Re: Chord Function?

llatham@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
>I had a lot of trouble with serial music until I listened to a particular

>piece. I'm fairly sure it was an early Babbitt String Quartet. If I
recall 
>correctly, each movement had its own series and he was focusing on
interval 
>content. It turned out that, while I couldn't make heads or tails of the 
>series, I could hear the intervallic patterns recurring. So, from my
limited 
>listening experience at that time, rather than finding a tonic to hold on

>to, I was able to find "intervals" to hang on to. I kept hearing a "minor

>3rd" motif. Then on listening further, I found that minor 3rd motif to be

>preceded by, or followed by a minor 2nd. It din's give me a "melody" so
to 
>speak, but it gave me an identifiable factor.

I'm great with intervals, so I think I could appreciate that structural 
coherence.

>I just remember the experience because it only took me one listen to
start 
>noticing these things, where I've listened to other serially or
integrally 
>constructed pieces and have not been able to hear anything "identifiable"

>(as a motive, or structural element, etc.) going on.

In many serial compositions, great pains are taken to render underlying 
structures inaudible, all under the auspices of avoiding anything the 
ear might label as tonality. The assumption is that the ear cannot make 
sense of atonality and therefore, audible structures are automatically 
suspect. I think history and audience feedback have won that war.

Orlando