Matthew G. Brown is a British-American music theorist,musicologist,educator,and artistic director. He is Professor of Music Theory at Eastman School of Music.[1]
Brown has also worked on the connections between music and multimedia and in 2012,he founded TableTopOpera,a chamber ensemble that specializes in multimedia projects.[2]
Brown started his career in 1986 as an assistant professor of musicology at the Eastman School of Music. From 1992 until 1997,he held an appointment as associate professor of Music Theory at Louisiana State University. In 1997,he rejoined the Eastman School of Music as an associate professor of Music Theory and was promoted to Professor of Music Theory in 2004.[1]
Works
Brown has authored five books,Debussy's 'Ibéria':Studies in Genesis and Structure,Explaining Tonality:Schenkerian Theory and Beyond,[4]Debussy Redux,[5][6]Heinrich Schenker's Conception of Harmony,and Ariane &Bluebeard:From Fairy Tale to Comic Book Opera.
Brown's theoretical work focuses on tonal theory,especially Schenkerian analysis. His paper The Diatonic and the Chromatic in Schenker's Theory of Harmonic Relations (1986) demonstrated how,through the concepts of mixture and tonicization,Schenker was able to explain the structure of highly chromatic music of the 18th and 19th centuries. Brown's book Explaining Tonality:Schenkerian Theory and Beyond explores the epistemic background and explanatory limits of Schenker's work;it shows how theory or certain versions of it satisfy six basic epistemic values:accuracy,scope,fruitfulness,simplicity,consistency,and coherence. Catherine Pellegrino called the book "noteworthy for its dispassionate examination of the merits and shortcomings of Schenker's Work".[7] His recent book with Robert W. Wason,Heinrich Schenker's Conception of Harmony,places Schenker's work within the broader history of harmonic theory and was described by Nicholas Rast as a "thorough investigation of the theorist's constellation of theoretical essays".[8] Praised for being "as engaging as it is imaginative in its analytical choices",Brown's book Debussy Redux describes how Debussy's music resurfaces in '30s swing tunes,'40s movies scores,'50s lounge/exotica,'70s rock tunes and animated films,'80s action flicks,and even Martha Stewart's Easy Listening collection.[9]
In 2012,Brown founded TableTopOpera,a chamber ensemble that specializes in multimedia projects. In particular,TableTopOpera has collaborated with comics artist P. Craig Russell on three comic book operas (Ariane and Bluebeard,Salome,and Pelléas Redux),and has developed its own shows for the Rochester Fringe Festival that tackle progressive social issues—race relations,child poverty and infant mortality,and U.S. immigration policies. In an interview with Christopher Winders regarding TableTopOpera's production "Within The Quota",Brown stated that "We wanted to make classical music appeal to people in a way that didn't dumb it down,but presented it in a format they could process."[10] In 2021,he began working on "Exploring Creative Design at the Human-Technology Frontier Through the Emerging 'Artist-Technologist' Occupation".[11]
Bibliography
Books
Debussy's 'Ibéria':Studies in Genesis and Structure (2003) ISBN 9780198161998
Explaining Tonality:Schenkerian Theory and Beyond (2005) ISBN 9781580461603
Debussy Redux. The Impact of His Music on Popular Culture (2012) ISBN 978-0253357168
Ariane &Bluebeard:From Fairy Tale to Comic Book Opera. (2022)
Selected articles
Brown,M. (1986). The Diatonic and the Chromatic in Schenker's" Theory of Harmonic Relations". Journal of Music Theory,30(1),1-33.
Brown,M.,&Dempster,D. J. (1989). The scientific image of music theory. Journal of Music Theory,33(1),65–106.
Brown,M. (1993). Tonality and Form in Debussy's Prélude à"L'Après-midi d'un faune". Music Theory Spectrum,15(2),127–143.
Brown,M. (2010). C. P. E. Bach,Schenker,Improvisation,and Composition. Intégral,1 - 27.
Calico,J.H.,Homerin,Th. E.,&Brown,M. (2015). Comic Book Opera:P. Craig Russell's Salome in a Production by Table Top Opera. The Opera Quarterly,31,289 - 307.
Brown,M. (2016). Polyphony and Cacophony? A Schenkerian Reading of Strauss's 'Dance of the Seven Veils. In Beach,D.,&Mak,S. Y. (Eds.). Explorations in Schenkerian Analysis (NED-New edition). Boydell &Brewer.
Koslovsky,J.,&Brown,M. (2016). The Contrapuntal Legacy of the French fin-de-siècle:A Look at Dukas's Piano Sonata in E-flat. Intégral,129 - 152.
Brown,M. (2019). "Follow the Leader:Debussy's Contrapuntal Games." In de Médicis,F.,Duchesneau,M,&Huebner,S. (Eds.) Debussy's Resonance. Boydell &Brewer.
Related Research Articles
Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center,or key. Atonality,in this sense,usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day,where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a single,central triad is not used,and the notes of the chromatic scale function independently of one another. More narrowly,the term atonality describes music that does not conform to the system of tonal hierarchies that characterized European classical music between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. "The repertory of atonal music is characterized by the occurrence of pitches in novel combinations,as well as by the occurrence of familiar pitch combinations in unfamiliar environments".
Polytonality is the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one harmonic function,from the same key,at the same time.
Schenkerian analysis is a method of analyzing tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935). The goal is to demonstrate the organic coherence of the work by showing how the "foreground" relates to an abstracted deep structure,the Ursatz. This primal structure is roughly the same for any tonal work,but a Schenkerian analysis shows how,in each individual case,that structure develops into a unique work at the foreground. A key theoretical concept is "tonal space". The intervals between the notes of the tonic triad in the background form a tonal space that is filled with passing and neighbour tones,producing new triads and new tonal spaces that are open for further elaborations until the "surface" of the work is reached.
