UFPr Arts Department
Electronic Musicological Review
Vol. 2.1/October 1997
Abstracts
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SCHENKER, SCHOENBERG AND MUSICAL ANALYSIS

Marcos Branda Lacerda

Branda Lacerda discusses the theoretical work of Schenker and Schoenberg, analysing its basic concepts and its relevance for musical analysis. Available only in portuguese.


THE DANGEROUS ISSUE OF MODERN MUSIC IN THE CONTROVERSY BETWEEN BUSONI AND PFITZNER

Vânia Schittenhelm

The role of Ferruccio Busoni in the history of music theory has often been mistunderstood. At the same time that he is considered to be a visionary thinker, who foresaw the use of electronic instruments, advocated the expansion of the tonal language and the inclusion of microtonal procedures, some critics point out that Busoni's compositional ouevre seems to contradict such innovative ideas. This dichotomous view of Busoni only hinders our appreciation of the full implications of his theoretical and compositional output. Rather than merely measuring his work against his own aesthetic beliefs, it is necessary to confront it with its wider context and discuss how his production is symptomatic of the cultural changes occurring in the arts at the beginning of the twentieth century. Busoni's work may be regarded as the embodiment of the tensions implicit in the concept of modernity. Its analysis reveals important aspects of early modernism and other forms of artistic manifestation that are normally excluded from the modernist canon, such as generic and tonal convention. The controversy between Busoni and Hans Pfitzner over Busoni's book Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music informs this discussion.


SCHOENBERG ON TONAL FUNCTION

Norton Dudeque

This essay discusses the notion of tonal function in schoenbergian theory. Related to this subject are the concepts of general and specific functions, transference of function by imitation of a tonal model, transformation of chords, and a special category of chords, the vagrant chords.