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University of Southern Mississippi

Dual-Interval Spaces: Interrelations Between Interval Classes 1 and 5, Local Pitch Centers and Form in Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 12

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>Dmitri Shostakovich’s <em>Piano Sonata No. 1</em>, written in 1926, is one of his most complex and lengthy works for piano. In contrast to the conservative style used in his critically-acclaimed Symphony No. 1, Op. 10, composed a year earlier, the sonata employs a highly modernistic idiom which predominated the composer’s output in the late 1920’s. The musical surface of the sonata was crafted by an extensive use of interval classes 1 and 5 which serve as the primary means of structuring pitch material.</p> <p>This paper examines the surface combinations of two interval classes as well as their interaction with the structure through composing out, using Stephen Brown’s Dual Interval Space (DIS), a two-dimensional tonnetz. The DIS provides a tool that delineates both the voice-leading space of interval classes 1 and 5 and the relationship among different set classes that consist of them. This paper will build upon Brown’s discovery by demonstrating how intervallic properties from these short excerpts are composed out on a large scale as pitch centers—leading to a new understanding of the role that the two interval classes play in this sonata, both locally and structurally.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Music (MM)
Level thesis:degree_level
Masters Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Music
Year dc:date.available
2015

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Hong, Tae Young
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Douglas Rust
  • Danny Beard
  • Joseph Brumbeloe

Subjects

dc:subject × 8

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/79
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1079

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
University of Southern Mississippi
Base URL
aquila.usm.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Hong, Tae Young. Dual-Interval Spaces: Interrelations Between Interval Classes 1 and 5, Local Pitch Centers and Form in Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 12. Masters Thesis thesis, 2015. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/79