Musical Morphology

While in traditional music, terms such as theme or motif, phenomena such as line or melody, and systems of syntax and rhythm are generally considered self-explanatory, in post-traditional music (i.e., new music since 1945), there is rarely any reflection—and more often suppression—of the means by which musical surfaces can be meaningfully designed today. Although there are a multitude of dogmatic answers—from formalistic systems to restorative myths—that claim the problem has long been solved, the question arises again and again, whether welcome or not.

This displacement can be traced back to a key moment in postwar modernism: the zero point of pointillism. This position was undoubtedly radical—and could at best postpone fundamental questions about a typology of musical forms, but not resolve them. In view of the stylistic differentiation of recent decades and the lively search for a new musical morphology, the question is all the more urgent today: What can a “figure,” a “gesture,” a “melody,” or a “motif” mean today? It is about something that is more than mere sound—but not yet expression or meaning.

Musical Morphology brings together different perspectives on this question from an international circle of composers who shed light on the topic from the practical experience of their own work. An additional essay on musical deconstruction offers a new theoretical foundation for the fundamental problems of musical morphology.

With contributions from Mark André, Aaron Cassidy, Sebastian Claren, Sidney Corbett, Frank Cox, Andreas Gürsching, Wieland Hoban, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Chris Mercer, Giorgio Netti, Wolfram Schurig, and Steven Kazuo Takasugi.

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