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- Title
A "Simple Composition" of Charles Wuorinen: Isomorphism, Self-Similarity, and Nesting in Cello Variations.
- Authors
McConville, Brendan
- Abstract
Perhaps the most significant advance in Charles Wuorinen's Simple Composition (1979) is its introduction of the "time-point nesting method," a technique that transfers the implications of an ordered series to the background structure of a piece. Unlike the other twelve-tone techniques he discusses--most of them inheritances from Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and Babbitt--Wuorinen's own "nesting method" has been difficult for theorists to document in real pieces of music. This study aims to show that Wuorinen's Cello Variations, written almost a decade before Simple Composition, offers a clear instance of the nesting method and thus an important window into Wuorinen's workshop. I shall show that a parallel consideration of Simple Composition and Cello Variations--kindred works of theory and practice, respectively--offers us a deeper understanding of Wuorinen's art and a clearer image of his contributions to twelve-tone music in the last part of the twentieth century.
- Subjects
MUSICAL composition; WUORINEN, Charles, 1938-2020; ISOMORPHISM (Crystallography); INHERITANCE &; succession; MUSIC; TWENTIETH century; TWELVE-tone system
- Publication
Theory & Practice, 2011, Vol 36, p151
- ISSN
0741-6156
- Publication type
Article