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Elements of an Aesthetic Universe: Systematisation of Atonality and Dissonance in Amotivic Serial Music Composition

The aesthetic universe of an artist is his or her world of aesthetic thought and knowledge. This aesthetic universe may have its own ‘endophysical laws’. The present doctoral research in the arts assesses a compositional technique called Chromatic Interval Group serialism (CIG-serialism), a technique developed by the author in 1997.
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Bart Vanhecke

composer
Keywords: composition, serial composition technique, interval groups, atonal, dissonant, amotivic
Duration: 2009-2015
Period: 20th century music
Musician type: composer
Host institution: Leuven University

The aim of this technique is to compose music that is highly atonal and dissonant in a systematic way. The technique is used by the author to express the aesthetic ideas belonging to his personal aesthetic universe. It abides by its personal laws of tonality and consonance reflected by formulas to determine degrees of tonality and consonance of any group of notes, which represent two of the endophysical laws of his aesthetic universe. These formulas were developed and then used to assess the original CIG-technique and to adapt the technique in order to enhance the desired result of systematic atonality and dissonance, which was the goal of the research. It resulted in the development of ‘general CIG-serialism’. The artistic output of the research consists of seven compositions that together form the ‘Elements Project’.

Prof. dr. Mark Delaere (promotor), Luc Van Hove (co-promotor)