Empirical Musicology Review: Serialist Claims versus Sonic Reality

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2010-04

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Empirical Musicology Review

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Abstract

This study examines the descriptive mores of Serialism, as found in writings of leading American academics of the past half-century. A serious gap is revealed, especially between claims made for structural conditions rooted in dodecaphonic procedures and the actual kinetics of music as heard. Curious (and debilitating) ambiguities and dead ends are noted in terms used to define critical perceptual conditions in such music; some claims of significance for features of 12- tone rows in certain works are revealed as wholly irrelevant to music as sonic event. Most prominent of the writings discussed are those of Milton Babbitt, Allen Forte and David Lewin.

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Serialism, 12-tone method, music perception

Citation

Empirical Musicology Review, v5 n2 (April 2010), pp 36-50

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https://doi.org/10.18061/1811/46748
 http://hdl.handle.net/1811/46748

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Empirical Musicology Review: Volume 5, Number 2 (2010)