An analysis of Mainframe tropics: the imprint of electronic dance music within a work by Mason Bates

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Suzanne U. Polak (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
James Douglass

Abstract: The author demonstrates through musical analysis of the written score and observations of a YouTube performance, personal performance, and preparation for performance, that Mason Bates’s 2009 work Mainframe Tropics for horn, violin, and piano is an acoustic realization of a short Electronic Dance Music Set. The analysis validates how the three-movement work follows established forms of EDM tracks and is set with elements of rhythmic modulation and continuance within the beat patterns as written (especially Four-on-the-Floor and Breakbeat) and how Bates’s work uses the influence of one genre of music to create an original idea within another genre of music. In addition to the in-depth musical analysis, there is a step-by-step through-analysis for use by performers and composers to better understand the work and its genesis.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2020
Keywords
Electronic Dance Music, Mainframe Tropics, Mason Bates, Performance Analysis
Subjects
Bates, Mason $x History and criticism

Email this document to