Chiasmi 1999

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Title Chiasmi 1999
Publication Type thesis
School or College College of Fine Arts
Department Music
Author Green, Carolee Curtis
Date 1999
Description Chiasmi 1999, scored for 15 wind instrumentalists, timpanist, and two percussionists, has three large divisions that combine to make one large A-B-A form. Three character ideas - Fanfare (mm. 1-5), Song (mm 6-9), and Frolic (m. 10) - form the Introduction. The Song becomes the lyrical theme of the piece and, from the Introduction through Part A-Section 1 (mm. 11-28), is continuous: the portions would fit together musically even without the interruptions. The transition (mm. 29-30) leads to Part !-Section 2, the fugato (mm. 31-48). In the fugato three thematic ideas emerge: subject Y (m. 31); countersubject Z (m. 32); and X (m. 34) which is Y's rhythmically varied inversion and the most important motive of the piece. The fugato is exclusively Y, Z, X, and their variations, with no episodes. Part B (mm. 49-100) is exclusively a transformation of the lyrical theme which by the end of Part B becomes a lyrical X. After the retransition (mm. 101-102), Part A' occurs (mm. 103-154). In the piece, the six ideas exploit devices such as development, interruption, canon, and combination. In the last four measure, X, Fanfare, Song, and Frolic merge to solve the drama with a melodic fanfare of 12-pitch, fortissimo chords on X and a playful but lyrical single-lime melody on X's retrograde. The title word chiasmi refers to a design with an inversion or reversal in two otherwise parallel structures or with two halves of a structure in parallel patterns to each other, i.e., synonymous, synthetic, antithetic. Part A is a chiasmus with an 18-measure section on each side of the transition. Part B with Part A' is another chiasmus, with a 52-measure part on each side of the retransition. The piece without the Introduction is a third chiasmus, containing the chiasmic structure A with its transition inside one part and the chiasmic structure B-A' with its retransition between two parts. Chiasmi occur on many levels. On a middle level, the beginning of Part A' is the return to the Introduction and Part A but with reversed events: Section 2, the fugato, returns first (m. 103), Section I second (M. 112), and the Introduction last and in two stages (mm. 127 and 146). Furthermore, X and Y are in reverse order, with X returning in M. 103 and Y in m. 103 and Y in m. 116; and the Introduction's opening pitches and rhythm return in the last of the two stages. Measure 127-128 present a simultaneously melodic and vertical statement of X, on row form P-2 which begins on D with X's original rhythm but some changed registers.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Dissertation Name Master of Music
Language eng
Rights Management (c) Carolee Curtis Green
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
ARK ark:/87278/s6tdmh0q
Setname ir_etd
ID 1719626
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6tdmh0q
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