An Analysis of Selected Piano Works Art and Nature in

Florida State University LibrariesElectronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School

Art and Nature in Kenneth Frazelle's Music:An Analysis of Selected Piano WorksChance Elan Israel

Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]

http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/

mailto:[email protected]

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

`

COLLEGE OF MUSIC

ART AND NATURE IN KENNETH FRAZELLE’S MUSIC:

AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED PIANO WORKS

By

CHANCE ELAN ISRAEL

A Treatise submitted to the

College of Music

in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Music

2021

ii

Chance Elan Israel defended this treatise on March 30, 2021.

The members of the supervisory committee were:

Stijn De Cock

Professor Directing Treatise

Joseph Kraus

University Representative

John Read Gainsford

Committee Member

Heidi Louise Williams

Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and

certifies that the treatise has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

iii

For Pa.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I also would like to thank my family for their never-ending love and support. I am

blessed to have loved ones who are always on my side. I also would like to thank my professor,

Dr. Stijn De Cock, for sharing his genius and knowledge with me. I am also very grateful to my

committee members, Dr. Gainsford, Dr. Williams, and Dr. Kraus for giving me guidance. Lastly,

I would like to express my gratitude to Kenneth Frazelle, who generously shared his insights and

erudition with me. Thank you for making such beautiful music.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Examples ........................................................................................................................... vii

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ix

1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................1

1.1 Biography ..............................................................................................................................1

1.2 Background and significance of the project ..........................................................................2

1.3 Purpose ..................................................................................................................................4

1.4 Survey of literature ................................................................................................................4

1.4.1 Sources on Kenneth Frazelle ...........................................................................................5

1.4.2 Sources on Elixir .............................................................................................................5

1.4.3 Sources on Appearances .................................................................................................6

1.4.4 Sources on Inventions to Marden ....................................................................................7

1.4.5 Sources on the inventions genre .....................................................................................7

1.4.6 Sources on Brice Marden ................................................................................................8

1.4.7 Sources on Wildflowers ...................................................................................................9

2. ELIXIR ......................................................................................................................................11

2.1 Background .........................................................................................................................11

2.2 Similarities between Chopin’s Nocturnes and Elixir ..........................................................11

2.3 Synthesis of Frazelle’s techniques and the nocturne genre .................................................12

2.4 Influence of Roger Sessions ................................................................................................13

2.5 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................18

3. APPEARANCES .......................................................................................................................20

3.1 Background .........................................................................................................................20

3.2 Analysis of Americana pieces .............................................................................................20

3.3 Analysis of modernist pieces ..............................................................................................22

3.4 Modernist criticism of Americana music ............................................................................23

3.5 Musical and historic parallels to Copland ...........................................................................24

3.6 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................25

4. INVENTIONS TO MARDEN ...................................................................................................27

4.1 Background .........................................................................................................................27

4.2 Frazelle and Marden ............................................................................................................27

4.3 Bach’s influence on Frazelle ...............................................................................................28

4.4 Marden’s “Greek” art in Frazelle’s Inventions ...................................................................33

4.5 Unifying aspects ..................................................................................................................35

4.5.1 Rhythmic fragment as the basic musical idea................................................................35

4.5.2 Interval as the basic musical idea ..................................................................................38

4.6 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................41

vi

5. WILDFLOWERS ......................................................................................................................43

5.1 Background .........................................................................................................................43

5.2 Analysis of individual works ..............................................................................................44

5.2.1 Slender Ladies’ Tresses .................................................................................................44

5.2.2 Fringed Polygala ...........................................................................................................45

5.2.3 Birdfoot Violet ...............................................................................................................47

5.2.4 Flame Azalea .................................................................................................................48

5.2.5 Indian Pipes ...................................................................................................................49

5.2.6 Fire Pink ........................................................................................................................50

5.2.7 Blue Lobelia ...................................................................................................................51

5.2.8 Viper’s Bugloss ..............................................................................................................52

5.2.9 Columbine ......................................................................................................................55

5.2.10 Deptford Pink ...............................................................................................................56

5.3 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................57

6. CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................................58

APPENDICES ...............................................................................................................................59

A. INTERVIEWS ....................................................................................................................59

B. SCORE EXCERPT USE AND PUBLISHER ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...........................81

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................................82

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .........................................................................................................85

vii

LIST OF EXAMPLES

Example 2.1. Elixir, mm. 1-10 .......................................................................................................14

Example 2.2. Elixir, mm. 16-30 .....................................................................................................15




Example 2.6. Elixir, mm. 89-102 ...................................................................................................17

Example 2.7. Elixir, mm. 103-111 .................................................................................................18

Example 3.1. Appearances No. 1, mm. 1-5 ...................................................................................21



Example 3.4. Appearances No. 3, mm. 14-19 ...............................................................................22


Example 3.6. Appearances No. 6, mm. 12-15 ...............................................................................23


Example 4.1. Invention No. 1, mm. 1-11 .......................................................................................31

Example 4.2. Invention No. 3, mm. 1-3 .........................................................................................32

Example 4.3. Invention No. 2, mm. 1-9 .........................................................................................32


Example 4.5. Invention No. 1, mm. 15-18 .....................................................................................36




Example 4.9. Invention No. 5, mm. 170-174 .................................................................................39

Example 4.10. Invention No. 3, mm. 10-15 ...................................................................................40

viii

Example 4.11. Invention No. 3, mm. 16-19 ...................................................................................40


Example 5.1. Wildflowers: Slender Ladies’ Tresses, mm. 1-6 ......................................................44

Example 5.2. Wildflowers: Fringed Polygala, mm. 1-9 ................................................................45

Example 5.3. Wildflowers: Fringed Polygala, mm. 10-14 ............................................................47

Example 5.4. Wildflowers: Birdfoot Violet, mm. 1-8 ....................................................................48

Example 5.5. Wildflowers: Flame Azalea, mm. 1-8 ......................................................................50

Example 5.6. Wildflowers; Flame Azalea, mm. 13-20 ..................................................................50

Example 5.7. Wildflowers: Fire Pink, mm. 1-5 .............................................................................51

Example 5.8. Wildflowers: Fire Pink, mm. 31-35 .........................................................................51

Example 5.9. Wildflowers; Blue Lobelia, mm. 1-5 ........................................................................52

Example 5.10. Wildflowers: Blue Lobelia, mm. 10-19 ..................................................................52

Example 5.11. Wildflowers: Viper’s Bugloss, mm. 1-5 .................................................................54

Example 5.12. Wildflowers: Viper’s Bugloss, mm. 1-5, mm. 39-42, mm. 65-66 ..........................54

Example 5.13. Wildflowers: Viper’s Bugloss, mm. 50-56 .............................................................55

Example 5.14. Wildflowers: Columbine, mm. 1-2 .........................................................................56

Example 5.15. Wildflowers: Columbine, mm. 5-7 .........................................................................56

Example 5.16. Wildflowers: Deptford Pink, mm. 1-5 ...................................................................57

ix

ABSTRACT

In this treatise, I study four of Kenneth Frazelle’s piano works, Elixir, Appearances,

Inventions to Marden and Wildflowers. In composing these works, Frazelle took inspiration

from extramusical sources including Paul Cezanne’s artistic technique, the artworks of Brice

Marden, and the wildflowers of North Carolina. Musical influences include the music of Johann

Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Aaron Copland, and Roger Sessions. More

specifically, Elixir takes inspiration from the nocturnes of Chopin, infusing the nocturne genre in

its compositional technique and style. Appearances is a set containing seven miniatures that

feature Americana and modernist idioms. The work reflects Frazelle’s analysis of Paul

Cézanne’s technical abilities as a painter. Inventions to Marden is cyclical work that expresses

the composer’s impression of Brice Marden’s paintings and drawings. I reexamine the qualities

of J. S. Bach’s Inventions and how they relate to Frazelle’s own Inventions. I also explore the

many allusions to art, literature, and history in the piece. Wildflowers is a set that is inspired by

the visual properties of North Carolina wildflowers. In addition to examining how these flowers

are symbolized in the music, I analyze how individual movements of Wildflowers achieve unity

through the development of a basic musical idea. Prior to my analyses, I provide a brief

biography of the composer and a historical background for each piece.

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Biography

Kenneth Frazelle (b. 1955) is an American composer born in North Carolina. His oeuvre

encompasses compositions for piano, chamber, orchestra, voice, and choir. His music utilizes

American folk elements and Jazz idioms, infused with modernist elements from the techniques

of Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland to name a few. In addition to this, he reuses genres and

forms mastered by composers of the past, including J. S. Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Robert

Schumann, and many others.

Frazelle has been recognized on both national and international stages, receiving

accolades and awards. This includes the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American

Academy of Arts and Letters and the Barlow Prize from Brigham Young University. He has

been commissioned by renowned artists and orchestras including Yo-Yo-Ma, Jeffrey Kahane,

Emmanuel Ax, John Adams, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, among many others.

His music is widely performed around the world in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York

City, Westminster Abbey in London, Lincoln Center in Washington D. C., Winston-Salem North

Carolina, Lyon France.

Frazelle was born in Jacksonville, North Carolina. In high school, he attended the North

Carolina School for the Arts, studying piano and composition. After finishing high school, he

attended the Juilliard School, studying composition under Roger Sessions. He considers his

studies with Sessions to be formative of his compositional output. In addition to his musical

studies, New York City’s vibrant art culture had a profound influence in his aesthetic. After

receiving his bachelor’s degree, he returned to Winston-Salem to teach piano and composition.

2

The folk music, culture, and scenic rural views of North Carolina contrasted with the

mechanical, urban environment of New York City. This reflected Frazelle’s stylistic shift from

the “dense, rhythmic and thematic materials in a decidedly non-tonal harmonic language

espoused by Julliard faculty members, Sessions, Babbit, and Carter,” to music that is more

tonally direct and accessible.1 Upon returning to Winston-Salem, Frazelle embarked on an

extensive study of the musical qualities of Appalachian folk songs.2 Apart from folk songs,

Frazelle also takes inspiration from the scenic landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the

artworks of Brice Marden, the poetry of A.R. Ammons, and many other extramusical sources. To

date, he is a composition faculty member in his alma mater, University of North Carolina School

for the Arts. Apart from composing and teaching, Frazelle is an avid painter. His artworks depict

North Carolina landscapes and nature.

1.2 Background and significance of the project

Frazelle follows a line of 20th-century American composers who incorporated Western

Classic techniques and extramusical inspirations. His compositions depict contemporary art,

literature, and the American landscape. A salient feature of Frazelle’s works is the fusion of

traditional classic genres with modern compositional techniques. Moreover, he employs

Americana idioms such as folk and jazz music. Among the diversity of subjects that inspire

Frazelle in his music making, my research studies the pieces that reflect his visual inclination.

Elixir is a small piece inspired by the cantabile tradition of romantic nocturnes. Among

the pieces discussed in this research, Elixir is the only one that does not take inspiration from

1 “Kenneth Frazelle,” Subito Music Corporation, accessed December 2020,

https://www.subitomusic.com/composers/highlights/kenneth-frazelle/. 2 Zoom Interview with Kenneth Frazelle, January 09, 2021.

http://www.subitomusic.com/composers/highlights/kenneth-frazelle/

http://www.subitomusic.com/composers/highlights/kenneth-frazelle/

3

extramusical sources. Nevertheless, the piece introduces musical techniques that are salient to

understanding Frazelle’s musical language: 1) It demonstrates how the composer reuses an old

genre, 2) It shows the composer’s harmonic language and use of pianistic texture, 3) It

demonstrates how the composer achieves unity in a piece through the development of a basic

musical idea.

Appearances comprises seven contrasting miniatures. The pieces are divided into

Americana and modernist categories. I analyze how Jazz and modernist idioms are incorporated

into the music. I explicate the varying styles employed in Appearances and analyze how these

reflect Frazelle and his contemporaries’ musical viewpoints regarding Americana music and

modernism. This stylistic dichotomy is also discussed in relation to Aaron Copland, with whom

Frazelle shares many musical characteristics and viewpoints.

Inventions to Brice Marden is a cyclical set comprising five pieces that investigate Brice

Marden’s artistic style. It also emulates certain features of J.S. Bach’s Inventions. I study aspects

that Frazelle takes from Bach and how he reinvigorates the invention genre. I discuss the

composer’s relationship with Marden’s artworks and style, and how they are conveyed in the

music. Its allusions to art and literature include Ancient Greek mythology and music, and

Chinese calligraphy, each which I will investigate. Lastly, I tackle the unifying aspects of the set

and how they help convey programmatic elements.

Wildflowers is a set depicting the wildflowers of North Carolina. The set contains ten

miniatures; each titled after a certain wildflower that it portrays. The visual characteristics of

flowers such as the Slender Ladies’ Tresses, Blue Lobelia, and Viper’s Bugloss, are symbolized

in the music. Most of the miniatures are dedicated to the composer’s close friends. Some of the

pieces are portrayal of certain dedicatees’ personalities and character. Two of the miniatures

4

directly quote from Schumann and Chopin. This chapter details how these extramusical

influences are symbolized in the music.

Having garnered multiple accolades and awards, Frazelle’s music resounds across

America and Europe. Although performances of his works abound, there is not much literature

that provides substantial information about his music. I write this treatise to help future

performers and researchers understand and interpret the composer’s music.

1.3 Purpose

In my conversation with Frazelle, he relayed to me how performers and listeners

misconceive his music. According to him, they tend view his piano works as merely

improvisatory, including the ones featured in this treatise. While it is true that his music employs

fantasy and improvisatory aspects, the structural foundations are often overlooked. In light of

these misconceptions, two things come to mind as I study his music. One is to guide performers

and listeners as they plunge headlong into the web of complexities and intertextual connections

in his works. In addition, this research provides substantial information to those who are

interested in researching Frazelle’s other works. My second purpose is to contribute to the pool

of literature in the contemporary piano world. In providing substantial knowledge and

information on Frazelle’s piano works, I encourage performers and researchers alike to explore

the beauty and concepts of his compositions.

1.4 Survey of literature

Literature on the life and works of Frazelle has yet to be expanded. Most of the

information on this treatise is taken from interviews and correspondence with the composer, and

5

websites that provide a biography and summary of his music. For the piano works featured in

this treatise, I also use resources that provide information on their influences and extramusical

content.

