· MUTH 5370: Analytical Techniques III, Fall 2011
· Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2:00-2:50 MU 2006
· Instructor: Dr. David Schwarz
· NEW: Office: MU 104
· Phone: (940) 369-7299
· E-mail:
Office Hours: Mondays 3-4 and Friday 12-2
In this course we will listen to and analyze 20th Century Music. We will emphasize precise musical-theoretical analysis incorporated into clear, persuasive language. The main parts of the course will comprise: 1) atonal pitch-class set theory and atonal music written roughly from 1905 to 1923, and 2) 12-tone analytical techniques and the 12-tone music written roughly from 1923 to 1945. There will be bookend units also: we'll begin with some threshold pieces that are just about to turn atonal around 1900 (at the beginning of the course) and some more recent trends (at the end of the course).
Most course materials are present on this website in the form of pdf files (that you may download) and mp3 files to which you may listen on line (but which you cannot download). In addition, one book is required for the course: Straus, Joseph N.Introduction to Post-Tonal TheoryThird Edition. (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005).
Grades will be determined as follows: (papers will loose 1/3 a letter per day late.
· Paper #1 = 50% (on a primarily atonal piece using atonal pitch-class set theory).
· Paper #2 = 50% (on a primarily serial piece using 12-tone techniques).
The papers will be like concise master's theses (in quality and precision, not length). You'll begin with a clear thesis establishing the audience, purpose, and voice of your writing. The papers will be clearly-written at the sentence, paragraph, and essay levels. Arguments will incorporate criticism in all three forms: short quotes, long quotes, paraphrases. Papers will incorporate precise musical illustrations of your ideas and the examples will vary from exact references to moments or sections of a work to speculative, synthetic assertions about the musical-theoretical structure of a passage at hand.
Below is a sketch of our work for the semester. Get in the habit of checking the site on a daily basis. We will end up with a much more detailed syllabus than what you see below. My promise to you: I will never post material that I expect you to prepare after 6 p.m. on the evening before a class meets.
At some point in the semester, each student will make at least one brief presentation on a musical-theoretical topic to the class.
NB: THE JPLAYER DIGITAL AUDIO PROGRAM IS USED THROUGHOUT THIS PAGE; THE GRAPHIC DOES NOT SHOW UP ON A PRINTOUT SUCH AS THIS. THE SYLLABUS CAN BE SEEN COMPLETE AT HTTP://WEB3.UNT.EDU/DSCHWARZ/;
08.26.2011
Introduction to the Course
08.29.2011
Berg: Piano Sonata Opus 1 / o playo
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10:42
Berg, Sonata for Piano Opus 1: pdf
Berg, Sonata for Piano Opus 1: (first phrase) pdf
08.31.2011
The musical language of mm. 28-31 of Berg's Piano Sonata.The outline of the sonata form. Please work through Chapter 1 of the Straus. Pay particular attention to everything that relates to the differences between pitches and pitch-classes.
09.02.2011
In-class presentations on passages of Berg's Piano Sonata
09.05.2011
Labor Day: no class
09.07.2011
Webern, Piece for Violin and Piano Opus 7, no.1 : / o playo
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01:05
Webern, Pieces for Violin and Piano Opus 7: pdf
Work on the Opus 7, no. 1. How would you segment the piece?
09.09.2011
Webern, Piece for Violin and Piano Opus 7, no. 3: / o playo
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01:19
Straus, Chapter 2: pitch-class sets and normal order
A list of all pitch-class sets
09.12.2011
Webern, Opus 3, no. 1: / o playo
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01:08
Webern, Songs Opus 3: pdf
Stephan George: "Dies ist ein Lied": pdf
An English Translation of the George:
This is a song / for you alone: / of childish beliefs, / of pious tears.../ through morning gardens it floats / on light wings. / Only for you / would it like to be a song / that moves the soul.
Straus, Chapter 2: transposition, inversion, index number, inversion x/y.
09.14.2011
Rochberg, Caprice for Solo Violin no. 42: / o playo
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01:37
George Rochberg, Caprices for Solo Violin: pdf
Study no. 42 above.
