Author: Keith Kothman

A review session for the final exam, open to all sections, will be Sunday, May 1, at 7:30. Room Mu 309.

As promised, here’s an outline of what could be on the final exam, with links to posts where appropriate and available. chromatic mediant relationships scales and chords, including polychords polytonality (and pandiatonicism) rhythm and meter, especially complex meter, additive rhythms/meter, added rhythms, and isorhythms (from Messiaen) tempo modulation and polytempo intervals in atonal theory, including…

Outlined in a post from a previous class.

I have a post from a previous class on chance music, also known as intedeterminancy, aleatoric music, or improvisation. Read it here.

I mentioned in class that Milton Babbitt was very interested in jazz, and that I think his piano music has a certain jazz feel. Here is a trio called The Bad Plus performing the Semi-Simple Variations in true jazz style, with dancers from the Mark Morris Dance Company.

Some worthwhile things to remember from the discussion on Webern’s Op. 21 Symphonie, and some clues to helping you figure out Babbitt’s Semi-Simple Variations. Webern serves as a model for many post-WWII composers, because his use of 12-tone serial composition points the way to using serialism as an organizing feature for more than just pitch,…

I’ve linked to an old post which has the guidelines. Keep in mind that we do NOT FOLLOW THE EXACT PROCEDURES IN THE BOOK. Here’s the important stuff: The top row of the matrix is the prime form of the row starting on pitch class 0. You take the prime form of the row at…