Defense of the artistic research project “Neo-Riemannian Interpretation of Triads and the Perspective of Its Transformations Into a Composing System”

On December 9-11, 2020, the defense of Raimonda Žiūkaitė’s “Neo-Riemannian Interpretation of Triads and the Perspective of Its Transformations Into a Composing System” will take place at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Artistic Supervisors: Prof. Prof. Dr. Mārtiņš Viļums, Prof. Habil. Dr. Gražina Daunoravičienė. Copies of the research paper and its summary are available at the library of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (Gedimino pr. 42).

Online events. For participating please register until December 7 by the e-mail: daiva.buivydiene@lmta.lt.

Defense of the artistic part
December 9, 2020, 6 p.m.

PROGRAM

Raimonda Žiūkaitė. Salz ist mein Erbe (2020)
Raimonda Žiūkaitė. Orbifold (2017)
Raimonda Žiūkaitė. Wormholes of the Mind (2019)
Raimonda Žiūkaitė. Virgo Rosa (2020)
Raimonda Žiūkaitė. 1000 burnų/1000 mouths (2020)

Defense of the research part
December 11, 2020, 10 a.m.

CHAIRPERSON OF THE DOCTORAL THESIS DEFENCE BOARD:
Prof. Mindaugas Urbaitis (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Marius Baranauskas (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)
Prof. Habil. Dr. Wojciech Widłak (Academy of Music in Kraków)
Prof. Dr. Rima Povilionienė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)
Prof. Dr. Audronė Žiūraitytė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)

REVIEWERS:
Prof. Rytis Mažulis (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)
Prof. dr. Antanas Kučinskas (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre)

Abstract

The departure point of this artistic research project is a major/minor triad: the primary chord in European music, prevailing in harmony for several centuries and considered as a perfect harmony, a natural phenomenon. After an overview of its historical development and in search of the triad’s usage in contemporary composition, the focus falls on non-functional triadic relations, examined by the Neo-Riemannian theory (NRT). It combines some of the ideas developed by late nineteenth century German theorists, including Riemann, and mathematical tools, intrinsic to mid-twentieth century American music theories (e.g. set theory). NRT formalizes relationships between consonant major and minor triads as mathematical transformations acting on triads, rather than more traditional tonality-based approaches, thus relating triads directly to each other without reference to the tonic and using those transformations to model structural relations in music. Moreover, structural properties of triads are revealed – the realization that the familiar triads of Western music, long valued as ideal acoustic objects, are also due to their internal structure ideal mathematical objects from the perspective of parsimonious voice leading. These generative (algorithmic) properties particularly interests the author of the present research.
However, the most important goal of this research project is to discover compositional resources based on the triads’ group-theoretical properties; to transform analytical system’s insights into a compositional technique. These properties could be used to structure processes not only in the field of harmony, but on rhythm and timbre as well, since the heterogeneity of Neo-Riemannian theory also provides an opportunity for the diversity and flexibility of compositional techniques/approaches. Upon searching for the possibilities of triad functioning in the 21st century musical composition, the concept of triad has been extended from the triad as a harmonic chord in the context of functional harmony to an abstract triad model applied to other musical parameters.