David Falterman and Derek J. Myler, Co-Editors
Andrew Blake, Guest Symposium Editor
Lukas Perry, Reviews Editor
Andrew Blake and Noah Kahrs, Web Managers
Editors’ Note (i)
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Articles
Táhirih Motazedian and Scott Murphy | Holst’s Planets, The Final Frontier:
Interplanetary Voyage as Intrapersonal Escape (1–17)
HTML & PDF ——AbstractInterpretations of Gustav Holst’s The Planets traditionally gravitate around assumptions that Holst was depicting Roman mythology, astrological horoscopes, or astronomical science. But there are numerous contradictions problematizing each of these theories, and even an amalgamation of the three does not fully explain the enigmatic features of this work. Our interpretation of The Planets proposes that Holst envisioned this interplanetary voyage as a metaphorical escape from the bustle of society and even from life itself. We form this interpretation by drawing upon biographical information and intertextual references, as well as an analog to proxemics within pitch-class set theory.
Drew Nobile | Narrative Opposition in the Beatles’ Verse–Chorus Songs, 1966–1967 (19–34)
HTML & PDF ——AbstractThis article argues that the Beatles took a particular approach to narrative structure in their verse–chorus songs. That approach is narrative opposition, where the two sections present contrasting ideas or settings. The song’s meaning thus arises through synthesizing the two ideas. This approach differs from the mainstream standard that emerged in the late 1960s, wherein the chorus is the song’s primary narrative focus, with verses playing a supporting role. To demonstrate, I analyze four songs from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper sessions—the peak of what John Covach calls their “artist” period (Covach 2006). Through these analyses, I show how the Beatles used verse–chorus form as a specific expressive device rather than a neutral template as did later artists.
Brad Osborn | Formal Functions and Rotations in Top-40 EDM (35–54)
HTML & PDF —— Abstract Publications on form in popular music have largely assumed the formal sections germane to pop-rock to be the formal designs of “popular music.” But the most popular music of our time—music charting on the Billboard Top-40—has absorbed the influence of electronic dance music (EDM) in a way that has fundamentally changed its formal structure. This results in “Top-40 EDM,” a genre defined by collaborations between seasoned EDM producers and A-list pop singers.
This article begins by defining EDM’s three core formal functions (verse, riser, and drop), and compares them to more familiar functions heard in pop-rock music (verse, prechorus, chorus, and postchorus). Part two draws on de Clercq’s (2017) concept of blended formal functions to define Top-40 EDM’s most recognizable section, the “riserchorus.” Part three examines the larger structure of these tracks, including their “compound AAA” forms, in which each of the song’s rotations feature the same formal functions, though presented differently. Finally, the article demonstrates how Top-40 EDM producers regularly combine samples at the end of their tracks, resulting in cumulative hyper-blended sections like “riserchorus-bridge” and “riserchorus-drop.”
Gilad Rabinovitch | Reimagining Fauré’s Harmony (55–101)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractThis article explores the nexus of analysis and recomposition in engaging Fauré’s harmonic ambiguity. I argue that Fauré’s harmony can be partially explained through the traditional model of the Rule of the Octave (RO), vestiges of which were still present in the partimento training of nineteenth-century French musicians (Cafiero 2007; Gjerdingen 2020, 2021). I claim that Fauré manipulates segments of the traditional RO in idiosyncratic ways, which partially explains his ambiguous harmonies (cf. Lewin 1986; Smith 1986; Agawu 1994; Hyer 1996; Smith 1997). Along with musical analyses, I employ recomposition (Holtmeier 2002; BaileyShea 2007; O’Hara 2017), which helps to articulate aspects of Fauré’s harmonic usage. Recomposition is thus no longer just a conventional foil against which the original is pitted; rather, it is an opportunity to test our evolving understanding of Fauré’s idiom (Tait 1989; Greer 1991; Phillips 1993; Johansen 1999; Sobaskie 1999; Caron 2002; Pau 2016; Rings 2021).
