Orit Hilewicz | Indiana University (original) (raw)
Publications by Orit Hilewicz
Kunsttexte, 2022
In this study, I examine the discomfort and anxiety that might arise in listening to a musical wo... more In this study, I examine the discomfort and anxiety that might arise in listening to a musical work that references another source. Richard Beaudoin’s Étude d’un Prelude VI: The Real Thing (2009) carries multiple layers of musical and visual-artistic references and therefore provides a rich case-study for intertextual exploration. I ofer three conceptual lenses—queer
ekphrasis, acoustic palimpsest, and autistic listening—as analytical tools to productively engage with Beaudoin’s composition as well as other referential
musical works.
SMT-V, 2021
This article presents a wordless analytic interpretation of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspiels... more This article presents a wordless analytic interpretation of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene, Op. 34, 1929–1930, by Arnold Schoenberg, performed by Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra (2002), courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.
For a gloss on this video, see Orit Hilewicz, 2021, “Schoenberg’s Cinematographic Blueprint: A Programmatic Analysis of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene (1929–1930),” MTO 27.1, http://mtosmt.org.
Music Theory Online, 2021
This study examines Arnold Schoenberg’s only published music for film, Begleitungsmusik zu einer ... more This study examines Arnold Schoenberg’s only published music for film, Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene [Accompaniment to a Film Scene], op. 34 (1929–30). Although not composed for an existing film scene, evidence of Begleitungsmusik’s cinematic aspirations motivate this analysis, which approaches the composition as a cinematographic blueprint: a design (or program) for a scene that at the same time serves as its soundtrack. To examine this proposition, I collaborated with artist and filmmaker Stephen Sewell to create a film scene based on my analysis of the piece, which expresses the global narrative described in its program using rhythmic, textural, and structural strategies. While presenting analysis as film proves remarkably appropriate to this composition, in fact, analytical visualization can contribute to various interpretive approaches, allowing listeners to connect an analytical reading in real time to their experience.
Perspectives of New Music, 2019
In this paper, I explore ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on The... more In this paper, I explore ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959), Peter Maxwell Davies’s Five Klee Pictures (1959/1976), and Tan Dun’s Death and Fire (1992)—lead a listener-observer to understand Paul Klee’s painting Die Zwitschermachine [The Twittering Machine] (1922) not only as influencing music composition but as one whose reception is influenced by composition as interpretation. I rely on concepts that I term descriptive or contextual representation to provide the framework for explaining such reciprocal relations between music and painting. By providing a unique lens through which to view the painting, each piece participates in generating a new twittering machine, so that the analyses uncover three different Zwitschermaschinen. Considered together with the painting, the three compositions take part in creating three distinct virtual multimedia works, each consisting of a combination of the painting with the music. Observers of Klee’s canvas, empowered with the musical thought of the three composers, may apperceive the painting anew through a multitextual listening activity that involves descriptive and contextual representation.
This study focuses on Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel as a case of musical ekphrasis, re-presentin... more This study focuses on Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel as a case of musical ekphrasis, re-presenting Rothko’s chapel in Houston, Texas, and presents an interpretation of Feldman’s piece as a reflection of Rothko’s aesthetic and social statement embodied in the chapel, by drawing a parallel between the experience of musical temporality in the piece and the chapel’s relation to Western spirituality.
Book Reviews by Orit Hilewicz
Music Theory Online, 2021
Gamut: Online Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic, 2021
Conference Papers by Orit Hilewicz
Diverse analytical strategies have been used by scholars to explicate musical works based on inte... more Diverse analytical strategies have been used by scholars to explicate musical works based on intertextual expressions of music and painting. Although highly valuable, these studies limit their music-theoretical discussions to composers’ responses to paintings. In this paper I examine some of the ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s _Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee_ (1959), Peter Maxwell Davies’s _Five Klee Pictures_ (1959/1976), and Tan Dun’s _Death and Fire_ (1993)—lead a listener-observer to understand Paul Klee’s _Die Zwitschermachine_ [The Twittering Machine, 1922] not only as influencing music composition but as one whose reception is influenced by composition as interpretation. I rely on theories that I term descriptive or contextual representation to provide the necessary concepts and vocabulary for explaining such reciprocal relations between music and painting. In Descriptive representation, the composer intentionally creates a metaphorical space between visual objects and sounds. This space remains, at some level, separate from both. For example, expressing the birds depicted in _Die Zwitschermaschine_ as musical birdcalls suggests such a space linking the painting’s characters to the music. In contrast, contextual representation deals with interpretation through contexts added by listener-observers when completing elements not explicitly depicted in the artwork. For instance, a piece composed after _Die Zwitschermaschine_ could allow listeners to interpret the twittering machine’s mode of operation, which is left undetermined in the painting. Observers of Klee’s canvas, empowered with the musical thought of the three composers, may apperceive the painting anew through interpretive listening that involves descriptive and contextual representation.
