BAIN MUSC 525
Post-Tonal Theory

Fall 2024

MUSC 525 | Blackboard | Listening/Analysis

C O U R S E   M O D U L E S
1.	Pitches, Intervals & Motives (Ch. 1)
	Pitch-Class Sets (Ch. 2)
3.	Set Properties & Relations (Ch. 3)
4.	Centricity & Referential Collections (Ch. 5)
5.	Advanced Topics (Ch. 4)
6.	Serialism (Ch. 6)

News

Mon., Sept. 9: Tn & TnI

Reading

Read Ch. 2 Pitch-Class Sets

Assignments

See Blackboard

Quotable

	Since musicians are primarily sensitive to the distances between notes, we have reason to be interested in the distance-preserving transformations of musical space. It turns out that there are only two of these–transposition and inversion, corresponding to the geometrical operations of translation and reflection.
	– Dmitri Tymoczko

Required Textbook

Joseph N. Straus, Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, 4/e (New York: Norton, 2016).
Table of Contents; E-book: VitalSource

Course Documents

1. Fall 2024 Syllabus (pdf)
   
• Reading & Exam Schedule (pdf)
• Daily Schedule (pdf)
• Links for Students
2. Handouts
3. Worksheets
4. Straus 4/e:
   
• Quizzes (pdf)
• Activities
• Listening/Analysis
• Guided Analyses
• Musical Examples (by chapter & topic)
• Model Analyses
• Digital Anthology
5. Mathematical Terms & Concepts
6. Bibliography
• Articles

Projects

1. Composition Project (pdf) – Due: Mon., Dec. 9, 11:59 pm
   
2. Analysis Project (pdf)
   For graduate students and SCHC H-Option students only
   

Software

1. PC Polygon Assistant, v2.03 (Bain 2016)
2. Tools
• Literal Subsets, v0.14d
• Triadic Transformation Calculator, v0.13d 
3. Twelve-Tone Assistant, v2.4

Chapter/Lecture Overviews

1. Chapter 1  
   • Basic Concepts of Pitch and Interval (pdf)
2. Chapter 2
   • Pitch-Class Sets (pdf)
   • Set Theory (pdf)
   • Normal Form, Set Class, and Prime Form (pdf)
     
   • Segmentation & Analysis (pdf)
   • Ch. 1 Model Analyses (pdf)
   • Ch. 2 Model Analyses (pdf)
3. Chapter 3
   • Some Additional Properties & Relationships (pdf)
4. Chapter 5
   • Centricity and Referential Pitch Collections (pdf)
5. Chapter 4
   • Motive, Voice Leading, and Harmony (pdf)
6. Chapter 6
• Part 1: Basic Concepts of Twelve-Tone Music (pdf)
• Part 2: Varieties of Twelve-Tone Music (pdf)

Set Class Lists

1. Under Tn/TnI
   • Bain, Set Class List, v2.3 (pdf) (Kostka & Payne 2004)
   • Straus, List of Set Classes, pp. 378-381 (Straus 2016)
   • Walters, Table of pc set classes {www.mta.ca}
2. Under Tn
   • Nelson, Prime Forms Table {ComposerTools}
3. Under TnM/TnMI
   • Morris, Set-Class Table {Website}; See also: Morris 1987 Appendix One (Morris 1987)
4. Other
   • Hanson, The Projection and Interrelation of Sonorities in ET {Archive.org} (Hanson 1960)
   • Forte, Appendix 1: Prime Forms and Vectors of PC Sets {GB} (Forte 1973)
   • Carter, Catalogue I: Catalogue of Intervals and Chords, from The Harmony Book {GB} (Carter 2002)

Research Tools

Online Resources

1. Allen Forte Electronic Archive {AFEA}
   
2. Arnold Schoenberg Center {ASC; YouTube Channel}
   
• Compositions: A complete works list with recordings {ASC}
3. Digital Scores: Explore 20th and 21st-century music literature
   
4. London, et al., Row Forms in the Serial Works of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern {CCARH}
5. Schoenberg, Style and Idea (Schoenberg 1950)
   • Composition with Twelve Tones (1941) {GB}
6. Straus, Online Analytical Resources
   
• Analyzing Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (2022) {Website; YouTube Channel}
• The Melodic Organization of The Rite of Spring, Music Theory Online 28/4 (Dec. 2022) {MTO}
  
• Thirty-Three Graphic Music Analyses {Oxford}  (Straus 2022)
• Three Stravinsky Analyses, Music Theory Online 18/4 (Dec. 2012)  {MTO}  (Straus 2012)
7. Webern, The Path to New Music (1932-33) {Archive.org}

Bibliographies

1. BAIN MUSC 525 Bibliography & Articles
• Mathematics and the Twelve-Tone System
• Teaching Post-Tonal Theory
  
2. Séminaire MaMuX {IRCAM}

History

Schuijer, Michiel. 2008. Analyzing Atonal Music: Pitch-Class Set Theory and Its Contexts. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. {GB}

Taruskin, Richard. 2010. Music in the Early Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. {GB}

______________. 2010. Music in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. {GB}

Main References

Babbitt, Milton. 2003. The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt, edited by Stephen Peles, Stephen Dembski, Andrew Mead, and Joseph N. Straus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. {GB}

Forte, Allen. 1973. The Structure of Atonal Music. New Haven: Yale University Press. {GB)

Morris, Robert. 1987. Composition with Pitch Classes: A Theory of Compositional Design. New Haven: Yale University Press. {GBd}

Rahn, John. 1980. Basic Atonal Theory. New York: Longman. {Gbd}

Straus, Joseph N. 2022. The Art of Post-Tonal Analysis: Thirty-Three Graphic Music Analyses. New York: Oxford University Press. {GB; Oxford; Companion Website}

______________ 2016. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, 4th ed. New York: Norton. {GB}

Tymoczko, Dmitri. 2011. A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice. New York: Oxford. {GB; Full text: Ebook Central}

LEGEND
AFEA - Allen Forte Electronic Archive (University of North Texas)
ASC - Arnold Schoenberg Center (Vienna)
ETS - Explore the Score (Klavier-Festival Ruhr)
GB - Google Books
IRCAM - Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (Paris)
MTO - Music Theory Online