Music Theory and Its Methods: Structures, Challenges, Directions

343 Pages·2013·7.656 MB·English

by  Denis Collins

Music Theory and its Methods
Methodology of Music Research
Methodologie der Musikforschung
Edited by / Herausgegeben von Nico Schüler
Vol. / Bd. 7
Denis Collins (Ed.)
Music Theory
and its Methods
Structures, Challenges, Directions
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche
Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the
Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is
available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Music theory and its methods : structures, challenges, directions /
Denis Collins (ed.).
pages cm. — (Methodology of music research, ISSN 1618-
842X ; vol. 7)
ISBN 978-3-631-61659-8
1. Music theory. I. Collins, Denis, 1965-, editor.
MT6.M96203 2013
781—dc23
2013006997
ISSN 1618-842X
ISBN 978-3-631-61659-8 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-653-02906-2 (E-Book)
DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-02906-2
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 2013
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Contents(cid:2)
Preface ............................................................................................................... vii
Rebekah Woodward
Towards New Editing Methods for Transcribing the
Polyphonic Notre Dame Conductus Repertory ................................................... 1

Luca Bruno
A Methodological Approach Toward the Harmony of
Sixteenth-Century Secular Polyphony ............................................................. 33

Denis Collins
John Bull’s “Art of Canon” and Plainsong-Based Counterpoint
in the Late Renaissance ..................................................................................... 99

Byron Almén
Toward a Pluralism of Musical Cognitive Processes .................................... 129

Timothy Dwight Edwards
The Sinfonias of J. S. Bach as an Advanced Discourse on Harmony ........... 151

Dimitar Ninov
Basic Formal Structures in Music: A New Approach ................................... 179

Dennis Cole
Incorporating Transcriptions and Notation: Pedagogical
Issues for the World Music Ensemble ........................................................... 209

Elizabeth Lee
Music, Imagery, Meaning, and Emotion in Hugo Wolf’s “An eine
Äolsharfe:” An Analytical Triangulation via Schenkerian Analysis,
the Theory of Musical Forces, and Cognitive Metaphor Theory ................... 221

Simon Perry
Pitch-Notational Analysis: A Basis for an Approach to
Understanding Harmonic Thinking in Common-Practice and
Post Common-Practice Tonality .................................................................... 239

Miloš Zatkalik
Reconsidering Teleological Aspects of Nontonal Music ............................... 265
vi
Leon Stefanija
Levers of Satire in Twentieth-Century Music ............................................... 301

(cid:2)
Preface
Methodological challenges in the field of music theory are complex and
multifaceted, encompassing issues of vocabulary and meaning in historical
writings, structural and analytical paradigms for investigating chronologically
and stylistically diverse repertoires, and interdisciplinary approaches to the
interpretation and reception of music and its applications. As a distinct research
field in its own right, music theory has grown enormously in recent decades, to
the extent that no single volume can provide thorough coverage of all of its
aspects. The approach in the present collection of essays is to address specific
topics within the field over a broad chronological span and from different
perspectives. Authors’ appraisals of existing methodological domains relevant to
their areas of expertise form the foundation for individually focused studies. The
resulting chapters assess premises and limitations in current approaches to many
issues in music theory, with consideration also of useful directions towards
further insightful and reflective outcomes associated with particular research
questions in the field.
The eleven contributors to this volume are based in five countries (five in the
USA, three in Australia, and one each in Italy, Serbia and Slovenia) and
represent different training and a rich diversity of methodological perspectives
on music theory. Notwithstanding the specific direction of each author’s topic,
connections may be seen between chapters: the methodological requirements for
analysing and assessing the distinct structural roles of harmony and counterpoint
in Renaissance and Baroque repertoires (Bruno, Collins, Edwards); notation as
an analytical tool in medieval, post-tonal and non-Western music (Woodward,
Perry, Cole); and probing of our approaches to musical constructions in tonal or
post-tonal repertoires (Ninov, Zatkalik), especially in relation to new and
interdisciplinary methodologies (Almén, Lee, Stefanija).
Authors were invited also to include consideration of the significance of
their research on broad issues of contemporary student learning. Although an
optional aspect of this project, it is explored in detail particularly by Cole and
Almén. The intended readership for this book comprises music theorists and
musicologists with interests in historical theory, analysis, and aesthetics, but we
hope also that graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in music theory
and neighboring fields will also find much of use for their studies, especially
those on research methods in music. It may be mentioned also that editorial
latitude was exercised towards authors’ preferences for “bars” or “measures,”
“crotchets” or “eighth notes” (and other rhythmic values), and some minor
spelling variants between American, British, and Australian English.
I wish to express my gratitude to the Series Editor, Nico Schüler, for his
support and guidance in the preparation of this volume. Mrs Ute Winkelötter,
viii
Ms Anne-Kathrin Grimmeissen and other staff at Peter Lang publishers dealt
with my numerous queries promptly and expertly. I am especially grateful to all
of the readers who provided external and anonymous peer review for each essay
in this collection.

Denis Collins

University of Queensland
Towards New Editing Methods for Transcribing the
Polyphonic Notre Dame Conductus Repertory
Rebekah Woodward, University of Queensland, Australia
The repertory of polyphonic conductus found in the central Notre Dame
manuscripts was created during a period of at least sixty years (Payne 1998,
141-2).1 The term “conductus” in the central Notre Dame manuscript sources
encompasses a number of sub-categories that have distinctive characteristics and
demonstrate changing compositional processes over time.2 Editions of the
conductus repertory to date have been prepared using methodologies that do not
allow for the diversity of the works within the conductus genre. The present
study reviews earlier editorial methods and proposes alternative methods of
transcribing some portions of the conductus repertory. As part of this process, I
will examine in detail three conductus found in the manuscript Florence,
Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Pluteo 29.1 (henceforth F) that present issues
typical of those the transcriber would encounter. Those works are “Regnum dei
vim patitur” (f. 352v-353r) and the two datable conductus “Eclypsim patitur” (f.
322v-323r) and “Pange melos lacrimosum” (f. 351r-351v).3 The historical and
stylistic context of these works will be examined to assist in determining the
best approach to transcribing each piece. An examination of characteristics and
transcription methods for the Aquitanian polyphonic versus, as well as an
application of the rules found in the Discantus positio vulgaris, will provide
alternative approaches for transcribing portions of the above-mentioned works.
Presenting each work in a way that highlights its distinctive compositional
features and places it in a sub-category of this wide-ranging and dynamic
repertory will be a starting point on a journey towards a new edition of the Notre
Dame conductus repertory.

1 Payne suggests that the earliest datable polyphonic conductus, Novus miles sequitur, for
three voices, was written in 1173 in honour of Thomas Beckett, and the latest, written in
1224 to commemorate the battle of La Rochelle, is De rupta Rupecula. The central Notre
Dame manuscripts are: Florence, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Pluteo 29.1 (F),
published in facsimile as Dittmer (1966-7); Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August Bibliothek, 628
Helmst. (W1), published as Baxter (1931); Wolfenbüttel, Herzog- August Bibliothek 1099
Helmst. (W2), published as Dittmer (1960); and Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 20486
(Ma), published as Dittmer (1957).
2 A detailed discussion of some important issues in conductus scholarship may be found in
Everist (2000, 135-8).
3 These conductus also appear in W1 in the following locations: “Regnum dei vim patitur”
on f. 110v, “Eclypsim patitur” on f. 101r, and “Pange melos lacrimosum” on f. 110r-110v.
“Regnum dei vim patitur” is also found in W2 on f. 114r-114v.