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UBC Theses and Dissertations
A study of tonality in selected works of Aaron Copland Creighton, Stephen David
Abstract
The analytical literature posits a dichotomy between Copland’s “popular” and “serious” music. Despite different motivic and hannonic structures on the surface, however, these styles are consistent in their underlying use of tonality. Tonics in both styles are defined by the same set of tonicizing techniques; and tonics in both styles serve the same function — to define the changing scale-degree function of pcs that are emphasized in various ways as common to the collections of successive tonics. The most important of these changes in scale-degree function are summarized in pitch-class continuity graphs that show the relation of the changes to thematic and harmonic form. Detailed analyses, which cover two “popular” and two “serious” works by Copland, demonstrate the consistency between the two styles. Besides demonstrating an underlying stylistic consistency these graphs provide useful information about structure in Copland’s music because they confirm striking features of Copland’s thematic and tonal designs.
Item Metadata
| Title |
A study of tonality in selected works of Aaron Copland
|
| Creator | |
| Publisher |
University of British Columbia
|
| Date Issued |
1994
|
| Description |
The analytical literature posits a dichotomy between Copland’s “popular” and
“serious” music. Despite different motivic and hannonic structures on the surface,
however, these styles are consistent in their underlying use of tonality. Tonics in both
styles are defined by the same set of tonicizing techniques; and tonics in both styles serve
the same function — to define the changing scale-degree function of pcs that are emphasized
in various ways as common to the collections of successive tonics. The most important of
these changes in scale-degree function are summarized in pitch-class continuity graphs that
show the relation of the changes to thematic and harmonic form. Detailed analyses, which
cover two “popular” and two “serious” works by Copland, demonstrate the consistency
between the two styles. Besides demonstrating an underlying stylistic consistency these
graphs provide useful information about structure in Copland’s music because they confirm
striking features of Copland’s thematic and tonal designs.
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| Extent |
7381635 bytes
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| Genre | |
| Type | |
| File Format |
application/pdf
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| Language |
eng
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| Date Available |
2009-04-09
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| Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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| Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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| DOI |
10.14288/1.0088301
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| URI | |
| Degree | |
| Program | |
| Affiliation | |
| Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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| Graduation Date |
1994-11
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| Campus | |
| Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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| Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
|
Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.