Orchestrational Markedness and Its Effect on Form

This study analyses the structural role of orchestration in small and large forms. Orchestration's influence is examined by applying Robert S. Hatten's expressive genre theory specifically in its use of marked and unmarked events signaling a change in musical style and/or orchestrational norm and thereby influencing how one perceives small and large forms. In Chapter 2, examples are taken from Haydn's Surprise Symphony, movement 4, to illustrate a marked silence acting in lieu of a transition passage; Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, to illustrate a marked change in timbre as a section indicator; and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, movement 3, to show how subtle marked changes in instrument family affect large and small forms. In Chapter 3, two formal analyses of Brahms's Variations on a Theme by Haydn for Orchestra are given, one based on traditional analytical methods and the other using expressive genre analytical model, historically documented degree of dignity, and the use of voice lines/instrumental lines. As evidenced in this paper, orchestrational techniques change with each piece, but the process of orchestration is ubiquitous regardless of era, composer, or genre. Expressive genre theory, because of its culturally derived basis, proves to be a viable means to analyze the role of orchestration within the compositional process of composers of many eras.