13-Limit Extended Just Intonation in Ben Johnston's String Quartet #7 and Toby Twining's "Chrysalid Requiem", "Gradual /Tract"

This dissertation explains the nature of 13-limit extended just intonation, expounds Ben Johnston's pioneering work in this area, and presents an analysis of his String Quartet #7 as well as the Gradual/Tract from Toby Twining's Chrysalid Requiem, both of which utilize this unique tuning and compositional resource. The discussion centers upon what is arguably among the most complex pieces of music ever written, the last movement of Johnston's String Quartet #7, entitled Variations. A special compositional challenge that Johnston posed to himself, Variations uses the intervals of a hyperchromatic scale to build a musical structure composed of well over a thousand discrete pitches. Johnston's microtonal techniques, from the smallest bits of melody and harmony to the largest aspects of design, were never so well on display as in this movement. Coupled with the microtonal innovations of the other two movements, the analysis of Johnston's Quartet #7 will elucidate his compositional approach, as well as identifying and explaining the new musical resources available to composers in extended just intonation. Johnston's former student, Toby Twining, has been included to demonstrate exciting developments in the current world of extended just intonation, as composers begin to take Johnston's discoveries further. Twining's Chrysalid Requiem uses many techniques pioneered by Johnston, including his notation system, but also contributes groundbreaking new ideas and approaches to intonation, harmony and notation, in the context of a large scale work of modern sacred polyphony that has received widespread acclaim.

Name thesis:degree_name

D.M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Johnson, Timothy Ernest

Contributors dc:contributor

• Taube, Heinrich

• Music

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3314809

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85798