic scale will be heard in one or more melody instruments with a harmonic accompaniment that moves towards a tonic structure. In order to better understand and find these two factors, a corpus study was used along with various statistical and programming tools. The use of these tools allowed for a quicker and more thorough examination of various themes and figures for elements of pentatonicism. The results of this corpus study hint towards further research into the fields of pentatonic structure, Czech folk music, and the composer himself, Antonín Dvořák
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04112016-143012 |
| Date | 06 May 2016 |
| Creators | Brinkman, Andrew W |
| Contributors | Shanahan, Daniel, Peck, Robert, Bazayev, Inessa |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04112016-143012/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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