A nonchord tone (NCT),nonharmonic tone,or embellishing tone is a note in a piece of music or song that is not part of the implied or expressed chord set out by the harmonic framework. In contrast,a chord tone is a note that is a part of the functional chord. Non-chord tones are most often discussed in the context of the common practice period of classical music,but they can be used in the analysis of other types of tonal music as well,such as Western popular music.
Tonality is the arrangement of pitches and/or chords of a musical work in a hierarchy of perceived relations,stabilities,attractions,and directionality. In this hierarchy the single pitch or triad with the greatest stability is called the tonic. The root of the tonic triad forms the name given to the key,so in the key of C major the tone C can be both the tonic of the scale and the root of the tonic triad. The tonic can be a different tone in the same scale,when the work is said to be in one of the modes of the scale.
In music,function is a term used to denote the relationship of a chord or a scale degree to a tonal centre. Two main theories of tonal functions exist today:
Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic pitches and chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms,within each octave,diatonic music uses only seven different notes,rather than the twelve available on a standard piano keyboard. Music is chromatic when it uses more than just these seven notes.
The original Tristan chord is heard in the opening phrase of Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde as part of the leitmotif relating to Tristan. It is made up of the notes F,B,D♯,and G♯:
In music theory,the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic—the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals and chords and whether an interval is major or minor.
Allen Forte was an American music theorist and musicologist. He was Battell Professor Emeritus of the Theory of Music at Yale University and specialized in 20th-century atonal music and music analysis.
Voice leading is the linear progression of individual melodic lines and their interaction with one another to create harmonies,typically in accordance with the principles of common-practice harmony and counterpoint.
In music theory,prolongation is the process in tonal music through which a pitch,interval,or consonant triad is considered to govern spans of music when not physically sounding. It is a central principle in the music-analytic methodology of Schenkerian analysis,conceived by Austrian theorist Heinrich Schenker. The English term usually translates Schenker's Auskomponierung. According to Fred Lerdahl,"The term 'prolongation' [...] usually means 'composing out' ."
In Schenkerian analysis,the fundamental structure describes the structure of a tonal work as it occurs at the most remote level and in the most abstract form. A basic elaboration of the tonic triad,it consists of the fundamental line accompanied by the bass arpeggiation. Hence the fundamental structure,like the fundamental line itself,takes one of three forms,depending on which tonic triad pitch is the primary tone. The example hereby shows a fundamental structure in C major,with the fundamental line descending from scale degree :
The Urlinie offers the unfurling (Auswicklung) of a basic triad,it presents tonality on horizontal paths. The tonal system,too,flows into these as well,a system intended to bring purposeful order into the world of chords through its selection of the harmonic degrees. The mediator between the horizontal formulation of tonality presented by the Urlinie and the vertical formulation presented by the harmonic degrees is voice leading.
The upper voice of a fundamental structure,which is the fundamental line,utilizes the descending direction;the lower voice,which is the bass arpeggiation through the fifth,takes the ascending direction. [...] The combination of fundamental line and bass arpeggiation constitutes a unity. [...] Neither the fundamental line nor the bass arpeggiation can stand alone. Only when acting together,when unified in a contrapuntal structure,do they produce art.
In Schenkerian theory,a scale-step is a triad that is perceived as an organizing force for a passage of music. In Harmony,Schenker gives the following example and asserts that
our ear will connect the first tone,G,with the B on the first quarter of measure 1 as the third of G.
Likewise,it will connect that G with the D on the first quarter of measure 2 as its fifth. Our ear will establish this connection instinctively,but nonetheless in accordance with the demands of Nature. In an analogous way,it will link that first G with the C and E of the second half of measure 1 and thus form the concept of another triad. For our ear will miss no opportunity to hear such triads,no matter how far in the background of our consciousness this conception may lie hidden and no matter whether in the plan of the composition it is overshadowed by far more obvious and important relationships.
Progressive tonality is the music compositional practice whereby a piece of music does not finish in the key in which it began,but instead 'progresses' to an ending in a different key or tonality. In this connection 'different key' means a different tonic,rather than merely a change to a different mode:Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony (1888–94),for example,which moves from a C minor start to an E-flat major conclusion,exhibits 'progressive tonality'—whereas Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (1804–08),which begins in C minor and ends in C major,does not. A work which ends in the key in which it began may be described as exhibiting 'concentric tonality'. The terms 'progressive' and 'concentric' were both introduced into musicology by Dika Newlin in her book Bruckner,Mahler,Schoenberg (1947).
Martin Eybl is an Austrian musicologist.
Monotonality is a theoretical concept,principally deriving from the theoretical writings of Arnold Schoenberg and Heinrich Schenker,that in any piece of tonal music only one tonic is ever present,modulations being only regions or prolongations within,or extensions of the basic tonality.
Charles Burkhart is an American musicologist,theorist,composer,and pianist. He holds the title of Professor Emeritus in the Aaron Copland School of Music,Queens College,and the Graduate Center,City University of New York. He is known especially as a scholar in Schenkerian analysis and as a successful lecturer and master class presenter.
In Schenkerian analysis,a structural level is a representation of a piece of music at a different level of abstraction,with levels typically including foreground,middleground,and background. According to Schenker musical form is "an energy transformation,as a transformation of the forces that flow from background to foreground through the levels."
This is a glossary of Schenkerian analysis,a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935). The method is discussed in the concerned article and no attempt is made here to summarize it. Similarly,the entries below whenever possible link to other articles where the concepts are described with more details,and the definitions are kept here to a minimum.
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