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Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2023-398X
AccessType
Campus-Only Access for Five (5) Years
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Music
Year Degree Awarded
2022
Month Degree Awarded
May
First Advisor
Chris W. White
Second Advisor
Gary S. Karpinski
Third Advisor
Robert A. Rothstein
Subject Categories
Music Theory
Abstract
Proposes the H-E-L-M-C-K-E hermeneutic to decode Historical, Extramusical, Linguistic, (intra)Musical, Correlational, Kingdom-of-Poland-related/Polish, and Era-specific meaning in Fryderyk Chopin's polonaises. Traces the origin of musical meaning-conveying signifiers on the musical surface via topical analysis to deeper recursive structures in the middleground via Schenkerian analysis (Ch. 1). Identifies and translates all known appearances of the polonaise/polonoise/alla polacca throughout the history of music theory from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century documents in German, Polish, French, and English (Ch. 2). Demonstrates the feasibility of the H-E-L-M-C-K-E methodology (Ch. 3). Applies the H-E-L-M-C-K-E methodology to produce close readings that correlate the intramusical causes (structures) of extramusical effects (meaning) (Ch. 4). Concludes with a quotation by Schenker and suggestions for possible applications to other repertoire and model composition (Ch. 5).
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/28442015
Recommended Citation
Helmcke, William M., "Structure and Meaning in Fryderyk Chopin's Polonaises" (2022). Doctoral Dissertations. 2531.
https://doi.org/10.7275/28442015
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2531
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.