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Form and process in Morton Feldman’s Spring of Chosroes

University of British Columbia

The music of Morton Feldman has been noted for the sense of stasis and linear discontinuity it projects. However, recent analytic studies have shown that linear processes direct the horizontal dimension. This thesis investigates process and form in Feldman's Spring of Chosroes (1977) by segmenting the piece into discrete units called modules that are affiliated by coincident structural features and by developmental relationships. The interconnected modules, particularly those that share aspects of pitch, rhythm, and register, articulate form. The formal plan of the piece is ABA': section A' engages the modular structure of section A, and parallelisms in section B create palindromic relationships. Two sets of modules, each of which are connected by developmental processes, comprise large-scale frameworks that reflect the ternary sectional structure and the palindromic design of section B. Processes of rhythmic deceleration in sections A and A' reinforce the sectional design in that the initial modules in each section generate momentum that is gradually slowed by transformations of their rhythm patterns. The music is structurally weighted toward its two central modules. Each module bisects a set of palindromically related modules, and together they bisect the piece as a whole. Organic and inorganic processes unite al l levels of form and they connect local and large-scale structures. Effects of disconnectedness, then, are seen to be surface phenomena that arise from the interaction of disparate, ordered structures.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-02-16

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4624

Music

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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