Creating an Unbroken Line of Becoming in Live Music Performance

231 Pages·2017·18.13 MB·English

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Creating an Unbroken Line of Becoming in Live Music
Performance
Bonnie B. McAlvin
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
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CREATING AN UNBROKEN LINE OF BECOMING IN LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCE
by
Bonnie McAlvin
A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Music in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts, The City University of New York
2017
copyright 2017
BONNIE MCALVIN
All Rights Reserved.
ii
Creating an Unbroken Line of Becoming in Live Music Performance
by
Bonnie McAlvin
This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Music in satisfaction of the
dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Music Arts.
___________________________ __________________________________________________
Date Joseph Straus
Chair
___________________________ __________________________________________________
Date Norman Carey
Executive Officer
Supervisory Committee:
Norman Carey, Advisor
Poundie Burstein, First Reader
Aaron Kozbelt
Joseph Straus
THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
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ABSTRACT
Creating an Unbroken Line of Becoming in Live Music Performance
by
Bonnie McAlvin
Advisor: Norman Carey
The dissertation provides an approach to the pedagogy of musical expression in applied music
study. The pedagogy deals primarily with grouping, in terms of (1) its relationship to meaning,
(2) the physiology which supports it, (3) the Gestalt laws of similarity and trajectory which
model it, (4) the parameters of unmarked performance nuance (vibrato, articulation, etc.) which
can be used by a performer to project it, and (5) the state of continual evolution which
characterizes it in the diachronic context of music. Exercises are provided which support a
student’s mastery of the mechanics of grouping, and this mastery is put to work in an adaptation
of the work of the great Russian acting teacher, Constantine Stanislavski. Mapping of
embodiment schema in the manner of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) is asserted as a useful interface
between grouped pitch objects and meaning; mappings are utilized by the instrumental music
performer in the same manner as Stanislavski taught his acting students to utilize given
circumstances. The discourse situates all of these skills in a gradually-emerging present; the
exercises challenge the student to achieve what Stanislavski calls an unbroken line—a
spontaneous and unique line of continually-restructuring narrative that evolves in real-time.
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PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
W h a t i n i t i a l l y m o t i v a t e d t h i s w o r k w a s a d e s i r e t o e x p l a i n a s e n s a t i o n t h a t I e x p e r i e n c e d
w h e n p e r f o r m i n g , p a r t i c u l a r l y w h e n c o l l a b o r a t i n g w i t h o t h e r m u s i c i a n s . I c a n b e s t d e s c r i b e t h e
s e n s a t i o n a s a t y p e o f s t r u c t u r a l h a z e , a c o n f l u e n c e o f s t r u c t u r a l p o t e n t i a l i t i e s t h a t d i s s i p a t e s a s
p i t c h f u n c t i o n r e v e a l s i t s s y n o p t i c s e l f a t t h e e n d o f a p h r a s e . T h e h a z e a n d r e l e a s e h a s b e e n
p r e s e n t a t v a r i o u s m o m e n t s s i n c e I w a s v e r y y o u n g , b u t i t b e c a m e m o r e p r o n o u n c e d d u r i n g t h e
y e a r s w h e n I b e g a n s t u d y i n g S c h e n k e r i a n a n a l y s i s . I b e l i e v e t h a t t h i s i s b e c a u s e S c h e n k e r i a n
a n a l y s i s p r o v i d e d m e w i t h a m e a n s o f e x p l i c i t l y d o c u m e n t i n g p i t c h f u n c t i o n . I i m m e d i a t e l y
e n j o y e d t h e p r a c t i c e o f g r a p h i n g a s u r f a c e , b u t I f o u n d t h a t d e p e n d i n g o n w h e r e I w a s i n a p i e c e
o f m u s i c , t h e s l u r s c h a n g e d . A s I p r o g r e s s e d t h r o u g h a n a n a l y s i s , s l u r s c r o s s e d o v e r o n e a n o t h e r
a n d r e - a r r a n g e d t h e m s e l v e s . I f o u n d t h a t t h e s e n s a t i o n o f s t r u c t u r a l h a z e a n d r e l e a s e — w h i c h h a s
a l w a y s b e e n a n i m p o r t a n t a t t r a c t o r f o r m e t o w a r d p l a y i n g m u s i c — w a s w e l l - r e f l e c t e d i n t h i s
u n c o n v e n t i o n a l p r a c t i c e o f c o n t i n u a l l y c r o s s i n g a n d u n - c r o s s i n g s l u r s .
