BAIN MUSC 525
Post-Tonal Theory

Fall 2020

MUSC 525 | Blackboard | Grove/Oxford | Harvard Dictionary | JSTOR | Naxos | MathWorld

C O U R S E   M O D U L E S
1.	Basic Concepts of Pitch & Interval (Ch. 1)
2.	Pitch-Class Sets (Ch. 2)
3.	Some Additional Properties & Relationships (Ch. 3)
4.	Centricity & Referential Pitch Collections (Ch. 5)
5.	Motive, Voice Leading & Harmony (Ch. 4)
	Basic Concepts of Twelve-Tone Music (Ch. 6)
GROVE BIOS Schoenberg, Berg & Webern Debussy & Ravel Bartók & Stravinsky Cowell, Ives & Varèse Babbitt Messiaen, Boulez & Stockhausen Krenek, Dallapiccola & Wuorinen Berio, Ligeti & Lutoslawski Copland, Bernstein & Barber Cage & Feldman Riley, Reich, Glass & Adams Carter & Crumb Gubaidulina, Shchedrin & Schnittke Adès, Chen, & Saariaho

News

This course will be offered again during the Fall 2022 term.

Quotable

	To analyze music is to find a good way to hear it and to communicate that way of hearing it to other people....
	– John Rahn, Basic Atonal Theory

Required Textbook

Joseph N. Straus, Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, 4th ed. (New York: Norton, 2016).
{Norton; Table of Contents; ISBN-13: 9780393938838; E-book: VitalSource}

Course Documents

1. Fall 2020
• Syllabus (pdf) 
• Remote Learning Addendum 
• Links for Students
• Daily Schedule (pdf)
• Composition/Analysis Project (pdf)
2. Straus 4/e
• Theory Exercises (pdf) 
• Solution Guide
  
• Analysis
• Straus 4/e Musical Examples
• Guided Analyses
• Model Analyses
  
3. Handouts
• Mathematical Terms & Concepts
4. Digital Anthology
5. Articles
6. Bibliography

Chapter/Lecture Overviews

1. CHAPTER 1
   • Basic Concepts of Pitch and Interval (pdf)
     • Pitches, Intervals and Melody
     • Pitch Space Models (pdf)
     • Interval Types (pdf)
2. CHAPTER 2
   • Pitch-Class Sets (pdf)
     • Set Theory (pdf)
     • Normal Form, Set Class, and Prime Form (pdf)
       
3. Segmentation & Analysis (pdf)
   • Music: A View From Delft (pdf)
     • Edward T. Cone, "Music: A View from Delft" (Cone 1961) {JSTOR}
     • Johannes Vermeer, View of Delft (1660-61) {WP; WC}
   • Ch. 1-2 Model Analyses
     • Ch. 1 (pdf)
     • Ch. 2 (pdf)
     • Intervallic Motives (pdf)
4. CHAPTER 3
   • Some Additional Properties & Relationships (pdf)
5. CHAPTER 5
   • Centricity and Referential Pitch Collections (pdf)
   • The Scalar Tradition (Tymoczko 2011) {GB}
   • Referential Collections (pdf)
     
   • Inversional Axis
   • The Geometry of Tn & TnI
   • Messiaen's Modes of Limited Transposition {pdf; Morris 2011}
6. CHAPTER 4
   • Motive, Voice Leading, and Harmony (pdf)
   • Transformational Theory (MUSC 216)
   • Neo-Riemannian Theory
7. CHAPTER 6
   • Part 1: Basic Concepts of Twelve-Tone Music (pdf)
   • Part 2: Varieties of Twelve-Tone Music (pdf)
   • Guided Analysis 6.8: Wuorinen, Twelve Short Pieces (1972), No. 3

Software for Post-Tonal Theory

1. PC Polygon Assistant
   • v2.00b (with audio playback)
2. Other Apps
   • Literal Subsets v1.13d
   • Triadic Transformations, v1.12d
3. Atonal Assistant, v2.2d
4. Twelve-Tone Assistant, v2.4d
5. Software for Post-Tonal Theory by other developers
   

Set Class Lists

1. Under T_n/T_nI
   • Bain, Set Class List, v2.3 (pdf)
   • Straus, List of Set Classes, pp. 378-381
   • Walters, Table of pc set classes {www.mta.ca}
2. Under T_n
   • Paul Nelson, Prime Forms Table {ComposerTools}
3. Under T_nM/T_nMI
   • Robert Morris, Morris 1987 Appendix One {JSTOR}; Set-Class Table {Website}
     
4. Other
   • Carter, The Harmony Book (Carter 2002) {GB}
   • Forte, Appendix 1 Prime Forms and Vectors of PC Sets (Forte 1973) {GB}
   • Hanson, The Projection and Interrelation of Sonorities in ET (Hanson 1960) {Archive.org}

Analytical Media

1. Allen Forte Electronic Archive at the University of North Texas
   • Analytical documents by Allen Forte {AFEA}
2. Arnold Schoenberg Center {ASC}
   • Compositions: A complete works list with recordings {ASC}
3. Joseph N. Straus
   • Three Stravinsky Analyses {MTO}
   • Harmony and Voice Leading in the Music of Stravinsky {JSTOR}
4. Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Explore the Score {ETS}
• Inside the Score
• Boulez, 12 Notations (1945) {ETS} (Flash required)
  
• Ligeti, Musica Ricercata (1951-53), No. 1  {ETS}
  
• Etudes, Book 1 (1985)
• Etude 13 L'Escailer du Diable {ETS}
  

Digital Scores

1. Alexander Street: Classical Scores Library {AS CSL}
2. Boosey & Hawkes, Study Score Videos {YouTube Playlist}
   
3. IMSLP
4. ScoreFollower {YouTube Channel.; see also Incipitsify: YouTube Channel}
• Adès, Traced Overhead (1995-96) {YouTube}
  
• Crumb, Black Angels (1971) {YouTube}
• Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire (1912) {YouTube}

Bibliographies

1. BAIN MUSC 525 Post-Tonal Theory
2. BAIN MUSC 725 Contemporary Styles II (1945-1980)
3. BAIN MUSC 726B Music & Mathematics
4. Séminaire MaMuX {IRCAM}

Ear-Training

Friedmann, Michael L. 1990. Ear Training for Twentieth-Century Music. New Haven: Yale University Press. {GB}

History

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}

Serialism Resources

1. Schoenberg, Style and Idea (1975)
   • Composition with Twelve Tones (1941) {GB}
2. Webern, The Path to New Music (1932-33) {Archive.org}
3. Row Forms in the Serial Works of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern {London; CCARH}
4. Mathematics and the Twelve Tone System

References

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

Cohn, Richard. 2012. Audacious Euphony: Chromatic Harmony and the Triad's Second Nature. New York: Oxford University Press. {GB}

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

Lewin, David. 1987. Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations (GMIT). New Haven: Yale University Press. {GB}

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

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

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

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

Tymoczko, Dmitri. 2011. A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice. New York: Oxford University Press. {GB}

ASC - Arnold Schoenberg Center; AFEA - Allen Forte Electronic Archive;
GB - Google Books; MTO - Music Theory Online