***Recently I attended a class on modern compositional techniques and found out that there is a definite difference between serialism, chance, indeterminate, and aleatoric music. Most books consider these to be the same. They are not. Serial music is the oldest stared by Schoenberg and Webern and is based on the tone row. Chance music came next, during the forties, chance like serialism has a constant output. Meaning every time you hear a chance or serial piece it will sound the same. Chance procedures use charts, dice or coins to choose which notes will be used and are then notated as traditional music would be. Indeterminate and aleatoric music, however, will not sound the same each time you hear them. Both of these styles appeared in the fifties. Aleatoric music is where the performer has a choice of what to play. The performer can choice ABC or ACB or CBA, etc... Aleatoric music has the opportunity for two performances to sound the same, if the performer makes the same choices. In chance music, however, there is no predetermined output available, no two performance of chance music will ever sound the same, because chance music has more of a chaotic input. Chance music is usually given simply instructions of how to play. Many older books and dictionaries confuse these definitions and many people use interchangeable, they are different, and the composers who used took it very personally, a bit of information Cage and Babbitt ended a friendship because one preferred chance and the other aleatoric. I apologize for any confusion my previous definitions may have caused. It should also be noted that these are compositional techniques and note style of music.
Aleatoric Composition -- music
in which certain options are left up to the performer, graphic notation
is
usually associated with this style, but not all of it, this style is not
associated with chance music.
Atonal -- atonal unlike tonal has no single note that
is more important than any other. An Atonal piece does not
revolve around a determined note, and all tones are considered equal.
Basso Ostinato -- a ostinato in the bass line.
Binary Form -- is the division of a piece into two sections A and B, hence AB form.
Cardinal Number -- the number of pitches, or elements, contained
within a set. Example: The set [0,4,5,2] has a
cardinal number of 4, because it contains four elements.
Cent -- Is just a form of measurement, used to measure the distance
between intervals. It is used because in different
registers the frequency between pitches changes. For example the difference
of the double 66 to 132 is 66, but the
double of 440 and 880 is 440. Each are the same intervals but because of
the relative highness or lowness of the
interval the difference will change. Each octave, or double, is divided
into 1200 cents.
Chance Composition -- music in which the the compositional process
is undetermined, but the end result
constant. Chance is an out growth of serialism, in an effort the remove
the composer from the compositional
process. Chance music is mostly associated wth John Cage and also evolved
into the indeterminate sytle.
Circular Permutation -- is similar to permutation except
the first note becomes the last note, the second note
becomes the first. Example: Prime form - [0,4,5} First circular permutation
- [4,5,0] Second circular permutation -
[5,0,4]
Controlled Improvisation -- where a composer only partially composes
a piece of music, and the remaining aspects
of the piece are determined by the performer.
Dodecaphonic -- means 'through the twelve.' It is a style of composition
that takes advantage of all twelve tones.
Music is written with rows or sets of tones, and the variations of each.
It is another name for twelve-tone
composition.
Double -- same as the octave. The difference being that the double
refers to twice the frequency of the first pitch,
and the octave means to go through the eight. Meaning that the octave consists
of eight whole steps. This works fine
in most tunings systems, but in some there are no whole steps; therefore,
double is a more appropriate term for the
interval of 1200 cents.
Familiar Style -- Same as Homophonic.
Homophonic -- Were
a melody is supported and played in conjunction with an underlying chord
progression. The
progressions move in note against note fashion.
Ictus -- (as used in 20th century music) -- is similar
to a chord, the difference is that a chord has a tonic and an ictus
is just a collection of note. No note in the ictus is more important than
another.
Indeterminate Composition -- music
which was mostly developed by John Cage, in indeterminate music only
instructions are given, such as, "play three notes as fast as possible
for two minutes."
Interval Class -- Each interval contains a specific number of half
steps, the number of half steps indicates the
interval class (IC).
Isorhythm -- the
use of repetitive patterns in music. The term "talea" is a repeating rhythmic
pattern, and the term
"color" is a repeating melodic pattern. The talea is similar to ostinato.
Monophonic -- music that is of a single melodic line, no harmony is used.
Musica Ficta -- in music of the middle ages, musica ficta was the
use of notes out side of the hexachord systems in
use at the time.
Ordered Set -- when the sequence of the set is given in the order of the elements.
Ostinato -- A repetitive melodic figure.
Partial Signature -- a multi-voiced piece which has more than one simultaneous key signature.
Picardy Third -- a technique that uses a major third instead a minor third in the final chord of a piece in minor.
Pitch Class -- is similar to pitch space except that octave
equivalence does apply. C and c are treated as equals.
Only there name is important not their relative highness or lowness. Example:
C = 0, C# = 1, D = 2 , . . . , A# = 10,
B = 11
Pitch Space -- every note has a defined name. Octave equivalence
does not apply here. C and c are separate
pitch spaces. Both their name and relative highness and lowness is
used to identify them.
Permutation -- is an alternate ordering of a given set. Example: [4,2,3,1] is a permutation of [2,1,3,4]
Polyphonic -- music with multiple melodic
lines. Each melodic line is considered independent, harmony is not
intended.
Retrograde -- when a series of pitches is written or played backwards,
it was done in retrograde, meaning
backwards. Example: A = [3,2,5,4,11] The retrograde of A is A' = [11,4,5,2,3]
-S-
Set -- is a collection of pitches. A set can be in ordered or unordered
form. Example: [3,4,2,3] is a collection of
Tonal -- a piece is tonal if it is centered around a tonic.
Meaning that the piece has one note that is more dominating
than any other note in the composition.
Trinary Form -- is the division of a piece
into three section respectively, ABA. Where the second A section is
usually a variation of the first A section.
Tonicization -- a small scale modulation,
usually only a couple of chords. Where a tone other than the keys tonic
acts
as a tonic note.
Unordered Set -- when the order of the elements in the set is arbitrary.
Meaning the pitches are not in any given
order.