Music Theory Midwest

1999 Tenth Annual Conference
Butler University
14-15 May 1999 - Indianapolis, IN

Paper Abstracts:

        Our capacity to remember aural events is critical to our musical understanding. Musical memory enables us, among other things, to recognize a recurring theme, to notice that this theme has moved from the violins to the horns, to realize that the music has returned to the original key, and to hypothesize that those alternating tonic and dominant chords signal that the movement is nearly over. This does not mean, however, that musical memories must be encoded aurally -- that is, a listener does not necessarily remember a series of sounds corresponding to all previously heard music. Instead, musical memory might be encoded verbally, visually, or kinesthetically, for example.
        Very few investigators have addressed strategies for encoding music. However, numerous psychologists examining visual, olfactory, and non- musical auditory memory have discovered a correlation between the ability to identify things verbally and the ability to remember them. I will summarize this research, present the results of an original experiment that suggests verbal encoding of timbre is common among trained musicians, and discuss the pedagogical implications.

        Music theorists have long used spatial imagery to describe relations among tones, referring to pitches as high or low, intervals as wide or narrow, keys as near or distant. This paper will show how such relations metaphorically reflect our experience of physical space, revealing ourpropensity to map onto music image schemas derived from embodied experience (Johnson, 1987; Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff and Johnson, 1998). Two schemas in particular appear to be relevant to our experience of musical space: the CONTAINER schema and the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema.
        This paper shows how the psychoacoustic properties of pitch lend themselves to different, yet complementary, mappings of pitch onto physical space. Within this space, keys, chords, and intervals can be represented as pathways and/or containers, which in turn map onto one another through their shared properties of enclosure, familiarity, and safety. Changes of pitch, harmony, and key can then be represented as motion passing within and/or between containers following pathways that lead to stable goals. These three metaphorical elements--containers, pathways, and goals--appear to serve as the basic building blocks for musical narrative, allowing us to hear in music such storylike features as confinement within a container, expansion of (or escape from) a container, the overcoming of blockage along a pathway, and the attainment of a goal at the end of a pathway. This paper provides evidence of the palpability of such features by showing how they contribute to the narrative structure of specific musical works.

        In Style and Music: Theory, History, and Ideology (1989), Leonard Meyer proposes a general theory of musical style change grounded in the belief that such changes result from countless interactions between individual composers, performers, and audience members acting in concert over time. Of course, many factors contribute to the context of stylistic development, but the changes in musical practice fundamentally result from the individual choices made by composers. Meyer's theory closely correlates with descriptions of complex systems in other fields.
       Complex systems have an "evolving structure," that is, "these systems change and reorganize their component parts to adapt themselves to the problems posed by their surroundings." Fortunately, "the mechanisms that mediate these systems are much more alike than surface observations suggest. These mechanisms and the deeper similarities are important enough that the systems are now grouped under a common name, complex adaptive systems" (Holland 1994, 310).
        Music shares many characteristics with complex adaptive systems such as: 1) the presence of numerous autonomous agents and their interactions; 2) multiple feedback and feedforward loops; 3) distributed decision making; 4) atendency for diversity and complexity to increase with time and; 5) the use of internal schemata to aid adaptation to new environments.
        The models and metaphors emerging from the study of complex systems resonate with the dynamic nature of musical development and perhaps more importantly, with the diachronic nature of our musical experiences. The models provide avenues for exploring the system dynamics and thereby expanding our understanding, while the metaphors provide rich associations and powerful images to describe the dynamic character of music on a variety of levels.

        After some 24 years of a correlated music theory and music history core experience for freshmen and sophomores, the Northwestern School of Music has been experimenting with a new sequence of courses. The history courses now begin in the sophomore year. The goals of the theory curriculum, broadly stated, are:

1. to present a learning-centered program of study, with a focus on what and how (and whether) students are learning, with special emphasis on how students mentally organize their knowledge;
2. to develop concrete strategies for having students apply what they're learning to music outside the theory classroom, especially to music they study with the private teacher and ensemble director, and to music which reflects their personal tastes;
3. to move away from a preoccupation with 4-voice partwriting toward using partwriting as a means of developing analysis and listening skills;
4. to give more time to the study of rhythm, and to begin the study of meter by analyzing metric structures as they are heard, and only then to proceed to how meter may be represented on the page; and
5. to incorporate pop music, jazz, and music of other cultures as models of "correlation or contrast" with the Western musical canon.     Since we have had a year's more experience with the freshman course, now in its third year, we limit our presentation to the three ten-week quarters of the first year of study. The materials available at the presentation provide three perspectives on the course: the structure, the content, and specific teaching/learning strategies.

