Formalist analysis in the context of postmodern aesthetics: The music of John Adams as a case study.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This dissertation examines the validity of formalist analysis with regard to postmodern music. Recent compositional trends including experimental music and early minimalism have challenged the relevance of formalist analytical techniques and the assumed aesthetic that underlies them. Steve Reich's insistence that there are no structural “secrets” below the surface of his music suggests that formalist analysis is useless for minimalist music. The present study seeks to define the limits of the applicability of formalist analytical techniques to postmodern music. John Adams's music from 1977 to 1989 is used as a case study for this examination because his music from this period is influenced by early minimalism, but also displays postmodern tendencies. The analyses of Adams's music demonstrate both the utility and the limitations of formalist categories and analytical methods to his music.
The first chapter shows that Adams's music differs from early minimalist music in ways that indicate a lack of rigor and asceticism, characteristics of minimalism that are more modernist than postmodern. The analytical portion of the dissertation is concerned primarily with closure, a topic that is rich with formalist implications. Chapter 2 lays the groundwork for the examination of closure by studying textural stratification. Within stratified textures, formalist analytical categories such as pitch collections and motivic transformation are shown to be valid in isolated areas but not globally throughout Adams's works. Chapter 3 uses stratified analyses to show that Adams's music challenges traditional ideals of closure; his works are often not closed in terms of form or tonal materials. Chapter 4 defines Adams's compositional aesthetic in terms of nationalism, accessibility, and disunity. Disunity and non-closure are characteristic traits of postmodernism, and the chapter includes a discussion of Adams's relationship to modernist and postmodernist aesthetics.
The dissertation concludes with an assessment of the relevance and validity of formalist analytical techniques to postmodern music. The analyses of Adams's music reveal the limitations of analysis, as well as its explanatory potential. For a more complete view of postmodern music, interpretive criticism is necessary in addition to analysis.