Papers by Christoph Neidhofer
Music Theory Online, 2024
In the panorama of post-1945 serial composition, the music of Camillo Togni (1922–1993) stands ou... more In the panorama of post-1945 serial composition, the music of Camillo Togni (1922–1993) stands out for its distinct expressive character (Vlad 1958). This essay examines the musical gestures that define Togni’s expressive style and illuminates how the composer generated them with the help of pluridimensional serial procedures. With evidence from the sketches, the analyses show how Togni negotiated his musical ideas with his serial templates in a dynamic process in which pluridimensional serialism opened new avenues for musical gesture he may not have envisioned otherwise. The essay argues against a distinction between a “pre-compositional” and a “compositional” stage in the creative process and instead demonstrates that Togni’s modus operandi entailed a continuous process of fine-tuning musical ideas. I first address questions of musical meaning and performance in Togni’s expressionist aesthetics (parts 1 and 2), before delving into the compositional process to gain a better understanding of these questions (parts 3 and 4).
Caché : for ensemble
Tre Media eBooks, 1998
“La révolution dans la continuité”
Inside Luciano Berio's Serialism
Music Analysis, Jul 1, 2009
ABSTRACTLike many other composers who later distanced themselves from serialism, Luciano Berio (1... more ABSTRACTLike many other composers who later distanced themselves from serialism, Luciano Berio (1925–2003) embraced its principles in the 1950s and beyond. While Berio's early serial techniques from the Due pezzi of 1951 to Nones of 1954 are well known, his subsequent serial practice is still little understood for three principal reasons: in his writings and interviews Berio provided only limited information on his serial works; it is very difficult to decipher Berio's later complex serial techniques from the published scores alone; and only one sketch survives for any of his serial works from 1951 to 1958 (for Allelujah I, 1955–6).Following a brief examination of the integral serialism in Nones (whose principles have been known for some time thanks to an analytical note by Berio), the present study investigates the serial techniques deployed in the Quartetto per archi (1955–6) and Allelujah I. Berio's serial materials are reconstructed with the help of distributional analyses and from an historical angle that has been little explored thus far: the influence of Bruno Maderna (1920–1973), Berio's mentor and close collaborator at the Studio di fonologia musicale in Milan.
Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, 2005
Form and Serial Function in Leibowitz’s Trois Poèmes de Pierre Reverdy
Intersections, May 17, 2019
Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y ... more Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d'auteur. L'utilisation des services d'Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d'utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne. https://apropos.erudit.org/fr/usagers/politique-dutilisation/ Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l'
Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, 2005
Music Theory Online, Dec 1, 2017
The close connection between the music philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) and the developm... more The close connection between the music philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) and the developments of the post-World War II musical avant-garde is as well known as it is complex. The influence went both ways: on the one hand, Adorno's advocacy for the music of the Second Viennese School-his pointed criticism of twelve-tone technique notwithstanding-and his notion of "integral composition" constituted a strong force behind the proliferation of pluridimensional serial techniques. On the other hand, the paths taken by the musical avant-garde in the 1950s and 1960s drove Adorno continuously to revisit and expand his music philosophy. He tried to keep up with the most recent music and actively sought a critical dialogue with younger composers, but struggled at times to grasp the full extent of the latest advances in compositional technique and style. Among the locations where this dialogue took place were the "Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik" in Darmstadt, where Adorno served on the faculty or appeared as guest speaker several times between 1950 and 1966 (Tiedemann 2001). In five of these summer courses, Adorno was invited to present a series of lectures, which have been preserved in live recordings at the International Music Institute in Darmstadt. While Adorno reworked the second through fourth lecture cycles into articles that are well known (with a full transcription of the fifth cycle published posthumously), the content of the often more extensive lectures themselves had remained inaccessible outside the archives until the recent publication of these talks under the title Kranichsteiner Vorlesungen ("Kranichstein Lectures"), part of the edition of Adorno's unpublished texts issued by the Theodor W. Adorno Archive. [2] Kranichsteiner Vorlesungen, superbly edited by Klaus Reichert and Michael Schwarz, presents transcriptions of Adorno's mostly freely spoken talks. (Kranichstein is the name of the hunting castle where the Darmstadt courses initially took place, from 1946 on, outside the almost completely destroyed city.) The 672-page volume is copiously annotated with 353 often extensive footnotes. It reproduces the notes from which Adorno gave the first, second, and fifth lecture cycles, and concludes with an editorial afterword, index, and detailed list of topics for each lecture. Furthermore, the book is accompanied by a DVD that contains the audio recordings of the lectures.
A Theory of Harmony and Voice Leading for the Music of Olivier Messiaen
Music Theory Spectrum, Apr 1, 2005
... Olivier Messiaen provides detailed descriptions of his musical language and aesthetics in his... more ... Olivier Messiaen provides detailed descriptions of his musical language and aesthetics in his prefaces, program notes, conversations, and published trea-tises.1 In addition to the distinct elements of his composi-tional stylemodes of limited transpositions, birdsong, rhythms ...