1.4.1 Sources on Kenneth Frazelle

For information about Frazelle’s life and works, I consulted his professional website that

features his biography, list of works and their descriptions, recordings, and other materials that

are pertinent to the composer’s career.3 Another source that has a more detailed and personal

biography of Frazelle is the website of his publisher, Subito Music Corporation.4 Information

about the piano works come from two interviews with composer. In the first interview, he

discusses the historical background and compositional aspects of Elixir and Wildflowers.5 In the

second, he briefly talks about his background in the arts, and provided insights on Appearances

and Inventions to Marden.6

1.4.2 Sources on Elixir

This chapter concerns two musical aspects that the composer uses in this composition:

the employment and development of a basic musical idea as defined by his former mentor, Roger

Sessions, and the utilization of the 19th-century nocturne genre closely associated with Frédéric

Chopin. Robert Morgan’s book, Twentieth Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern

Europe and America contains a chapter on Roger Sessions’ biography and musical style.7 Erik

Prausnitz’s Roger Sessions: How a “Difficult” Composer Got That Way is a concise biography

of the composer. The chapter, “Musical Idea 1” details Sessions’ 1949 lecture in the Juilliard

3 Kenneth Frazelle, published 2017, https://www.kennethfrazelle.com/. 4 “Kenneth Frazelle,” Subito Music Corporation. 5 Zoom Interview with Kenneth Frazelle, January 09, 2021. 6 Zoom Interview with Kenneth Frazelle, February 10, 2021. 7 Robert Morgan, “Sessions,” Twentieth Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and

America, (New York: W.W. Norton & Norton Company, 1991), 292-295.

http://www.kennethfrazelle.com/

http://www.kennethfrazelle.com/

6

School, where he expounded on the “basic musical idea” as an important compositional process.8

I refer to Jim Samson’s Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music on the history and

definition of the archetypal romantic nocturne.9 For an overview of Chopin’s innovation to the

nocturne genre, I consult Maurice Brown and Kenneth Hamilton’s article “Nocturne” in Grove

Music Online.10

1.4.3 Sources on Appearances

This work reflects Frazelle’s use of Americana and modernist idioms. I draw parallels

between Frazelle and Copland, who likewise integrated diverse styles, musical views, and sought

a reconciliation among such concepts. Gayle Murchinson’s The American Stravinsky is an

encyclopedic coverage of Copland’s life, works, and politics. I focus on the chapter “Popular

Music and Jazz,” which details on Copland’s Trois Esquisses, a work that synthesizes both Jazz

idioms and modernist techniques.11 David Burge’s Twentieth Century Piano Music: Studies in

Musical Genres and Repertoire features a concise overview of Copland’s modernist piano

works, particularly the Piano Variations.12 Both Trois Esquisses and Piano Variations have

features that are similar to Frazelle’s Appearances. Christopher Chowrimootoo’s article

“Copland’s Styles: Musical Modernism, Middlebrow Culture, and the Appreciation of New

Music” in the Journal of Musicology studies criticism surrounding Copland’s musical style and

pedagogy at a time when high modernist ideals clash with the advent of populism in the United

8 Erik Prausnitz, “The Musical Idea”, Roger Sessions: How a “Difficult” Composer Got That Way,

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 92-101. 9 Jim Samson, “Nocturne,” Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2002), 168. 10 Maurice Brown and Kenneth Hamilton, “Nocturne,” Grove Music Online, (2001), https://www-

oxfordmusiconline-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-

9781561592630-e-0000020012. 11 Gayle Murchinson, “Popular Music and Jazz: Authentic or Ersatz?,” The American Stravinsky,

(Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2012), 55. 12 David Burge, “Copland, Sessions, and the midcentury Piano Sonata,” Twentieth Century Piano Music:

Studies in Musical Genres and Repertoires, (New York: Schirmer Books, 1991), 117.

7

States.13 Copland’s struggle with high modernist attitudes reverberates through Frazelle’s

encounters with multiple contemporary “modernist” viewpoints. Lastly, I reference Copland

himself in his What to Listen for in Music, where he espoused the importance of expression and

meaning in music to which Frazelle subscribes wholeheartedly.14

1.4.4 Sources on Inventions to Marden

This chapter covers a wide range of topics, including Brice Marden’s life and works, and

the incorporation of the invention genre. I consult sources that study not only Marden’s artworks,

but also the subjects depicted in his art which are pertinent to analyzing the Inventions.

Moreover, sources on the Baroque inventions genre and fugue as a rhetorical device are studied.

I analyze characteristics of the genre that informed Frazelle in writing the Inventions and study

his own innovations.

1.4.5 Sources on the inventions genre

John Caldwell’s article, “Inventions” provides an historical overview and etymology of

the musical genre.15 I relate its origin and formal qualities to Frazelle’s own Inventions. David

Schulenberg’s The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach has a chapter that details the musical aspects of

the composer’s Inventions and Sinfonias.16 He explicates Bach’s Inventions’ form, texture, and

historical background. I analyze the salient characteristics of Bach’s Inventions in relation to

Frazelle’s work. Courtney Adams’ article, “Organization in the Two-Part Inventions of Johann

13 Christopher Chowrimootoo, “Copland’s Styles: Musical Modernism, Middlebrow Culture, and the

Appreciation of New Music,” Journal of Musicology 37, no. 4 (October 2020): 518-559,

https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2020.37.4.518. 14 Aaron Copland, What to Listen for in Music, (New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 1957), 10. 15 John Caldwell, “Invention,” Grove Music Online, (2001), accessed January 4, 2021, https://www-

oxfordmusiconline-com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-

9781561592630-e-0000013877. 16 David Schulenberg, “The Clavier-buchlein vor Wilhelm Friedmann Bach and Related Works,” The

Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, (New York: Routledge, 2006), 176.

8

Sebastian Bach” in the Bach journal analyzes the systematic planning of Bach’s Inventions.17

The article encompasses a wide range of research regarding the Invention’s organization,

including motivic and formal elements. I focus on Bach’s tonal organization and compare it with

how Frazelle organizes his Inventions.

1.4.6 Sources on Brice Marden

The Gagosian Gallery prides Brice Marden as one of its artists, featuring his works in

over five exhibitions. Its website provides a brief introduction to the artist and his style.18 The

Guggenheim Museum likewise features Marden in its exhibitions. Their website provides

information about the artist’s journey in Thailand, which informed his oriental calligraphic

works.19 Frazelle associates the artist’s calligraphic works with contrapuntal texture. He uses the

term “rhetoric” in describing the polyphony of his Inventions, linking it to the rhetoricians of the

Renaissance and the Greeks. To substantiate this, I consulted Gregory Butler’s article “Fugue

and Rhetoric” in the Journal of Music Theory.20 The article details the encroachment of poetics

into musical form during the onset of enlightenment. Ted Loos’s article “A Subtle Sense of

Place” features the author’s interview with Marden.21 In this interview, the artist talks about his

sojourn in Greece and how its architecture and art influenced his style, essentially giving birth to

his drawing, The Muses, an artwork which greatly inspired Frazelle.

17 Courtney S. Adams. "Organization in the Two-Part Inventions of Johann Sebastian Bach, Part I," Bach

13, no. 2 (1982): 6-16. 18 Larry Gagosian. “Brice Marden,” Gagosian Gallery, (April 12, 2018), https://gagosian.com/artists/brice-

marden/. 19 “The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation,” Guggenheim Museum, Accessed February 15, 2021,

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/brice-marden. 20 Gregory G. Butler, “Fugue and Rhetoric”, Journal of Music Theory 31, no.1 (1977): 49-109, https://doi-

org.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/10.2307/843479. 21 Ted Loos, “A Subtle Sense of Place,” The New York Times, (New York: The New York Times, 2006).

http://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/brice-marden


9

Richard Dorment’s article “Journey from ‘Nebraska’” in the New York Review features a

review of Marden’s drawing, The Muses.22 Dorment provides an artistic interpretation of the

work and historical background of its conception. Although Frazelle’s Inventions is not a direct

depiction of Marden’s art, the subject matter of drawing is evoked in the last Invention. I

reference Robin Hard’s Routledge Handbook to Greek Mythology in discussing the muses

portrayed in the Inventions.23 Moreover, Marden intended the final Inventions to imitate the

rhythmic qualities of Ancient Greek music. For this, I use M. L. West’s textbook on Ancient

Greek Music.24 A pertinent trait prevalent in Marden’s art is the play on perspective. Frazelle’s

Inventions captures this aspect in the aural plane. Kelly Montana’s book Think of Them as

Spaces features Marden’s drawings that span over the artist’s lifetime.25 The book contains

Montana’s analysis of the artist’s works and his play on perspective.

1.4.7 Sources on Wildflowers

For this piece, I base the information on my interview with Frazelle and my individual

analysis. The only text about music that I reference is F. E. Kirby’s Music for Piano: A Short

History for the Chopin quotation found in Viper’s Bugloss.26 Other sources are books and

websites that contain information on the visual characteristics of the wildflowers portrayed in the

set. I reference Stanley Bentley’s Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains for the

visual characteristics of Slender Ladies’ Tresses, an orchid that is portrayed by the opening piece

22 Richard Dorment, “Journey from ‘Nebraska’,” The New York Review, (New York: The New York

Review, 2006). 23 Robin Hard, “Lesser Deities and Nature Spirits,” Routledge Handbook to Greek Mythology, (Sussex:

Psychology Press, 2004), 204. 24 M.L. West, “Rhythm and Tempo,” Ancient Greek Music, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 129. 25 Kelly Montana, Think of Them as Spaces: Brice Marden’s Drawings, (Houston: Yale University Press,

2020). 26 F. E Kirb, “The Early Nineteenth Century: Chopin,” Music for Piano: A Short History, (Portland, Or:

Amadeus Press, 1995), 185.

10

of the same title.27 The next piece, Fringed Polygala symbolizes the titular flower’s petals

through motivic variation. For this, I reference Brande Wendel’s article “Fringed Polygala” in

the Forest Service Shield, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website.28 From the same website, I

consult Larry Stritch’s article “Viola Pedata” for the flower’s properties depicted in Birdfoot

Violet.29 The piece Indian Pipes portrays not only the flower’s appearance, but also the dark and

damp environment it thrives in. Rebecca Finneran’s article “Indian Pipes: Oddities of the Plant

World” in the Michigan State University website explicates background information about the

plant.30 For the pieces Fire Pink and Blue Lobelia, I consult the book Charlotte Adelman and

Bernard Schwartz’s The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives to Nonnative Flowers

and Plants: An Illustrated Guide, a guidebook for local gardeners on noninvasive regional native

wildflowers.31 For Viper’s Bugloss, I reference Richard and Tim Dickinson, and Deborah

Metzger’s The Rom Field Guide to Wildflowers of Ontario.32 Although the book details on the

wildflowers of Ontario, it contains pertinent information of the exact flower depicted in the

piece. For Columbine, I consult the article “Wild Columbine (Aquilegia Candadensis)” from the

Adirondack Park’s website.33

27 Stanley Bentley, Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, (Chapel Hill, NC: University

of North Carolina Press. 2000), 201–203. 28 Brande Wendel, “Fringed Polygala”, Forest Service Shield, (U.S. Department of Agriculture), Accessed

December 5, 2020, www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/polygala_paucifolia.shtml. 29 Larry Stritch. “Viola Pedata: Forest Service Shield, (U.S. Department of Agriculture), Accessed

December 5, 2020, www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/viola_pedata.shtml. 30 Rebecca Finneran, “Indian Pipes: Oddities of the Plant World”, (Michigan State University Extension,

November 14, 2014), Accessed December 15, 2020,

ww.canr.msu.edu/news/indian_pipes_oddities_of_the_plant_world. 31 Charlotte Adelman & Bernard Schwartz, The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives to

Nonnative Flowers and Plants: An Illustrated Guide, (Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2011.) 32 Richard Dickinson, Tom Dickinson, & Deborah Metzger, The Rom Field Guide to Wildflowers of

Ontario, (Toronto: Mclelland & Steward, June 8, 2004.) 33 “Wild Columbine: Aquilegia Canadensis, (Adirondacks Park), Accessed December 13, 2020,

https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-wildflowers-wild-columbine-aquilegia-canadensis.html.

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/polygala_paucifolia.shtml

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/viola_pedata.shtml

11

CHAPTER 2

ELIXIR

2.1 Background

Elixir, composed in 2006, is inspired by the Nocturnes of Frédéric Chopin. It was written

to commemorate the 50th birthday of his friend Jeffrey Kahane, a conductor and pianist who

championed the composer’s works.34 According to Frazelle, Kahane premiered 17 of the

composer’s pieces, both as a pianist and conductor. The title “Elixir” is a play on words. In

alchemy, an elixir is a substance that was believed to be capable of changing base metals into

gold. This plays on the fact that the dedicatee at the time was celebrating his 50th birthday; the

so-called “golden” year. As the only single-movement work in this study, Elixir serves as a

fitting introduction to Frazelle’s piano music. In this chapter, I study the musical similarities

between Elixir and Chopin’s Nocturnes, Frazelle’s contribution to the genre, and his former

mentor Roger Session’s influence on his writing.

2.2 Similarities between Chopin’s Nocturnes and Elixir

The piece adheres to the archetypal 19th-century nocturne, which consists of a languid

ornamented melody over a widely spaced arpeggiated left hand.35 Elixir expresses a quiet

meditative character, introducing a sparce lyrical theme in the right hand accompanied by

harmonic sonorities in the left hand (Example 2.1). In addition to an archetypal nocturne’s

songlike quality, Frazelle also borrows from Chopin’s innovation to the genre: the employment

34 Kenneth Frazelle, Subito Music Corporation. 35 Samson, Jim, 168.

12

of contrapuntal complexity and harmonic sophistication.36 As seen in the score, the left-hand

accompaniment provides a fragmented countermelody to the right-hand theme (Example 2.1).

Apart from texture, Elixir adheres to a ternary form, the common formal structure of Chopin’s

Nocturnes, where the central section usually presents an expressive contrast. I will discuss in

detail the contents of this section later in the chapter. Now that I have tackled the “Chopinesque”

quality of Elixir, I discuss how Frazelle infuses his musical style into the traditional genre.

