Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Part One: The Castle. Part Two: Hyperextended Chord Tones: Chromatic Consonance in a Tertian Context

Abstract Details

2008, PHD, Kent State University, College of the Arts / School of Music, Hugh A. Glauser.

Part One is a ballet based on a short story by George MacDonald, best known as a nineteenth-century Christian apologist and writer of children’s tales and other stories. One of these is typical of his adult writings, which tend toward the macabre, allegorical, supernatural, and Christian symbolism. The Castle is a fairy tale underscoring the waywardness of the universal Church in relation to the Lord. As a fantasy, the short story lends itself to the versatile medium of dance. The Castle ballet is scored for large orchestra with percussion, set in eight movements: Overture, Contemplation, Family, Rebellion, Evening, The Party, Lament, and Redemption. It portrays the rebellion of a family against the authority of an eldest brother and sister when insisting on having an extravagant party in the confines of a vast castle. A storm breaks up the party at its height, freeing the brother and driving off the guests. Family members are terrified and repentant as they wait for the brother’s judgment. The sister intervenes and the brother shows mercy.

The music is programmatic and integrates representative elements such as themes, motivic development, polymeter and polyrhythm, and harmonic variation. Part Two applies traditional tertian approaches to chromatic harmony as a basis for analysis and composition by extending the principle into the third and fourth octaves above the root. It is felt provable that resonant overtones may be reinforced by what are normally considered dissonant chromatic tones with the intention and/or result of an extended consonance. Called “hyperextended tones,” these include the raised fifteenth, raised nineteenth, and raised twenty-third, which are justified in the harmonic resonance of a single fundamental tone, and in the individual tones that make up any given chord. Historical support is found in popular, classical, and jazz styles. Studies in physics have also shown that the mechanics by which timbre, harmony, beat waves, and roughness interact are not well understood and may have an impact on the compositional and listening processes.

Ralph Lorenz, PhD (Committee Co-Chair)
Frank Wiley, DMA (Committee Co-Chair)
Thomas Janson, DMA (Committee Member)
Donald Gans, PhD (Committee Member)
Per Enflo, PhD (Other)
376 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ballard, Jr., J. D. W. (2008). Part One: The Castle. Part Two: Hyperextended Chord Tones: Chromatic Consonance in a Tertian Context [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1228157561

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ballard, Jr., Jack. Part One: The Castle. Part Two: Hyperextended Chord Tones: Chromatic Consonance in a Tertian Context. 2008. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1228157561.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ballard, Jr., Jack. "Part One: The Castle. Part Two: Hyperextended Chord Tones: Chromatic Consonance in a Tertian Context." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1228157561

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)