The art of ending : closure in European instrumental music c.1900-1970

Abstract

This thesis brings together a variety of different perspectives on closure in music, including cognitive models developed from speculative and empirical research, and theoretical models derived from traditional analytical approaches. The application of these theories to twentieth-century instrumental music allows the ideas surrounding closure to be critiqued, expanded and recontextualised in the light of a musical repertory to which concepts of closure have rarely been applied. The focus is mainly on European art music of this period. A wide variety of compositional schools and orientations have been included, ranging from neo-tonal to atonal, from romanticism to serialism and the avante-garde, and enriched through the inclusion of the music of Varèse and Scriabin from beyond the confines of Europe itself.

The effect of closure cannot be defined in a single phrase, but it is often expressed through a range of metaphors such as stability, finality, conclusiveness, completion, and resolution. These terms are usually defined through a dialectical engagement with opposing qualities such as tension, continuity, instability, openness and mobility. The nature of this dialectic and its articulation through a range of theoretical models will be the focus of this study. To this end the thesis is divided into two sections - part one, focusing on endings (with reference to a wide range of works, styles and composers), and part two, which examines closure as process that engages entire movements and works (requiring a smaller number of more concentrated case studies).

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