Le 29 juin 2017
de 10h00 à 10h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
salle 3203
Séance - Leaving – and Regaining – the Shores of Tonality
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Anabel Maler
When analyzing post-tonal compositions, it is often difficult to make sense of how ideas and phrases relate to one another. In reference to Classical music, William Caplin argues that each chunk of music has a formal function—a role that the chunk plays within the formal organization of the music. I propose that attentive listening to formal functions, processes, and hierarchies of the sort that is basic to Caplin’s theory is not tied exclusively to tonal music or specific formal types. In fact, attending to these features in post-tonal works can shape one’s understanding of their formal organization.
From my perspective, a musical event or a phrase in a post-tonal composition possesses a changeable formal function in relation to its context. My aim is to develop an account of how listeners apprehend formal units in post-tonal compositions. I demonstrate how the theory of formal function, developed with reference to tonal compositions, can be adapted for post-tonal works using examples from the post-tonal literature, drawing on recent research in music cognition (Dibben, Zbikowski), tonal and post-tonal form (Caplin, Schmalfeldt, Howland), and theories of listener expectation and repetition (Huron, Margulis).
In my paper I use close analyses of Webern’s op. 11 no.1 and Varèse’s Density 21.5 to demonstrate the value of a form-functional approach. My ultimate aim is to present form as an emergent property of music, a process by which a listener apprehends and actively shapes the formal organization of a passage as she hears music in time.
