Music Theory Colloquium at Eastman
2007-2008
Zachary Cairns
Friday, 9 November 2007
ESM 320, 3:15
"Juggling Twos and Threes"
Abstract
(Hide)
In his study of Robert Schumann's music, Harald Krebs defines two useful types of metrical dissonances: grouping dissonances and displacement dissonances. However, there is an additional kind of metrical dissonance, possible in asymmetrical meters (5/4, 7/8, and the like), which does not fit squarely within the bounds of either category. What I call a shared-cardinality grouping dissonance (SCGD) is the subject of the present paper.
This paper is in three parts. First, I begin with a general discussion of asymmetrical meters, focusing on metrical well-formedness as understood by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, Justin London, and David Temperley. Second, I define the concept of an SCGD and discuss its general characteristics. In this section, which serves to distinguish the differences between an SCGD and Krebs' previously defined dissonance categories, I provide examples of SCGDs through a metrical analysis of the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. Finally, I conclude the paper by suggesting some extensions to the SCGD concept.
Robert Morris
Friday, 9 November 2007
ESM 320, 4:00
"Some Musical Applications of Minimal Graph Cycles"
Abstract
(Hide)
In recent music theory, graphs--nodes connected by (possibly labeled) arcs
or arrows--have become an important tool for modeling the structure of
music, musical structures, and composition systems. Transformational
networks, compositional spaces, K-nets, Perle cycle-sets, the Tonnetz,
voice leading spaces, and canon graphs are examples. The paper examines an
important property of such graphs, the number and content of a graph s
minimal cycles. This is a useful way to characterize a graph especially
when it is complex and its visual presentation is too convoluted to
provide much insight into its form and properties. Moreover, minimal
cycles can provide ways to compare the musical entities modeled by graphs
and assess their similarity.
We begin with the construction of graphs from relations and enumerate the
resulting graph's minimal cycles using a computer-implemented algorithm.
We then apply the study of minimal cycles to issues in (1) twelve-tone
theory, (2) K-nets, (3) modal counterpoint, and (4) tune families
extracted from actual compositions or from various modal/tonal theories
including Indian music. The paper ends with some thoughts on how minimal
cycles might be implicated in models of musical cognition and memory.
Music Theory Colloquium at Eastman
2006-2007
Robert Gauldin
Friday, 29 September 2006
ESM 320, 3:30
"Wagner's Neighboring Gesture: The Origins and Evolution of a Romantic Schema"
Robert Wason
Friday, 13 October 2006
ESM 320, 3:30
"Bill Evans's Entre into Modal Jazz Composition (1962)"
Paul Miller
Monday October 23, 2006
ESM 320, 4:30
"A Theory for the Analysis of Spatial Music derived from Stockhausen's
LICHTER-WASSER (1999)"
Dave Headlam, Matthew Brown
Friday October 27, 2006
ESM 320, 3:30
"Orbifold or Befuddled?"
Friday, April 6 at 2:30 p.m.
ESM 320
Benjamin Wadsworth
"Dialectical Opposition between Tonal and Atonal
Structures in Berg's Piano Sonata"
J. Daniel Jenkins
“Schoenberg's Concept of ruhende Bewegung”
FRIDAY, April 13 at 3:30 p.m
ESM 320
Peter Silberman
"Analyzing Tonal Embellishment in Post-Tonal Music"
Music Theory Colloquium at Eastman
2005-2006
Matt BaileyShea
Friday, October 28, 2005
3:30 pm in ESM 320
"The Hexatonic and the Double Tonic:
Wolf's Christmas Rose"
Abstract
Ciro Scotto
Friday, December 2, 2005
3:30, ESM 320
"Reevaluating Complex Pitch-Class Set Multiplication and its Relationship to Transpostional Combination in Boulez's Le marteau sans maitre."
Abstract
Peter Franck
Friday, April 7, 2006
12:30 pm in Howard Hanson Hall
"A Fallacious Concept: Invertible Counterpoint within the Ursatz"
Abstract
Last updated: September 2006
URL: http://theory.esm.rochester.edu
©1996–2006 · University of Rochester
Music Theory Colloquium at Eastman
2004-2005
Robert Morris
Friday, October 29
3:30, ESM 320
"Aspects of Post-Tonal Canon Systems."
Abstract
Josh Mailman
Friday, October 29
3:30, ESM 320
"A Binary-State GIS Models a Contour Motive That Helps Chords Talk Long-Distance in Schoenberg's Op.11, no. 2."
Abstract
David Sommerville
Friday, November 19
3:30, ESM 320
"(Not Spinal) Tap: Rhetoric and Van Halen's 'Two-Handed Tapping' Technique."
Abstract
J. Daniel Jenkins
Friday, February 18, 2005
3:30, ESM 320
"A Study on One Note."
Abstract
Gavin Chuck
Friday, March 4, 2005
3:30, ESM 320
"Global Insight through Musical Climax: Cognitive Strategies of
Blending and Compression."
Abstract
Last updated: July 2007
URL: http://theory.esm.rochester.edu
©1996–2006 · University of Rochester