2.3 Synthesis of Frazelle’s techniques and the nocturne genre

Elixir is rich in harmonic content, combining diatonic sonorities with lydian and whole-

tone scales. It revolves around A-flat major, but any traditional harmonic progression is either

hinted at, or downright obscured. Rarely do pure triads occur, as most chords either have a

sustained fourth or seventh. Although the composer uses many different modes and ambiguous

chords, the harmonic flow of the piece is organized and does not fluctuate into different

directions erratically. However, analyzing its harmony from a common practice period

perspective is barely applicable in this music. As seen in mm. 17-27, sustained notes elude any

traditional roman numeral label (Example 2.1). Moreover, the change from Phrygian to diatonic

C minor between mm. 17-20 and 21-27 (as seen in the shift from D-flat to D) exacerbates this

difficulty. Instead of a traditional harmonic progression, Frazelle employs a different method in

organizing harmony. He does this through long bass pedals that sustain throughout measures

(Example 2.2). As seen in Example 2.2, pedaled Cs in three different octaves are sustained.

Moreover, if one were to reduce the excerpt into its essential counterpoint, the last five notes of a

36 Brown, Maurice J.E., and Kenneth L. Hamilton, "Nocturne (i)", Grove Music Online 2001, https://www-

oxfordmusiconline-.

13

descending C minor scale are revealed. In this way, a C minor harmony is faintly hinted rather

than imposed. Therefore, the listener still hears the C minor even without the blessing of purely

triadic chords and a I-V-I progression. This is the type of harmonic language that Frazelle

employs in the other pieces in this study as well.

2.4 Influence of Roger Sessions

According to Frazelle, one of the most important concepts that his former mentor taught

him was the process of developing a single musical idea. In my conversation with the composer,

he states:

There are two main things that I would say about him. One is his interest in the idea of

the musical gesture, and what can gestures do over time, in other words, how to create

long lines. He did not mean melodies, he meant rhetoric; lines and ideas that develop

over time.37

Indeed, musical ideas and their development has been a crucial element in Sessions’ musical

style. During his lifetime, he was initially associated with the neoclassicism of Stravinsky and

Copland.38 As time went by, Sessions began to move away from Stravinsky and Copland’s orbit.

In lieu of stratified textural and formal qualities, Sessions’ music develops a continuously

evolving structure, shaped by long goal-directed linear spans.39 Frazelle talks about this quality

in his former mentor’s music:

His music is so contrapuntal that you see these different layers that happen over time, but

there is always a clear shape and all the lines go toward a unified goal, much like Bach’s

fugues. As I have mentioned, [Sessions] meant that long lines did not refer to melodies,

but to logic and a sense of music moving with a kind of urgency and expressivity.

Frazelle employs these qualities into his music.40

37 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, January 09, 2021. 38 Robert Morgan, A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America, 293. 39 Ibid. 40 Frazelle, Interview.

14

The concept of the musical idea was best explained by Roger Sessions in one of his afternoon

lectures in Juilliard:

I would say that a musical idea is simply that fragment of music which forms the

composer’s point of departure, either for a whole composition or for an episode or even a

single aspect of composition. I say “fragment” knowing full well that it can get me into

difficulties. For in my experience, in which I include observation and analysis as well as

musical composition, a “musical idea” – the starting point of a vital musical “train of

thought” – can be virtually anything which strikes a composer’s imagination.41

In Elixir, this musical idea takes the form of a two-note motif that opens the meditative

theme (Example 2.1). This motif has a descending major second interval and is marked with

tenutos. Upon initial hearing, the significance of this motif may not be readily apparent, but it

becomes an expressive driving force as the piece progresses. The flowing eighth notes in mm.

17-27 transform its role from being a mere accompaniment figuration to an inner-voice melody.

In mm. 21-27, the inner voice becomes a diminution of motif a. The basic idea’s diminution and

its placement in the inner voice moves the music forward from its initial languid state (Example

2.2).

Example 2.1. Elixir, mm. 1-10.42

41 Erik Prausnitz. Roger Sessions, How a “Difficult” Composer Got That Way, 92. 42 Kenneth Frazelle, Elixir, (New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 2005,) 1.

15


Elixir’s central section follows a through-composed structure. This makes way for the

gradual buildup of rhythmic and textural intensification to the piece’s dramatic climax. Marked

poco più mosso a leggiero, the beginning of the central section accelerates the flow of the music.

It comprises two-note motifs in ascending minor second interval in both the melody and inner

voices, symbolizing motif a’s inversion and diminution (Example 2.3). This evokes a feeling of

uneasiness and urgency in the music. In the middle of the B section, motif a becomes

increasingly varied. For instance, mm. 62-64 present motif a in three different forms: m. 62 in

the form of broken chords, m. 63 in the form of broken 7ths (an inversion of the 2nd) and finally,

m. 64, in parallel 7ths (Example 2.4). The expressive buildup of the three measures leads to a

dramatic rendering of motif a in mm. 65 to 67.

43 Ibid.

16



As the section approaches its peak, the tempo increases. The sempre accelerando

marking accompanies the gradual diminution of motif a and the thickening of textures in the

section. As seen in mm. 89-91, brilliant arpeggios and scales sweep up into the high register of

the keyboard. Although virtuosic in nature, its function is not to show off the performer’s

44 Frazelle, Elixir, 2. 45 Frazelle, Elixir, 3.

17

technical skill, but to present motif a in a highly elated manner (Example 2.5). Mm. 99-104

present motif a’s most intense variations, first as a tremolo, and then as a trill (Example 2.6). As

the trill sustains, the intensity subsides, bleeding into the return to the A section. What we see

here is a juxtaposition of the basic idea’s most expressive form (the trill, the fastest possible

iteration of the interval of the second) over the basic idea’s original form (Example 2.7).



46 Frazelle, Elixir, 4. 47 Frazelle, Elixir, 6.

18


2.5 Conclusion

It seems that for Frazelle, writing Elixir was a repose from the intricacies of his other

compositions. Prior to writing the piece, he did not envision any complexity in its musical

content and structure. Frazelle states: “I wanted to write a cantabile-like piano piece. A lot of my

music works itself up to difficult places. I wanted to write a piece that is a line, a cantabile

piece.”49 Despite the intended simplicity of the piece, it serves as a microcosm to the essential

qualities of Frazelle’s piano writing. For one, the music evokes a variety of expressions.

Throughout the piece, we experience numerous affects, such as meditation, pathos, and elation.

Every detail, harmonic change, and/or motivic variation represents a certain mood or sensation.

Later in this paper, I discuss how these elements also symbolize visual properties of artworks and

nature. Another essential element in Frazelle’s piano writing is his ascription to old forms and

genres. The undeniable link between Chopin’s Nocturnes and Elixir attests to this. Later in the

48 Ibid. 49 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, January 09, 2021.

19

study, I will analyze pieces that pay homage to Schumann’s piano cycles and Bach’s Inventions.

Lastly, Elixir presents Frazelle’s use and development of the basic musical idea.

20

CHAPTER 3

APPEARANCES

3.1 Background

Appearances (1999) is a set comprising seven short pieces. According to Frazelle, the

pieces were written during a time of deep contemplation of Paul Cezanne’s artworks. The pieces

do not portray the artist’s works but instead emulate his artistic technique. Each miniature

focuses on a single musical aspect such as a motif, interval, or rhythmic figure hence, the

duration and texture of each piece is economical. The pieces in Appearances can be divided into

two categories: one falls under “Americana” and the other, “modernist.” The term “Americana”

denotes the incorporation of American folk and jazz idioms, as defined by the composer.

“Modernist” refers to the 20th-century musical techniques, styles, and attitudes as espoused by

the second Viennese school and Stravinsky’s musical objectivity. In this chapter, I analyze the

piece’s varying compositional techniques and characteristics, and how they represent the

composer’s conception of “modernist” and “Americana” styles, and his emphasis on the

expressive role of music. Moreover, I draw parallels to the works and criticism of Aaron

Copland, whose views and musical style are similar to Frazelle’s.

3.2 Analysis of Americana pieces

The first four pieces in the set belong to the “Americana” category. Appearances No.1 is

a short waltz in three voices that focuses on a single motif. Throughout the piece, the opening

motif is transposed, and iterated in different voices (Example 3.1). Appearances Nos. 2 and 4

employ Jazz elements. No. 2 assumes a semi-strophic form, iterating highly syncopated rhythms

21

and lyrical melodies (Example 3.2). Frazelle describes No. 4 to be akin to Broadway music. 50

The right hand plays a syncopated melody accompanied by the left hand that repeatedly iterates a

perfect fifth. No. 3 is structured in ABA form; the music comprises a somber lyrical melody

accompanied by sustained chords (Example 3.3). As the music progresses, the texture becomes

harsher and more polyphonic. The “disintegration” of the melodic texture starts in m. 11 and

climaxes in mm. 15-18, showing fragmented notes displaced in widely spaced registers. The

martellato markings add to the harshness of the passage (Example 3.4). The agitation subsides

and returns to the somber mood of the piece.

Example 3.1. Appearances No. 1, mm. 1-5.51


50 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021. 51 Kenneth Frazelle. Appearances, (New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 2000,) 1. 52 Frazelle, Appearances, 2.

22



3.3 Analysis of modernist pieces

The last three pieces represent the modernist group. No. 5 comprises harsh martellato

single notes played by both left and right hands. The piece uses the opening melodic contour and

its rhythmic fragment throughout the music (Example 3.5). The music starkly contrasts the

playfulness of No. 4 with its undaunting severity. Marked Molto vivace e leggiero, No. 5 features

a highly syncopated rhythm and constant shift of complex meters. The use of Lydian and

Phrygian modes are prevalent, but the rhythmic mirroring of both hands – which parallel and

contrast each other – produces harsh intervals (Example 3.6). The middle section briefly quotes

from the second movement of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor. Its zesty rhythmic play and

dynamic shifts imbues the music with playful expression. The set ends with No. 7, a highly

53 Frazelle, Appearances, 5. 54 Ibid.

23

dissonant cantabile piece. Marked spazioso e lento, the music evokes a haunting atmosphere

(Example 3.7).




3.4 Modernist criticism of Americana music

Throughout his life, Frazelle grappled with opposing viewpoints espoused in the

contemporary music world. Appearances, in some sense, serves as a microcosm to the

55 Frazelle, Appearances, 8. 56 Frazelle, Appearances, 9. 57 Frazelle, Appearances, 12.

60 David Burge, Twentieth Century Piano Music: Studies in Musical Genres and Repertoires, 117.

24

variegating musical ideas surrounding the composer. Examples of these include the

commentaries of some of the dedicatees in the set. The final piece is dedicated to Charles

Millard, a friend and former curator at the Smithsonian museum whom the composer regarded as

“strictly modernist.” According to Frazelle, Millard was not fond of the composer’s works that

incorporate American folk music, echoing 20th-century modernist sentiments that took a hardline

stance in opposing music that was accessible.58

3.5 Musical and historic parallels to Copland

Despite the musical dichotomy in Appearances, an element that is essential to

understanding the piece, as well as Frazelle’s musical style, is the reconciliation between the two

seemingly opposing styles. The division and synthesis between “modernist” and “Americana”

elements parallel the works and musical views of Aaron Copland. Like Frazelle, Copland

incorporated a diverse array of musical styles, drawing from modernism, jazz, and folk music.

For example, Copland’s exposure to musical styles of the Second Viennese School paved the

way to his Piano Variations.59 This music’s brashness, economic use of texture, and utilization

of row techniques resembles Appearances No. 5.60 On the other hand, Copland’s forays into jazz,

reflecting the 1920’s emerging search for the American identity in the music world, produced

works like Four Blues for Piano. This incorporation of jazz rhythm parallels the mood and style

of Appearances No. 4. Moreover, Appearances Nos. 2 and 3 offer a combination between the

two styles. No. 3 is a somber cantabile piece that encloses an angular fragmented passage. No. 2,

which mainly uses jazz and Americana elements, features a highly dissonant and strident passage

58 Chowrimootoo, “Copland’s Styles,” 518-559, https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2020.37.4.518. 59 Gayle Murchinson, The American Stravinsky, 55.

25

before its conclusion. The mixture of jazz rhythm and dissonant harmonies mirror “Jazzy” from

Copland’s Trois Esquisses.61

3.6 Conclusion

Aside from the combination of different musical styles, the pieces in Appearances

contain common aspects. For example, each piece focuses on a basic musical idea. In composing

the set, Frazelle was interested in “investigating small areas since [his] previous music had been

on a larger scale.”62 Each piece therefore has a sparse and unembellished texture. In doing so,

Frazelle imitated Cezanne’s technical precision and clarity in rendering such paintings. In the

composer’s words: “I wanted each note to matter, that is why [Appearances] is sparing… much

like Cézanne’s art, that each brushstroke has a meaning.”63 Another common characteristic that

the pieces in Appearances share is the preoccupation with widely spaced intervals. All pieces

conclude with dyads that are placed in the opposite extremes of the register. This technique is

prevalent in much of Frazelle’s piano works. Lastly, each piece in the set is expressive. This

means that each miniature evokes a certain mood and affect, instead of merely a technical

exercise. Frazelle emphasizes the importance of expression in his composition and laments the

modernist ambivalence to its value.64 Regarding this mindset, he draws parallels to the modernist

criticism of Copland, whose use of different styles – ranging from folk and jazz idioms to taking

elements from Schoenberg and Stravinsky – were viewed with hostility.65 Despite the opposing

viewpoints stemming from the 20th century that still echo to date, Frazelle remains steadfast in

61 Murchinson, 65. 62 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 65 Chowrimootoo, “Copland’s Styles,” 574.

26

his philosophy of musical expression, adhering to the Copland’s belief that “music has an

expressive power…that the meaning behind the notes constitutes, after all, what the piece is

saying, what the piece is about.”66

66 Aaron Copland, What to Listen for in Music, 10.

27

CHAPTER 4

INVENTIONS TO MARDEN

4.1 Background

Inventions to Marden (2006) comprises five tightly interlinked pieces that explore Brice

Marden’s (b. 1938) artistic style. Rather than a direct depiction of Marden’s artworks, the

inventions evoke aspects of the artist’s style that recur over several decades.67 In addition to the

titular artist, Inventions also takes influences from J.S. Bach’s Inventions and Sinfonias. In this

chapter, I examine how Marden’s artistic style is reflected in the music, Frazelle’s utilization of

the inventions genre, and how the set is unified. Two factors in Frazelle’s life brought about the

writing of Inventions. In 1978, he was hired to teach composition in his alma mater, UNCSA.

Teaching basic counterpoint to his students sparked his desire to write a contrapuntal work.

Another factor was the composer’s 50th birthday celebration held by the UNCSA in 2006.68 The

school organized an all-Frazelle concert and prompted the celebrant to perform. It was for this

event that the Inventions were composed and premiered. Before proceeding with my analysis, I

will provide an overview of the composer’s relationship with the Marden’s artworks.

4.2 Frazelle and Marden

Frazelle has a lifelong relationship with the artworks of Marden. During the composer’s

study in Juilliard, he often visited the Museum of Modern Arts in his free time. It is there where

he first encountered the artist’s works.69 Like Frazelle, Marden takes inspiration from a wide

67 Kenneth Frazelle. “List of Works,” https://www.kennethfrazelle.com/list-of-works#SOLO. 68 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021. 69 Ibid.

http://www.kennethfrazelle.com/list-of-works#SOLO

http://www.kennethfrazelle.com/list-of-works#SOLO

28

variety of sources. His art brings together elements from Minimalism, Abstract Expressionism,

Greek and Roman architecture, and Chinese calligraphy to name a few.70 As time passed,

Frazelle became increasingly drawn to the artist’s works. In my conversation with the composer,

he relayed to me his impressions of Marden’s art. One of the stylistic aspects that made a

profound impression on the composer were Marden’s artworks inspired by Chinese calligraphy.

Frazelle showed me his own print of one of Marden’s Etching to Rexroth: Illustrations to Thirty-

Six Poems by Tu Fu, translated by Kenneth Rexroth (1986). The entire work is a set of 25

etchings of aquatint, depicting abstractions of Chinese calligraphy. The title refers to the

American poet and translator, Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) who translated the poems of Tu Fu

(712-770 A.D.), a Chinese poet from the Tang Dynasty. The work is a product of Marden’s

fascination with East Asian art and aesthetics, induced by his sojourn in Thailand in the mid-

1980’s.71 Frazelle likens the play of lines and loops in the artwork to the contrapuntal texture of

Bach’s music.72 Moreover, he describes the artwork as lyrical. These two descriptions would

ultimately reflect the overall mood and form of Inventions to Marden.

4.3 Bach’s influence on Frazelle

Prior to writing the piece, Frazelle had already established the aesthetic link between

polyphony and Marden’s calligraphic art. His rationale for choosing the inventions genre was

based on several factors. For one, Frazelle was interested in the pedagogic function of Bach’s

Inventions, focusing on their ability to instruct students about composition. Bach’s Inventions

70 Larry Gagosian, “Brice Marden.” 71 “The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation,” Guggenheim Museum,

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/brice-marden. 72 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021.



29

were meant to teach inventio, a term referring to the invention of motivic material. As David

Schulenberg states, “the inventiones will not only be interesting in their own right but will also

be developed.”73 Frazelle was fascinated by the Inventions’ ability to develop and play with

simple musical ideas despite their small size. Moreover, the term Inventions is not committal to

form. Stemming from the rhetoricians of the Renaissance, inventio at the time refers to the

discovery of music or the processes of its composition.74 Hence, it is important to point out that

while Frazelle utilizes certain aspects of Bach’s inventions, he does not strictly adhere to the

latter’s imitative texture. I will first discuss Bach’s influences on Frazelle and explore how the

latter reinvents inventions.

The Inventions and Sinfonias of Bach were initially titled Praeludium and Fantasia

belonging to the collection Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.75 The Praeludium

title indicates the improvisatory nature of some of Bach’s Inventions. The Fantasias – which

later become Sinfonias – are not necessarily indicative of the Fantasia form. Bach may have

chosen the title Fantasia arbitrarily to set the 3-voice pieces apart from the 2-voice ones, or to

indicate their tendency towards more rigorous, fuguelike counterpoint. Regardless, Frazelle

states that he was interested in fusing both the improvisatory and contrapuntal aspect of the

genre.76

The Inventions’ precursor, the Preaeludium. were ordered systematically according to

key, difficulty, and contrapuntal complexity. This reflects their pedagogic function, as the

student is compelled to learn and familiarize first with simple key signatures, before progressing

73 David Schulenberg, The Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, 175. 74 John Caldwell, Invention, Grove Music Online. 75 Schulenberg, Keyboard Music of J.S. Bach, 175. 76 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021.

30

to ones that contain more accidentals.77 Frazelle’s Inventions are likewise ordered tonally. The

first two pieces begin and end in A minor. The third piece initially establishes A as the home key

but ends ambiguously on B-flat. The B-flat key pivots to the B-flat minor key of the fourth piece,

which concludes in Phrygian C minor. The finale starts ambiguously but establishes and

concludes in the modal A. Lining up A, B-flat, and C produces the first three notes of the

phrygian scale, which is employed in most of Frazelle’s Inventions. Compared to Bach’s

inventions, Frazelle’s key scheme does not have a pedagogical function, rather, it is used to unify

the piece.

As Bach wrote in his preface, part of his pedagogic goal in the Inventions is for the

student to learn how to play cantabile.78 Frazelle’s Inventions emulates this. Apart from

Invention No. 5, all pieces contain unmistakable lyricism that the composer ascribes to Marden’s

artworks. As seen in the opening bars of the Invention No. 1, the vocal qualities of the music are

readily apparent in the melodic contour and expressive markings (Example 4.1). In III. Fluent e

Luminoso, rapid sixteenth-note scales permeate the music. Despite this, the singing melody still

serves as the music’s backbone (Example 4.2). Bach’s cantabile not only refers to the creation of

beautiful melodies, but also to simple polyphony where each voice or part is capable of being

sung.79 In II. Molto Lento, this aspect is emphasized in its chorale texture. As seen in the score,

individual pitches in the theme are passed through different voices and register. To emphasize

this, Frazelle places tenuto markings on the voices that need to be brought out (Example 4.3).

Bach’s Inventions has a diverse array of formal qualities. For example, the Inventions in

C, G, and A Minor have a relatively improvisatory design, meaning that their subjects are short,

77 Courtney S. Adams, "Organization in the Two-Part Inventions of Johann Sebastian Bach, Part I." 78 Schulenberg, 176. 79 Ibid.

31

and their motifs are freely developed. The Inventions in A and B-flat are more elaborate in their

development and intimate a double fugue.80 Similarly, Frazelle’s Inventions displays a wide

variety of styles, techniques, and formal design. The first invention is a through-composed

prelude, the second in ABA form, and the third in fantasia format. Like the first invention, the

fourth is a through-composed intermezzo. Among the inventions, it is the last that resembles a

fugue the most.

Example 4.1. Inventions No. 1, mm. 1-11.81

80 Ibid. 81 Kenneth Frazelle, Inventions to Marden, (New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 2005), 1.

82 Frazelle, Inventions, 8. 83 Frazelle, Inventions, 4.

32



88 West, M.L., Ancient Greek Music, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992), 129.

33

4.4 Marden’s “Greek” Art in Frazelle’s Inventions

Two artworks come to the composer’s mind regarding the inspiration for his music; one

is Etchings to Rexroth (1986) and the other is Study for The Muses (1991-1999).84 The Inventions

do not depict these artworks directly; instead they are evocations of their subject and essence.

Study for the Muses that has a similar calligraphic style to Etchings. Completed using oil on

linen, the work depicts an abstraction of the muses from Ancient Greek mythology. Richard

Dorment describes this work as conjuring the aura of the muses, rather than their portrayal.85

Having resided in Hydra in the 1970’s, the painting represents the artist’s fascination with Greek

architecture and mythology.86 According to art historian Garry Garrels, the work is a fusion of

American Abstract Expressionism, Chinese, and Greek art; the three cultures in which Marden

heavily immersed himself. Frazelle states that the mythological muses depicted in the painting

inspired the last Invention. The music is marked Molto vivace e ritmico, featuring a highly

syncopated subject and frequent meter changes. Despite the intricate rhythm and harmony, the

piece is very playful, evoking the flirtatious dance of the muses (Example 4.4). First appearing in

the works of Homer and Hesiod, the muses are goddesses to whom the poets rely for inspiration.

In Hesiod’s stories, he received the calls from muses in their southern haunts. He recounted how

they would sing and dance after bathing in the spring on Mount Helicon.87 To portray the dance

of the Muses, Frazelle intimated the rhythmic quality of Ancient Greek music. According to

historian Martin Litchfield West (1937-2015), the Ancient Greeks’ conception of meter is based

on verse.88 Since Ancient Greek verse has a clear and natural delineation between long and short

84 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021. 85 Richard Dorment, “Journey from ‘Nebraska’”, The New York Review. 86 Ted Loos, “A Subtle Sense of Place.” The New York Times. 87 Robin Hard & H.J. Jose, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's

"Handbook of Greek Mythology",204.

91 Butler, Gregory G, "Fugue and Rhetoric", 49-109.

34

syllables, the rhythm of Ancient Greek music can be hypothesized into this binary long/short

division. West stated:

The meters are quantitative, based on patterns of long and short syllables which must

correspond to patterns of long and short notes. The repetitive nature of these patterns usually

makes their rhythmical character obvious; and when we find them built up into extended

sequences which are repeated entirely from one strophe to another, this can only be

understood as a discipline imposed by the rhythm of music that itself repeated… In the

surviving fragments of poetic texts furnished with musical notation, the note values are

commonly left unspecified, and this is because they were felt to be sufficiently indicated by

the meter of words.89

The final Invention’s subject approximates this binary rhythmic format, with the note values

alternating between only quarter and eight notes (Example 4.4). This forms most of the rhythmic

content in the piece.

Apart from mythology, another aspect from the Greeks that influenced Frazelle’s writing

is rhetoric. Like in Elixir, Frazelle places importance on rhetoric as the unifying material in his

Inventions. Frazelle associates the Bachian development of musical ideas to how oratory and

debates work in Classical Greece. In his words, “The Greeks, to win in their oratories and

debates, present their ideas, restate them, and present all possible imaginary diversions that come

with it… Bach succeeds in presenting such an idea and what one can do with it.”90 The

relationship between rhetoric and musical form traces back to the Renaissance, when the

growing influence of humanism in Europe emphasized the affinity between poetry and music.

According to the musica poetica theorists at the time, the fuga best represented the application of

rhetorical precepts to music among musical structures.91 Rhetorical figures such as mimeses,

which refers to imitation, and collatio, a procedure which involves the comparison of two

89 West, 130. 90 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021.

92 Frazelle, Inventions, 28.

35

analogous statements, were likened to the texture and imitative techniques in the fuga. In

employing rhetoric to his music, Frazelle makes clear that his compositions are created with

logic and unity. Compared to Elixir where motivic development is the main unifying component

in the music, Inventions uses rhythmic figures and intervals to unify the set.


4.5 Unifying aspects

4.5.1 Rhythmic fragment as the basic musical idea

Inventions 1 and 2 demonstrate the development of a rhythmic fragment to link the

pieces. The rhythmic fragment is first presented in m. 2 of the Invention No. 1 in the form of two

sixteenths and a quarter note. The fragment precedes five eighth notes played by the right hand

that opens the piece. Like the opening motif in Elixir, this rhythmic fragment is varied and

developed throughout the music. Its first reiteration can be seen in m. 5 where it is played twice

(Example 4.1). Initially, this rhythmic fragment is placed at the forefront, but in the middle of the

93 Frazelle, Inventions, 2. 94 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021.

36

piece it is pushed to the background. In mm. 15 and 17, the dramatic quality of the rhythm is

diminished because of its accompanimental role, low registral position, and displacement to the

weak beats (Example 4.5). Towards the end of the piece, it regains its dramatic role. M. 19 sees

the rhythmic fragment back in the strong beats, m. 20 in the soprano voice, and finally, in m. 21

in its climactic iteration. (Example 4.6). In mm. 26 and 29, the rhythmic figure is dramatically

uttered as the piece concludes. (Example 4.7). The rhythmic figure reappears in the Invention No.

2. Compared to the first Invention where the rhythmic fragment overlays a melodic shape, the

second Invention comprises repeated notes.

Example 4.5. Invention No. 1, mm. 15-18.93

Frazelle describes this effect as ricocheting.94 My argument for connecting the rhythmic

fragments of both first and second Inventions is evidenced by their dramatic role in the music.

Marked Molto lento, the composer envisioned the second Invention to sound ‘Brahmsian.’

Structured in ABA form, the piece’s outer sections permeate with thick chordal textures. The

95 Ibid. 96 Ibid.

37

middle section is more melodic than vertical. It gradually accelerates through rhythmic

diminution, and builds up sound through chords and octaves before transitioning back to A.


All these factors, on top of slow tempo and the Invention’s pensive affect, make the ‘ricocheting’

rhythmic fragment striking (Example 4.8). Its dramatic utterance is punctuated by its accents and

sforzando markings, same as the first Invention.


97 Frazelle, Inventions, 4.

38


4.5.2 Interval as the basic musical idea

Another musical element that unifies the Inventions is the perfect fourth interval. In

addition to its development, the interval also plays a role in emphasizing an artistic aspect of

Marden that inspired Frazelle. Its first significant appearance is in the Invention No. 2. As seen in

the score, the piece opens with a theme made of quartal chords. However, its presence in the

second Invention is mostly embedded in the harmonic content. In the third Invention, the interval

gains more prominence since it is executed as a thematic material. We first see this in m. 2 where

a widely spaced D and A are emphasized with a sforzandissimo marking (Example 4.2). The

dyad’s utterance is made more dramatic by its rapid sixteenth-note preparation in the measure

preceding it. Apart from its expressive emphasis, the dyad also assumes structural prominence in

98 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, February 10, 2021. 99 Frazelle, Inventions, 34.

39

the Inventions’ entirety as it concludes the set. The final bar of the last Invention ends with the

same notes and markings (Example 4.9). Another example of this is found in mm. 10-18 where

the interval is used in both melody and accompaniment (Example 4.10). Mm. 16-18 utilizes the

interval in an increasingly expressive manner. The melodic ascent, propelled by the crescendo,

leads to m. 18 when consecutive perfect fourths glide to the high register in a cadenza-like

manner. Frazelle connects this perfect fourth ascent in the penultimate Invention, where the

intervallic gesture reappears (Example 4.11). As seen in the score, the fourth Invention’s

sparseness and slow tempo contrasts the lavish brilliance of the third Invention. Frazelle intended

the fourth invention to represent a focus on a single detail in Marden’s artworks. In the

composer’s words, “[The fourth Invention’s] clean and sparing quality is like how you’d zero in

on one hexagram, or a Chinese character or even the ink.”98 To make this comparison clear,

Invention No. 3’s brilliance and complexity portray the entirety of a calligraphic artwork while

the No. 4 depicts a single detail; like a line or a shape. As such, the fourth Invention “zooms in”

on the perfect fourth interval (Example 4.12).


