Structural Functions in Music

Joseph, Charles M.; Berry, Wallace

doi:10.2307/897485

Cited by 66 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…Empirical research confirms that, within multi-themed Western classical music, high-energy passages are often followed by slower, quieter ones in a new key (Warrenburg & Huron, 2019); and Konečni (2009) posits that composers "intuitively realize the importance of change and modulation in the 'arousingness' (including through tempi) of their compositions" (p. 24). Theorists of symphonic form suggest slow movements introduce aesthetically desirable tempo contrast at the highest structural level (Berry, 1976;Caplin, 1998); and historical theorists, too, describe varieties of contrast beyond the melodic/thematic as essential to compelling composition (Marx, 1841;Quantz, 1752).…”

Section: Contrast: Aesthetic Function and Compositional Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Contrast Principle, Typicality, and Cultural Longevity in 19th-Century Symphony Slow Movements: A Corpus Analysis

McDonald

Wöllner

2023

Music & Science

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The notion of contrast is integral to both aesthetic and psychological accounts of attention and interest. It therefore represents a useful heuristic for understanding contrasting slow movements in Western art music. Based on the observation from music theory that within-movement tonal contrast (mode and key) increased during the 19th century, we assumed that a corpus of symphonic slow movements ( n = 246) composed between 1800 and 1913 would exhibit increasing between-movement tonal contrast when compared to a sample of symphonies composed between 1757 and 1795 ( n = 141). Synchronic analysis confirmed that slow movements contrast with their key-defining first movements. Diachronic analysis confirmed that within-symphony tonal contrast increases after 1800. Each of five style parameters observed for era comparison (changes in use of mode, key, meter, form, and structure) conformed to musicologically distinct yet plausible historical boundaries. Cluster analysis of the post-1800 corpus generated three clusters, with mode (non-)match between slow movement and symphony, printed tempo marking, and key relationship (measured by tonal distance) as the three strongest predictors. Since discussions of style naturally raise questions of influence, we also examined the relationship between prototypicality and composer prominence. To that end, analysis of clusters suggests the possibility of multiple, distinct “Beethovenian prototypes.” Finally, we found that, with the exceptions of Beethoven and Brahms, the most statistically typical pieces lack enduring impact, from today's perspective. Conformity to general stylistic norms thus seems to predict against the cultural longevity of a 19th-century symphony.

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Section: Contrast: Aesthetic Function and Compositional Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Contrast Principle, Typicality, and Cultural Longevity in 19th-Century Symphony Slow Movements: A Corpus Analysis

McDonald

Wöllner

2023

Music & Science

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“…Return to text 21. Various scholars (Berry 1987;Tenney 1988, 36;Meyer 1989, 15-16;Hopkins 1990;Snyder 2000, 211-12) have discussed the association of decreasing intensity with closural function. Outside the context of specific style conventions (see, e.g., Caplin, 1998 and, beginning function is undertheorized compared to ending (closure).…”

Section: Antares Boylementioning

confidence: 99%

Gestural Temporality in Sciarrino’s Recitativo oscuro

Boyle

2023

MTO

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Sciarrino’s writings describe a compositional philosophy that prizes multidimensionality and spatiotemporal discontinuity (1998, 2004). Yet his simultaneous allegiance to teleology, holism, and fractal hierarchies reveals an underlying unifying organicism with which these qualities may initially seem to conflict. I take Sciarrino’s 1999 piano concerto Recitativo oscuro as a case study for examining the composer’s gestural organicism and its various contradictions and double meanings. First, close analysis of the opening piano solo demonstrates how seemingly contradictory aesthetic priorities—organic unity and temporal multiplicity—co-exist within a single passage. Drawing from Kramer’s (1988) concept of “gestural time,” Hatten’s (2004) theory of gesture, segmentation theories, and scholarship on intensity and temporal function, I show how temporal multiplicity in the piano solo arises through conflict between gestural energetics and contextual segmentation. I then expand my analysis to the full concerto, arguing that the orchestra’s cyclic and naturalistic sonic ecosystem causes the piano gestures to take on representative functions in addition to their energetic syntax, creating what Sciarrino (2001) calls “dimensional intermittence” as they reference distant temporal realms both within and beyond the concerto. I conclude by arguing that while the intensity profile of the earliest gestures and phrases is eventually reproduced across the form of the entire work, the concerto’s form nevertheless resists reductive understanding. Instead, listeners are invited to hear form through the complex mechanics and idiosyncrasies of “gestural behavior” (Sciarrino 1998).

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“…The sound analyzer allows us to identify with millisecond precision when the stressed vowels of each word are pronounced. The frequency and intensity information makes it possible to infer other accentuation factors (tonic and dynamic), according to the classification of accentuation factors proposed by music theory (see Cooper and Meyer 1960;Berry 1967;Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1983). In the verbalization of T, one is used in an onomatopoeic way (it has metric gravitation but does not establish an order of movements), on the contrary, the numbered verbalization of D is establishing an order.…”

Section: Sound Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%