Tonality as Drama : Closure and Interruption in Four Twentieth-Century American Operas

Edward D. Latham

• Publisher: University of North Texas Press
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN:
  9781574413717
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Opera Music

This is an analytical monograph by a Schenkerian music theorist, but it is also written by one performer and enthusiast for another. Tonality as Drama draws on the fields of dramaturgy, music theory, and historical musicology to answer a fundamental question regarding twentieth-century music: why does the use of tonality persist in opera, even after it has been abandoned in other genres? Combining the analytical approaches of the leading music and dramatic theorists of the twentieth century— Austrian music theorist Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935) and Russian director Constantin Stanislavsky (1863–1938)— Edward D. Latham reveals insights into works by Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, Kurt Weill, and Aaron Copland that are relevant to analysts, opera directors, and performers alike. Latham reveals a strategic use of tonality in that repertoire as a means of amplifying or undercutting the success or failure of dramatic characters.

Table of contents

• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 Tonality as Drama: An Introduction
• Chapter 2 Dramatic Closure: the Stanislavsky System and the Attainment of Character Objectives
• Chapter 3 Tonal Closure: A Schenkerian Approach to Tonal Drama
• Chapter 4 The Completed Background Line with Open-Ended Coda: Scott Joplin’s “Grand Opera” Treemonisha (1911)
• Chapter 5 The Multi-Movement Anstieg or Initial Ascent: George Gershwin’s “Folk Opera” Porgy and Bess (1935)
• Chapter 6 The Multi-Movement Initial Arpeggiation: Kurt Weill’s “Broadway Opera” Street Scene (1947)
• Chapter 7 The Prolonged Permanent Interruption: Aaron Copland’s “Operatic Tone Poem” The Tender Land (1954)
• Bibliography
• Index