Le 29 juin 2017
de 11h00 à 11h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 6
Séance - The Second Twentieth Century: Between Italy and France
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Gui-Hwan Lee
In this paper, I suggest my own analytical approach for a characteristic harmonic progression found in Berio’s works in the 1950s and the 60s. This type of progression presents a registral expansion in pitch space coinciding with a chromatic saturation in pitch-class space, and often emerges at structurally important moments. Although a few studies, including Osmond-Smith (1985), Losada (2009), and Neidhöfer (2012), have examined or mentioned the techniques underpinning such progressions, no study has proposed a methodology designed for understanding Berio’s characteristic harmonic extension. Regarding this issue, this paper suggests two analytical devices inspired by previous analyses and Berio’s sketches: interval-cycle chart, and voice-leading map for pitch-class space. The former arranges twelve pitch classes in the form of three linearly-presented ic3 cycles stacked at the semitone, and neatly illustrates four types of interval cycles (ic1/11, ic2/10, ic3/9, and ic4/8). The latter illustrates voice-leading possibilities between two adjacent chords in the form of the chromatic scale. I then apply these tools in my analysis of the passages from three pieces by Berio: Nones (1954), Sincronie (1964), and the first movement of Sinfonia (1968). Through the analysis, I demonstrate two specific techniques to extend/contract a chord in both pitch space (i.e., register and density) and pitch-class space (i.e., chromatic saturation): intervallic balance, and split transposition (i.e., two different transpositions occurring simultaneously, O’Donnell, 1997).
