Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
Loading next page...
/lp/duke-university-press/maria-schneider-s-formsnorms-and-deviations-in-a-contemporary-jazz-EfXsS0r8Ui
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2019 by Yale University
- ISSN
- 0022-2909
- eISSN
- 1941-7497
- DOI
- 10.1215/00222909-7320462
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
This study assesses twenty-five works by contemporary jazz composer Maria Schneider, tracking her compositional tendencies, identifying areas of continuity with the big-band arranging tradition, and capturing developments and idiosyncrasies apparent in her music. Schneider most often modifies the prototypical big-band arrangement by merging the solo section with the ensemble feature, resulting in a trademark “Solo-Recapitulation trajectory,” which creates a deep-level structure comprising three “Spaces.” “Space division criteria” capture how broad expectations for jazz performance affect listeners’ experiences of Schneider’s compositions. Spaces often comprise more than one “section,” a formal unit at a shallower structural level; the Space division criteria differentiate sectional divisions internal to a single Space from divisions at the boundaries between Spaces. An overview of the corpus data summarizes the sectional makeup of each of the twenty-two normative pieces. Formal and hermeneutical accounts of three deviational pieces demonstrate the flexibility and expressive potential of the system. A retrofit of the formal framework onto thirteen notable big-band arrangements by Schneider’s contemporaries and direct predecessors shows that the Solo-Recapitulation trajectory does not appear in these pieces, suggesting that Schneider may have pioneered the approach.
Journal
Journal of Music Theory – Duke University Press
Published: Apr 1, 2019