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| Research/Conferences/Publications/Ideas...
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| Metatonal |
| During the fin-de-siècle a style of music emerged that did not employ chromatic elements as a colouration of erstwhile tonal harmony and did not serve as a precursor to serialism. This musical language contained chromatic elements that do more than support tonal harmony: they are part of the harmony at an equal level, and form definite structural links across a piece. I have created the term metatonal to classify this style of music. But why do we need another term to describe certain compositions from this period in music history? The Greek prefix of ‘meta’ is intended to reflect the fact that the association with tonality has not been totally lost. Rather, it encourages the idea that compositions that are within this field have a filial relation towards tonality yet are independent in their musical language and structure; they are both ‘with’ and ‘after’ tonality. Metatonality encompasses quite a large area of music; music that has been widely developed from its tonal origins but still employs some of the tonal concepts. For example, there is the sense that intervallic structures such as a major third and a perfect fifth have a presence as tonal constructs within the experience of the music. In this respect ‘metatonal’ differs from existing labels, such as ‘pantonal’ or ‘post-tonal’, and rather than adopting them or trying to augment their meaning I would suggest that there is room for another term. This adjective and its abstract noun, ‘metatonality’, has an immediacy that describes this different field of music which has come from the roots of tonality but has branched off from the path that led towards atonality, and inhabits a complementary space. |
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| Temporal Intentionality Graphs |
| The design of what I have created and termed Temporal Intentionality Graphs is taken from Husserl’s later model of time-consciousness (an example of the model is shown in the banner above). For within this philosophic structure the three main tenets of phenomenology (reduction, intentionality and consciousness of internal time) can be clearly expressed in a way that does not misrepresent the musical material. The guiding hand of the reduction operates across the whole analysis, and asks that the listener suspends their a priori judgements and consider only what is given in the experience. The space in between the two axes on the model is where the intentional experience of the musical object lies. It represents the dynamic environment that is created by the engagement between the presentation and the memory of the music. The five temporal modes that make up Husserl’s time-consciousness (recollection, retention, primal impression, protention and anticipation) operate through the model and form the theoretical basis for the structural connections (connective lines) in the intentional experience. The music is captured in salient moments, ‘chunks’ (a term used by Lerdahl and Jackendoff in their A Generative Theory of Tonal Music) of music that the listener perceives as meaningful units of musical material. The delineation of these moments are based upon Richard S. Parks’ eleven parameters for dividing the music of Debussy into formal units (for more information see Parks, The Music of Claude Debussy (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989), p. 203). |
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| Schenkerian Analysis and Post-Tonal Theory |
| I believe that both Schenkerian Analysis and Post-Tonal theory are fundamental analytical tools for any musicologist. I have experience of both performing and teaching these styles of analysis, and find the boundaries of these applications just as interesting as their original aims and objectives. Such concepts need little introduction to the majority of people who have stumbled upon this page, but just in case here are two worthy starting points of reference: Allen Forte and Steven E. Gilbert, Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis (New York and London: W.W.Norton and Company, 1982) and Joseph N. Straus, Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory (New Jersey, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005). |
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| Music and Narrative |
| During my second year undergraduate degree programme at Newcastle University, I undertook a module titled ‘Music and Narrative in Nineteenth-Century Culture’ which discussed literary models and their resonance towards musical artworks. Inspired by the course, I decided to make my final year dissertation an investigation into this field of thought but work with a contemporary piece of music. I selected John Casken’s ‘Cello Concerto’ for two reasons: firstly, his music intrigued me; and secondly, Casken had written a haiku-style poem as the inception point for his piece. In the dissertation I used post-tonal analysis to consider the smaller musical units and employed concepts proposed by the Russian Formalists (such as fabula and sjuzhet), Roland Barthes (Functions and indices and their subdivisions), and the temporal, spatial and actantial elements developed by Eero Tarasti from the theories of A.J.Greimas to consider structural connections across the concerto. In order to expand my knowledge on the subject of narratology, I not only followed the usual channels of self study but also took a module on ‘Narrative Theory’ in the University’s English department during my final year. I wanted to chase the ideas that I had uncovered during my undergraduate thesis and enrolled as a postgraduate student. I had become interested in the writings of Paul Ricoeur and adapted some of his thoughts to construct a method of musical analysis. Here is the abstract from my MLitt submission: 'The Surrogate Narrator: A Model for the Narratological Analysis of Music' The relationship between music and narrative has created an analytical field that is loaded with problematic issues. Two of the most fundamental considerations regard the position of a narrator and the relationship between the time of narrating and narrated time, in a musical work. The theoretical constructs presented in this essay attempt to embrace these issues and offer new directions based upon the phenomenological experience of the listener. The emphasis has moved from an authorial-based narrative to a experiential narrative, which considers the listener's engagement with the musical work. The process has therefore been transformed from the consideration of a narrative act to the involvement in a narrative activity. The following model for the narratological analysis of music has three stages in which musical events and elements (differing lengths of musical material) are experienced, educed and finally connected by the listener to form a plot structure. However, the plot structure is not a representation of the score, rather it is a two-dimensional model with fourth-dimensional connections that represents the experiential time of the listener and the connections made in, between and across the musical events and elements that have been experienced. Two works have been selected for the purposes of this investigation: Prokofiev's Ninth Sonata for Piano (1947) and Boulez's First Sonata for Piano (1946). The narratologically relevant factor between them is that both composers, one a reflective modernist and the other a progressive modernist, chose to title their works with the generic and historically mediated label of 'sonata'. Therefore, to what extent do the Sonatas incorporate the expected constructs of a sonata and to what extent do they present their own musical story? The primary aim of this study is to offer a narratological model that would enable the analyst to uncover the plot of a musical work and also gain an understanding of its musical story. |
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| Glimpses of Paradise?: Spirituality in John Tavener's Music |
| John Tavener (b. 1944) is a highly complicated character whose music leaves me in a state of total ambivalence. I have difficulty reconciling the ethics of a composer who, in his own words, believes that it is important to move out of the Church and into the Market Place, and to fill the temeaos (an ancient Greek word meaning sacred space), with the pure commercialism [sic] that exists around this market place. However, if we disengage the connection between the beliefs and actions of a composer, abandon the hermeneutic investigation, and only consider the music as an absolute object then I find myself totally 'lost in his world'. His method of composition, which largely uses serial techniques in a tonal setting, is fascinating and there is a pounding beauty to sound world. In the past, when I have delivered lectures on this matter to undergraduates, the ensuing discussions always overrun. Thankfully, I am not alone in this ambivalence, and for an introduction to this debate see David Clarke, 'Seeking No Shelter...', The Musical Times (April 1994), pp. 224-245. |
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| The Music and Technique of Steve Vai |
| The rise and fall of the virtuoso rock-guitarist has similar parallels to that of the classical virtuoso one hundred years earlier. The mass audiences' desire for displays of technical brilliance have been satiated and have since diminshed. Like their classical counterpart, the rock virtuoso is respsonsible for changing the direction of music at a given time, and their influence outside their given genre should not be underestimated. For example, Steve Vai has gone beyond the supposed boundaries of rock music. One need only look at his discography (www.vai.com/AllAboutSteve/discography_full.html) to see the manifold of people he has worked with. Ever since I first heard Passion and Warfare (1990) and began to learn those pieces (almost compulsively at one point!) I became intrigued by his influences and his place in musical history. Over the past few years Vai has begun to write his own history, releasing retrospective albums and collections of material from different parts of his life. This adds yet another interesting gloss on the artist, and adds to the evergrowing pile of material I am considering, both practically and theoretically, on the music and technique of Steve Vai. |
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