Coherence through Pitch

Abstract

Recent musicological output has viewed neither the aesthetic concept of organicism nor the methodology of formalistic music analysis in a favourable light. Both organicism and formalistic music analysis in the current age have been plagued by criticisms concerning its validity, purpose, and function. Thus there has been a decrease in the perceived value and usefulness of both organicism as means of rendering contemporary post-tonal compositions as cohesive entities and music analysis as a means of elucidating such organic musical construction. My aims for my thesis are, at its simplest, two-fold. Drawing upon the aesthetics of organicism and cohesion as seen in Schoenberg’s writings, I aim primarily to espouse both the purpose and effectiveness of organicism as well as music analysis in rendering art music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries comprehensible. I also argue that organicism must be accompanied by contrast in order to maintain musical variety and interest, and I explain how I, as a composer, satisfy these two imperatives in my own compositional output. A comprehensive motivic analysis of selected works from the twentieth century in conjunction with analyses of my own compositions created as part of this degree will not only demonstrate the presence of organicism but will also argue its value in achieving coherence in post-tonal music. Investigating the intervallic properties inherent in the primary musical material of each work will demonstrate the multifaceted ways in which the composer in question takes advantage of these properties to create a work that is simultaneously diverse yet unified in its structure. A consideration of the work’s construction on both the micro and macro scale (that is, the ways in which musical cells both interact and develop on local and global levels) will demonstrate how the composer has generated an organic structural trajectory through the manipulation of a small musical cell; it will also demonstrate how such an organic structure can create meaningful and coherent listenings of the work. I aim to convey the ways in which I and the selected composers develop material to achieve variety whilst maintaining unifying musical elements. I hope to convince the reader of the value of employing a motivic-based approach when composing post-tonal works due to its possibilities of ensuring musical coherence.