La Structure Sans Maître

All analysis is subjective, but certain methodologies focus on more positivistic aspects of music, or sometimes give a sense of objectivity by virtue of being widely accepted or deemed rigorous. This dissertation explores the opposite angle, offering three analytical vignettes of chamber music by women composers that put subjective impressions and ideas in the spotlight. Avoiding organicist ideas allows the listener experience and motivating questions to serve as the entry point for analysis. Furthermore, it allows other aspects of the music, or even ideas separate from the music, to receive analytical focus. New approaches will allow for more and changing works to be brought into the discussion. All analysis is subjective, but our best-accepted methodologies—the ones that are often considered most “rigorous”—tend to focus on musical elements that are relatively easy to delimit and on relationships that are tightly-knit. This dissertation explores the opposite, offering three analytical vignettes of chamber music by women composers that put subjective impressions and ideas in the spotlight. Laying aside organicist expectations allows listener experience and motivating questions—what is heard in the music that draws the listener in or cannot be forgotten about—to serve as the entry point for analysis. Furthermore, it allows other aspects of the music, or even ideas separate from the music, to receive analytical focus. New approaches will allow for more and different works—including those previously excluded because of their lack of compatibility with available methodologies—to be analyzed brought into the discussion. In Chapter 1, I describe Judith Lochhead’s three-part approach to analysis, as well as discuss other works that have contributed to my thinking. These sources include music theory and musicology texts, feminist theoretical works, disability theory, and critical race studies. Chapters 2-4 each focus on the work of a different composer using Lochhead’s general approach of investigating, mapping, and speculating. In Chapter 2, I analyze Roulette and A Wonderful Day by British-American composer Anna Clyne, relating my hearing of the human sounds on fixed media to feminist scholar Donna Haraway’s “Manifesto for Cyborgs.” Haraway’s explanation of the cyborg, a creature of a post-gender world, shapes my understanding of Clyne’s music, specifically the engagement between human and machine. Through this lens I consider the implications of minimalism and the role of the performers in the broader presentation of the pieces. In Chapter 3 I engage with the gendered through-lines of emotional labour in Kate Soper’s “Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say.” I identify multiple modes of presentation as a way of considering the text and interaction between performers. In Chapter 4, I draw upon biographical information and my own curiosity about Sofia Gubaidulina’s Silenzio to investigate representations of sound and silence in the piece. I read that repetition, register, and timbre are utilized to explore and musically represent different kinds of silence. Chapter 5 provides a summary and discussion of my analytical goals, and includes ideas for future projects.