M u c h o f t h e w o r k o f t h i s d i s s e r t a t i o n h a s b e e n t h a t o f f i n d i n g w a y s t o c o m m u n i c a t e t h e
n o t i o n o f t h e b e c o m i n g o f p i t c h - f u n c t i o n s w i t h i n a g r a d u a l l y u n r a v e l l i n g n e t w o r k , a n d t o i d e n t i f y
a l l o f t h e a s p e c t s t h a t m i g h t b e c o m i n g t o g e t h e r t o c a u s e t h e s e n s a t i o n s o f s t r u c t u r a l h a z e a n d
r e l e a s e . I ’ m n o t s u r e i f t h e s e n s a t i o n w i l l b e c o m m u n i c a t e d t h r o u g h t h e w o r d s a n d p i c t u r e s o f
t h i s p r o j e c t , a n d I a m s u r e t h a t d u e s i m p l y t o l i m i t s i n s c i e n t i f i c k n o w l e d g e , t h e p h y s i o l o g y
b e h i n d i t i s n o t a s w e l l d e s c r i b e d a s I ’ d p e r h a p s n a i v e l y p l a n n e d . H o w e v e r , I k n o w f r o m
e x p e r i e n c e i n t e a c h i n g t h a t t h e e x e r c i s e s t h a t e m e r g e d t h r o u g h o u t t h e m a n y s t a g e s o f t h i s
d i s s e r t a t i o n ’ s o w n b e c o m i n g y i e l d r o b u s t a d v a n t a g e s t o t h e s t u d e n t s w h o e x p l o r e t h e m . I a m
g r a t e f u l t o t h e d o c t o r a l m u s i c p r o g r a m a t t h e C U N Y G r a d u a t e C e n t e r f o r h a v i n g h a d t h e
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opportunity and the atmosphere in which to explore the ideas. Thank you to the committee, first
and foremost, for all of their work and support.
Thank you to Norman Carey, in whose Schenker I class I began filling the first of many
notebooks which would fuel later research. Thank you for, as my advisor reading so many words
and asking so many questions, and for not occluding my excursions into neuroscience yet
challenging me to make clear to the reader how that information is relevant to a discussion of
music. How can you possibly thank someone for helping you to find your own voice, develop it
and to speak it? Such a lesson is not compensable. But I can strive to do this for my own
students, and the exercises of this dissertation are part of that work. For the heightened desire
that emerges from this debt, I am very grateful.
Thank you to Poundie Burstein for providing access to literature that crosses slurs
without dismantling their descriptive power, for supporting my ventures into music cognition and
for showing me through both words and actions that research regarding music performance,
while deluged in notions of the feminine and all that that entails, is important work. Thank you
to Joe Straus for encouraging me through his own work and his musical space course to develop
my inclination to draw maps of the universe, and for his generosity and his frankness on so many
projects and applications since. Thank you to Aaron Kozbelt for his much-needed contributions
to the theoretical discussions in the dissertation, for believing in the project and for challenging
me to more clearly conceptualize what an empirical validation of the two tiers of analysis would
look like.
Thank you to the students of the various music programs at the Graduate Center for being
a talented, supportive and dedicated group of people. I particularly would like to thank H. Roz
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Woll, who changed my mind forever when she introduced me to the idea of a social construction.
Thank you to Emiko Sato, for the conversations regarding the notion of taste which drove much
of the research for this dissertation. Thank you to Ji Yeon Lee, Simon Prosser, Ellen Bakulina
and Aaron Harcus for the many conversations and insights.
