Title page for ETD etd-04192006-121338
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Type of Document Master's Thesis
Author Ogburn, James Joseph
Author's Email Address spatulasidekick@hotmail.com
URN etd-04192006-121338
Title Fear of Entropy, for Orchestra
Degree Master of Arts
Program Music
School School of Arts and Sciences
Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title
Dr. Amy WIlliams Committee Chair
Dr. Eric Moe Committee Member
Dr. Matthew Rosenblum Committee Member
Keywords
  • music
  • music theory
  • composition
  • composer
  • arch form
  • voice-leading
  • functional harmony
  • functional harmonies
  • metric displacement
  • chromatic descent
  • foreground
  • background
  • layer
  • layers
  • Ives
  • Central Park in the Dark
  • Crumb
  • Star-child
  • homophony
  • homophonic
  • polyphony
  • polyphonic
  • counterpoint
  • orchestra
  • transposition
  • transpositionally
  • interval
  • intervallic
  • consonance
  • dissonance
  • consonant
  • dissonant
  • tonal
  • triad
  • tonality
  • triadic
  • triads
  • ostinato
  • reductive
  • cadence
  • cadences
  • dominant
  • tonic
  • secondary dominant
  • orchestration
  • doubling
  • doublings
  • coda
  • pulse
  • canon
  • canonically
  • canonic
  • register
  • registral
  • dynamics
  • microtone
  • microtones
  • microtonal
  • tonal resolution
  • de-tuning
  • de-tuned
  • cluster chord
  • harmonic series
  • overtone series
  • overtone
  • partial
  • partials
  • fundamental
Date of Defense 2006-04-13
Availability unrestricted
Abstract
In this essay, I discuss the structure of my orchestral work Fear of Entropy (2005). Through phrase analysis, I establish the form of the work and address the distinctions between disparate sections, as well as address the function of repetition within the piece. By analyzing the harmonic and contrapuntal structures of individual sections I reveal pitch-based commonalities and distinctions between these sections and account for these factors according to form and texture. This analysis also yields normative patterns internal to the work (such as anticipated harmonic goals). I discuss how and why these norms are progressively subverted. By analyzing texture, I define the most obvious structural divisions of the piece. Through textural analysis, I also identify progressive alterations to texture, timbre, and pitch that increasingly serve to obscure the foundational harmony. I discuss how these processes eventually subordinate pitch to other elements such as timbre.

By detailing my compositional process through these methods of analysis, I demonstrate my disposition and innate tendencies. In the course of this study, I also identify sonorities that intuitively appeal to me. In addition, I uncover a subconscious proclivity on my part towards pitch-based unification of texturally distinct materials within a large work.

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