Stravinsky's Late Music:Stravinsky's Late Music
Music Theory Spectrum, Oct 1, 2005
Norma Beecroft, Improvvisazioni Concertanti No. 1 (1961)
Analytical Essays on Music by Women Composers: Concert Music from 1960-2000, 2016
Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie [Journal of the German-Speaking Society of Music Theory], 2005
Die Entwicklung der nordamerikanischen Musiktheorie zu einem universitären Forschungs-und Promoti... more Die Entwicklung der nordamerikanischen Musiktheorie zu einem universitären Forschungs-und Promotionsfach ist durch die Schriften Milton Babbitts entscheidend beeinflußt worden. Babbitts formelle Zwölftontheorie, deren wissenschaftlicher Anspruch sich auf die Theorien Carnaps, Goodmans und Quines stützt, untersucht grundlegende Eigenschaften des Zwölftonsystems. Fragen der kompositorischen Praxis, des kompositorischen Handelns auf der Grundlage systemimmanenter Möglichkeiten behandelt Babbitt im Rahmen seiner empirischen Theorien. Jedes dodekaphone Werk bestimmt für Babbitt seine Materialien neu und in sich selbst. Durch diese Autonomie widersetzt sich die Zwölftonmusik den Idealen einer Kunst der Massen. Babbitts antifaschistische und antistalinistische Kritik lieferte ihm ein starkes Argument für avantgardistische autonome Musik.
Music Theory Online, 2017
The close connection between the music philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) and the developm... more The close connection between the music philosophy of Theodor W. Adorno (1903-69) and the developments of the post-World War II musical avant-garde is as well known as it is complex. The influence went both ways: on the one hand, Adorno's advocacy for the music of the Second Viennese School-his pointed criticism of twelve-tone technique notwithstanding-and his notion of "integral composition" constituted a strong force behind the proliferation of pluridimensional serial techniques. On the other hand, the paths taken by the musical avant-garde in the 1950s and 1960s drove Adorno continuously to revisit and expand his music philosophy. He tried to keep up with the most recent music and actively sought a critical dialogue with younger composers, but struggled at times to grasp the full extent of the latest advances in compositional technique and style. Among the locations where this dialogue took place were the "Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik" in Darmstadt, where Adorno served on the faculty or appeared as guest speaker several times between 1950 and 1966 (Tiedemann 2001). In five of these summer courses, Adorno was invited to present a series of lectures, which have been preserved in live recordings at the International Music Institute in Darmstadt. While Adorno reworked the second through fourth lecture cycles into articles that are well known (with a full transcription of the fifth cycle published posthumously), the content of the often more extensive lectures themselves had remained inaccessible outside the archives until the recent publication of these talks under the title Kranichsteiner Vorlesungen ("Kranichstein Lectures"), part of the edition of Adorno's unpublished texts issued by the Theodor W. Adorno Archive. [2] Kranichsteiner Vorlesungen, superbly edited by Klaus Reichert and Michael Schwarz, presents transcriptions of Adorno's mostly freely spoken talks. (Kranichstein is the name of the hunting castle where the Darmstadt courses initially took place, from 1946 on, outside the almost completely destroyed city.) The 672-page volume is copiously annotated with 353 often extensive footnotes. It reproduces the notes from which Adorno gave the first, second, and fifth lecture cycles, and concludes with an editorial afterword, index, and detailed list of topics for each lecture. Furthermore, the book is accompanied by a DVD that contains the audio recordings of the lectures.
Music Theory Online, 2007
A central figure at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in the 1950s, Bruno Maderna (1920–... more A central figure at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music in the 1950s, Bruno Maderna (1920–73) pioneered a type of serialism that was as deeply rooted in the contrapuntal tradition of the past, as it was committed to the exploration of new avenues in musical expression. This article investigates the serial arrays that lie at the core of his works written between 1951 and 1956. The constructive principles behind Maderna’s tone rows are explained, as are the ways in which he subjected them to order permutations that he represented graphically in matrices, tabulating order positions and pitch-class space. The article further examines how Maderna’s matrices served as the source for his rhythmic language. With evidence from the sketch materials and other sources, the analyses show how Maderna designed his serial arrays in response to what he considered to have been the shortcomings of the twelve-tone technique.
Contemporary Music Review, 2017
Tre poemi (1949) marks a key moment in Luigi Dallapiccola's oeuvre and biography: for the first t... more Tre poemi (1949) marks a key moment in Luigi Dallapiccola's oeuvre and biography: for the first time, all movements of a work are unified by a single 12-tone series; the work's dedication to Arnold Schoenberg led to the first personal contact with the master; Dallapiccola dedicated a fair copy, with serial analysis, of the first movement on James Joyce's 'A Flower Given to my Daughter' to his own daughter Annalibera; and the composer gave the complete vocal-score manuscript, with analytical annotations, as a gift to the music critic and close friend Massimo Mila. As no sketches for Tre poemi have come down to us, this recently discovered manuscript constitutes the only surviving draft of the work. This article analyses the 12-tone techniques of Tre poemi in their historical, cultural, and biographical context through a study of the Dallapiccola-Mila correspondence, the published writings of the composer and critic, the discovered manuscript and other primary sources. Integrating archival research and post-tonal transformational analysis, we take clues from the manuscript to show how Dallapiccola developed his particular brand of 12-tone technique with its emphasis on invariant pitch-class collections, recurring rhythmic motives and pitch polarities inspired by literary techniques (especially assonance) in Joyce and others. Furthermore, we situate our analysis in the aesthetic discourse of the time, as discussed by Dallapiccola and Mila.
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Papers by Christoph Neidhofer