Re: Chord Function?

"Steve Latham" <llatham@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:NJ3ik.379$X2.297@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Orlando, if you read this, I have a suggestion for a piece to listen to,

> but I can't remember off the top of my head who it was. I'm hoping Tom 
> will read this too and remember.
>
> 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 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.
>
> It could have been a Schoenberg Quartet, but I'm almost positive it was 
> the Babbitt. Sorry I can't be more precise (and I know that's not very 
> helpful Tom).
>
> Anyways, if I found this one piece, there's got to be a couple of others

> out there that are "digestible". I know understanding how things worked
in 
> this particular piece helped me to understand how to listen for similar 
> things in other pieces, and made me appreciate all of them on another 
> level.
>

Steve, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Babbitt's quartets - I assume you
are referring to one that predates his use of rhythmic rows.  I
specifically
mentioned Webern since it seems to me that he often uses 2 and 3 note
motivic cells which retain their intervallic identity as "something to
hang
on to".  IIRC, it's his chamber Concerto, Op. 24 that presents a trichord
which is then transposed, retrograded and inverted to complete the row - a
nice symmetrical division of 12 into 3+3+3+3.

Of course, I'm still not so sure about hearing more complex retrogrades
....

Tom K.