20th Century Compositional Technique Study Piece

by

Lieschen Mast

Faculty Advisor: James Rivers, Music

WashburnUniversity

August 18, 2006

WU-CSI Summer Fellowship

Final Report

The idea for the project I undertook this summer began over a year ago when I was taking my last Music Theory course. In this course, which primarily focused on studying twentieth century compositions, my peers and I were required to write a variety of pieces in which we would utilize several different techniques that we were currently studying. In order for us to discover what these techniques were and effective ways to use them, we would have to study a plethora of pieces, and maybe only find one or two techniques in each piece.

After studying several pieces, I started thinking that it would be really nice if there could be one all-encompassing piece filled with most of the twentieth and twenty-first century compositional techniques that the course explores, allowing students to look at the use of the combination of different techniques in one piece rather than a variety of pieces.

In my project this summer, I set out to write such a piece that would include most of the twentieth century techniques studied in the course spread throughout five movements, and a short study guide which would define the techniques and show where in the piece they have been used.

I scored my piece for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, soprano, alto, tenor, and solo bass. I wrote parts for the chorus members in movements two and four only, but the instrumentalists are in every movement.

The focus of the first movement was Impressionism. Impressionism was originally introduced as a term to describe the works of French painters in the late 19th century who would often exhibit blurred images as opposed to focused images, giving “impressions” of images rather than precise images. In music, several correlations with this art form became evident, and soon composers such as Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel became known as impressionistic composers.

Several techniques characteristic of Impressionism are:

  1. Augmented triads: chords with three pitches including a raised 5th scale degree. These triads often move in parallel motion.
  2. The whole-tone scale: a scale that uses only whole steps and as a result has six different pitches in each octave.
  3. Non-functional harmony: harmony that does not follow a typical progression.

The focus of the second movement was modes. There are seven different modes that are primarily used in music, each of them starting on a different scale degree. Ionian, the mode that starts on the first scale degree, or tonic, and Aeolian, the mode that starts on the sixth scale degree are the most common and most pleasing to the ear. In this piece, I used Phrygian, which starts on the third scale degree, and Lydian, which starts on the fourth scale degree. Here’s an excerpt:

Right before rehearsal D, I have indicated the use of both the Lydian and Phrygian modes.

In the third movement, I mainly focused on exploring different types of harmony. I built chords stacked in fourths, fifths, and sixths, and also used polychords, which are complete triads stacked on top of each other which have nothing to do with one another in a harmonic sense. Here’s an excerpt:

The fourth movement was a serial piece, which dealt with pitches placed in a certain order. There are twelve different pitches that are regarded in western music, and many variations of the order they can be played in. To write this serial piece, I had to first come up with a tone row, that is, a specific order of these twelve pitches. Once I had the tone row figured out, I created a matrix, which displayed all the variations and inversions I could use in the serial piece. Here is the matrix:

  • The top row is the original tone row.

c / d / b / a# / a / g / f / f# / c# / d# / e / g#
C / D / B / A# / A / G / F / F# / C# / D# / E / G#
A# / C / A / G# / G / F / D# / E / B / C# / D / F#
C# / D# / C / B / A# / G# / F# / G / D / E / F / A
D / E / C# / C / B / A / G / G# / D# / F / F# / A#
D# / F / D / C# / C / A# / G# / A / E / F# / G / B
F / G / E / D# / D / C / A# / B / F# / G# / A / C#
G / A / F# / F / E / D / C / C# / G# / A# / B / D#
F# / G# / F / E / D# / C# / B / C / G / A / A# / D
B / C# / A# / A / G# / F# / E / F / C / D / D# / G
A / B / G# / G / F# / E / D / D# / A# / C / C# / F
G# / A# / G / F# / F / D# / C# / D / A / B / C / E
E / F# / D# / D / C# / B / A / A# / F / G / G# / C

Here is an excerpt from my fourth movement in which I am using several of these tone rows. On the matrix, I have highlighted the ones I am using.

The focus of my fifth movement was indeterminacy. I found this one a little difficult to write, even though I had a general idea of how to start it. The difficulty in writing this piece occurred because I had a specific idea of how I wanted it performed, and a big part of indeterminacy is leaving some aspects to chance. In this movement, there are five different sections, and each section can repeat several times. There are specific notes and lyrics within each of these sections, but when one section ends and moves on the next one is entirely up to the performers. At the end of each section, one of the instrumentalists stands up and walks off stage. This can occur at any time, and is left entirely up to the performer. The end of the piece occurs some time after the last instrumentalist walks off stage. Here’s an excerpt from the beginning of the movement:

The final two stages of my project are to 1) finish up the study guide and show the entire project to several professors in the music department in case it is something any of them would like to use in class, and 2) rehearse and prepare the piece for the world premiere performance later this fall at my senior recital.