A Theory of Orthography and the Fundamental Bass for the Late Oeuvre of Scriabin

The late œuvre of Alexander N. Scriabin (Op. 60–Op. 74, 1910–1914) constitutes one of the most intriguing and perplexing bodies of early twentieth-century music, with analytic and theoretic approaches toward this body of work ranging from the extendedly tonal to set-theoretic approaches that place this music as atonal or post-tonal. This dissertation seeks to demonstrate Scriabin’s late works as exemplifying an extendedly tonal idiom by constructing a fundamental bass theory that takes into account both transpositional symmetry and common-tone retention, and Scriabin’s idiosyncratic orthographic preferences. Chapter 2 surveys the literature of prominent theorists commenting on the preferential sonorities and collections of Scriabin’s late works, and examines various tonal and transformational relationships that obtain among these sonorities. Transpositional symmetry and common-tone retention is posited as the primary logic governing harmonic root motion. By invoking Rameau’s principle of root progression via the constituent intervals of a klang, Chapter 5 synthesizes these results with those of Chapter 3 to form a fundamental bass theory for the works of the late œuvre. By extending Cheong Wai Ling’s concept of the octatonic referent, Chapter 3 of this dissertation presents an idealized super-space summarizing Scriabin’s spelling practices: the chromatic referent, which subsumes spelling practices adopted on both surface level chord structures and deeper levels of chord-to-chord progression. Chapter 4 offers a mathematically formalized look into the properties of this chromatic referent, demonstrating its unique status within the space of over 354,294 distinct ways of notating a chromatic scale within our conventional notational system of thirty-five orthographically distinct notes. Chapter 5 outlines the fundamental bass theory, which elevates root motions by tritone, followed by motion by minor and major third, to the status of structural progressions. The orthographic preferences of the chromatic referent are shown to govern the later levels of chord-to-chord progression, and shown to extend as deeply as the total space of “keys” in which the late works are cast. Each of the late works is shown to compose-out a single referent root or tonic, with the large-scale structural progression typically articulating a tritone transposition to the raised-fourth scale degree. An extension of Rameau’s principle of interpolation is presented as a possible explanation for those cases in which such tritone related harmonies are spelled on lowered fifth scale degree roots, instead of the raised fourth scale degree predicted by the chromatic referent. Chapter 6 provides selected analyses of preludes, etudes, poems, and dances from the late œuvre by way of demonstrating the efficacy of the fundamental bass theory and its associated chromatic referent.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Tomasacci, David Nelson

Contributors dc:contributor

• Clampitt, David

• Music
• Scriabin
• orthography
• fundamental bass
• Mystic Chord
• Klumpenhouwer Networks

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: some rights reserved. It is licensed for use under a Creative Commons license. Specific terms and permissions are available from this document's record in the OhioLINK ETD Center.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366214596

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1366214596