Derek R. Strykowski | Hearing the Interrogative in the Cadences of Sigismondo d’India: A Quantitative Analysis of the Polyphonic Madrigals (103–28)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractAlthough two of the madrigals from his Third Book of 1615 end in lovelorn questions, Sigismondo d’India furnishes one of them with a far stronger final cadence than the other. To understand why, this corpus study investigates the expressive meaning of cadences in a quantitative analysis of the 85 madrigals that d’India published within his first five books (1606–16). Three determinants of cadential strength—cadence type, fullness, and modal degree of resolution—test the hypothesis that the cadences which d’India employs at the close of interrogative sentences will tend to be weaker than those he employs at the close of other sentences. The results are consistent with the argument that d’India sought to account for the sense and intonation of an interrogative sentence when setting it to music, yet also suggest that such concerns sometimes conflicted with his obligation to present a coherent musical structure.
Analytical Vignettes
Vignette Symposium Editors’ Note (129–30)
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Leah Amarosa | Unveiling the Signifiers of Rain in John Adams’s China Gates (131–41)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractWhile previous scholarship has focused on the close relationship between John Adams’s pieces, China Gates and Phrygian Gates, this paper offers an alternative interpretation of China Gates based on Adams’s recent revelation that the piece was inspired by an endless winter rainstorm that beat down on his cottage. This paper utilizes a two-part methodology: musical elements are analyzed first using theoretical tools, after which I adopt a semiotic framework based on cognitive theories of cross-domain conceptual blending to demonstrate how these musical elements signify rain through symmetry, phasing, parsimonious voice-leading, as well as pitch-class and set-class repetition. In this paper, I unveil the analogical processes by which the physical phenomenon of rain is represented by musical features and illustrate the action of cross-domain mapping in constructing a conceptual blend. I argue that in producing a sonic analog for rain, China Gates suggests a narrative tension between consistency and dynamism.
Michael Boyd | Integrating Opposites: Iannis Xenakis’s Charisma for Clarinet and Cello (143–51)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractIannis Xenakis’s Charisma (1971) is a striking, concise duo for clarinet and cello that employs timbre and dynamic oppositions as primary structural elements. This composition is more minimal in terms of the total number of performed notes than much of Xenakis’s instrumental music and presents different challenges to analysis than studies of his stochastic and algorithmic music. This article examines how sonic oppositions – specifically harmonic versus noisy timbres and constant versus contoured dynamic envelopes – are established, maintained, and intermixed in the composition. Over the course of the piece, contrasting dynamic shapes alternate while oppositional timbres, initially heard in isolation, gradually merge and gravitate toward noise.
Mark R. H. Gotham | Old Sources in new Sauces: John Joubert and the Analysis of Ancient Materials in Modern Music (153–62)
HTML & PDF—— AbstractAnyone who has had sustained contact with Anglican choirs probably knows music by John Joubert; anyone who hasn’t probably doesn’t. This article begins by considering the starkness of those divisions between different kinds of canons, framing this in terms of “local” canons that each serve a particular purpose. The local canons of this kind for teaching music theory and history tend to serve a demonstrative role and to prioritize clear-cut examples at the expense of music that handles a wider range of materials in a more complex way. This introductory discussion contextualizes and motivates an analytical vignette on a short piece by Joubert which has a firm standing in the relevant performance canon (Anglican choirs), but which is unknown beyond that. I argue that music theory pedagogy might benefit from adopting this example to get at important but analytically complex issues concerned with post-common-practice uses of pre-common-practice modal materials.
Kyle Hutchinson | Pendular Thirds and Pentatonic Parallelisms: Intersecting Black Vernacular and neo-Romantic Idioms in the Second Movement of Florence Price’s Piano Sonata in E minor (163–74)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractThis article proposes that motivic Black vernacular musical topics, which typically coalesce at the musical surface, can also serve as progenitors for deeper-level tonal structure. Building on the work of Rae Linda Brown, Horace Maxile Jr., and Samuel Floyd Jr., I demonstrate this approach through an analysis of the second movement of Florence Price’s Piano Sonata in E minor (1932). My analysis highlights pitch relationships— particularly motivic pendular thirds, a Black topic which Maxile Jr. (2022) describes as two pitches that “pivot around a central pitch (most likely a tonic), the third above the central pitch being major or minor, the third below minor”—and ways in which deeper-level structures develop from these surface-level pendular motifs. The second part of the article then frames my analysis through Price’s heritage as a woman of mixed racial background, and her experiences as a Black composer in the twentieth century.
