Existing accounts of musical temporality presume concepts of time which are, arguably, not adequate to experience. They also serve to marginalise post-tonal music. Experiential absolutes might better be sought in the cognitive sciences, in the form of principles governing our organisation of change.
Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983) claim to identify some of these universal principals, and they would seem to support prevailing concepts of time. But Lerdahl and Jackendoff's dependence upon intuitions about experience betrays a simplistic view of the relation between automatic cognitive processes and conscious experience. The complexities of consciousness make it difficult to correlate cognitive activity and musical temporality.
the limitations of describing, suggest that accounts of musical temporality are touched by the interpretative interests of the describer. Favoured concepts of musical form are examined in this light. Claims that music presents a 'narrative', or a 'structure', serve certain interests and institutions, and discriminate against others. As changing sound, music may be organised by listeners in ways less analogous to language and visual objects.
Adorno's is the most ambitious attempt to interpret musical meaning on the basis of music's temporality, but his music criticism too readily smooths over the difficulties raised in earlier chapters. Paul de Man's defiantly anti-spatial concept of temporality is a useful corrrective, and can be accommodated within the broader trajectory of Adorno's philosophy.
Ideas raised in earlier chapters are revisited in a discussion of the first movement of Ligeti's Violin Concerto.
I. MUSIC AND TEMPORALITY (Temporality, time, clocks. Other concepts of time: Barry and Kramer. Conceptualising time. 'Psychological' temporality and 'interpretative' temporality.)
II. 'PSYCHOLOGICAL' TEMPORALITY (The cognitive organisation of tonal music: Lerdahl and Jackendoff. Intuition about experience. The structural representation of music. Memory. Metre, memory and measuring. Cognitive processes and consciousness. Limitations of the cognitive approach.)
III. DESCRIBING MUSICAL TEMPORALITY (Post-tonality and stasis. Music: 'time in motion'? Metre and musical 'motion'. Describing music. Interpreting musical temporality. Temporality and spatiality.)
IV. MUSIC'S TEMPORAL FORM (Narrative. Plot. Sequential form. Verbal organisation. Unfolding structure. The construction of musical form. Musical sound: questions of organisation and form.)
V. TEMPORALITY AND MUSICAL MEANING (Adorno's critique of musical temporality in context. 'Negative Dialectics', antinomy, and the concept of dialectic. Adorno and temporality: a summary and a suggestion. De Man and temporality. De Man and musical temporality. Critical temporalities.)
VI. TEMPORALITY IN LIGETI'S VIOLIN CONCERTO
CONTACT: Dr R C Adlington Music Faculty Essex House University of Sussex Falmer Brighton BN1 9RQ UK
Douw, Andre, M. "The Construction of Order and Direction in Igor Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Canticum Sacrum, and Threni"
AUTHOR: Douw, Andre, M.
TITLE: The Construction of Order and Direction in Igor Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Canticum Sacrum, and Threni
INSTITUTION: Utrecht University
BEGUN: July 1989
COMPLETED: March 1995
ABSTRACT: This study presents complete analyses of In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Canticum Sacrum and Threni. In the material tables of the period, the original set is connected with its inversed reversion in In Memoriam Dylan Thomas and Canticum Sacrum, and with its inversion in Threni. Numbered zero, this original double set is transposed by falling fifths, and the transpositions are numbered 1 to 11. While the transposition sceme is traced back to Webern's
Existing accounts of musical temporality presume concepts of
time which are, arguably, not adequate to experience. They
also serve to marginalise post-tonal music. Experiential
absolutes might better be sought in the cognitive sciences,
in the form of principles governing our organisation of
change.
Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983) claim to identify some of
these universal principals, and they would seem to support
prevailing concepts of time. But Lerdahl and Jackendoff's
dependence upon intuitions about experience betrays a
simplistic view of the relation between automatic cognitive
processes and conscious experience. The complexities of
consciousness make it difficult to correlate cognitive
activity and musical temporality.
the limitations of describing, suggest that accounts of
musical temporality are touched by the interpretative
interests of the describer. Favoured concepts of musical
form are examined in this light. Claims that music
presents a 'narrative', or a 'structure', serve certain
interests and institutions, and discriminate against others.
As changing sound, music may be organised by listeners in
ways less analogous to language and visual objects.
Adorno's is the most ambitious attempt to interpret musical
meaning on the basis of music's temporality, but his music
criticism too readily smooths over the difficulties raised
in earlier chapters. Paul de Man's defiantly anti-spatial
concept of temporality is a useful corrrective, and can be
accommodated within the broader trajectory of Adorno's
philosophy.
Ideas raised in earlier chapters are revisited in a
discussion of the first movement of Ligeti's Violin
Concerto.
KEYWORDS:
time, temporality, intuition, motion, description,
narrative, structure, form, Adorno, Ligeti
TOC:
INTRODUCTION
(Temporality. Post-tonal music)
I. MUSIC AND TEMPORALITY
(Temporality, time, clocks. Other concepts of
time: Barry and Kramer. Conceptualising time.
'Psychological' temporality and 'interpretative'
temporality.)
II. 'PSYCHOLOGICAL' TEMPORALITY
(The cognitive organisation of tonal music:
Lerdahl and Jackendoff. Intuition about
experience. The structural representation of
music. Memory. Metre, memory and measuring.
Cognitive processes and consciousness.
Limitations of the cognitive approach.)
III. DESCRIBING MUSICAL TEMPORALITY
(Post-tonality and stasis. Music: 'time in
motion'? Metre and musical 'motion'. Describing
music. Interpreting musical temporality.
Temporality and spatiality.)
IV. MUSIC'S TEMPORAL FORM
(Narrative. Plot. Sequential form. Verbal
organisation. Unfolding structure. The
construction of musical form. Musical sound:
questions of organisation and form.)
V. TEMPORALITY AND MUSICAL MEANING
(Adorno's critique of musical temporality in
context. 'Negative Dialectics', antinomy, and the
concept of dialectic. Adorno and temporality: a
summary and a suggestion. De Man and temporality.
De Man and musical temporality. Critical
temporalities.)
VI. TEMPORALITY IN LIGETI'S VIOLIN CONCERTO
CONTACT:
Dr R C Adlington
Music Faculty
Essex House
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton BN1 9RQ
UK
e-mail: R.C.Adlington@sussex.ac.uk
phone: +44 1273 678019
fax: +44 1273 678644
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Douw, Andre, M. "The Construction of Order and Direction in Igor Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Canticum Sacrum, and Threni"
AUTHOR: Douw, Andre, M.
TITLE: The Construction of Order and Direction in Igor Stravinsky's
In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Canticum Sacrum, and Threni
INSTITUTION: Utrecht University
BEGUN: July 1989
COMPLETED: March 1995
ABSTRACT:
This study presents complete analyses of In Memoriam Dylan
Thomas, Canticum Sacrum and Threni. In the material tables
of the period, the original set is connected with its
inversed reversion in In Memoriam Dylan Thomas and
Canticum Sacrum, and with its inversion in Threni. Numbered
zero, this original double set is transposed by falling
fifths, and the transpositions are numbered 1 to 11. While
the transposition sceme is traced back to Webern's
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