Interviews by Orit Hilewicz
Palimpsesto - Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da UERJ
Entrevista com a Orit Hilewicz, professora adjunta de Teoria Musical na Eastman School of Music (... more Entrevista com a Orit Hilewicz, professora adjunta de Teoria Musical na Eastman School of Music (the University of Rochester).
Dissertation by Orit Hilewicz
This dissertation offers an approach for analyzing ekphrastic musical works—compositions that tak... more This dissertation offers an approach for analyzing ekphrastic musical works—compositions that take other artworks as their subject matter. It proposes two theoretical models for listener-observers’ engagement with ekphrastic compositions. The first model, termed descriptive representation, refers to musical components that can be considered representational independently from the context provided by the other artwork. It involves a metaphor that the musical piece and the visual image or text have in common. The second model, termed contextual representation, refers to musical components considered representational only in the context of the other artwork. Rather than arising separately from each artwork, it is the product of multitextual listening, in which listener-observers form connections between the ekphrastic piece and the other artwork.
Four analytical chapters demonstrate the application of the models to different types of cross-media interaction. The first concentrates on music after painting, including a comparative study of three movements from orchestral compositions— Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959), Peter Maxwell Davies’s Five Klee Pictures (1959/1976), and Tan Dun’s Death and Fire: A Dialogue with Paul Klee (1993)—composed after Paul Klee’s painting Die Zwitschermaschine (1922). Each of the pieces provides a singular interpretive outlook on the painting. Together, the analyses demonstrate the multiplicity of interpretations an artwork can receive through musical ekphrasis. The second analytical chapter concentrates on music and space, examining Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel, composed after Rothko’s chapel in Houston. I propose that Rothko Chapel as musical ekphrasis provides a sonic identity for the chapel, allowing it to transcend its physical properties by bringing the space into presence in listeners’ minds even when listening to a performance away from the chapel. The third analytical chapter examines the boundaries of ekphrasis through analysis of Luciano Berio’s 1996 composition Ekphrasis (Continuo II), composed after his Continuo for Orchestra (1989–1991). I argue that Berio’s ekphrasis diverts listeners’ attention from similarity to difference, from presence to absence, helping achieve a broader understanding of contextual representation. Lastly, an analysis of Arnold Schoenberg’s Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene, Op. 34 (1929–1930) compares models of representation in programmatic music to musical ekphrasis.
The analyses demonstrate that music becomes representational by virtue of a listener’s activity that treats ekphrastic musical works as multitextual. Moreover, this dissertation provides a framework for interpreting representation in post-tonal music.
Papers by Orit Hilewicz
Music Theory Online, Mar 1, 2021
Perspectives of New Music, 2019
Music Theory Online, Mar 1, 2021
Music Theory Online, Sep 1, 2018
Kunsttexte, 2022
In this study, I examine the discomfort and anxiety that might arise in listening to a musical wo... more In this study, I examine the discomfort and anxiety that might arise in listening to a musical work that references another source. Richard Beaudoin’s Étude d’un Prelude VI: The Real Thing (2009) carries multiple layers of musical and visual-artistic references and therefore provides a rich case-study for intertextual exploration. I ofer three conceptual lenses—queer
ekphrasis, acoustic palimpsest, and autistic listening—as analytical tools to productively engage with Beaudoin’s composition as well as other referential
musical works.
SMT-V, 2021
This article presents a wordless analytic interpretation of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspiels... more This article presents a wordless analytic interpretation of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene, Op. 34, 1929–1930, by Arnold Schoenberg, performed by Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra (2002), courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.