Dave Keep | The Voice of Enigma: Intertextuality in “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” (175–91)
HTML & PDF—— AbstractThe allusion in Robert Schumann’s “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai” to Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto, op. 7 has been little discussed. Given Robert’s familiarity with the concerto, the allusion may be understood as a hermeneutic key for the song. The slow movement features a duet between solo piano and cello in its reprise of the main theme, but the song only recalls a tonally distant fragment from the digression. The allusion draws upon music of anticipation rather than fulfillment. Furthermore, it stands as a contradictory symbol of presence and absence, substituting for recollections of the past found in the Prologue of Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo. The song’s intertextual dimensions function in tandem with tonal pairing to engender a sense of motion characteristic of the Romantic fragment. In one of his most quintessential works, Robert’s poetic speaker is dominated by thoughts of Clara’s music, not “original” music of his own.
Hei-Yeung (John) Lai | Counterpoint and Formative Process in ’Are’are Cyclic Panpipe Music (193–206)
HTML & PDF—— AbstractMany of the sound recordings of the ’Are’are panpipe ensemble music made by Hugo Zemp are characterized by polyphonic and cyclical features. This article analyzes two cyclic pieces from the ’au tahana repertoire in order to articulate the ’Are’are conceptions of musical structure and aesthetics described by Zemp (1979) through the perspectives of counterpoint and formative process. I first scrutinize the counterpoint formed by the two cyclic strata in the selected pieces. Comparing these details with hypothetical models where the cycles are aligned shows that a rhythmic delay between the strata is essential to provide continuity and momentum to the repeating cycles, which also evinces ’Are’are musical aesthetics. I then show that, aside from the contrapuntal driving force, the way that the cycles are actually realized and varied is crucial in directing the processes in ’Are’are music. I suggest that even minimal variations can be instrumental in forging a large-scale form.
James S. MacKay | “Unloosing the Gordian Knot”: Sonata Theory, Form-Functional Analysis, and Becoming in Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet, op. 64, no. 2, I (207–19)
HTML & PDF ——AbstractThe first movement of Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in B minor, op. 64, no. 2, has long resisted conventional sonata-form analysis. A sense of unrest characterizes its musical journey: ambiguous, incomplete, or seemingly misplaced formal units hold sway as the exposition unfolds, setting a turbulent tone that persists throughout the development section. Subsequently, rather than establishing formal clarity in the recapitulation, Haydn further dissolves the musical material until it stalls completely, resuming its motion with great difficulty as the movement concludes.
This study, drawing upon previous discussions by William Caplin (1998), Mathieu Langlois (2010), and Matthew Hall (2019), presents an in-depth analysis of this movement, primarily using Caplin’s theory of formal functions, James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy’s Sonata Theory (2006), and Janet Schmalfeldt’s becoming (2011). The blending of disparate analytical methods provides a framework to illustrate how Haydn bot articulates and stretches the boundaries of sonata form.
Samuel Ng | The Trimodular Block and L’art de bien chanter in Hélène de Montgeroult’s Piano Sonatas, Op. 5 (221–34)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractThis essay examines how the “trimodular block” (TMB) in the first movements of Hélène de Montgeroult’s Piano Sonatas, op. 5 spotlights bel canto singing in her piano writing and pedagogy. While the TMB in op. 5 is readily identifiable, its narrative profile is not so much correcting a transgressive element as a discursive journey that anticipates the first true lyrical theme showcasing Italian bel canto singing on the piano. I discuss how this discursive path unfolds through three elements: orchestration/topics, phrase rhythm, and tonal structure. These three areas work in tandem to fulfill generic requirements of TM1 (the first proposed S-theme) while withholding critical features of Montgeroult’s bel canto writing until the lyrical S-theme at TM3. Montgeroult’s TMB thus gives unique rhetorical prominence to the S-theme, rendering its lyricism and cantabile character the focal point of the sonata exposition.
