By: David Thurmaier, University of Missouri–Kansas City
Abstract:
Walter Piston, best remembered as the composition teacher of famous students like Elliott Carter and Leonard Bernstein, had a long and varied career. For decades, he studied, experimented with, published about, and wrote serial and serial-influenced music. My video focuses on the opening 28 measures of Piston's first serial piece, the Chromatic Study on the Name of BACH for organ (1940), which combines serial techniques with his characteristic tight formal construction and skilled counterpoint.
The first 20 measures exhibit an austere, contrapuntal structure, with straightforward, economical row usage revolving around pc10 (the first note of the BACH tetrachord), presented as complete statements or using rows that "sum" to 10 (e.g., RI3 and R7). I also consider a sketch of the opening four measures, featuring the BACH motto and demonstrating Piston's experimentation with the rhythmic presentation of the opening row.
Finally, I will discuss mm. 25-28, where Piston diverts from formal row presentation toward a hybrid of row-inspired free chromaticism in the manuals over a hexachord from a row in the pedals. Whether influenced by Krenek's 12-tone counterpoint book (1940) or his study of Schoenberg, this excerpt illuminates Piston's first significant foray into serial composition, a springboard for future serial works.
Select Bibliography:
Ansari, Emily Abrams. 2023. “Serialism in Canada and the United States.” In The Cambridge Companion to
Serialism, edited by Martin Iddon, 225–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Krenek, Ernst. 1940. Studies in Counterpoint Based on the 12-Tone Technique. New York: G. Schirmer.
Pollack, Howard. 1982. Walter Piston. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press.
Piston, Walter. 1958. “More Views on Serialism.” The Score 23: 46–49.
About the Author:
David Thurmaier is Associate Professor of Music Theory and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. His research explores the music of Charles Ives, the Beatles, and the history of American music theory. He serves as Vice President of the Charles Ives Society and co-editor of the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. He also co-hosts Hearing the Pulitzers, a podcast examining each winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, available at hearingthepulitzers.com.