For a gloss on this video, see Orit Hilewicz, 2021, “Schoenberg’s Cinematographic Blueprint: A Programmatic Analysis of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene (1929–1930),” MTO 27.1, http://mtosmt.org.
Music Theory Online, 2021
This study examines Arnold Schoenberg’s only published music for film, Begleitungsmusik zu einer ... more This study examines Arnold Schoenberg’s only published music for film, Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene [Accompaniment to a Film Scene], op. 34 (1929–30). Although not composed for an existing film scene, evidence of Begleitungsmusik’s cinematic aspirations motivate this analysis, which approaches the composition as a cinematographic blueprint: a design (or program) for a scene that at the same time serves as its soundtrack. To examine this proposition, I collaborated with artist and filmmaker Stephen Sewell to create a film scene based on my analysis of the piece, which expresses the global narrative described in its program using rhythmic, textural, and structural strategies. While presenting analysis as film proves remarkably appropriate to this composition, in fact, analytical visualization can contribute to various interpretive approaches, allowing listeners to connect an analytical reading in real time to their experience.
Perspectives of New Music, 2019
In this paper, I explore ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on The... more In this paper, I explore ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959), Peter Maxwell Davies’s Five Klee Pictures (1959/1976), and Tan Dun’s Death and Fire (1992)—lead a listener-observer to understand Paul Klee’s painting Die Zwitschermachine [The Twittering Machine] (1922) not only as influencing music composition but as one whose reception is influenced by composition as interpretation. I rely on concepts that I term descriptive or contextual representation to provide the framework for explaining such reciprocal relations between music and painting. By providing a unique lens through which to view the painting, each piece participates in generating a new twittering machine, so that the analyses uncover three different Zwitschermaschinen. Considered together with the painting, the three compositions take part in creating three distinct virtual multimedia works, each consisting of a combination of the painting with the music. Observers of Klee’s canvas, empowered with the musical thought of the three composers, may apperceive the painting anew through a multitextual listening activity that involves descriptive and contextual representation.
This study focuses on Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel as a case of musical ekphrasis, re-presentin... more This study focuses on Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel as a case of musical ekphrasis, re-presenting Rothko’s chapel in Houston, Texas, and presents an interpretation of Feldman’s piece as a reflection of Rothko’s aesthetic and social statement embodied in the chapel, by drawing a parallel between the experience of musical temporality in the piece and the chapel’s relation to Western spirituality.
Diverse analytical strategies have been used by scholars to explicate musical works based on inte... more Diverse analytical strategies have been used by scholars to explicate musical works based on intertextual expressions of music and painting. Although highly valuable, these studies limit their music-theoretical discussions to composers’ responses to paintings. In this paper I examine some of the ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s _Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee_ (1959), Peter Maxwell Davies’s _Five Klee Pictures_ (1959/1976), and Tan Dun’s _Death and Fire_ (1993)—lead a listener-observer to understand Paul Klee’s _Die Zwitschermachine_ [The Twittering Machine, 1922] not only as influencing music composition but as one whose reception is influenced by composition as interpretation. I rely on theories that I term descriptive or contextual representation to provide the necessary concepts and vocabulary for explaining such reciprocal relations between music and painting. In Descriptive representation, the composer intentionally creates a metaphorical space between visual objects and sounds. This space remains, at some level, separate from both. For example, expressing the birds depicted in _Die Zwitschermaschine_ as musical birdcalls suggests such a space linking the painting’s characters to the music. In contrast, contextual representation deals with interpretation through contexts added by listener-observers when completing elements not explicitly depicted in the artwork. For instance, a piece composed after _Die Zwitschermaschine_ could allow listeners to interpret the twittering machine’s mode of operation, which is left undetermined in the painting. Observers of Klee’s canvas, empowered with the musical thought of the three composers, may apperceive the painting anew through interpretive listening that involves descriptive and contextual representation.
Palimpsesto - Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras da UERJ
Entrevista com a Orit Hilewicz, professora adjunta de Teoria Musical na Eastman School of Music (... more Entrevista com a Orit Hilewicz, professora adjunta de Teoria Musical na Eastman School of Music (the University of Rochester).