I would also like to thank Robert Dick, who first introduced me to Stanislavski’s work
and the magic what if that has helped me to see so many moveable doors, and to flutists Katie
Van Zant, Casey Read, Kennedy Burgess, and Erin Barrett for their input into the exercises that
are presented here. Thank you to Jacqueline Martelle for all of her insight and encouragement,
which has gone far beyond her professional duties, to Steve Fox for all of his support during the
early years of my doctorate and for helping me to rise to the challenge of developing a reputation
as a performer, and to Gil Tippy for his support in re-orienting the work and preparing for the
defense. Finally, thank you to Sammy, who has listened to more than his share of failed
becomings.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
I.1. INTRODUCTION 1
I.2. CONTRIBUTION 3
CHAPTER 1. CREATING PITCH-GROUP OBJECTS 8
1.1. GROUPING, STRUCTURE AND MEANING 9
1.1.2. A MECHANISM FOR GROUPING 18
1.1.3. DISJUNCTION AS AN UNSTABLE SET OF DEFINITIONS 22
1.2. A RULESET FOR GROUPING 27
1.2.2. GROUPING AMONG ADJACENT VS. NON-ADJACENT PITCHES 31
1.3. TWO NUANCE ANALYSES 34
1.3.2. PERFORMANCE #1 35
1.3.3. PERFORMANCE #2 36
1.4. EXERCISES IN GROUPING 38
1.4.2. EXERCISE 1: USING MATCHING 39
1.4.3. EXERCISE 2: MIXING PARAMETERS 42
1.4.4. EXERCISE 3: CREATING A TRAJECTORY 43
1.4.5. EXERCISE 4: CREATING A GROUP WITHIN A GROUP 45
1.5 CHAPTER SUMMARY 47
CHAPTER 2. SCHEMA-MAPPING, ANTHROPOMORPHIZING PITCH GROUPINGS 48
2.1. SCHEMA-MAPPING 50
2.2. EMBODIMENT SCHEMAS 59
2.2.2. THE UP/DOWN SCHEMA 64
2.2.3. THE CONTAINER SCHEMA 68
2.2.4. THE SOURCE/PATH/GOAL SCHEMA 73
2.2.5. THE BARRIER SCHEMA 81
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2.3. SIX NARRATIVE ANALYSES 82
2.3.2. TIER 1 ANALYSIS: GROUPING STRUCTURE 83
2.3.2.2. DISCUSSION 88
2.3.2.3. THE NEIGHBOR NETWORKS 88
2.3.2.4. THE ARPEGGIATING NETWORKS 89
2.3.2.5. THE REACHING-OVER NETWORKS 90
2.3.3. TIER 2 ANALYSIS: MAPPINGS AND NARRATIVE 91
2.3.3.2. DISCUSSION 97
2.4. EXERCISES IN SCHEMA-IDENTIFICATION 100
2.4.2. EXERCISE 5: NAMING PITCH-GROUP OBJECTS 101
2.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY 104
CHAPTER 3. TRUTH ON STAGE 105
3.1. STANISLAVSKI’S METHOD 108
3.2. PITCH GROUPINGS AND THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES 111
3.3. EXERCISES IN EXPRESSION 118
3.3.2. EXERCISE 6: PROVIDING GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES 119
3.3.3. EXERCISE 7: RESPONDING WITH EMPATHY 125
3.3.4. EXERCISES 8a-d: EXPLORING CIRCUMSTANCES 128
3.3.5. EXERCISE 9: INCORPORATING BARRIER, 133
B CONTAINER AND PATH
3.3.6. EXERCISE 10: STRINGING TWO OBJECTIVES INTO A 137
S A SUPER-OBJECTIVE
3.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY 141
CHAPTER 4. CREATING AN UNBROKEN LINE OF BECOMING 142
4.1. BECOMING 144
4.2. PROCESSUAL ANALYSIS 159
4.3. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BECOMING 167
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