Morgan Patrick | Into Wondrous Realms with Two Triads: Markedness, Voice Leading, and Functional Multivalence as Correlates of Fantasy Induction in the “Fantasy Fifth” Progression (235–45)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractIn certain Hollywood films of the past half century, a i – IV progression class accompanies protagonists and filmgoers alike as they cross the threshold into wondrous realms. I trace this scoring practice to a homology between narrative passage into fantasy and structural aspects of the progression, in which encounters with otherworldly elements can be read into its tonal markedness, voice leading properties, and functional indeterminacy. A series of examples demonstrates how composers leverage the second triad’s relationship to its preceding tonic to embody outward expansion, intermix familiar and foreign elements, and charge a functional tension between arrival and departure, all qualities that are central to the ethos of fantasy encounters. Together, these features enable a distinction between the i – IV progression’s fantasy use and the use of similar progression classes or normative major subdominant contexts, thereby inviting its categorization as a distinct progression class I call the “Fantasy Fifth.”
Rich Pellegrin | Salience, Common Tones, and Middleground Dissonance in the Fourth Chorus of Brad Mehldau’s Improvisation on “All the Things You Are” (247–61)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractThis article addresses the analytical fault line between Schenkerian and Salzerian approaches to tonal jazz through an analysis of a Brad Mehldau improvisation on “All the Things You Are.” Special attention is given to the usage of common tones, which often work against the resolving tendencies of unstable chord tones but create their own large-scale structure. The essay engages with work of Fred Lerdahl and is informed by my model, Stable Norms and Salient Deviations (SNSD).
Christopher Segall | Franz Liszt’s Bagatelle ohne Tonart (in B Minor) (263–71)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractScholars generally agree that Franz Liszt’s Bagatelle ohne Tonart (1885), “bagatelle without tonality” for piano, is locally tonal, but they do not agree on what the tonality is. English-language authors have proposed eight different tonal centers for the Bagatelle. Russian theorist Yuriy Kholopov adds a ninth: B minor. My analysis adopts Kholopov’s position and uses a harmonic reduction to demonstrate the viability of a B-minor hearing. I draw on Kholopov’s “states of tonality” to argue that different hearings of the Bagatelle depend on different conceptions of tonality and the variety of listening strategies they entail.
Jeffrey Swinkin | Cyclic Form in Clara Schumann’s Four Fugitive Pieces, op. 15 (273–82)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractThis essay demonstrates several ways in which Clara Schumann's Four Fugitive Pieces, op. 15 is cyclically integrated. First, the four pieces trace a progressive (rather than static) tonal scheme. Second, they are interlinked by a taut motivic web. Third, no. 1 harbors a melodic implication that no. 4 realizes. Fourth, no. 1 distinctly implies yet elides two keys that are respectively articulated by nos. 2 and 3. Finally, no. 1 foments a hypermetric conflict that no. 3 settles, if briefly. The essay then suggests that the cycle questions its own unity by closing with a scherzo. As a light genre typically found in the second or third position of a four-movement cycle, it cannot bear the burden of definitively finishing the piece. In the end, Schumann's op. 15 is a Romantic fragment, a notion I briefly elaborate.
Xieyi (Abby) Zhang | Hope to Grief: An Analysis of Dvořák’s Moravian Duets, op. 38 (283–304)
HTML & PDF —— AbstractDespite being considered some of his most pivotal compositions, Dvořák’s Moravian Duets, op. 38, have long been analytically overlooked. The present essay uses neo-Riemannian methods to understand the final set of Dvořák’s Moravian Duets and demonstrates that these parsimonious voice-leading techniques—ones that came to dominate Dvořák’s compositional style—play against descending fifths progressions to create a tragic narrative across the duet cycle.
Reviews
Gerardo Lopez | The Art of Post-Tonal Analysis: Thirty-Three Graphic Music Analyses by Joseph N. Straus, Oxford University Press, 2022 (305–8)
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Olivia R. Lucas | Musical Agency and the Social Listener by Cora Palfy, Routledge, 2021 (309–12)
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