SERIALISM —
MUS 538 (SPRING 2003)
Professor: Dr.
Stephen Peles Office: 251 Moody Music Bldg.
Office phone: 348-1472 Office Hours: MW
2:00-3:00 and by appointment
E-mail: speles@music.ua.edu
A method of composition in which a fixed permutation,
or series, of elements is referential (i.e. the handling of those elements in
the composition is governed, to some extent and in some manner, by the series).
Most commonly the elements arranged in the series are the 12 notes of the
equal-tempered scale. This was so in the technique introduced by Schoenberg in
the early 1920s and employed by him in most of his subsequent compositions.
Serialism was quickly taken up by his pupils, including Berg and Webern, and
then by their pupils, but not at first by many outside this circle, the most
important exceptions being Dallapiccola and Krenek. The method spread more
widely and rapidly in the decade after World War II, when Babbitt, Boulez, Nono
and Stockhausen produced their first acknowledged works. These composers and
their colleagues sometimes extended serialism to elements other than pitch,
notably duration, dynamics and timbre. At the same time serial techniques began
to be used by already established composers; here the outstanding example was
Stravinsky. The diverse range of composers so far mentioned should indicate
that serialism cannot be described as constituting by itself a system of
composition, still less a style. Nor is serialism of some sort incompatible
with tonality, as is demonstrated in works by Berg and Stravinsky, for example,
though it has most usually been employed as a means of erecting pitch
structures in atonal music.
— Paul Griffiths,
“Serialism.” In The New Grove Dictionary of
Music
and Musicians.
Vol. 17 (London: Macmillan, 1980), p. 162.
Course Description
This course is designed for advanced
graduate students and is intended as an introduction to serial music and to the
theoretical literature which attempts to address that music. Broadly speaking it has three goals.
(1)
To introduce you to the music and the special problems it poses,
focussing chiefly on works that have in some measure entered the repertory.
(2)
To introduce you to the current state of the art in theoretical thinking
about this literature and to provide you with some basic analytical and
descriptive strategies for dealing with unfamiliar works whose structural
principles are novel and perhaps unknown.
The theoretical enterprise in question in scarcely forty years old, and
is thus still in its infancy as such things go. It is hoped that the readings from the literature will provide
you with some historical sense of how the field has evolved over that time.
(3)
To enhance your aural perceptions of this music, to make your way of
thinking about it more relevant to the music itself, and to enable you to talk
and write coherently about it.
Materials
This course is intended to follow the
fall semester Introduction to Atonal Theory course. John Rahn’s Basic Atonal
Theory (New York: Schirmer Books,
1980) is the initial text in that course.
Students who did not take that course are strongly advised to acquire
the Rahn text, knowledge of which is required and assumed for purposes of the
current course.
Always bring
note paper and music paper to class.
Grading
Homework and
quizes count for 80% of the final grade; the final exam counts for 20%.
Reading assignments are assignments, too; like most
graduate courses, readings from the professional literature constitute one of
the most important components of this course.
Class preparation and participation will thus be taken into account in
the determination of the final grade.
Course material is presented in three
forms: readings from the literature,
handouts, and lectures. You are
responsible for all material, regardless of the medium of presentation. It is of utmost importance that you bring
note paper and music paper to class and take
notes. In the event that you are
absent for a lecture, be sure to get the notes for that class from a classmate.
To request disability accommodations, please contact Disabilities Services
(348-4285). After initial arrangements
are made with that office, contact your instructors.
Schedule
I. Introduction
to order relations
II. The Second
Viennese School: “Motivic” Aspects
Webern and “derivation”
III. The Second
Viennese School: Hexachordal
Combinatoriality
Schoenberg
IV. Postwar
Developments: Generalized arrays
12-tone and non-12-tone combinatorialities
V. Postwar
Developments: Rhythmic organization
VI. Some Special
Cases: Stravinsky and Euroserialism