Structure

Content

Teaching/Learning Strategies

        Most commercially-available aural skills materials intended for use in undergraduate core music curricula focus almost entirely on the study of tonal or twentieth-century techniques and literature. This approach, however, neglects the significant body of Medieval and Renaissance literature that provides the foundation for much of the study of Western music. Students do study this repertoire, of course, but often this exposure is limited to their music history coursework, with perhaps some coverage in their written theory training.
        Our approach is much different. We believe that students should learn all historical styles of Western music from both a theoretical and an aural perspective, and therefore we incorporate a large number of Medieval and Renaissance ear training exercises into our second-year aural skills curriculum at the same time students are studying this material in both written theory and music history. These exercises include various types of dictation, sight singing, and "play-and-sing" drills, beginning with two parts and progressing to three parts.
       A chronological approach to the modal repertoire beginning with Gregorian chant allows the instructor to focus on materials in a pedagogically- effective sequence. Chant dictation and singing, for example, focuses on predominantly stepwise motion, with little rhythmic difficulty. With early organum we introduce the concept of harmonic intervals, allowing for the progressive study of consonant and dissonant intervals. Notre Dame organum, with its emphasis on modal rhythm, allows us to incorporate rhythmic patterns in the dictation. Similar pedagogical concepts are introduced in the study of 14th-, 15th-, and 16th-century music, giving students experience in dealing with the modal pitch system and characteristic rhythmic devices from a practical "hands-on" perspective. This session will provide a sampling of techniques and musical examples that can be used by other aural skills instructors. In addition, some of the philosophical and musical issues of incorporating Medieval and Renaissance repertoire into the aural skills curriculum will be addressed.

        The task of melodic dictation has long been an established component of the aural skills curriculum, having earned its place as a valuable and multi- faceted learning tool. While developing skill in melodic dictation is certainly valuable, choosing the most appropriate method for evaluating dictation solutions has been somewhat problematic. What factors should be involved in an instructor's diagnosis of error? Should evaluation methodology be affected by the style of melody presented to the student? Should certain types of errors be weighed differently than other types? In this study, these questions, as well as others, are addressed through the results of two surveys which examine scoring methods and preferences among college instructors with interest and experience in aural skills.
       The surveys featured dictation "test" melodies along with dictation "solutions" that contained a variety of pitch errors. Included in the surveys were diatonic melodies, tonal melodies containing some chromatic pitches, and melodies that had atonal characteristics. Participants were asked to evaluate several different scoring methodologies according to their effectiveness for each melody and dictation solution.
       This study will examine the implications of the survey results as they may be applied to goals within the aural skills classroom, both in development of student listening skills and in determining the most appropriate methods of evaluation of such skills. Also considered will be the potential benefit these results may have in assessing scoring methodologies currently in use on standardized tests that include melodic dictation tasks, such as the GRE and the Advanced Placement Examination in music theory.

        Music Theory in various guises is a core requirement of nearly all undergraduate music curricula. In addition to addressing basic reading and analysis skills, theory instruction is often expected to develop other skills as well, most usually sight singing and ear training. In an effort to meet these demanding and complex challenges in a rigorous yet manageable way, theory instruction can become myopically focused on product---the correct voice leading, singing the notated pitches and rhythms with accuracy, or compositions that are formally clear and technically accomplished. Theallure of product--and its attractive quantified assessment of student progress- -is almost irresistible, but its seductive power to dominate teachers (and, consequently, students) often results in unmusical presentation and little or no transfer of concepts or skills to music making outside the theory classroom.
       In this presentation, I will attempt to analyze a number of traditional activities in the music theory classroom, including dictation, sightsinging, and analysis. I will first focus on the ways in which these activities are typically approached, including presentation and evaluation. I will then explore alternate ways of presentation, variations in student activities, and alternate models of assessment which might promote more student and teacher attention on the processes involved in the activities. I will conclude that emphasis on process might result in greater student engagement, higher levels of student motivation, greater emphasis on musicality, greater transfer and application of theory skills to other music making, and, ultimately, a technically accomplished and artistic product.

        Few pedagogical models have been proposed for the instructor of aural skills interested in engaging atonal or twelve-tone literature. This presentation offers a model for implementing an aural component to atonal and twelve tone theory and analysis, through a series of exercises and assignments based on musical literature from the second Viennese school. The model provides applications to music that build on more abstract exercises as presented by Michael Friedmann and Robert Morris. Schoenberg's Piano Pieces, op. 19, and Webern's Movements for String Quartet, op. 5, among other works, provide material for the introduction of new harmonic resources, compositional procedures, and other audible constructs for the student to perceive.

        Music theory is very often taught without including non-Western music. However, Western music relates, especially since the late 1800s, quite often to certain styles and genres of non-Western music. Furthermore, the development of Western popular music--which is dominating today'smusical life--was, and is, strongly influenced by non-Western music. For these reasons, world music should be included in any general music theory class.
        Especially in Music Fundamentals courses for non-music-majors, popular music is of special interest, since these courses are most often taken by students with an almost pure popular music background. Here, an approach is necessary which includes different popular music styles as well as their music theoretical and aesthetical relations to world music. The presentation will outline a College/University level two-semester Fundamentals course, emphasizing the inclusion of popular as well as world music. Results of empirical surveys will support the world music approach. Generally, such a course rather enables students to get engaged with a whole set of different kinds of music to support learning music fundamentals. Here, world music plays an important role, whereby "classical" music is only being supplemented, not replaced. Goals, structure and contents of this course, in which students are forced into multi-cultural thinking, will be introduced.

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