Stefan Kostka

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Stefan M. Kostka (born 1939) [1] is an American music theorist, author, and Professor Emeritus of music theory at the University of Texas at Austin. [2]

Contents

Education

Kostka graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor's Degree, and then received a graduate degree at the University of Texas, studying under Kent Kennan before receiving a PhD in music theory from the University of Wisconsin. [3]

Career

He was a member of the faculty of the Eastman School of Music from 1969 to 1973, and since that time has been on the faculty at the University Texas at Austin. Kostka initiated courses in computer applications in music at both the Eastman School and the University of Texas. Later, he specialized in courses in atonal theory and contemporary styles and techniques.

Selected publications

Books

Articles

Related Research Articles

In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone that is commonly used in the final cadence in tonal classical music, popular music, and traditional music. In the movable do solfège system, the tonic note is sung as do. More generally, the tonic is the note upon which all other notes of a piece are hierarchically referenced. Scales are named after their tonics: for instance, the tonic of the C major scale is the note C.

Atonality Music that lacks a tonal center or key

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

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 is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key, at the same time.

In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance below the tonic as the dominant is above the tonic – in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant. It also happens to be the note one step below the dominant. In the movable do solfège system, the subdominant note is sung as fa.

In music theory, an augmented sixth chord contains the interval of an augmented sixth, usually above its bass tone. This chord has its origins in the Renaissance, was further developed in the Baroque, and became a distinctive part of the musical style of the Classical and Romantic periods.

In music, the subtonic is the degree of a musical scale which is a whole step below the tonic note. In a major key, it is a lowered, or flattened, seventh scale degree. It appears as the seventh scale degree in the natural minor and descending melodic minor scales but not in the major scale. In major keys, the subtonic sometimes appears in borrowed chords. In the movable do solfège system, the subtonic note is sung as te.

Polychord

In music and music theory, a polychord consists of two or more chords, one on top of the other. In shorthand they are written with the top chord above a line and the bottom chord below, for example F upon C: F/C.

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena".

A unit of a larger work that may stand by itself as a complete composition. Such divisions are usually self-contained. Most often the sequence of movements is arranged fast-slow-fast or in some other order that provides contrast.

While the ultimate harmonic goal of a tonal composition is the final tonic triad, there will also be many interior harmonic goals found within the piece, some of them tonic triads and some of them not. ...We use the term cadence to mean a harmonic goal, specifically the chords used at the goal.

Phrase (music) Musical unit

In music theory, a phrase is a unit of musical meter that has a complete musical sense of its own, built from figures, motifs, and cells, and combining to form melodies, periods and larger sections.

A phrase is a substantial musical thought, which ends with a musical punctuation called a cadence. Phrases are created in music through an interaction of melody, harmony, and rhythm.

In music, quartal harmony is the building of harmonic structures built from the intervals of the perfect fourth, the augmented fourth and the diminished fourth. For instance, a three-note quartal chord on C can be built by stacking perfect fourths, C–F–B.

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.

Sound mass

In musical composition, a sound mass is the result of compositional techniques, in which, "the importance of individual pitches," is minimized, "in preference for texture, timbre, and dynamics as primary shapers of gesture and impact," obscuring, "the boundary between sound and noise".

The omnibus progression in music is a chord progression characterized by chromatic lines moving in opposite directions. The progression has its origins in the various Baroque harmonizations of the descending chromatic fourth in the bass ostinato pattern of passacaglia, known as the "lament bass". However, in its fullest form the omnibus progression involves a descent in the bass which traverses a whole octave and includes every note of the chromatic scale. It may also include one or more chromatic ascending tetrachords in the soprano, tenor and alto.

Diatonic and chromatic Terms in music theory to characterize scales

Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600–1900.

Neotonality is an inclusive term referring to musical compositions of the twentieth century in which the tonality of the common-practice period is replaced by one or several nontraditional tonal conceptions, such as tonal assertion or contrapuntal motion around a central chord.

The augmented seventh chord, or seventh augmented fifth chord, or seventh sharp five chord is a seventh chord composed of a root, major third, augmented fifth, and minor seventh. It can be viewed as an augmented triad with a minor seventh. When using popular-music symbols, it is denoted by +7, aug7, or 75. For example, the augmented seventh chord built on C, written as C+7, has pitches C–E–G–B:

In music, the dominant is the fifth scale degree of the diatonic scale. It is called the dominant because it is next in importance to the first scale degree, the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the dominant note is sung as "So(l)".

Third (chord)

In music, the third factor of a chord is the note or pitch two scale degrees above the root or tonal center. When the third is the bass note, or lowest note, of the expressed triad, the chord is in first inversion.

References

  1. "Kostka, Stefan M." id.loc.gov. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
  2. "Stefan Kostka". University of Texas, Butler School of Music.
  3. Kostka & Payne 1995, p.  xii.
  4. Review of A Bibliography of Computer Applications in Music: John E. Druesedow (May 1975), Computers and the Humanities , vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 147–148 JSTOR   30208237
  5. Reviews of Tonal Harmony: Roger Graybill (Autumn 1993), Music Theory Spectrum , vol. 15, iss. 2, pp. 257–266 doi : 10.2307/745818, JSTOR   745818; Ann Kosakowski McNamee (Autumn 1986), Journal of Music Theory , vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 309–314 doi : 10.2307/843581, JSTOR   843581
  6. Reviews of Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music: Ronald Rodman (Spring–Fall 1989), Indiana Theory Review , vol. 10, pp. 115–123 JSTOR   24045427; Mary H. Wennerstrom (1990), Intégral , vol. 4, pp. 105–116 JSTOR   40213927; Arnold Whittall (Spring 1991), Music Theory Spectrum , vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 79–88 doi : 10.2307/745975, JSTOR   745975