Music 571 Seminar in Serialism
John Rahn
Winter 1995


Initial reserve list:

Forte, Allen. The Structure of Atonal Music
Hanson, Howard. Harmonic materials of modern music; resources of the tempered scale
Morris, Robert. Composition with Pitch-Classes * required text
Perle, George. Serial Composition and Atonality
Perle, George. Twelve-Tone Tonality
Perle, George. Operas of Alban Berg
Rahn, John. Basic Atonal Theory
Straus, Joseph. Introduction to Post-tonal Theory
Wuorinen, Charles. Simple Composition

See also the good bibliographies in Rahn and Morris, above.


Running Bibliography by Topics 



Analysis

Rahn, John. 1976. How Do You Du (by Milton Babbitt)? Perspectives of New Music 14, no. 2 and 15, no. 1 (double issue): 61-81.
Dubiel, Joseph. 1990. Three Essays on Milton Babbitt . PNM 28/2: 216-61.[ This eloquent three-part essay won a prize.]
Dubiel, Joseph. 1991. Three Essays on Milton Babbitt (Part Two). PNM 29/1: 90-123.
Dubiel, Joseph. 1992. Three Essays on Milton Babbitt (Part Three). PNM 30/1: 82-131.
Mead, Andrew. 1983. Detail and Array in Milton Babbitt's My Complements to Roger. Spectrum 5: 89-109.
Mead, Andrew. 1987. About About Time's Time: A Survey of Milton Babbitt's Recent Rhythmic Practice. PNM 25: 182-235. 
Mead, Andrew. 1993. Webern, Tradition, and "composing with Twelve Tones." Spectrum 15/2: 173-204.
Peel, John and Cheryl Cramer. 1988. Correspondences and Associations in Milton Babbitt's Reflections. PNM 26/1: 144-207.
Stadelman, Jeffrey. 1991. A Symmetery of Thought. PNM 29/2: 440-77. [good analysis of a Donald Martino piece. See also other analyses of Martino in this issue of PNM.]



Berg

Headlam, David. 1990. Row Derivation and Contour Association in Berg's Der Wein. PNM 28/1: 256-93.
Perle, George. The Operas of Alban Berg.

Contour

Tenney, James. 1964 (1988). Meta+Hodos and META  Meta+Hodos. Oakland: Frog Peak Music. [developed later in Polansky and HMSL]
Tenney, James and Larry Polansky. 1980. Temporal Gestalt Perception in Music.  JMT 24/2: 205-42.
Polansky, Larry, Phil Burk, and David Rosenboom. 1990. HMSL (Hierarchical Musical Specification Language): A Theoretical Overview. PNM 28/2: 136-79. [evolved from Tenney 1964.]
Polansky, Larry and Richard Bassein. 1992. Possible and Impossible melodies: Some Formal Aspects of Contour. JMT 36/2: 229-58.

Friedmann, Michael. 1985. A Methodology for the Discussion of Contour: Its Application to Schoenberg's music. JMT 29: 223-48.
Marvin, Elizabeth and Paul Laprade. 1987. Relating Musical Contours: Extensions of a Theory for Conture. JMT 31/2: 225-268. [applies Rahn 1980 to contour sets]
Friedmann, Michael. 1987. A Response: My contour, Their Contour. JMT 31/2:268-74.
Marvin, Elizabeth. 1991. The Perception of Rhythm in NonTonal Music: Rhythmic Contours in the Music of Edgard VarÜse. Spectrum 13/1: 61-78.

Morris, Robert. 1993. New Directions in the Theory and Analysis of Musical Contour. Spectrum 15/1: 205-28.


General

Benjamin, William. 1982. Models of Underlying Structure: How Can they Be Abstract, and How Should They Be Abstract. Spectrum 4: 28-50. [excellent]
Kowalski, David. 1987. The Construction and Use of Self-Deriving Arrays. PNM 25: 286-361. [extended and corrected in Scotto 1995]
Mazzola, Guerino. 1985. Geometrie der Tðne. Basel: BirkhÙuser.
Mazzola, Guerino. 1990. Gruppen und Kategorien in der Musik. Berlin: Heldermann.
Roeder, John. 1993. A MaMuTh Achievement. PNM 31/2:294-312. [review of Mazzola 1985 and 1990]
Morris, Robert. 1982. Set Groups, Complementation, and Mappings among Pitch-Class Sets. JMT 26/1: 101-43.
Morris, Robert. 1988. Generalizing Rotational Arrays. JMT 32/1: 75-132.
Morris, Robert. 1990. Pitch-Class Complementation and its Generalizations. JMT 34/2: 245-74.
Roeder, John. 1987. A Geometric Representation of Pitch-Class Sets. PNM 25: 362-409. [innovative and useful]
Roeder, John. 1989. Harmonic Implications of Schoenberg's Observations of Atonal Voice-Leading. JMT 33/1: 27-62. [excellent article showing how harmony derives from voice-leading]
Scotto, Ciro. 1995. DMA dissertation, University of Washington. [wide-ranging and authoritative, on theory of self-deriving rows, on tonal system analogs, and on philosophy of musical systems.]
Starr, Daniel. 1978. Sets, Invariance, and Partitions. JMT 22/1: 1-42.
Vieru, Anatol. 1992. Generating Modal Sequences (A Remote Approach to Minimal Music).  PNM 30/2: 178-201.


