Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2008.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2009
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46582 |
| _version_ | 1826214436178755584 |
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| author | Huang, Cheng-Zhi Anna |
| author2 | Barry L. Vercoe. |
| author_facet | Barry L. Vercoe. Huang, Cheng-Zhi Anna |
| author_sort | Huang, Cheng-Zhi Anna |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2008. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:05:19Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/46582 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:05:19Z |
| publishDate | 2009 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/465822019-04-12T10:03:06Z Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation Huang, Cheng-Zhi Anna Barry L. Vercoe. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-101). We all share similar innate emotions, but our cultural experiences nurture us to express them differently. The musical form "theme and variations" offer us a unique lens to uncover in each culture the relationships between the musical surface that touches us most directly, and the underlying structures that are more abstract. Variations are musical surfaces composed to explore the expressive potentials of the theme by transforming it along certain musical dimensions, while the theme itself can be seen as an intermediate pathway to the more abstract structures of a style. I approach cross-cultural transformation in music as a kind of cross-cultural variation, as the theme and variations tradition offers us a framework to explicitly consider which musical elements to stay fixed and which to vary. I propose to treat cross-cultural variation as a four-step process. First, the process of "melodic reduction" reduces the melodic surface of a theme to its underlying melodic progression. Second, "forward cross-cultural transformation" maps the uncovered progressions to those idiomatic in the cultural style that carries the variation. These cross-cultural mappings are approached by considering which of the melodic properties in the underlying progressions to preserve and which to transform. These properties include contour, scale-degree function, melodic formulae and tension. Third, "melodic elaboration" retrieves the melodic surfaces that possess the mapped melodic progressions. Fourth, "backward cross-cultural transformation" adjusts the melodic surface of the variation to strengthen its resemblance to the theme. My experimentation begins with the melodic variations on two historically related instruments, the Chinese zither, gu-zheng, and the Japanese zither, koto. Even though their repertoires evolved culturally to render very different melodic surfaces, it has been pointed out by ethnomusicologist Alan Thrasher that there is a high degree of similarity between their underlying structures. This enables a cross-cultural mapping at the structural level that ties together stylistically different melodic surfaces to exhibit a kind of crosscultural variation. I will conclude by briefly discussing the effectiveness of variation as an approach to cross-cultural transformation. by Cheng-Zhi Anna Huang. S.M. 2009-08-26T16:57:00Z 2009-08-26T16:57:00Z 2008 2008 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46582 422624396 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 101 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences. Huang, Cheng-Zhi Anna Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation |
| title | Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation |
| title_full | Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation |
| title_fullStr | Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation |
| title_short | Melodic variations : toward cross-cultural transformation |
| title_sort | melodic variations toward cross cultural transformation |
| topic | Architecture. Program in Media Arts and Sciences. |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/46582 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT huangchengzhianna melodicvariationstowardcrossculturaltransformation |