<br><tt><font size=2>Dmitri wrote:</font></tt>
<br><tt><font size=2><br>
"In large part, I think this is because these composers did not think
<br>
of the principles of their musical style as being arbitrary and <br>
conventional, but rather as being rooted in something much deeper. In
<br>
this respect I would think that theory played a huge role in defining <br>
for them the limits of the acceptable."</font></tt>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Times">In this regard I've found Meyer's concept
of a hierarchy of constraints (Style and Music, Ch. 1) useful in explaining
conventions and "transgressions" to students: </font>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Times"><b>Laws - </b> transcultural constraints;
universals</font>
<p><font size=3 face="Times"><b>Rules - </b> intercultural, not universal</font>
<ul>
<li><font size=3 face="Times">Major style periods can be distinguished
by differences in rules</font>
<li><font size=3 face="Times">The most familiar rules are those of counterpoint
and harmony (voice leading, dissonance treatment, chord formation, harmonic
progression)</font>
<li><font size=3 face="Times">Rules specify:</font></ul><font size=3 face="Times">
Permissible means - scale and chord types,
duration range, metric framework, timbres, etc.</font>
<br><font size=3 face="Times"> Relational
possibilities among materials</font>
<ul>
<li><font size=3 face="Times">Kinds of rules</font></ul><font size=3 face="Times">
dependency
rules - describe how one parameter depends upon another</font>
<br><font size=3 face="Times">
contextual rules - describe contexts in which
events may or may not occur.</font>
<br><font size=3 face="Times">
syntactic rules - describe syntax or hierarchical
structure of a primary parameter (pitch or time)</font>
<br>
<br><font size=3 face="Times"><b>Strategies</b></font>
<ul>
<li><font size=3 face="Times">Compositional choices made with the limits
established by rules; they are methods of realizing or instantiating rules.
As such, they are indefinite in number.</font>
<li><font size=3 face="Times">Most style changes in Western art music,
especially those within a major epoch, result from composers devising new
strategies for the realization of existing rules.</font>
<li><font size=3 face="Times">Novel strategies are continually being devised,
but only a small fraction become part of ongoing, traditional practice
of a style. Those that do survive must possess properties such as symmetry
and coherence, stability, and a degree of redundancy.</font></ul>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">J. Kent Williams, Ph.D.<br>
Professor and Chair<br>
Composition, Ethnomusicology, Musicology and Theory Department<br>
School of Music, UNCG<br>
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170<br>
Phone: (336) 334-5468 Fax: 334-5497<br>
E-mail: jkwillia@uncg.edu<br>
Web: www.uncg.edu/~jkwillia/<br>
</font>