Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts - Couverture rigide

Schuijer, Michiel

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1580462707 ISBN 13 : 9781580462709

Editeur : University of Rochester Press, 2008

Synopsis

For the past forty years, pitch-class set theory has served as a frame of reference for the study of atonal music, through the efforts of Allen Forte, Milton Babbitt, and others. It has also been the subject of sometimes furious debates between music theorists and historically oriented musicologists, debates that only helped heighten its profile. Today, as oppositions have become less clear-cut, and other analytical approaches to music are gaining prominence, the time has come for a history of pitch-class set theory, its dissemination, and its role in the reception of the music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and other modernist composers. Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts combines thorough discussions of musical concepts with an engaging historical narrative. Pitch-class theory is treated here as part of the musical and cultural landscape of the United States. The theory's remarkable rise to authority is related to the impact of the computer on the study of music in the 1960s, and to the American university in its double role as protector of high culture and provider of mass education. Michiel Schuijer teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on topics at the interface between music theory and historical musicology.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

For the past forty years, pitch-class set theory has served as a frame of reference for the study of atonal music, through the efforts of Allen Forte, Milton Babbitt, and others. It has also been the subject of sometimes furious debates between music theorists and historically oriented musicologists, debates that only helped heighten its profile. Today, as oppositions have become less clear-cut, and other analytical approaches to music are gaining prominence, the time has come for a history of pitch-class set theory, its dissemination, and its role in the reception of the music of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and other modernist composers."Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts" combines thorough discussions of musical concepts with an engaging historical narrative. Pitch-class theory is treated here as part of the musical and cultural landscape of the United States. The theory's remarkable rise to authority is related to the impact of the computer on the study of music in the 1960s, and to the American university in its double role as protector of high culture and provider of mass education.

Revue de presse

Schuijer's book brilliantly situates pitch-class set theory -- our dominant mode for analyzing atonal music -- in its historical, social, and cultural contexts: this is a tour de force of intellectual history. What is more, it also provides a magisterial if, at times, pointedly critical summary of the theory itself. A deeply thought evaluation of a theoretical approach that has largely escaped critical scrutiny, despite its dominant position in contemporary North American music theory. --Joseph N. Straus, Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center, City University of New York

A penetrating study of pitch-class set theory, its mathematical foundations, and the context in which it was developed. --Mark Delaere, University of Leuven

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Rochester Press
• Date d'édition: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1580462707
• ISBN 13: 9781580462709
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 328
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible