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This was the first homework assignment presented in our Post-Tonal Theory course. Wonderful information.
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MUTC 202 Twentieth-‐Century Theory name Assignment 1: Tonality, Post-‐Tonality, Pandiatonicism, Modes Listen to at least one performance of each piece (you may easily find them on Naxos or YouTube), and answer the following questions. I Debussy, Danseuses des Delphes Preludes, Book 1 no. 1 Download from Blackboard: Assignments
1) Tonality • Where is material most clearly in Bb? • Explain your answer. What melodic and harmonic factors support your decision?
2) Non-‐Tonality • Consider measures 11–14, where triads plane by step, progressing through several
diatonic collections. Then, consider measures 21–24 (immediately following the fermata), where triads also ascend in some kind of melodic/harmonic sequence.
• Which of these passages is further afield from tonal practice? That is, which of the two passages adheres less to tonal principles?
• Explain your answer. What factors support your decision? [Be sure to listen and analyze carefully, not all explanations are equally relevant or informative.]
II Dmitri Kabalevsky Toccatina Op. 27 no. 7 Music For Analysis anthology #393 p. 424
3) Modality • Why is the mode of A Aeolian a more accurate analysis of this excerpt’s overall pitch
organization? Why not describe it as being in the key of A minor? 4) Planing
• Where is the movement of the accompaniment not exactly parallel to the melody? • How do these ‘misbehaving’ chords relate (harmonically, that is) to the modal ‘tonic’?
[Please use tonal terms like ’mediant,’ ‘sub-‐dominant,’ or ‘dominant,’ or even Roman numerals to answer, but remember to use single quotes (a.k.a. ‘scare-‐quotes’) to qualify your answer as ‘quasi-‐tonal.’]
III Debussy la Cathedrale Engloutie Preludes, Book 1 no. 10 Music For Analysis Anthology, pp. 503ff.; Anthology of Post-‐Tonal Music, pp. 1–5
[Note: please give complete names for all modes, including both the mode’s name and its final. For example, not “Locrian” but “D Locrian.”]
5) Modality with Planing (mm. 28–40)
• Listen carefully to mm. 28–40. If the pedal tone provides the modal final, what is the opening mode?
• What mode sounds when B-‐flats begin to occur at m. 33? • In what mode does this excerpt conclude?
6) Modality and Pandiatonicism (mm. 7 –12) • Beginning at m. 7, a melody emerges out of a pandiatonic background that strongly
asserts ‘E’ (mainly through pedaling). What is the mode of this melody? Be careful, and be sure to incorporate all notes from the melody to get your mode. Any missing scale degrees? Make the most reasonable guess.
• Where else does this melody, or ‘theme’ occur in the piece? • Does the new pedal tone (in the passage that is the answer to the question immediately
above) make you hear a different modal final for this occurrence of the theme? Or, do you hear the same modal final as the one that sounds across mm. 7–12?
• What would be the mode of this later passage if the pedal tone does, in fact, change the final (answer, please, regardless of whether you sense a change in modal final).