40



100 Frazelle, Inventions, 10. 101 Ibid.

41


4.6 Conclusion

Frazelle’s viewing of Marden’s art from varying perspectives is not exclusive to the

composer’s interpretation. Perspective, per se, is a quality that is indispensable to Marden’s

artistic process. His Shell Drawings (1985-87) demonstrate this. The drawings depict not the

shells themselves, but the marks naturally inscribed on them. During the process, Marden rotated

a shell in one hand, and drew with the other. Hence, the series portrays the shell marks in varying

angles. Art curator Kelly Montana associates this process to Antoine Watteau’s drawings, who

would likewise draw his models from different angles instead of having them pose differently.103

Montana describes this as “cinematic, the subject moving across the paper not so much in space,

which remains abstract, but in time.”104 In the same spirit, Frazelle plays with perspective. Like

102 Frazelle, Inventions, 27. 103 Kelly Montana, Think of Them as Spaces: Brice Marden’s Drawings, 12. 104 Montana, 13.

42

the varying angles and focal points in Marden’s drawings, the composer plays with musical

elements, imbuing the Inventions with an organic essence.

43

CHAPTER 5

WILDFLOWERS

5.1 Background

Wildflowers is a set comprising ten pieces that characterize native plants from the Blue

Ridge mountains. Compared to the other sets in examined this treatise, Wildflowers is arguably

the most unique. Aspects such as performance flexibility and programmatic content factor into

the set’s uncanniness. Frazelle leaves the performer with several options on programming. For

one, the performer may choose to play the set independently or as the second of the three-

movement Sonata-Fantasy. Moreover, the performer may play the set entirely, or choose

individual pieces from it. Wildflowers also owes its flexibility to its subject: wildflowers. The

individuality of each piece is emphasized as each aims to depict the unique visual properties of

the flowers. Frazelle himself states that the set was composed without any conscious scheme or

key plan. In his words, they are “arranged with maximum contrast in mind.”105 This makes

Wildflowers unique compared to the other piano sets in this research. All other sets –

Appearances and Inventions to Brice Marden are cyclical.

The nature element in Wildflowers extends further than the visual characteristics of the

plants it seeks to portray. Aside from properties such as the plants’ colors and textures, Frazelle

also evokes their settings. This means that the imagery in Wildflowers is not limited to the

flowers, but also to their natural environments and the composer’s impressions of the plants. The

programmatic domain does not stop there. The set also alludes to certain personalities and

composers. Some pieces in the set are dedicated to Frazelle’s friends, and the composer himself

105 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, January 09, 2021.

44

likens his friend’s personalities to the music’s character. Although Wildflowers is not a cycle,

Frazelle relates the pieces’ extreme character changes and mood contrasts to Romantic-era piano

sets like Schumann’s Carnaval and Kreisleriana and Chopin’s Op. 28 Preludes. The homage to

these composers in Viper’s Bugloss and Columbine is seen in the form of quotations.

5.2 Analysis of individual works

5.2.1 Slender Ladies’ Tresses

Spanning a mere 12 measures, Slender Ladies’ Tresses begins the set. The piece is

marked “spacious and delicate” and is to be played by one hand alone. The plant belongs to the

orchid family, producing an inflorescence of about forty white flowers that spiral around the

stem.106 The music emulates the spiral shape of the plant. Example 5.1 shows an excerpt from

the piece. The melody consists of semi-arpeggiated motifs that take different directions. This

produces an effect that makes the music sound like a series of curvatures.

Example 5.1. Wildflowers: Slender Ladies’ Tresses, mm. 1-6.107

106 Stanley Bentley. Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, 201–203. 107 Kenneth Frazelle, Wildflowers, (New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 2005,) 1.

45

Apart from what can be seen in the score, the piece exhorts the performer to use a lot of wrist

rotation, given the widely spaced intervals and the piece’s one-hand indication. The rotation

helps the player not only see but also feel the spiral shape of the Slender Ladies’ Tresses.

5.2.2 Fringed Polygala

Fringed Polygala assumes a scherzando character. The piece opens with a motif that

consists of G, A, F-sharp, in the right hand and D, G, and E in the left hand (Example 5.2) The

outer notes are embellished as G and D are introduced by a sixteenth-note anacrusis, and F-sharp

preceded by a grace note. Apart from the embellishments, expressive markings such as the

sforzando and accent on G and D, as well as the tenuto on F-sharp places an emphasis on the

outer notes of this motif. The middle notes – A on the right hand and G on the left – are left with

a piano dynamic and a staccato marking. The lack of embellishment and expressive markings

make the middle notes seem insignificant.

Example 5.2. Wildflowers: Fringed Polygala, mm. 1-9.108

108 Frazelle, Wildflowers: Fringed Polygala, mm. 1-9.

46

The metaphor that I derive from this is how the motif can be attributed to the three petals

of the Fringed Polygala. The plant produces light pink to deep magenta flowers. Two prominent

petals emerge out of the corolla, forming a tubular structure.109 The two petals enclose a third

keeled petal, cresting in a pink fringe or keel. There are several ways on linking the petals to the

motif. I conjecture that the two “prominent” petals are represented by the “outer notes” of the

motif while the “middle notes” represent the enclosed fringed petal.

The motif’s structural significance in the piece also affirms its symbolic meaning. Fringe

Polygala is constructed with a series of variations on the opening motif, using processes like

rhythmic diminution, fragmentation, and embellishment. The continual development and

evolution of the motif transform the music into varying modes of expression. The opening bars

feature straightforward variation techniques. For example, the opening motif is immediately

followed by a slight variation of itself, which I designate as A1. Before it could proceed to its

third variation, fragmentation occurs as seen it mm. 5-7. The relative simplicity of variation

techniques used in the opening bars render them in a consistently expressive mood, which is that

of a shy playfulness. As the music progresses, the variations become more layered and

complicated. For example, mm. 10-14 feature two heavily embellished variations of the main

motif (Example 5.3). The texture also becomes “wet,” as the sixteenth note arpeggiations prompt

the performer to pedal through harmonic flourishes. The sweeping gestures, the foray into a very

high register, and the dynamic swells sublimate the laconic expression of the motif into that of

elation and excitement.

109 Brandee Wenzel, “Fringed Polygala”, Forest Service Shield, www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-

week/polygala_paucifolia.shtml.

http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-

47

Example 5.3. Wildflowers: Fringed Polygala, mm. 10-14.110

5.2.3 Birdfoot Violet

Birdfoot Violet is a polyphonic piece in 3 voices. Marked Andante e grazioso, the music

is calm and lyrical, contrasting the frivolous Fringed Polygala. Fugal techniques such as stretto

are used in the piece (Example 5.4). The music initially establishes an A-flat major harmony,

switching between diatonic and lydian modes. In my interview with the composer, he likens the

A-flat major harmony and the black keys of the keyboard with the dark color of the Birdfoot

Violet flowers.111 The harmony takes an interesting route towards the conclusion. Instead of the

initially established A-flat major, the piece concludes in E major with a sustained fourth and

sixth. What I infer from this change of harmony is a subtle change of color. In this logic, this

harmonic turn symbolizes two different gradients of the Birdfoot Violet. Its flower contains five

petals, and at times, the upper two are dark violet in color and the lower three in pale blue

110 Ibid. 111 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, January 09, 2021.

48

violet.112 The two harmonies, A-flat major and E major, represent these two different hues of

violet, with E major being the lighter one, and A-flat the darker one.

Example 5.4. Wildflowers: Birdfoot Violet, mm. 1-8.113

5.2.4 Flame Azalea

Flame Azalea is a show tango that bursts forth clustered chords and sudden dynamic

shifts. The harmonic content is highly dissonant. Throughout the music, A-flat major clashes

against A minor (Example 5.5). Towards the end, A-flat is teased as the victor in the polytonal

clash. However, the final three bars move to its subdominant D-flat major, which is used to pivot

to A minor. Apart from polytonality, the piece briefly segues into diatonicism. For example,

mm. 13-17 touch on G minor and B-flat major before the clashing chords continue (Example

5.6). Flame Azalea stands out from the three preceding Wildflowers in numerous ways. Its

outwardness contrasts the meditative mood of Slender Ladies’ Tresses, the emotional

fluctuations of Fringed Polygala and the pensiveness of Birdfoot Violet. Frazelle links the

showiness of the music with the charisma of the Flame Azalea flowers. The piece is dedicated to

112 Larry Stritch, “Birdfoot Violet.” Forest Service Shield, U.S. Department of Agriculture,

www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/viola_pedata.shtml. 113 Frazelle, Wildflowers, 18.


49

his friend, Amos Fischer whom he describes as having a fiery personality.114 Aside from its

charismatic character, the employment of the tango dance imposes textural and structural

“straightforwardness” in the music. Despite its heavy use of dissonance, the piece has a clear

form and texture. For example, the clear distinction between the sparse, fragmented melody and

its rhythmic accompaniment contrasts the contrapuntal texture of Birdfoot Violet. Moreover, the

piece is divided into clear-cut sections, assuming a rounded binary form. This contrasts the

interweaving lines and the constant motivic development in Fringed Polygala.

5.2.5 Indian Pipes

Indian Pipes is a short 12-tone piece. According to the composer, the tone row is literal.

He states that he does not adhere to any strict procedures such as pure 12-tones and canons.115

The music is set mostly in the low register with a melody played by the right hand accompanied

by subdued dissonant chords on the left. The marking lento e misterioso prompts the performer

to exude a mysterious feeling. Frazelle describes the Indian Pipes flower as “creepy” and

“ghostly,” hence the eeriness of the piece. Indeed, the appearance and qualities of Indian Pipes

are very special. Its scientific name monotropa (Greek) uniflora (Latin) roughly translates to

“one turn” and “one flowered”. The entire plant is translucent white, from stem to flower. It does

not produce any leaves and is oftentimes mistaken for a fungus. This striking appearance is due

to its lack of chlorophyll and photosynthesis, rendering it with a white pigmentation and the

ability to grow in darkest regions of the forest.116 I associate the haunting melody with the

ghostly pallor of the plant. The hushed chords portray the dark places where Indian Pipes thrive.

114 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, January 09, 2021. 115 Ibid. 116 Rebecca Finneran, “Indian Pipes: Oddities of the Plant World,” Michigan State University Extension,

www.canr.msu.edu/news/indian_pipes_oddities_of_the_plant_world.

http://www.canr.msu.edu/news/indian_pipes_oddities_of_the_plant_world

50

Example 5.5. Wildflowers: Flame Azalea, mm. 1-8.117

Example 5.6. Wildflowers: Flame Azalea, mm. 13-20.118

5.2.6 Fire Pink

Fire Pink is a fast moto perpetuo in 5/8 meter. Marked molto presto e ritmico, five eight

notes permeate the music. Frazelle states that these five notes symbolize the five petals of the

Fire Pink flower (Example 5.7).119 These flowers contain bright-red petals that are notched into

two lobes, making the texture look very sharp.120 This sharpness is evoked by the staccato

117 Frazelle, Wildflowers, 19. 118 Ibid. 119 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, January 09, 2021... 120 Charlotte Adelman and Bernard L. Schwartz, “The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives to

Nonnative Flowers and Plants: An Illustrated Guide.” (Ohio: Ohio University Press. 2011.)

51

articulation and erratic accents in high and low registers. Like the Flame Azalea, the piece is

sectional with its form being ABAB. With its moto perpetuo character, the B section presents an

intensification of the music’s brilliance (Example 5.8). The sections consist of sextuplets, rapidly

accelerating the music’s pace. Marked “raucous,” the score shows a buildup of texture, with

loud hammering octaves and chords. The intensity dies down and returns to the regular

quintuplets in the A section.

Example 5.7. Wildflowers: Fire Pink, mm. 1-5.121

Example 5.8. Wildflowers: Fire Pink, mm. 31-35.122

5.2.7 Blue Lobelia

Blue Lobelia is a tranquil piece marked lento. Its folk-like melody is doubled by the

soprano and tenor voices. The chorale of sustained harmonies that accompany the melody evokes

a pastorale quality to the music (Example 5.9).

121 Frazelle, Wildflowers, 21. 122 Ibid.

52

Example 5.9. Wildflowers: Blue Lobelia, mm. 1-5.123

Example 5.10. Wildflowers: Blue Lobelia, mm. 10-19.124

These hushed chords depict the multitude of Blue Lobelias crowding the stem. As the

music’s expression intensifies, the chorale texture disintegrates into a polyphony (Example 5.10).

To music then returns to its original chorale texture proceeding its expressive peak. Overall, the

piece intimates a strophic form. Compared to the other pieces in the set, Blue Lobelia is highly

diatonic. The melody occasionally alternates between lydian and diatonic scales, but the

harmonies remain functional. Interestingly, the piece initially establishes a D-flat major harmony


53

but concludes in A-flat major. Moreover, the D-flat is also sustained in the conclusion. Like the

Birdfoot Violet, the key signature is likened to the velvety blue color of the plant.125

5.2.8 Viper’s Bugloss

Viper’s Bugloss is a menacing piece replete with intense syncopated rhythmic patterns

coupled with Locrian and Lydian modes. Among the Wildflowers, Viper’s Bugloss is the most

technically demanding. The music starts very quietly and then builds up dynamics and texture.

The first part of the music consists of running sixteenth notes. As the music becomes more

intense, loud repeating octaves and chords blast through the climax. According to Frazelle the

stark, violent expression of the piece is inspired by the striking features of the Viper’s Bugloss

flower.126 The visual properties of the plant are very rough, producing long white hairs on the

stem and spikes from which the violet flowers emerge.127

Surprisingly, Frazelle derives the syncopated rhythmic pattern from sounds blasting from

passing cars’ speakers. He describes the experience of hearing such noises as terrifying. To

emulate this experience, the first few bars in Viper’s Bugloss present the motif in a subdued

manner (Example 5.11). The sound slowly unravels as dynamics slowly increase and the music

ascends to a higher register. Like the Fire Pink, Viper’s Bugloss has clear-cut sections, assuming

a semi-rondo form. However, compared to a traditional rondo, the principal theme in Viper’s

Bugloss does not return literally. Each refrain contains different pitches and texture. The only

element that is retained is the rhythm and the two-note motif that ends the beat (Example 5.12).

