Doctoral Colloquium (Music): Laurence Willis (McGill) and Thomas Posen (McGill)

The Doctoral Colloquium is open to all.

Students (Music) for whom attendance is required must sign the attendance sheet at the colloquium.

Formal Interplay in Ternary Piano Works by Johannes Brahms

Laurence Willis

Many of the short piano works written in the last decades of the 19th century are constructed as ternary forms (ABA'). This paper accounts for processes of transfer and compensation among ternary sections, such as when B materials infiltrate A′ sections or when A' sections “solve” a musical “problem” shared by both A and B materials. Using analytical vignettes drawn from Brahms, I illustrate the tension between unity of expression and contrast in the relationships among different sections, building on the research of McClelland 2009, Scott 1995, and Cadwallader 1988. To do this, I develop two paradigms of balance in the final sections of short ternary pieces: unifying returns and compensatory returns. The result is a language that can help reorient us towards subtle effects and may enrich our analysis of music of other genres, styles, and periods.

Laurence Sinclair Willis is a PhD candidate in music theory whose dissertation investigates form in late-nineteenth century piano repertoire. He has recently held a research position as part of the PETAL project in Graz Austria. His most recent publication in Music Theory Online presents an analysis of just-intonation by the late Ben Johnston.

From Mode to Mattheson’s Major and Minor Keys: The Contributions of Johannes Cochlaeus, Heinrich Glarean, and Joannes Litavicus

Thomas Posen

In his Neue Eröffnete Orchestre (1713), Johannes Mattheson summarizes Heinrich Glarean’s twelve-modes, then remarks afterwards that, “present-day composers are accustomed to differentiate their keys differently.” He then lists four major and four minor keys. Why did Mattheson choose these keys, and where did they come from? Until now, the most widely accepted explanation for Mattheson’s choice is that of Harold Powers 1998. Powers argues that Mattheson’s keys developed from Banchieri’s “church keys,” which he explains represent eight transposed psalm tones, a set of melodic formulae used for singing psalm texts in worship. By elevating the importance of the psalm tone representations as the predecessors to Mattheson’s keys, Powers diminishes the role of mode. In this paper, I argue instead that Mattheson’s keys arise from a developing concept of mode, not representations of transposed psalm tones. I show that, over time, theorists changed how they defined the eight modes, from a definition based on repercussa intervals to one based on species of fifth and fourth. I highlight three treatises that show this process: Johannes Cochlaeus’s Tetrachordum musicae (1511), Glarean’s Dodecachordon (1547), and Glarean’s and Litavicus’s oft overlooked Musicae epitome (1557).

Thomas Posen is a fourth year Ph.D. Candidate in Music Theory with active research in the history of music theory, Beethoven sketch studies, and the music of Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin. In addition to the AMS paper you will hear today, he will present two different papers at the 2019 Society of Music Theory conference (SMT) the week after AMS: a regular session paper titled “Double-Tonic Complexes as Bistable Phenomena in Gershwin” and a 10-minute lightening talk titled “The Eroica Continuity Sketches: A Form-Functional Perspective.”