Browsing by Author "Blattler, Damian"

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    Dimitar Nenov: Form and Content of His Works for Solo Piano
    (2017-11-28) Valkov, Viktor; Blattler, Damian; Parker, Jon Kimura; Lowen, Peter; Sanders, Paula
    The piano works of Bulgarian composer Dimitar Nenov have been largely unknown in the West. While Nenov did not make his name known during his lifetime, his music contains depth and nuance which are well-worth exploring. In the present document I aim at shedding light on a few compositions from the 1930’s and 1940’s, where my main concern is the elucidation of his forms, compositional techniques, and pianism. Using the analyses of Etude N.1, Variations in F-sharp Major, and Miniatures (1945), I follow his compositional development as it unfolds through a tireless experimentation with various styles and aesthetics. In the search for his personal voice, Nenov tended to employ certain organizational procedures regardless of the surface harmonic layout of a particular piece. Every piece under discussion here is partially or entirely based on a simple bass formula which acts as a unifying force in holding the form together. Although Nenov completely avoids the use of internal cadences, this underlying bass movement shapes each individual piece as an uninterrupted harmonic progression.
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    Saint-Saëns, d'Indy, Debussy, and the Reconstruction of the Past in fin-de-siècle France
    (2014-04-24) Jiang, Qingfan; Bailey, Walter B.; Citron, Marcia J.; Barnett, Gregory R.; Blattler, Damian
    My thesis explores the highly individual reconstruction of the past in the works of Camille Saint-Saëns, Vincent d’Indy, and Claude Debussy in the context of the larger retrospective impulse in fin-de-siècle France. Specifically, it investigates the appropriation and incorporation of the “old” into the “new,” which results not only from artistic need, but also from a compulsion to justify the present by way of the past. Chapter one shows Saint-Saëns’s and d’Indy’s different approaches to restoring early repertoire stemming from their divergent aesthetic views of the relationship between music and history. Chapter two illustrates Debussy’s attempt to forge a connection with Rameau and thereby defend his French identity not by imitating Rameau’s music but by constructing a French image of Rameau. The past was never far from the creative process, and it served as an important instrument in the definition and defense of their musical styles and artistic identities.
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    Structure and Perception: The Rhythmic Canon in the Music of Olivier Messiaen
    (2025-04-25) Schafer, Jacob; Blattler, Damian
    In the early to mid-twentieth century, an increased interest in complex rhythmic structures led to a resurgence of interest in the rhythmic canon. Olivier Messiaen was an influential innovator and practitioner of this technique, incorporating rhythmic canons in many of his works. Messiaen’s most important contribution was to treat rhythm as a parameter independent of pitch that could undergo complex development within a canonic structure on its own terms. In this document, I examine Messiaen’s rhythmic canons in the context of his broader compositional language, exploring their structure, formal function, and perceptual implications. First, I survey Messiaen’s compositional techniques most relevant for his canonic writing. Then, I propose a typology for analyzing Messiaen’s canons and discuss examples within each type: pitch canons, rhythmic canons by displacement, rhythmic canons by augmentation, and rhythmic canons by retrograde. Analysis of individual canons reveals how Messiaen’s compositional decisions respond to the compositional and perceptual tendencies inherent to each type of canon, and the proposed typological framework lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the general musical possibilities of the rhythmic canon.