This dissertation offers an approach for analyzing ekphrastic musical works—compositions that tak... more This dissertation offers an approach for analyzing ekphrastic musical works—compositions that take other artworks as their subject matter. It proposes two theoretical models for listener-observers’ engagement with ekphrastic compositions. The first model, termed descriptive representation, refers to musical components that can be considered representational independently from the context provided by the other artwork. It involves a metaphor that the musical piece and the visual image or text have in common. The second model, termed contextual representation, refers to musical components considered representational only in the context of the other artwork. Rather than arising separately from each artwork, it is the product of multitextual listening, in which listener-observers form connections between the ekphrastic piece and the other artwork.
Four analytical chapters demonstrate the application of the models to different types of cross-media interaction. The first concentrates on music after painting, including a comparative study of three movements from orchestral compositions— Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959), Peter Maxwell Davies’s Five Klee Pictures (1959/1976), and Tan Dun’s Death and Fire: A Dialogue with Paul Klee (1993)—composed after Paul Klee’s painting Die Zwitschermaschine (1922). Each of the pieces provides a singular interpretive outlook on the painting. Together, the analyses demonstrate the multiplicity of interpretations an artwork can receive through musical ekphrasis. The second analytical chapter concentrates on music and space, examining Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel, composed after Rothko’s chapel in Houston. I propose that Rothko Chapel as musical ekphrasis provides a sonic identity for the chapel, allowing it to transcend its physical properties by bringing the space into presence in listeners’ minds even when listening to a performance away from the chapel. The third analytical chapter examines the boundaries of ekphrasis through analysis of Luciano Berio’s 1996 composition Ekphrasis (Continuo II), composed after his Continuo for Orchestra (1989–1991). I argue that Berio’s ekphrasis diverts listeners’ attention from similarity to difference, from presence to absence, helping achieve a broader understanding of contextual representation. Lastly, an analysis of Arnold Schoenberg’s Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene, Op. 34 (1929–1930) compares models of representation in programmatic music to musical ekphrasis.
The analyses demonstrate that music becomes representational by virtue of a listener’s activity that treats ekphrastic musical works as multitextual. Moreover, this dissertation provides a framework for interpreting representation in post-tonal music.
Music Theory Online, Mar 1, 2021
Perspectives of New Music, 2019
Music Theory Online, Mar 1, 2021
Music Theory Online, Sep 1, 2018
Time and Trace: Multidisciplinary Investigations of Temporality
Music Theory Online, 2021
This study examines Arnold Schoenberg’s only published music for film,Begleitungsmusik zu einer L... more This study examines Arnold Schoenberg’s only published music for film,Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene[Accompaniment to a Film Scene], op. 34 (1929–30). Although not composed for an existing film scene, evidence ofBegleitungsmusik’s cinematic aspirations motivate this analysis, which approaches the composition as a cinematographic blueprint: a design (or program) for a scene that at the same time serves as its soundtrack. To examine this proposition, I collaborated with artist and filmmaker Stephen Sewell to create a film scene based on my analysis of the piece, which expresses the global narrative described in its program using rhythmic, textural, and structural strategies. While presenting analysis as film proves remarkably appropriate to this composition, in fact, analytical visualization can contribute to various interpretive approaches, allowing listeners to connect an analytical reading in real time to their experience.
Music Theory Online, 2021
Music Theory Online, 2018
In this paper, I explore ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on The... more In this paper, I explore ways in which three compositions—Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959), Peter Maxwell Davies’s Five Klee Pictures (1959/1976), and Tan Dun’s Death and Fire (1992)—lead a listener-observer to understand Paul Klee’s painting Die Zwitschermachine [The Twittering Machine] (1922) not only as influencing music composition but as one whose reception is influenced by composition as interpretation. I rely on concepts that I term descriptive or contextual representation to provide the framework for explaining such reciprocal relations between music and painting. By providing a unique lens through which to view the painting, each piece participates in generating a new twittering machine, so that the analyses uncover three different Zwitschermaschinen. Considered together with the painting, the three compositions take part in creating three distinct virtual multimedia works, each consisting of a combination of the painting with the music. Observ...
The Society for Music Theory Videocast Journal, 2021
This article presents a wordless analytic interpretation of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspiels... more This article presents a wordless analytic interpretation of Begleitungsmusik zu einer Lichtspielscene, Op. 34, 1929–1930, by Arnold Schoenberg, performed by Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra (2002), courtesy of Naxos of America, Inc.