Straus, Chapter 2: set class.
09.16.2011
Webern, Bagatelle Opus 9, no. 4: / o playo
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00:52
Webern, Opus 9, no. 4 segmented: pdf
Quiz today (ordered pitch intervals, unordered pitch intervals, ordered pitch-class intervals, unordered pitch-class intervals, interval vectors, pitch-class sets, set classes) + 2 presentations on the Webern above.
09.19.2011
Webern, Piece for String Quartet Opus 5, no. 4: / o playo
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01:59
Straus, Chapter 3: common tones under transposition, transpositional symmetry, common tones under inversion, inversional symmetry.
Webern, Piece for String Quartet Opus 5, no. 4: pdfPractice Material for the Skills Tested on Last Friday's Quizz: pdf
09.21.2011
Berg, Opus 2, no. 4: / o playo
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03:01
Straus, Chapter 3: Z relation, complement relation
For today, pay special attention to the last of the following collection: Opus 2, no. 4.
Berg: Songs Opus 2: pdf
Berg, Songs Opus 2, no. 4 (text): pdf
09.23.2011
Webern, Piece for Orchestra Opus 10, no. 1: / o playo
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00:42
Straus Chapter 3: subset and supersets; transpositional combinations. One piece that we have looked at provides a clear example of transpositional combination; which one is it and what is the effect of the combination?
Webern, Piece for Orchestra Opus 10, no. 1: pdf
Webern, Piece for Orchestra Opus 10, no. 1 (segmented): pdf
Review of Atonal Pitch-Class Set Theory: pdf
Work based on the Review of Atonal Pitch-Class Set Theory: pdf
09.26.2011
Webern, Piece for Orchestra, Opus 10, no. 4: / o playo
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00:27
Straus, Chapter 3: contour segments
Webern, Piece for Orchestra Opus 10, no. 4: pdf (at the end of the third piece, also included)
09.28.2011
Berg, Piece for Clarinet and Piano Opus 5, no. 1: / o playo
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01:19
Write a paper on Alban Berg's Piece for Clarinet and Piano Opus 5, no. 1. A score of the entire Opus 5 is provided below; there is an audio file to listen to on the player; and there is an article on performance issues in the Berg Opus 5 by William Defotis.
Berg, Pieces for Clarinet and Piano Opus 5: pdf
Article on Berg's Pieces for Clarinet and Piano by William Defotis: pdf
Article on Berg's Music by Douglas Jarman: pdf
Writing Guidelines: pdf
More Guidelines will be posted here!
09.30.2011
pc set [237] and literal inclusion in the pc sets of Webern, Opus 10, no. 1, and set class (015) and abstract inclusion in the set classes to which the pc sets of Webern's Opus 10, no. 1 belong.
10.03.2011
Voice-Leading: a look at diatonic tonality
Bach, Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin, Giga: pdf (mm. 1-3) / o playo
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03:07
Beethoven, Piano Sonata in F minor, I: pdf (mm. 1-8) / o play
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06:18
Schubert, "Der Wegweiser:" pdf (mm. 56-65) / o play
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03:53
10.05.2011
Voice-Leading: an Atonal Application (Straus Chapter 3. page 107 (only))
We're also going to re-examine the progression I discussed earlier on the Berg Opus 2, no. 4 (see 09.21.2011).
Excerpts from David Lewin's "Morgengruss Study" (forthcoming from OUP). These are comments about pitch / rhythm / form in Schubert's "Morgengruss".
METHODOLOGICAL RULE-OF-THUMB: Every valid analytic statement is of the basic form "I hear this about this specific piece," as qualified by an implicit "and I think you can too."
I am claiming: if a statement cannot be made or rephrased in the form of the rule, it is not a valid analytic statement, regardless of any validity or truth it may have in other respects. Thus, statements of form: "We generally hear", "Schubert usually", "In Lieder", "Conventionally," et al. are not analytic. They may be useful to an analyst so far as they bring certain aspects of a certain piece to his attention, but that is a different matter. This is particularly the case with the theoretical "criteria" we have just been discussing. Statements such as "Ambiguity is the essence of art" and "Ambiguities are always ultimately resolved in art-works" are also not analytic.
