Le 30 juin 2017
de 12h00 à 12h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 4
Séance - Leading Figures of Modernity (II): Xenakis and Ligeti
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Judith Petty
According to some recent scholarship, tonal-style voice leading and centric directionality are not possible in post-tonal musical works. To address this question, this paper begins by suggesting that ways of audiating in past historical periods engendered an accumulation of tone systems over time. Actions of memory that allowed past eras to perceive directionality and continuity in memory persist in the modern era. Pitch cycles in particular can be heard as an expansion beyond the tonal system.
Following a discussion of this historical development, sound examples will demonstrate cyclic motion, based on audiation in memory of starting groups of pitches and their cyclic expansions. The paper then proposes that cyclic groupings in works of Ligeti’s mid-century period can be heard directionally, as they extend logically and musically from previous systems, establishing new tone-group relationships and centric gravitation. Detailed analyses of Ligeti’s Lux Aeterna and Lontano illustrate. These analyses will extend linear analysis models, with the proviso that the directional motion is outside of tonality and can appear in many different musical genres.
The paper aims to suggest analytical applications not only to Ligeti’s music but also to various additional types of 20th-century music, as well as directions for future compositional experimentation.