Scales and Microtonality

Agmon, Eyton. 1989. A Mathematical Model of the Diatonic System. JMT 33/1: 1-26.
Blackwood, Easley. 1991. Modes and Chord Progression in Equal Tunings. PNM 29/2: 166-201. [the product of lots of microtonal composing experience]
Carey, Norman and David Clampitt. 1989. Aspects of Well-Formed Scales. Spectrum 11/2: 187-206. [spectacular first article, seminal, a must read]
Clough, John. 1994. Diatonic Interval Cycles and Hirearchical Structure. PNM 32/1:228-53.
Clough, John, Jack Douthett, N. Ramanathan, and Lewis Rowell. 1993. Early Indian Heptatonic Scales and Recent Diatonic Theory. Spectrum 15/2: 1-18. [excellent article]
Clough, John. 1979. Aspects of Diatonic Sets. JMT 23/1: 45-62.
Clough, John and Gerald Myerson. 1985. Variety and Multiplicity in Diatonic Systems. JMT 29: 249-70.
Clough, John and Jack Douthett. 1991. Maximally Even Sets. JMT 35: 93-174.
Fonville, John. 1991. Ben Johnston's Extended Just Intonation: A Guide for Interpreters. PNM 29/2: 106-37. [good exposition of a sound compositional system]
Fuller, Ramon. 1991. A Study of Microtonal Equal Temperaments.  JMT 35: 211-38.
Gamer, Carlton. 1967. Deep Scales and Difference Sets in Equal-Tempered Systems. ASUC Proceedings: 113-22. [seminal article for microtonality and ETSs]
Rahn, Jay. 1991. Coordination of interval Sizes in Seven-Tone Collections. JMT 35: 1-32.

Similarity

Morris, Robert. 1980. A Similarity Index for Pitch-Class Sets. Perspectives of New Music 18, nos. 1 and 2 (double issue, Fall 1979 and Spring 1980):  445-60.
Rahn, John. 1980. Relating Sets. Perspectives of New Music 18, nos. 1 and 2 (double issue, Fall 1979 and Spring 1980): 483-98.  (First presented at the 1979 Annual Meeting of the Society for Music Theory.) [builds on Morris 1980 and previous work]
Lewin David. 1980. A Response to a Response: On PCset Relatedness. Perspectives of New Music 18, nos. 1 and 2 (double issue, Fall 1979 and Spring 1980): 498-502. [reformulates Rahn 1980]

Lord, Charles. 1981. Interval Similarity Relations in Atonal Set Analysis. JMT 25/1: 95-111. [independently arrives at some of Morris 1980 and Rahn 1980]
Rahn, John. 1989. Toward a Theory for Chord Progression.  Revised from 1981 (q.v.).  In Theory Only, 11/1 & 2 (May): 1-10. [follows up Rahn 1980. See errata in ITO 11/3.]
Hoover, Mark. 1984. Set Constellations. PNM 23/1 (1984): 164-79. [refines Rahn 1980]

Isaacson, Eric. 1990. Similarity of Interval-Class Content between Pitch-Class Sets: the IcVSIM Relation. JMT 34/1: 1-28. [after Morris 1980]


Time

Babbitt, Milton. 1962: Twelve-Tone Rythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium. PNM 1/1: 49-79. [the seminal beginning]
Cone, Richard. 1992. Transpositional Combination of Beat-Class Sets in Steve Reich's Phase-Shifting Music. PNM 30/2: 146-77. [applies pcset machinery to beat-classes; won a prize.]
Mead, Andrew. 1988. Some Implications of the Pitch-Class/Order Number Isomorphism Inherent in the Twelve-Tone System: Part One. PNM 26/2: 96-163. 
Mead, Andrew. 1989. Some Implications of the Pitch-Class/Order Number Isomorphism Inherent in the Twelve-Tone System: Part Two: The Mallalieu Complex: Its Extensions and Related Rows. PNM 27/1: 180-233. [all-interval and self-embedding rows]
Rahn, John. 1974. On Pitch or Rhythm: Interpretations of Orderings Of and In Pitch and Time. Perspectives of New Music 13, no. 2 (Spring 1975): 182-204. [generalizes Babbitt 1962]
Stanfield, Michael. 1984. Some Exchange Operations in Twelve-Tone Theory: Part one. PNM 23/1: 258-77. [swap order nos with pc nos -- inverse function]
Vuza, Dan Tudor. 1988. Some Mathematical Aspects of David Lewin's Book Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations. PNM 26/1: 258-87.
Vuza, Dan Tudor. 1991. Supplementary Sets and Regular Complementary Unending Canons (Part One). PNM 29/2: 184-207. [a four-part, brilliant, original theoretical work which uses some heavy group theory and other mathematics]
Vuza, Dan Tudor. 1992a. Supplementary Sets and Regular Complementary Unending Canons (Part Two). PNM 30/1: 184-207.
Vuza, Dan Tudor. 1992b. Supplementary Sets and Regular Complementary Unending Canons (Part Three). PNM 30/2: 102-25.
Vuza, Dan Tudor. 1993. Supplementary Sets and Regular Complementary Unending Canons (Part Four). PNM 31/1: 270-305.