LEE- Müzik-Yüksek Lisans

Bu koleksiyon için kalıcı URI

http://hdl.handle.net/11527/19407

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Yazar "Altınbüken, Eray" ile LEE- Müzik-Yüksek Lisans'a göz atma
  • Öge
    Gunther Schuller's third stream: Story of an invented music style
    (Graduate School, 2024-05-02) Bonfil, Cenk ; Altınbüken, Eray ; 409201127 ; Music
    Since its emergence in the United States in the early 20th century, coming mainly from the African-American community in New Orleans, jazz music has always been inherently a fusion, the most prominent inputs that shaped its characteristics being, broadly put, the African rhythmic structures and European harmony. New Orleans jazz, for one, featured elements from many musics, including minstrels, French marching bands and blues. Jazz, at least in its earlier times, has been seldomly defined in relation to its individual influences and came to be an established branch of musical tradition in its own right early on in its development. Yet, adopting new stylistic elements became a characteristic feature of the tradition throughout its later advancements, which functioned to drive it forward and led to the emergence of a distinctive style almost every decade throughout the first half of the 20th century. Classical music, however, despite that its earlier forms were very much influenced by a variety of European folk musical styles, by the late 19th century and early 20th century, was rather a fixed entity, being defined largely as "art music" belonging mostly to the elite. With the fast-paced advancements in virtually all artistic and scientific areas that came in the 20th century, classical music would also be carried away by the strong currents of change and innovation. It would develop non-tonal practices, be influenced by folk music more than at least the past century, utilize complex rhythmic textures other than the most common ones such as 4/4, 3/4 and 6/8 and develop many unconventional performance practices merely in a few decades of the century. While contemporary practices and techniques were opening up to outer influences more than ever, jazz has constituted a prime attraction for many composers like Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy and Bartók. In short, the trade between classical music and jazz was never a new notion. Third Stream, a term coined by the composer Gunther Schuller in a lecture he gave at Brandeis University in 1957, stands out among earlier confluences as being a conscious attempt at bringing the two traditions of music together to shape a third one, drawing elements from both but distinctive from either in its own right. He attempted to fuse compositional tools of contemporary classical practices, which is the first stream, with the improvisational nature and rhythmic subtleties of jazz, being the second stream, and produce a "third stream" that was neither one or the other but one that was in the midway. This thesis aims to examine the ways in which Third Stream combined certain elements from both kinds of music. It will look into the compositional tools Schuller used to achieve his musical objective, define the technical hardships faced while doing this and investigate how the composer attempted to solve these. To do this, musical pieces written by Schuller that make use of mixed instrumentation consisting of jazz and classical instruments and musicians, will be formally and harmonically analyzed, by utilizing several analytical tools. These analyses will be supported first by research regarding the historical development of both jazz and classical music, a short survey of the hybridization of the two that took place before Third Stream and a look at the biography of Gunther Schuller himself, to understand personal aspirations, musical, social and personal background that led to his coining the concept. The main discussion, however, will be a comparative one about the definition of the Third Stream and its development in the following decades in reference to several statements by Schuller and his close circle of colleagues who adopted the concept in their music, followed by discussion on several criticisms it received by other scholars. The thesis will be concluded with a brief discussion that will relate the previous material to the musical analysis of the three selective pieces, by pointing out the aspects that the criticisms remain strong and those that they lack. Lastly, several suggestions for future academic and artistic research will be shared.
  • Öge
    The relationship between texture and tension in early French spectral music
    (Graduate School, 2022-06-21) Barış, Deniz Can ; Altınbüken, Eray ; 409191103 ; Music
    The aim of this thesis is to shed light on the relationship between texture and tension in early French spectral music and to make conclusions about the changes in texture that occur during the tension-increasing and tension-resolving processes. The analyses include excerpts from Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail's early pieces, both of whom are well-known composers and pioneers of French spectral music. The excerpts chosen were determined by taking into account the diversity of texture and tension curves. Along with the early period, an excerpt from second-generation composer Philippe Hurel's music is analyzed. Combined with the composer's approaches, the findings of research projects, approaches to texture and tension, the classifications for the texture of the music, and some parameters impacting the tension process serve as the primary sources of analysis. The thesis's main flow includes a brief history of French spectral music, texture definitions and comparisons, common texture types, some textural developments that occurred in the first half of the twentieth century prior to the French spectral music period, the timbral approach and its use in texture, definitions of musical tension and resolution, parametric and cognitive studies applied to these concepts, and analyses applied to clarify the relationship between texture and tension based on a parametric method. The introduction, the study's purpose, and a brief history of French spectral music are included in Chapter 1. The period's approach, the process of formation, influences, composers and their compositional attitudes, and the employed composition techniques are discussed. In Chapter 2, the texture is defined in line with the different approaches and definitions in the literature. Monophony, homophony, polyphony, and heterophony are defined under the title of common texture types and exemplified under this topic. Under the next subheading, some important developments and innovations in the texture of music and its components -in the first half of the 20th century, that is from the early 1900s to the first years of the French spectral music period- are discussed and exemplified. In the last part of Chapter 2, timbre, which has an important place in French spectral music is defined in line with different approaches, and its use in texture prior to the period is briefly discussed. In Chapter 3, texture in French spectral music, its form as a result of the use of instrumental and orchestral synthesis techniques, static sound masses, micropolyphony, and the shapes of texture created by layering these forms are demonstrated with the excerpts from the music by the composers of the period. The primary source and approach utilized in this chapter is the categorization made by Kari E. Besharse on the texture of French spectral music. In Chapter 4, concepts of tension and release in literature are defined and discussed in line with cognitive and parametric studies and approaches. In addition to associating parameters such as tonal harmony and melody, the concepts of consonance and dissonance, pitch movements, dynamics, tempo, rhythm, range in Western art music, and a number of studies, draw attention to the subjectivity and multidimensionality of the concept of musical tension, are discussed. The next subheading focuses on the process of tension and release in French spectral music, the period that the thesis aims to shed light on. Some experiments and studies carried out in this field are shared. In this section, the approaches of some spectral composers to tension, the results obtained from the studies of the researchers, the contribution of some physical properties, such as the harmony created on the basis of timbre, and the roughness of the sound to the tension process are presented. Under the last heading of Chapter 4, the parameters to be used to determine the approximate tension curves and texture types in line with all these studies, the findings, and the approaches to be considered are specified. Selected excerpts of early French spectral music are analyzed with the help of the composers' notes, information gathered from the scores, parametric transcriptions, spectrograms, quotations, figures, and tables. In the conclusion part, the data obtained as a result of the analyses are discussed, and the findings on the relationship between texture and tension are shared. The thesis is concluded with an overall assessment of the applied analyses and suggestions for possible further studies.