A Tonal Revolution in Fifths and Semitones: Aaron Copland’sQuiet City

Abstract

[1] A number of pieces written in the first half of the twentieth century sound tonal while also containing decidedly modern elements. The label "neo-tonal" or "centric" is often applied to such works, which include music by Britten, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky during his neoclassical period, and others. Zimmerman (2002) and Silberman (2006) point out that readings of neo-tonal music often combine techniques of both tonal and post-tonal analysis, an approach that opens the question of precisely which elements of the tonal idiom are applicable to the work under discussion. (1) Such readings also raise a related question of whether a single mode of analysis can apply to an entire composition, or whether we must jettison the assumption of stylistic unity and find the best possible method for each individual section. (2) Aaron Copland's Quiet City (1940) raises similar questions for analysts. The work has a consonant musical surface yet often strips away many markers of common-practice tonality. This paper offers a hearing of Quiet City that is oriented toward two of its most salient features: ABSTRACT: Tonal ambiguity in Aaron Copland's Quiet City, a feature frequently noted by critics, results from a radical reorganization of the constituent elements of tonality. Many sections of the work eschew triads and, in lieu of tonal progressions and key centers, the work shifts between referential collections and emphasizes pitches through salience. This paper creates a perfect fifth/semitone Tonnetz to model two of Quiet City's most notable features: motives built from pentatonic subsets and semitonal shifts. The Tonnetz reveals isomorphisms between melodic motives and characteristic shifts between pitch-class collections, and it shows that climactic sections feature dramatic reversals of motion. Pattern completion-a voice-leading technique in which a missing note from a collection established as normative sounds conspicuously-articulates points of arrival and confirms central pitches. This analysis shows that Quiet City transforms the relations among the constituent elements of tonality in order to further explore the potential of the tonal system, an avowed aesthetic goal of Copland's.

Reflections on (and in) Strunk's Tonnetz

“…The pairing of interval classes 1 and 5 (the two interval classes that are involved in this transformation) in post-tonal music has gained meaningful scholarly attention. See, for example,Brown 2013 andHeetderks 2011. …”