Skryabin's Revolving Harmonies, Lacanian Desire, and Riemannian Funktionstheorie
KENNETH M. SMITH (2010). Skryabin's Revolving Harmonies, Lacanian Desire, and Riemannian Funktionstheorie. twentieth-century music, 7 , pp 167-194.
That Skryabin's harmonic language is rooted in dominant functionality is commonly acknowledged. However, the flow of... more That Skryabin's harmonic language is rooted in dominant functionality is commonly acknowledged. However, the flow of his tensile dominant-based sonorities has not been adequately explored. This article seeks to correlate his harmonic processes with his erotically charged philosophy. It sketches ways in which our understanding of Skryabin's harmonic ‘flow’ can be reinforced by analytical thinking in both psychoanalysis and music theory, bringing Jacques Lacan's semiotic model of the circuit of human desire into dialogue with Hugo Riemann's Funktionstheorie. Two of Skryabin's harmonic proclivities direct the chosen analytical approach: 1) sequential chains of fifths and 2) transposition by multiples of the minor third. The interchange of these two characteristics is explored, with Riemann's categories of chordal function (T, S, and D) grafted onto a model of tonal pitch space derived (via Fred Lerdahl) from Gottfried Weber. The way in which Skryabin ‘rotates’ tonal functions sequentially (i.e., T→S→D→T) in a potentially infinite cycle of fifths, rerouted occasionally through minor-third transposition, is correlated with Lacanian drive theory. The article's concluding analysis of Skryabin's late octatonic Sonata no. 6, Op. 62, takes this ‘rotation’ of tonal function to a deeper structural level. The labelling system of Funktionstheorie, which is stretched at this point, is reconceptualized through Lacan's extension of his theory of desire into semiotics
Transformational Analysis and the Representation of Genius in Film Music
by Frank Lehman
Forthcoming, Music Theory Spectrum 34/2-35/1
Neo-Riemannian theory offers an auspicious toolkit for analyzing film music—a repertoire in which dramatic exigency... more
Neo-Riemannian theory offers an auspicious toolkit for analyzing film music—a repertoire in which dramatic exigency takes precedence over functional tonal logic. Its ability to model harmonic progressions as dynamic and contextually-determined, particularly with association-laden chromatic motions, suits it eminently to Hollywood scoring practice. This transformational approach is tested on James Horner’s music for the film A Beautiful Mind. In this score, Horner illustrates the mental life of the mathematician John Nash with wildly chromatic but firmly triadic music. A group generated by the operators L, R, and S provides the transformational fount for a “Genius complex” that represents intense intellection. Three cues from A Beautiful Mind are analyzed; collectively, their tonal spaces reveal a distinctly transformational contribution to narrative and characterization. These readings further evince a tension between the logical teleology of sequential patterning with the radically contingent, even game-like quality of Horner’s triadic manipulations.
keywords: film music, transformation theory, neo-Riemannian analysis, network, James Horner, A Beautiful Mind, narrative, tonal space, breakthrough