The statement "There must be a pulse at the two-measure level somewhere between measure 153 and measure 157" is also not analytic as it stands (check it against the rule-of-thumb). The statement "I feel a pulse at a two-measure level somewhere between measure 153 and measure 157, exactly where I am not sure" is analytic. So is the statement "I can hear such a pulse, equally consistent with the large context, either at measure 154 or at 155." So is the statement "I hear measures 153-158 as essentially metrically amorphous at the two-measure level."
Strictly speaking one cannot say of any such analytic statement by another person that it is "true" or "false." I cannot verify, that is, that somebody else does or does not hear what he says he does; nor that he does or does not think I can hear the same thing. What I can do is to assent or dissent to his statement: "I too hear what I think you are describing about the piece" or "I do not hear it." Beyond such simple extremes, I can respond with a whole range of qualified assents and dissents. E.g. "I hear something which I think is related to what you are indicating. But your description does not fit my own impressions completely (/ to a considerable extent / to a large extent / at all). Rather, in connection with the aspect of the music under discussion, I hear (also) this and this and this. I think you can too, and if so I think you will modify your reportage accordingly." To which my communicant could respond back to me in exactly the same vein. We are then engaged in a valid and presumably useful analytic controversy. Useful in that each of us stands to hear more in the piece as a result. This is the sort of dialectic that one frequently goes through internally, too, in trying to work out a consistent overall context for one's various impressions.
10.07.2011
Atonal Voice-Leading: Straus Chapter 3 (beyond page 107)
We're going to also revisit (if time) Webern's Opus 5, IV (under 09.19.2011) and Webern's Opus 7, no. 1. (under 09.07.2011).
Thesis material for Paper #1 Due
10.10.2011
Webern, Bagatelle for String Quartet Opus 9, no.5: pdf / o playo
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01:15
We'll take a look at fuzzy voice-leading in the Webern, Opus 7 no. 1 today. Helen, thanks for pointing out the typo in the Sting Quartet. I hate to have tyops on line!
10.12.2011
Writing Day: incorporating musical examples. Imagine that you are writing a passage on the quote ofTill Eulenspiegelby Richard Strauss at the beginning of Berg's Opus 5, no. 1. How would you do this? Come to class with some answers to that question.
10.14.2011
Finish Webern Opus 9 no. 5: centricity around pc 2; and Webern Opus 9 no. 4 revisited: centricity at the pitch-class and pitch levels and a trace of diatonic function.
10.17.2011
Schoenberg, "Der Mondfleck": pdf / o playo
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00:57
Der Mondfleck (text: French, German, English): pdf
Schoenberg's Performance instructions to Pierrot Lunaire: pdf
10.19.2011
Webern, Piece for Cello and Piano Opus 11, no.1: pdf / o playo
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00:58
10.21.2011
Webern, Piece for Cello and Piano Opus 11, no.2: pdf / o playo
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00:29
In your papers, make sure to have a) a short quote, b) a long quote, and c) a paraphrase--all properly documented. In the one-page excerpt from a piece I wrote, you can find examples of all three. At the first citation (whether paraphrase, long, or short quote) make a note with full citation. Then all subsequent references to that source should use the short, parenthetical form, as on the one-page sample below.
Sample page from an article on Harold Bloom + music: pdf
10.24.2011
Webern, Piece for Cello and Piano Opus 11, no.3: pdf / o playo
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00:54
10.26.2011
Webern, "Wie bin Ich froh: pdf / o playo
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00:56
· 12-Tone Composition: Straus: Chapter 5: pp. 182-191
· Webern, Wie bin ich froh: matrix: pdf
10.28.2011
Extra Hours
Webern, Wie bin ich froh: (serial description from last class; no colors (sorry)): pdf
10.31.2011
Paper #1 Due
I will use the following grade sheet in working with your papers:1) clarity of thesis and subordination of its components.