125 Ibid. 126 Frazelle, Interview by Chance Israel, Zoom, January 09, 2021. 127 Richard Dickinson, Tom Dickinson, & Deborah Metzger, The Rom Field Guide to Wildflowers of

Ontario, 203.

54

Example 5.11. Wildflowers: Viper’s Bugloss, mm. 1-5.128

Example 5.12. Wildflowers: Viper’s Bugloss, mm. 1-5, mm. 39-42, mm. 65-66.129

Near the end of the piece, the rush of loud clashing chords and arpeggios suspends, and

the noise is sustained by the pedal. From the haze of dissonance faintly appears the theme of

Chopin’s Berceuse, Op. 57. This interjection does not last long as it is suddenly cut off by the


130 F. E Kirby, “The Early Nineteenth Century: Chopin,” Music for Piano: A Short History, 185. 131 Ibid.

55

onset of thunderous repeating chords (Example 5.13). According to Frazelle, this dreamy

quotation reverses the dramatic pattern in Chopin’s nocturnes, which begin with a lyrical

calmness usually followed by a contrasting and sometimes tempestuous B section before

returning to its quiet affect.130 On the other hand, Viper’s Bugloss does the opposite: a constant

stream of intense violence is suddenly interrupted by a dreamy quotation, right before

proceeding.

Example 5.13. Wildflowers: Viper’s Bugloss, mm. 50-56.131

5.2.9 Columbine

Columbine is a short piece in two voices. Set in the higher register, the bell-like melody is

initially played by the left hand and is imitated by the right hand. My conjecture is that the bell-

like sound is a nod to the bell-shape of the Wild Columbine flower. My other theory is that the

Sicilienne motif that opens the piece imitates a birdsong, since the flower has a special affinity to

birds (Example 5.14). Its genus name - Aquilegia – is derived from the latin word Aquila, which

56

means eagle. The reason for this is the petals’ semblance to an eagle’s talons.132 Near the piece’s

conclusion, another quotation is inserted. This time, a passage from Pantalon and Columbine

makes a brief appearance (Example 5.15).

Example 5.14. Wildflowers: Columbine, mm. 1-2.133

Example 5.15. Wildflowers: Columbine, mm. 5-7.134

5.2.10 Deptford Pink

The set closes with Deptford Pink. The piece evokes simplicity in its elements. Compared

to the rhythmic complexity of the other Wildflowers, Deptford Pink runs on a simple triple meter.

Like the Blue Lobelia, its harmonic content is mostly diatonic, beginning in B minor and ending

calmly in D major. The scales alternate between diatonic and lydian modes. The melody is

played by two voices which follow and alternate each other, accompanied by austere sustained

132 “Wild Columbine: Aquilegia Canadensis,” https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-wildflowers-wild-

columbine-aquilegia-canadensis.html. 133 Frazelle, Wildflowers, 28. 134 Ibid.

57

chords (Example 5.16). The simplicity of the music depicts the smallness of the Deptford Pink

plant, which produces a tiny pink flower with white dots. Inscribed in the score is a dedication to

Frazelle’s friends Cary, Jonathan, and Owen. According to the composer, Owen at the time was

still a baby, hence the lullaby.

Example 5.16, Wildflowers: Deptford Pink, mm. 1-5.135

5.3 Conclusion

In Wildflowers, Frazelle achieves maximum contrast in many aspects. Each piece has an

individual texture, harmonic, and rhythmic content. Moreover, diverse styles and idioms are

employed in the piece, including singing, tango, virtuosic, and scherzando styles. Apart from the

musical content of each piece, Wildflowers presents the performer with a wide range of

programming options. While the previous pieces discussed in this treatise pay close attention to

unity, the beauty of Wildflowers lies in its focus on uniqueness and diversity.

135 Frazelle, Wildflowers, 29.

58

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

The pieces studied in this treatise represent only a small sample of the cornucopia of

musical gems that the composer has produced. It is therefore a difficult task to label the

composer as belonging to a certain musical movement or thought. Nevertheless, the pieces

introduce the listener to his aesthetic, style, views, and experiences. As Umberto Eco once wrote

in his novel The Name of The Rose, “books always speak of other books, and every story tells a

story that has already been told.” In the same spirit, Frazelle’s piano works speak, not only of

other musical works, but of art, wildflowers, and ultimately, of Frazelle. This treatise paves the

way for future performers and researchers into understanding the beauty of the composer’s

music. This is written in hopes that others will further study the music of Frazelle.

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEWS

Interview with Kenneth Frazelle held on Zoom, January 9, 2021.

Chance: It is remarkable how most of your works have a program. You take a lot of inspiration

from art, nature, and many other things. What aspects of your personal and professional life led

you to incorporating such themes in your compositions?

Frazelle: That’s a great question. It is something that I came to gradually. Like many composers,

I started writing music because I first played the piano. I wanted to imitate the great composers,

Chopin, Debussy, and Bartok. I would not call my pieces program music since that means that

implies a narrative. I’d say that my pieces definitely have programmatic elements to them,

meaning that they deal with words and images. At different times in my life, I did write abstract

music or “pure music.” I studied in Juilliard in the 1970’s, and at the time, it was a temple of

“high modernism.” By that, I meant music that does not express anything, music that was highly

cerebral. I like that kind of music, at the same time, I was still very turned on by poetry, plays,

watercolor. All these things gradually reentered my choices after I got out of college. When you

are young and you are studying with strong people who have committed themselves to certain

kinds of aesthetic choices – people like Elliot Carter and Milton Babbit – I admire their music a

lot and they were both influential to me in different ways. When I got out of college and moved

back South, the biggest change for me was that I became very interested in Appalachian Folk

Music. Me and my partner have a place near the blue ridge mountains. The landscape of the area

and its natural elements – weather and atmosphere – I was not consciously influenced by them,

but they are there. In the 1980’s, I composed perhaps my most difficult piece ever. The

59

60

legendary duo, Gilbert Kalish and Jan Degaetani premiered it, and they told me it “was the most

difficult piece we have ever done, and that there might be only three or four people in the world

that can play this so, better watch out.” They said, “don’t change a note of it, but just be aware of

what you are doing.” So there was a practical element in writing music that is more focused,

more concise, definitely more tonal, and a lot of that was influenced by Appalachian folk music,

the modal quality, dance rhythms, and the instrumental sounds of the banjo, fiddler, and

dulcimer. It’s like a lot of different things came together.

Chance: In one of the articles that featured your interviews, you stated that drawing and

sketching are part of your compositional process. Was any of that involved in the process of

composing Wildflowers?

Frazelle: I do not quite remember so much, but these pieces started out quite small. The first one,

the one that is played with one hand, is about the tiny white cuplike flowers that spirals around.

You could kind of see how the music does that. I thought of the music winding around the stem,

just like the flower does. I did some drawings of that flower. Sometimes I’d draw a picture that’s

more literal, but I don’t think much visual stuff about those. I tried to capture the shape, color,

and general feeling about those flowers. Like for the Viper’s Bugloss, that’s a scary flower. My

partner and I were driving across a meadow, I saw the flower and was like, “what is that? It’s

very weird, it’s pink or blue, but it’s scary. So it’s kind of fearful for both listener and player.

Chance: Regarding Viper’s Bugloss, what inspired the syncopated rhythm that’s iterated

throughout the music?

Frazelle: I don’t know if it’s conscious or not, but that rhythm reminds me of speakers blasting

from the cars that drive around. It’s as if your house almost shakes when they pass by. It

61

definitely came from that kind of thing, like when it’s 2am and you hear that sort of muffled

beat. It’s terrifying. About the Berceuse quotation from Chopin that I inserted in this piece, a lot

of slow pieces start out lyrical and then they become tumultuous. Chopin does that a lot, even in

the nocturnes, a sort of ABA kind of thing. The typical plan is slow, intense, and the slow. What

I thought about Bugloss is that of a nightmare that actually got interrupted by a lullaby. So you

get the reverse.

Chance: In Columbine, you had a similar quotation in Schumann. Was it a pun that you inserted

“Pantalone and Columbine” in Columbine?

Frazelle: Definitely. I think of these Wildflowers as Schumannesque, in terms of their mood

swings. Schumann is really good with pieces that form a larger shape, which is something I

really admire about him.

Chance: One of my favorites Wildflowers is Gaywings. I am fascinated with how the motifs

develop and there seems to be constant variation of it.

Frazelle: That’s exactly right. There’s an image there you might be interested in. Those flowers

come out in April, and not much else is growing. You see them in the bank, in the side of the

road. They are vivid pink. They look almost like toy airplanes, so I think there is something

childlike and innocent about that piece.

Chance: At first, I was little puzzled by it. It sounded very spontaneous and random at first. But

as I analyzed it more deeply, I came to know how tightly constructed it actually is.

62

Frazelle: Thank you, I am glad you said that. A lot of times, people think something is

improvisatory when in fact it’s well thought out. It does feel very light. It’s hard to figure out a

tempo for that piece, so rubato is definitely permitted.

Chance: In Flame Azalea, what is the reasoning behind the tango dance?

Frazelle: I’m glad you asked that since I wanted to mention something important. Most of these

pieces were written for friends as gift for their birthdays or anniversaries. Flame Azalea is a gift

for a friend of mine who is kind of fiery. He also tends to wear a lot of orange. The Flame Azalea

flowers are native to mountains and come out pretty early in April or May. They are full of these

beautiful orange and yellow blossom. I associate Tangos to hot colors, like orange or red. So,

that’s what that’s one’s about how showy the flower is. It’s a crazy tango – well my friend’s not

crazy, but he is wild.

Chance: So these Wildflowers, I guess they’re not just depictions of flowers, but also portraits of

your friends. Some of the flowers, I have difficulty associating them to the mood of the music,

but with Indian Pipes, I definitely understand how it relates to the eeriness of the piece.

Frazelle: They’re definitely weird. I think when I first saw them, they were growing under hay. I

picked them up, and they were definitely moldy, damp, and soaked. It just has a freaky white

color. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but that piece is strictly twelve-tone. Some of my more

conservative colleagues think it’s good because of that. It’s very low in the piano, and kind of

strange.

Chance: One of my favorites is Fire Pink. Correct me if I am wrong, or if I am being too literal,

but I thought that the five eighth notes that comprise majority of the rhythmic content symbolizes

the five petals of the Fire Pink flower. Is that right?

63

Frazelle: Yes, that’s absolutely right. I think you are the only person that got that. I think that one

is fun to play, almost like a toccata. I think that some of the phrases are also five measures long, I

don’t remember.

Chance: I have a practical question. Are the sextuplets crammed within the 5/8 bar to be played

faster?

Frazelle: Yes. It isn’t eighths equal to eighths, but it means you have to crowd it within the

measure.

Chance: Also, am I permitted to play the last few bars in the piece as fast as I could, like a

glissando?

Frazelle: I think that could work. This is a generalization I’ll tell you about my music. I think

performers often have the best ideas about interpretative things that are not in the score. When

you realize that it’s living and breathing music, it frees you up from taking the score too literally.

I think because of the 20th century recordings, everything in performance has become so note-

perfect. I mean, where is the improvisatory spirit? Obviously, we work very hard in putting these

notes now, but what they’re about is freer than what looks in the page. So if it’s a gut feeling to

play it like a glissando, then go for it!

Chance: The Blue Lobelia seems to be one of the more folk-like and melodic pieces in the set. Is

the folkish tune, along with its modal quality, something that came to you subconsciously? Or is

there a particular folk melody that directly inspired it?

Frazelle: I never thought about it! I never thought about it being modal or non-modal either.

Rather, I was thinking about the intense deep blue of those flowers and I knew that it had to be

64

on the black keys of the piano. Kind of like Chopin, he loves D-flat and G-flat. It didn’t come

from an actual folk tune, but it came from that world.

Chance: Going back to Columbine, that is the durationally shortest Wildflowers. Is it because of

the flower’s size or lifespan?

Frazelle: They are very fragile, fernlike flowers. The ones that I know grow out of wet rocky

places. They are delicate. I like playing with things that have very different lengths, like a piece

with a five-minute section which is followed by a two-minute section. I think it’s much more

interesting for listener and performer alike, to try to inhabit these different lengths of time. This

is definitely something that I got from Chopin preludes and Beethoven’s late bagatelles.

Chance: I love how Deptford Pink ends the entire set. I also like how the melody consists of two

voices, with the right hand reacting to the left hand.

Frazelle: That is right. Someone made a recording of the piece and I said “your right hand is not

connecting to the left hand.” It’s like connecting the dots, with the right hand not making any

sense without the left hand.

Chance: I was wondering who the dedicatees of this piece are. It says here for “Carrie, Jonathan,

and Owen.”

Frazelle: They are very good friends of ours. It’s hard to believe that Owen is driving right now.

The piece itself is at least sixteen years old. Owen is the child of Jonathan and Carrie. He was a

baby at the time the piece was composed.

Chance: So that explains the lullaby feel of the piece.

Frazelle: That is correct.

65

Chance: Now moving on to Elixir, I wanted to ask, why the title?

Frazelle: It’s a about the pianist Jeffrey Kahane. He’s the one, both as pianist and conductor, who

performed the most of my music. It’s incredible to have that kind of collaboration. I was guest

composer in residence at the L.A. Chamber Orchestra and he was guest conductor there for

years. For his 50th anniversary, there was a big surprise. they asked all the composers in

residence, to write a piece and play for him. Gold is the traditional metal for 50th anniversaries. I

like to think of the alchemical elixir, the substance that turns things to gold. It wasn’t

programmatic or anything, I just wanted to write a cantabile piece. A lot of my music gets

worked out into difficult places, so I wanted to write something that is like a line, a Chopin-

esque kind of cantabile. That’s what title is about.

Chance: My last question is about Roger Sessions. Your biographies seem to place emphasis on

your studies with him. What aspects of his teaching impacted you the most?

