Index 2007 vol. 4

EDITORIAL - by Egidio Pozzi
This number of our revue contains two projects presented during the Quinto Incontro di Studio held in Rimini in March 2007, as well as the abstracts of the papers presented at the Settimo Incontro di Studio di Analitica, held in Rimini from 19 to 21 November 2009.
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MUSICAL KALEIDOCYCLES: COMPOSITION AND ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES  -  by Luigi Verdi
Many composers of the 20th century used cyclic harmonic patterns, although they did not develop a unitary theory to systematize their use. An analysis of these patterns is particularly interesting as regards composition: the purpose of this article is to show how a reset of cyclic elements inherited from the tradition could be a starting point for a kaleidocyclic technique in musical composition. At the beginning of the 20th century, several composers were fascinated by cyclic chord relations, mainly at major/minor third, tritone and augmented triad. These relations allowed to break definitely with the tonal system, based on the fifth-relation, and to explore the features of interval relations dividing the octave into equal parts. Thus, specific sections of works based on such harmonic modules (Ravel, Stravinskij, Szimanowsky), two-part pieces with tritone repeat (Skrjabin) and also musical fugues with entries at third or tritone (Bartok) were composed. There were not strict cycles yet, but those works showed a tendency to periodical repetition of elements upon planned transposition levels, ending with the initial position, similarly to static progressions. From a historical point of view, the earliest general theories on the octave division into equal parts date back to the middle of the 19th century, but the topic started to be dealt with more systematically only at the beginning of the 20th century, with the disruption of the tonal system, and it was only at the beginning of the 1960s that its manifold implications started to be analyzed deeply, especially thanks to the techniques developed in the field of the American Set-theory, but not only.
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METRIC-RHYTHMIC AMBIGUITY IN THE DANCES OF CENTRAL-NORTHERN SARDINIA - by Marco Lutzu
In central-northern Sardinia dance was, and still is, accompanied by the cantu a tenore, an oral- tradition polyphony in four parts for four male voices. Among the principal characteristics of this musical form we find: the text is expressed by the only soloist voice (sa boghe) accompanied by the non-sense syllables of the other three voices (su tenore), the guttural timbre of the two lowest voices (su bassu and sa contra) and the fact that every village preserves its own tradition, which is distinguishable based on the composition of the repertoire, the timbres of the voices, the macrostructural  organization, the movements of the parts and the use of certain not-sense syllables [Lutzu 2003]. These local specificities notwithstanding, in numerous villages some dance songs  presents striking particular metric-rhythmic relationship between the soloist (sa boghe) and the rest of the choir (su tenore). The aim of this research is to propose an analysis of this relationship.
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Abstracts delle relazioni presentate al Settimo Incontro di Studio di Analitica, Rimini 19-21 novembre 2009
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