By: Philip Stoecker, Hofstra University
Abstract:
The American composer George Perle composed nearly 130 works and wrote for chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voice, and orchestra. In 1940, Perle began composing works using his own unique “twelve-tone modal” system. In this video, I analyze the sixth and final prelude from his Six Preludes, op. 20B (1946), one of Perle’s early works based on his twelve-tone modal method. This analysis is based on the sketches for the op. 20B preludes in the George Perle Papers that are housed in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Selected Bibliography:
Sources dedicated to the life and works of George Perle
Dave Headlam and Philip Stoecker, co-editors, Theory and Practice, vol. 33 (1998).
Gary S. Karpinski, guest editor, “A Birthday Greeting for George Perle” in International Journal of Musicology,
Elliot Antokoletz and Michael von Albrecht, eds. vol. 4 (1985).
Perle’s own writings about his compositional theory
George Perle, Twelve-Tone Tonality, 2nd ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1996).
———. The Right Notes: Twenty-Three Selected Essays by George Perle on Twentieth Century Music
(Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press, 1995).
———. The Listening Composer (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990).
———. “Evolution of the Tone Row: The Twelve-Tone Modal System,” The Music Review, vol. 2, no. 4 (1941):
273–287.
About the Author:
Philip Stoecker is Professor of Music at Hofstra University. His research interests include the music of Thomas Adès, Alban Berg, George Perle, and Arnold Schoenberg. His co-edited book with Edward Venn, Thomas Adès Studies (Cambridge University Press, 2021), was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Multi-Author Collection Award from the Society for Music Theory. He was awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend to support his revised edition of Schoenberg’s Fundamentals of Musical Composition. He served as Secretary of the Society for Music Theory (SMT), Co-chair of the Autographs and Archival Documents Interest Group of the SMT, and President of the Music Theory Society of New York State.