Schenkerian analysis of modern jazz. (Volumes I, II and III).

Abstract

The theories of Heinrich Schenker are regarded as among the most important in the history of tonal music. By revealing the underlying paradigms that organize masterworks of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music, they offer great insight into the technical and expressive content of these works. However, Schenker's analytical approach has never been systematically applied to entire modern jazz performances. Objections have been raised to Schenkerian analysis of modern jazz improvisations. In particular, the treatment of dissonance in jazz requires some qualifications in the application of Schenker's theories. But the importance of improvisation in the origin and content of Schenker's theories, the indistinct nature of the line that separates improvisation from composition, the writings of contemporary jazz scholars, and the testimony of modern jazz performers argue persuasively for the importance of voice-leading models in creating, explaining, and experiencing jazz. This dissertation is the first work to publish complete transcriptions of the same piece as played by different jazz performers. I have transcribed into musical notation five recorded performances of Thelonious Monk's classic jazz composition, " thinspace'Round Midnight": two recorded by the composer, one by Oscar Peterson, and two by Bill Evans. Viewing Monk's theme itself as a variation on simpler patterns illuminates some features that jazz shares with other tonal music. Analysis supported by comparisons of analogous passages sheds light on: the interaction of voice leading, harmony, rhythm, and motive; the organizing power of simple structures and the artistic significance of their delay; the aesthetic economy of hidden repetitions and balanced oppositions of event-rhythms; rhetorical devices and rhythmic leakages; and jazz dissonance treatment, conceptually paired voice-leading str and s, and harmonic language. Both Peterson and Evans solve the aesthetic problems of integrating the formal sections and instrumental parts of their performances--but in different ways. Both derive their solutions from structural aspects of Monk's theme, giving their variations an artistic economy. Schenker's theories illuminate not only the technical and stylistic elements of modern jazz performances, but also their artistic content.