Timothy A. Johnson

Harmonic Vocabulary in the Music of John Adams: A Hierarchical Approach

Following the minimalist tradition, much of John Adamss music consists of long passages employing a single set of pitch classes (pcs) usually encompassed by one diatonic set.2 In many of these passages the pcs form a single diatonic triad or seventh chord with no additional pcs. In other passages textural and registral formations imply a single triad or seventh chord, but additional pcs obscure this chord to some degree. These phenomena suggest a hierarchical approach to the harmonic analysis of Adamss music that relates passages containing only a triad or seventh chord to passages incorporating additional pcs. For each individual passage I recognize three distinct pc levels arranged in an ordered triple of pc sets called a complex. A complex consists of (1) a chord-a strongly projected triad or seventh chord; (2) a sonority-all strongly presented pcs in the passage, encompassing the chord plus other strongly presented pcs, if any; and (3) a field-a complete diatonic collection plus strongly presented non-

Chromatic Quotations of Diatonic Tunes in Songs of Charles Ives

Although in many songs Ives quotes melodies from his sources intact, changing only the accompaniment or text, in other songs he chromatically alters the diatonic tunes themselves without transforming them beyond recognition. This article explores these chromatic quotations of diatonic tunes to determine (1) how Ives altered his models intervallically, (2) how these changes form linked diatonic areas within quotations, and (3) how the diatonic orientations of the original tunes are projected upon the transformed tunes. The article explores each analytical strategy in turn then concludes by applying all three strategies to the chromatic quotation in a single song. 44Robert P. Morgan, Rewriting Music History: Second Thoughts on Ives and Varese: Part 1, Musical Newsletter 3.1 (Jan. 1973): 12. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.176 on Sat, 09 Apr 2016 06:09:04 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms