Friday, October 23, 2009

D779n13 in Music Analysis article (2006)

In my review-article on Fred Lerdahl's Tonal Pitch Space, I introduce a number of analyses of D779n13. This post lists them.

1.-3. I reproduce Figure 10.1 from Lerdahl and Jackendoff, their time-span reduction or analysis of the metrical structure of D779n13. To that I add a prolongational reduction or reading of the harmonic-voiceleading structure following their rules. Finally, I interpret the prolongational reduction in terms of Lerdahl's function rule (from TPS) (Neumeyer 2006, 209-214).

4.-7. Then I introduce what I call "four contexts" into which to place the A major Waltz: (1) "functional patterns in waltzes of the 1820s as they would be known by one accustomed to playing or improvising dance music; (2) D. 779 as a collection; (3) the waltz as danced; and (4) other modes of structural hearing as represented in alternative analyses." (Neumeyer 2006, 214-221; quote edited from 214). To no. 4: I create a reading based on a germinal motive that is a registral pattern, not the usual melodic figure. This is worked out hierarchically, including a registral foreground (Neumeyer 2006, 224-226).

8. Carl Schachter's rhythmic-metric reduction is translated into standard Schenkerian notation in Ex. 7 (Neumeyer 2006, 221).

References:


Lerdahl, Fred. Tonal Pitch Space. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.


Lerdahl, Fred, and Ray Jackendoff. A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983.


Neumeyer, David. "Description and Interpretation: Fred Lerdahl's Tonal Pitch Space and Linear Analysis," review-article,Music Analysis 25/1-2 (2006): 201-30.


Schachter, Carl. "Rhythm and Linear Analysis: Durational Reduction." Music Forum 5 (1980): 197-232. Reprinted as "Durational Reduction" in Schachter 1999a, 54-78. (Schachter, Carl. Joseph Straus, ed. Unfoldings: Essays in Schenkerian Theory and Analysis. New York/London: Oxford University Press, 1999).