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  3. Alan Hovhaness’s Armenian period : the functional use of melody in a non-harmonic context
Title

Alan Hovhaness’s Armenian period : the functional use of melody in a non-harmonic context

    Item Description
    Limited Access
    The author(s) chose to restrict access to this thesis to current Whitman students, faculty, and staff. Please log in to view it.
    Linked Agent
    Creator (cre): Abramson, Maya Elise
    Advisor (adv): Chacko, Rachel
    Department (dpt): Whitman College. Music Department
    Date
    May 13, 2015
    Graduation Year
    2015
    Abstract

    This paper examines the role of melody in four of Alan Hovhaness’s compositions written during his Armenian period (1943-1951). Criticized for being too simple and melody-focused, these pieces were composed during a time when complexity and atonality were the leading trends in mid-20th century music. When analyzed using the Armenian scale structures outlined by Armenian folk archivist Komitas Vardapet, however, Hovhaness’s music reveals melody to be a central tool in creating complex forms. The forms I derive in each piece are based on shifting modal centers using a bi-tetrachordal scale system. Hovhaness’s melodies may appear simple at first, but, as I show in my analysis of Lousadzak and the three Armenian Rhapsodies, these melodies are used to smoothly change modal centers, to create contrasting colors and moods, and to combine triadic and modal sonorities. Hovhaness used melody in such an elegant manner that the changes in modal tonic, color, and tonal sonorities are not aurally obvious or abrupt. My analysis of Lousadzak and the Armenian Rhapsodies shows that melody is not a simplistic feature, but a complex tool used to tie together discrete forms, unrecognizable in a Western theoretical analysis.

    Subject
    Hovhaness, Alan, 1911-2000 -- Lousadzak
    Hovhaness, Alan, 1911-2000 -- Armenian rhapsody, no. 1
    Hovhaness, Alan, 1911-2000 -- Armenian rhapsody, no. 2
    Hovhaness, Alan, 1911-2000 -- Armenian rhapsody, no. 3
    Musical criticism
    Folk music -- Armenia
    Music -- Western influences
    Music -- Eastern influences
    Musical criticism -- United States -- 20th century -- History
    Music
    Academic theses
    Whitman College 2015 -- Dissertation collection -- Music Department : Theory
    Geographic Subject
    United States
    Genre
    Theses
    Extent
    30 pages
    Permanent URL
    http://works.whitman.edu/20151116
    Rights
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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    8027474
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