Portfolio of Compositions and Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the approaches to melodic organization of Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg with reference to specific music scores and literature on Modernism in general. My special interest in the above-mentioned composers is based on the aesthetic significance widely attributed to Modernism which emerged out of far-reaching transformations in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Those transformations influenced the development of musical innovation - not only across Europe, but throughout the world - and clearly revealed new radical approaches in harmonic and rhythmic formation that critically affected melody. The milestones of that movement were Debussy's revolutionary review of harmonic function, Stravinsky's departure from classical metrical rhythm and Schoenberg's rejection of tonality. Metaphorically, melody found itself in a modified environment of ambiguous dimensions, unclear tonal centres, extended chromaticism, overloaded functional and nonfunctional progressions (for example, nonfunctional use of 7th and 9th chords), fragmentary melodies and parallel voice leading (parallel harmony). I put forward a hypothesis that such qualitative changes in approach to harmony partially deprived melody of its previous preeminence and, at the same time (paradoxical as it may seem) extended its functionality analogous to the way the first violin in a string quartet of the twentieth century lost its leading role and was equated with other instruments in the ensemble. My goal, then, is to analyze how Debussy, Stravinsky and Schoenberg used their various and diverse compositional skills in order to achieve the above-mentioned extension in functionality of melody.