Frazelle: It was incredible, I was with him for four years. He was one of the great composers of

our time and I was awed and appreciative of his presence. When I was with him, he just turned

80. Although, he was in good physical health. He has a quiet, introverted personality. During our

lessons, he sometimes wouldn’t even come to the piano. He’d sit in silence as he looks at your

scores. He’d hear it inwardly. It’s amazing how anything that you’re insecure about – whether it

is harmony, transition, or part – he’d always point to that. He was like a magician. I asked “how

did you know that that was what I was insecure about?” and he’d reply “Well, because it doesn’t

work!” He had an impeccable sense of form and timing. There are two main things I’d say about

him. One is his interest in the idea of musical gesture and what can musical gestures do over

time? In other words, how do you create long lines? He did not mean melodies, he meant

66

rhetoric. Meaning, how to develop an idea? His music is so contrapuntal that you see all these

different layers that happen over time, but there is always a clear shape, and all the lines are

going toward a unified goal, like a Bach fugue. Lines meant logic and music moving with a

certain sense of urgency. The other thing is, he was such an incredible human being. He lived

through two world wars. He saw horrible things. He had a deep understanding of the joy and

tragedy of human beings. He was as far away from the idea of a music career that seems to

permeate the music world nowadays. When I was in Juilliard, I didn’t love everything about it as

you could understand. It was also very difficult for me financially, so I had to work –

transcribing music and playing for dance classes. But my lessons with Sessions is very spiritually

uplifting. He’s a major part of how I think and breathe music. I mean, that doesn’t mean my

music is like his. But it’s like what you talked about in Gaywings, where you see this fragments

that keeps unfolding, and it took you a while to see the form. That’s what I am referring to when

I talk about gesture and the unfolding of the line.

Interview with Kenneth Frazelle held on Zoom, February 10, 2021.

Chance: Before tackling Appearances and Inventions to Marden, I’d like to know more of you

background in the arts. Could you describe your earliest encounters in art?

Frazelle: Well, in my childhood it was part of the school curriculum. There were not so much

visual arts in the family. I did have a grandmother who worked at a fabric store. She was very

crafts-y and did a lot of tiaras. She was quite visually oriented. She is also very a good painter of

the local landscapes. I remember when I was about twelve, there was this wonderful summer arts

program at the local highschool where you could sign up for six to eight weeks. At first, I took

enrolled in the band program but ended up hating that. So, the next summer, I decided to enroll

67

in painting. It was very hot during the summer, and my sister and I rode our bikes to school. It

was a great way to stay inside. So that’s where I got to really enjoy painting although I didn’t do

a lot of it then. I ended up taking piano, but I did some paintings here and then. I also have a lot

of artist friends. When I was in Juilliard, I also did some drawings of landscape, and the music-

notation drawings we talked about last time. Usually when I travel, I’d rather go to the museums

than to concerts. Music is so much a part of my life and it feels like work. Although I love music,

I’d much rather go to the museum and not have to socialize with people. I am also a big fan of

the Museum of Modern Art when I was a student. I went all the time! Back them it was

inexpensive to go. Back then, to enter the Metropolitan Museum, you could pay anything you

wanted. But nowadays, you have pay around $30.00. Back then, Museums are not as crowded as

they are now. Museums have become a tourist-y thing now. A lot of people think that that is

great, but I don’t think that it is since visitors aren’t really looking at the art. I love Rembrandt

and a lot of old painters, but I am most interested in modern art, both European and American. I

also have a lot of contemporary artists that I admire. I do own a piece of Brice Marden. This is

from a series called Etchings to Rexroth. It went with a book that contained the poems of Tu Fu,

an ancient Chinese poet. You may have run across that Marden did a lot of art that is based on

Asian calligraphy. This [Etchings to Rexroth] is based on that calligraphic drawing and painting.

It was a real splurge, but I loved it.

Chance: My second question also has something to do with what you just said. Can you describe

your first encounters with Brice Marden’s art?

Frazelle: That’s a good question. I have heard about him for decades. In the 60’s or 70’s, he did a

lot of very minimal paintings. I knew about those but I honestly did not know exactly how I got

to him. It would have been in the 1990’s. I was really into him when I was writing these pieces.

68

He had a big retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art and his paintings got really big now,

they worth millions of dollars. I even met him once. I sent him a recording of the Inventions and

he told me that he listened to it as he was driving the country.

Chance: I did a lot of research on Marden. One of the artworks that struck me was the Cold

Mountain series. I am not a very visual person, especially with modern abstract art and honestly I

have a hard time appreciating it at first. Thinking about that, and I know you really got into

Marden’s paintings, what factors in his art made you compose the Inventions?

Frazelle: I think just the more I look at them, especially the ones with the calligraphic Asian

influence. To me they’re very lyrical with rhythm-like shapes with the way they kind of dance

within the picture frame. They seem very alive to me and very much like counter point and if

you look at some of them that are more ribbon like that have some of these loops in them, it’s

really interesting to try and figure out. It’s almost like there’s this game that he’s playing; like if

you try to follow the red you’ll see that he doesn’t have a yellow that crosses the red or he never

lets the blue intersect with other colors. There’s a strategy there that’s really interesting to me

which reminds me of Bach like canons and fugal things and just the interaction of different lines.

Obviously, Jackson Pollock was very much an influence on him with the all over dripping. And

do you know Franz Kline? He was with Jackson Pollock and others, there are all these great

painters. They call them The New York School or abstract expressionist painters in the 40s and

50s, and that was their big heyday. Of course, Brice Marden was a generation younger than them

but he was very much influenced by those abstract expressionists and the idea of writing and

calligraphy was a big influence on some of those mid-century, modern people. Some of them

were studying Zen and went up to Columbia University where there’s this man Suzuki who

introduced a lot of Zen ideas into the western world. That’s very much a part of Marden’s

69

sensibility too. He collects these ancient Chinese scholar’s rocks that you put on a table to study

and it’s quite interesting. When he got into calligraphy, the Asian influence is really great, I think

they’re some of the greatest paintings being made today. I don’t remember having an exact

moment why I wanted to do these inventions but two things come to mind that have to do with

the timing of it. One is that I started teaching a counterpoint class. Looking into those paintings

and thinking of counterpoint really made me want to write some inventions that are kind of

polyphonic. They’re not like Bach inventions of course but a lot of it is contrapuntal. The other

thing is the school did a big 50th birthday party for me that was 15 years ago and they did a

concert of my music and asked me if I wanted to play something and I said “Well, let me write

something new for it.” So that’s where I did these for the first time. So it was a really nice

evening and at the end they came out and said there was going to be a scholarship for

compositions students named after me. They have raised $30,000 which I could not believe and a

friend of mine said “too bad they won’t give me the money.” It was very moving so, the reason I

decided to write the piece was for this occasion and I don’t think anybody’s played them, except

you and me. If I write a piece that isn’t played very often I kind of forget it. It would come back

pretty fast if I had to play them again. I would listen to them and they’re kind of familiar but also

I heard them really fresh, not in ten years. For me they’re kind of a whole different thing and I

think they’re very abstract but also very emotional in a way.

Chance: One thing I wrote about your compositions as I’m working on my document right now,

my observation so far is that I feel like most of your compositions have a very human and

personal feeling to them. There’s rarely any composition that sounded like a technical exercise.

Frazelle: I appreciate that because obviously there’s a tremendous amount of technique involved

in composing—even badly. Composing is hard work but if it sounds effortless or human, that’s

70

great. Some people think it’s very improvisatory - which I think is a good thing – but it certainly

isn’t. There’s a tremendous amount of the mind involved. I has got to communicate or to me

there’s no point. I think there are a lot of modernist things about my music but I never bought

into this whole thing that it should not express, I mean to me it should express a lot and that’s

what I’m after. What those things are, I don’t have the word for it, but I thought there was a lot

of lyricism and kind of poignancy in this pieces that are kind of wistful in a way.

Chance: In one of the descriptions in your website saying that you are interested in the

contrapuntal element, as well as the fantasy element in inventions and I was wondering, because

I have not studied the genre of invention so much, is there really a fantasy element to it?

Frazelle: Some people call the Three-Part Sinfonias, Inventions also. Do you know the Three-

Part ones?

Chance: I’ve studied a couple of them when I was little.

Frazelle: I think the Three-Part are on a whole different level of musicality and they’re all

incredible but the Three-Part is able to make these transcendental pieces of music. To me, what I

take from inventions aside from contrapuntal things is this whole idea of rhetoric; like in a

debate. It goes back to the ancient Greeks actually. We had a renaissance in Germany in terms of

presenting an idea and then restating or redeveloping an idea and going through all these

imaginative diversions or episodes. I think in the inventions Bach is trying to put over an idea

and showing you what you can do with it. I think it’s in the publication of the Two-Part

Inventions where he says something like, of course it’s in German, “These pieces are not just for

the fingers—the training of the fingers. But also to show you how I compose.” Which is really

interesting. It’s almost like he’s consciously letting us in to how imaginative, like all he could

71

wring out. It’s fantastic what he does with it. They’re all amazing pieces. And of course you’re

convinced at the end depending on how you want to debate by your commitment to an idea. So

there were these, some say three or five stages of rhetoric when people study Greek oratory

debate. Have you ever been on a debate team?

Chance: I tried observing once but I figured it wasn’t for me.

Frazzlle: I haven’t done it either but I know it relates to this musical idea of statement. It also

relates to sonata allegro form in a sense when you think about exposition development and recap.

I mean of course the sonata allegro is a more dramatic form and a more extended form. But in

that way the idea of stating something simply and then getting what you can out of it, I definitely

was doing that in these Marden inventions.

Chance: As I was putting in some markings in my analysis of some pieces, sometimes I have a

tendency to just get stuck in one idea and to overfocus on its motivic aspect. At times I do get

lost as to what to analyze and what to look for. Do you have any advice on how to approach

things differently? Because sometimes I get stuck on thinking “Oh, this might be a pattern and

this is just like an augmentation of motif, diminution or whatsoever.” But as I was writing I think

it’s absurd to just label all the parts.

Frazelle: That’s tough because I don’t analyze them. I deal on some level but not the way that

you’re talking about because for me, to analyze something it would have to be something from

somebody else that I would be looking at objectively. To me analysis is looking back at

something that already exists. I could give you a very sophisticated analysis of this but it

wouldn’t be something that I thought of at the time because my process is very intuitive. Did we

talk about Brahms and that whole idea of developing variation?

72

Chance: Not yet.

Frazelle: There’s a great book about that called “Brahms and the Art of Continuing

Development” or something like that by a guy named Walter Frisch. I read that book 15, 20

years ago and I thought that was the best book about composing that I have ever read because it

shows you how Brahms presents an idea and then commits to that idea and there are all these

incredible connections to the first idea that occur whether it’s in the B-flat concerto or the F-

minor quintet. It really kind of knocked my socks of because it wasn’t like dry analysis. It’s

really showing you what the music is doing from moment to moment and how it relates to what

came before and that’s something that I strive for, not intellectually, but my intuition works that

way anyway. I’m not saying I’m Brahms but I’m saying that there’s a continuity and a

commitment to ideas that I developed even in the shortest pieces and I think that as young

composers, we and they, it’s really easy to string a bunch of ideas that don’t really relate. That’s

the easiest way to compose—just put a bunch of things together. But to make something that has

an organic unity, probably the best way to put it, is what I strive to do. It doesn’t mean that there

can’t be contrast of course but it’s almost like a narrative that has to have it’s own sort of logic.

Like if you look at the Schubert song cycles, there could be a traveler that goes through all kinds

of weather and love sickness and craziness and all that but it still remains a journey that makes

sense.

Chance: A lot of things that I’ve gotten from the inventions, and this is still partial, I like how in

the very end of the last piece you’ve kind of quoted the very beginning.

Frazelle: I like you that zeroed in on that because I thought that was one of the best things in the

whole thing and I listened to it last night. I’ve got to tell you something funny, the last note of the

73

last one, at first when I wrote it as a really harsh staccato note and a friend of mine said “That is

ridiculous, it just doesn’t work”. And he said hold it, and I think it does work it’s just sort of a

piercing forth. I don’t know if I wrote this or not but I do remember the last one, there’s a Brice

Marden painting. It’s called “The Muses” like the inspiration, the Greek gods. They were these

women, I think seven or nine, and they go with each of the arts, philosophy and all that. They’re

tricksters, they live up on Mount Olympus and there’s something about the poets, the composers,

the mathematicians or whatever, they wait to get their inspiration from these women and

sometimes it’s not available and it’s sort of a funny thing. I can’t quite articulate it but it’s almost

like they played tricks in artists where they’re there for them and other times they’re not. Like

inspiration. And I like the idea of them kind of doing a flirtatious dance with the people on earth

and that’s what this is about. I don’t know much about ancient music history but people think

Greek music had a lot of fives, sevens in it that went with their language and poetry so it had a

lot to do with the time signature, kind of dance-like.

Chance: I like how over time, there’s just much more and more layers that keeps adding up to the

texture and that’s one of the things that I’ve observed in your piano writing. There’s a lot of held

pedal and it’s probably one of the most difficult things to pull off. Could you say that it’s also a

way for you to give off the harmonic content of the pieces? It’s not just the common practice I-

IV-V-I whatsoever but having that pedal makes everything so much easier to know where we

are.

Frazelle: You’re right about reinforcing the harmony. It’s also a way of kind of using the piano

in a more orchestral way. I use a lot of wide open intervals that are kind of all over the place like

Webern or something. Not that the harmony is like Webern but there’s a lot of like pointillistic

stuff that goes on at times and the pedal can connect those things in a way to achieve a harmonic

74

glow. In this cello sonata that I wrote for Jeffrey Kahane and Yo-Yo Ma, one of them was a

presto like in five very much like this last Marden piece and Jeffrey started playing it and the

piano started doing this all over the piano pointillistic 5/8 forte stuff and Yo-Yo said, “Don’t

pedal it so much, make it really percussive and rhythm it more like Bartok or something,” and

Jeff said, “I’m sure he doesn’t want that.” And Yo-Yo said, “It’s much easier for me to count if

you play it that way.” So I felt that it was really funny that they were fighting about that. I was

very flattered. But I do love things that are flooded with pedal, in my own music but oddly

enough I’ve been going through some Beethoven sonatas the past few weeks and the older I get,

the less pedal I like to use in other people’s music. I’m just focusing more on how clean the lines

are and some of those Beethoven piano Sonatas, they would work as string quartets. So well

thought out that all the voices are there most of the time and there’s not a reason to blur anything.

I mean when you get in the Op. 111, it’s a different story.

Chance: As I was practicing the Inventions, I find the simplicity and brevity No. 4 striking,

compared to the other pieces in the set. What aspects of Brice Marden’s art do you associate this

part with?

Frazelle: Interestingly, I think one and four are related in terms of there’s kind of a very clean

very sparing quality to both of them. I thought of them really like if you were to zero in on one

hexagram or one Chinese character. Not a bunch of them in the last movement but if you could

just focus on one black and white ink character. And also, this is an extra personal music thing

but No. 4 was written for a Chinese friend of mine and she has a really wicked sense of humor

where she can insult somebody or say something kind of really mean just like in two words. I

don’t the piece is sarcastic but I felt that because there was a sparing quality it really seemed like

it had a more Asian sensibility of having space around it.

