Thwarted Patterns in the Organ Music of Alan Hovhaness

Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness (1911–2000) stands as an artist not easily placed into any categorical musical norms of the twentieth century. A Western-born composer with a love for Eastern thought and his Armenian heritage, Hovhaness combined Western forms and counterpoint with Eastern melodic materials. Though an extraordinarily prolific composer, he wrote only a handful of solo pipe organ works primarily in the last twenty years of his life. Through the application of modern theoretical devices to Hovhaness’s treatment of half-diminished seventh chords, scales, and voice leading within his solo organ works, certain expected musical patterns found in other canonical Western works can be shown to be consistently thwarted. These thwarted expectations may provide insight into and appreciation of Alan Hovhaness’s unique idiosyncratic organ music.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Van Hal, Shayla Rose

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Murphy, Scott B

• Music theory
• Music history
• Music
• Alan Hovhaness
• Armenia
• permutation theory
• pipe organ
• seventh chords
• Twentieth-century music

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright held by the author.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17260

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39292