David Forrest, a student in our doctoral theory program, won the best student paper award for both the Texas Society for Music Theory and the South Central Society for Music Theory. His paper is titled "Twentieth-century organum: The importance of parallel harmonization in Benjamin Britten's War requiem. An abstract appears below:
The paper is part of his dissertation, which he will defend in March. Congratulations, David!
UPDATE [2/16/09]: David found out today that he had an article on a related topic (interval cycles and prolongation in Britten's choral music) accepted by Music Theory Spectrum.
While prolongational analysis reveals underlying counterpoint in music from a wide range of styles, with Britten, prolongational analysis reveals a frequent lack of middleground counterpoint. Rather than two independent parts, all parts are dependent on the structurally superior melody. This realization invites a comparison between Britten's music and medieval organum. This comparison manifests itself in two ways. First, extensive parallel motion of thirds, fourths, fifths, octaves and complete triads can be seen across structural levels in Britten's music, challenging common-practice definitions of contrapuntal independence. Second, many passages of Britten's work can be shown to employ a drone bass, above which all other parts subordinate themselves to the melody. This drone may be present on the surface or revealed through analysis to govern middleground structure. Felix Salzer's discussion of twelfth-century organum offers a useful model for describing middleground structure in Britten's War Requiem. In my analyses, I take a modified-Schenkerian approach with the goal of illustrating the structural levels of Britten's primary voice in the War Requiem.
The paper is part of his dissertation, which he will defend in March. Congratulations, David!
UPDATE [2/16/09]: David found out today that he had an article on a related topic (interval cycles and prolongation in Britten's choral music) accepted by Music Theory Spectrum.