75

Chance: My personal favorite was Invention No. 3. When I was first analyzing this maybe I got

too much into the technical detail. I actually did ask one of my painter friends to listen to your

music and look at Brice Marden’s pieces and what’s funny is she actually got more out of it than

I did with all the musical stuff. My friend, she wasn’t so familiar with Brice Marden’s art, but

she quickly understood it quickly because she’s a painter. She listened to your music, she’s not a

professional musician by any means. She listened to it and said, “I know what this is about but I

could hear the swirls, the pointillistic stuff, the calligraphic stuff.” I found it kind of really

amazing that it actually made sense when I asked her about it. It’s kind of just funny hearing

other people’s perspective about music and sometimes they get more out of it than my learned

mind could ever get.

Frazelle: I know what you mean. Because we study so much theory and as a pianist you spend

hours and hours a day trying to figure out these dots on a page and sometimes we miss the

essence of what something is because theory has become so solidified that you’re supposed to be

looking for this. But I don’t think the way theory is usually taught really gets to what happens in

pieces of music. I-IV-V-I doesn’t really tell you about Mozart. The second theme of this piece on

page eleven, I don’t know why I kind of really like that. It seems like something out of

Prokofiev’s sad clown kind of world.

Chance: I thought it would’ve been a diminution of the augmentation of the first four notes of the

piece and then I just realized that it’s a D on the first four notes so probably not.

Frazelle: You know what’s interesting that the second measure of this piece has the same A & D

that the last movement ended with. I just noticed that. See I don’t think that way when I’m

writing but there it is.

76

Chance: One of the things that really interest me is that in this movement, like in the middle,

there’s this swing beat that it just kind of drives through and right after that you put “evaporate”

and suddenly it’s like a really learned Bachian style and I just find it intriguing how things were

interweaved in such a smooth way and yet they’re so different. In some ways it’s like a dream

where there’s an episode that fades to another. Is there an aspect in Brice Marden’s art that you

think is related to it?

Frazelle: I’m not sure because if you think about the paintings just one by one, I think they

contain pretty much just one idea but I think you’re onto something because sometimes he puts

those paintings together and one of them might have like three or four different colors. The ones

with the ribbons and then he might put another one beside it that has the same three or four

colors. The proportions are different or sometimes he’ll put five together. So I think you use

words like dreamlike or episodic, I think that makes sense for something like this. I don’t think I

was thinking that at the time because I don’t even know if I knew about those panel paintings

might’ve come after this actually. Definitely on seventeen after the swing stuff and the

evaporation, I definitely felt like it needed something very stable and contrapuntal kind of like

those quarter notes are very metric even though the sixteenth notes and the fives are related to

the fantasy-like stuff.

Chance: The way that this piece ends with the trill, for me there’s something ambiguous about it.

Is it like because your plan is to continue onto the next piece?

Frazelle: I’m looking at my performance copy and I wrote on the last page “Wait, hold, wait.”

Like I wanted a really long fermata but if you look at some of the key relationships and I think

because what the trill does for the b-flat that it relates to the fourth piece which is sort of b-flat

77

minor. I think the trill is not the ending of something, it’s waiting for something to happen. I

don’t remember if I lifted the pedal or not. I think there are a lot of different ways you could go

with it. But the main thing is to take a lot of time in that final held c-flat.

Chance: I like all of them but I always have a different impression of the second movement as I

play it. It seems invention-like to me at first but after I keep playing it, my theory is that since the

note values can be more diminished over time. Let’s say like in the cantabile e semplice it’s kind

of like a horizontalization of the vertical chords in the beginning and as time goes the the pieces

goies, not faster, but moving with the eighth notes.

Frazelle: On page five I wrote “move.”

Chance: I also have a performance question with regards to the sixteenth notes and the eighth

notes. Sometimes I end up naturally playing it an eighth note instead of a sixteenth note.

Frazelle: I think they can do different things. I don’t think they ought to be the same. I think the

sixteenth note was the closest thing that I felt since I think page five moves a little bit. I could see

them becoming more dramatic. To me it’s an odd little gesture that I like. I don’t know what it is

or what it means but if I were orchestrating it it could be like a muted trumpet. And it also

reminds me of like a pingpong ball. The pingpong ball always has a little bit kind of bounce.

Chance: Like a ricochet.

Frazelle: That’s it. That’s exactly right. The other thing you might be interested in the second one

is I know that I was consciously trying to get away from some of my piano writing can be very

thin-sounding and I definitely wanted a thicker kind of more Brahmsian or Rachmaninoff. You

know kind of pretty thick writing at the beginning and that was very conscious.

78

Chance: I have the score for Appearances. For me the writing, there’s a lot of differences in your

2005 and 2006 works. This was much earlier isn’t it? Like 1999.

Frazelle: I probably wrote it in 1999 for a premiere in 2000. There was something at the

University of North Carolina in Greensborough which is about thirty minutes from here. There

were six pianists in the faculty and each person shows a composer to write a piece so they

premiered them over a series of concerts for each of our music every night for a week.

Chance: One of the most obvious difference between these and the Marden pieces is that the

pieces tend to be more like- I know they have a basic shape but at the same time they kind of

remind me of wildflowers how everything is kind of not attached compared to the Brice Marden

pieces. Like there’s always a double bar at the end and the pieces conclude by themselves.

Frazelle: I think the Marden pieces are tighter in a way, it makes more of an arch. These really

are like preludes that could be played in any order. I think these are looser in a way.

Chance: Is there a programmatic element behind the dedications?

Frazelle: I don’t know that these have so much of a programmatic thing. I mean I think that No.

4 is kind of like pop sounding, kind of jazzy. Just kind of fun, for me it’s pretty light. It’s kind of

Broadway— very fun Americana.

Chance: As you were composing this were you thinking about the style of painting by Paul

Cezanne or is it more of the subject of his art works?

Frazelle: I think it has more to do with- there’s kind of a precision with his vision that it’s so

specific and there’s a clarity that I’m after. It’s like looking at his watercolor, every single brush

stroke matters and he’s very lean in that kind of way. And even in the first one is kind of

79

contrapuntal. The first one is actually in three voices which is I think unusual for me but I

remember working hard on that one. I wanted every note to matter, there’s not a lot of filler. It

doesn’t connect to the painting in the way it looks it’s more like the focus and precision of his

technique and his eye. Absolutely one of my favorite painters of all time. I think the second one

is very nature-oriented, there’s kind of a wildness to it. It probably related to that Gaywings

wildflower thing.

Chance: I really like this movement the figurations around measure 19 and it’s really fun to play.

Frazelle: I thought it was hard— the repeated notes. But you’re a real pianist. The third one is

kind of a wedding present even though it’s a somber piece.

Chance: I just have a hard time approaching the accelerando. There’s sort of like a texture to it.

Five, six, seven kind of reminds me of some of Bartok’s Mikrokosmos, not the way they sound

but the way they look like.

Frazelle: Especially Number Six could be like a Romanian folk dance. No. 6 also relates to the

last of the Marden pieces in terms of the seven and the fives, the dance-like quality. Of course

this one is really just in two voices. I think five and seven are very related. They have a similar

feeling and it’s interesting that they both have the c-sharp in the first measure. It’s not a big deal

but I think in some ways I thought of seven responding to five in a way. Five was written for a

friend of mine who’s a real modernist, he writes electronic music and there might even be serial

elements in these but I don’t remember. There’s some Copland music that’s very severe like the

variations and parts of the sonata. This to me fits into the more angular kind of sound world. And

the last one was written for a friend of mine who was a very well-known curator, he worked for

the Smithsonian museum in Washington. He was a real modernist; he really didn’t like my stuff

80

that dealt with Blue Ridge. A lot of modernists have a real attitude about certain kinds of music,

like people that just dismiss Copland or something which is ridiculous because Copland was kind

of a modernist when he wanted to be. You know the Copland Fantasy? That is one of the greatest

piano pieces of the 20th century and it’s like 35-40 minutes long, it’s very rarely played but it’s a

knockout piece. It’s one of my favorite pieces of all time and there’s not one note of Americana

in it. It’s based on a 10-note row believe it or not.

Chance: Now that I think about it there’s a lot of differences in style for each piece. As you said

some of it is like Americana and some of it is like Modernism and as I read in your website you

trying to detail more on the evolution of Paul Cezanne’s style rather than trying to depict exact

pictures.

81

APPENDIX B

SCORE EXCERPT USE AND PUBLISHER ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Kenneth Frazelle: Elixir

Copyright © 2007 by Notevole Music Publishing, a division of Subito Music Corp.

Used by permission.

Kenneth Frazelle: Inventions to Marden


Used by permission.

Kenneth Frazelle: Appearances


Used by permission.

Kenneth Frazelle: Wildflowers (from Sonata-Fantasy)


Used by permission.

82

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, Courtney S. "Organization in the Two-Part Inventions of Johann Sebastian Bach, Part I."

Bach 13, no. 2 (1982): 6-16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41640152. Accessed January

2021.

Adelman, Charlotte & Schwartz, Bernard. The Midwestern Native Garden: Native Alternatives

to Nonnative Flowers and Plants: An Illustrated Guide. Ohio: Ohio University Press,

2011.

Bentley, Stanley. Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Chapel Hill:

University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Brown, Maurice & Hamilton, Kenneth. “Nocturne.” Grove Music Online, 2001.

https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97

81561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000020012. Accessed January 3, 2021.

Burge, David. Twentieth Century Piano Music: Studies in Musical Genres and Repertoires, New

York: Schirmer Books, 1991.

Butler, Gregory G. “Fugue and Rhetoric.” Journal of Music Theory 31, no.1 (1977): 49-109.

https://doi-org.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/10.2307/843479. Accessed January 14, 2021.

Caldwell, John. “Invention.” Grove Music Online. 2001.

https://www.oxfordmusiconlinecom.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97

81561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000013877. Accessed January 4, 2021.

Chowrimootoo, Christopher. “Copland’s Styles: Musical Modernism, Middlebrow Culture, and

the Appreciation of New Music.” Journal of Musicology 37, no. 4. (October 2020): 518-

559. https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2020.37.4.518.

Copland, Aaron. What to Listen for in Music. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 1957.

Dickinson, Tom & Richard, & Metzger, Debora. The Rom Field Guide to Wildflowers of

Ontario, Toronto: Mclelland & Steward, 2004.

Dorment, Richard. “Journey from ‘Nebraska’.” The New York Review, New York: The New

York Review, 2006.

Finneran, Rebecca. “Indian Pipes: Oddities of the Plant World.” (Michigan State University

Extension, November 14, 2014.)

www.canr.msu.edu/news/indian_pipes_oddities_of_the_plant_world. Accessed

December 15, 2020.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41640152

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97

http://www.oxfordmusiconlinecom.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97

http://www.oxfordmusiconlinecom.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/97

http://www.canr.msu.edu/news/indian_pipes_oddities_of_the_plant_world

83

Frazelle, Kenneth. Subito Music Corporation. Accessed, December 2020.

Frazelle, Kenneth. Appearances. New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 1999.

Frazelle, Kenneth. Elixir. New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 2006.

Frazelle, Kenneth. Interview by Chance Elan Israel. Zoom, February 10, 2021.

Frazelle, Kenneth. Interview by Chance Elan Israel. Zoom, January 9, 2021.

Frazelle, Kenneth. Inventions to Marden. New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 2005.

Frazelle, Kenneth. Kenneth Frazelle. 2017. https://www.kennethfrazelle.com/. Accessed January

4, 2021.

Frazelle, Kenneth. Wildflowers. New Jersey: Subito Music Corporation, 2005.

Gagosian, Larry. “Brice Marden.” Gagosian Gallery. (April 12, 2018),

https://gagosian.com/artists/brice-marden/. Accessed November 2020.

“The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation.” Guggenheim Museum.

https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/brice-marden. Accessed January 2021.

Hard, Robin. “Lesser Deities and Nature Spirits.” Routledge Handbook to Greek Mythology.

Sussex: Psychology Press, 2004.

Kirby, F.E. Music for Piano: A Short History. Portland: Amadeus Press, 1995.

Loos, Ted. “A Subtle Sense of Place.” The New York Times. 2006.

Montana, Kelly. Think of Them as Spaces: Brice Marden’s Drawings. Houston: Yale University

Press, 2020.

Morgan, Robert. Twentieth Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and

America. New York: W.W. Norton & Norton Company, 1991.

Murchinson, Gayle. The American Stravinsky. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2012.

Prausnitz, Erik. Roger Sessions: How a “Difficult” Composer Got That Way. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2002.

Samson, Jim. Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music, Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2002.

Schulenberg, David. The Keyboard Music of J. S. Bach. New York, Routledge, 2006.

https://www.kennethfrazelle.com/



84

Stritch, Larry. “Viola Pedata.” Forest Service Shield. (U.S. Department of Agriculture.)

www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/viola_pedata.shtml. Accessed December 5,

2020.

Wendel, Brande. “Fringed Polygala.” Forest Service Shield. (U.S. Department of Agriculture.)

www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/polygala_paucifolia.html. Accessed

December 5, 2020

West, M.L. Ancient Greek Music. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992.

“Wild Columbine: Aquilegia Canadensis.” (Adirondacks Park.)

https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-wildflowers-wild-columbine-aquilegia-

canadensis.html. Accessed December 5, 2020.


http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/polygala_paucifolia.html

85

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Chance Elan Israel has performed internationally, having appeared in Japan, Italy,

Taiwan, the Philippines, and the U.S. His notable successes include winning at the Osaka

International Music Competition, Rockwood Piano Competition, Tampa Bay Concerto

Competition, Lyric Chamber Society Competition, Lynn Concerto Competition, and the South

Florida Young Artist Competition among others. He has played solo with various orchestras,

such as the Tampa Bay Symphony, Lynn Philharmonia, Suzuki String Orchestra, and the Manila

Community Orchestra. Chance hails from Manila, Philippines and is currently pursuing his

Doctor of Music in Piano Performance at Florida State University under the tutelage of Dr. Stijn

De Cock. He has earned his Master’s and Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance at

Lynn University under Dr. Roberta Rust.

Documents

An Analysis of Selected Piano Works Art and Nature in