Narratives of political struggle in Frederic Rzewski’s Four Pieces

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Walton Alexander Lott, (Creator)

Institution

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )

Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Advisor

Andrew Willis

Abstract: This dissertation reads a narrative of political struggle in Frederic Rzewski’s 1976 composition Four Pieces for solo piano. As with many of Rzewski’s other politically themed works, Four Pieces is rich with allusions to folk song and political struggle. Rzewski applies compositional techniques to the primary musical ideas of Four Pieces that directly suggest concepts of social struggle and violence. Throughout his life, Rzewski identified politically with leftist ideas, often exploring themes on anti-war sentiment, popular struggle against oppressive power structures, and labor songs. This work expands on the ideas of literary theorists like Roland Barthes, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Gérard Genette who emphasize the reader’s importance in interpreting a text, as well as analyses of narrative in music developed by Elaine Sisman, Michael Klein, Robert Hatten, Richard Cone, and Eero Tarasti. Analysis of Four Pieces specifically draws on Northrop Frye’s literary narrative theories and Byron Almen’s extension of Frye’s concepts to the musical domain, the author developed a framework through which to hear a narrative in Rzewski’s Four Pieces. According to this framework, musical narrative emerges as an interplay between the poles of order and transgression, where order connotes an established dominant hierarchy and transgression connotes forces that disperse or struggle against the elements of order. Given Rzewski’s ideological alignments and his treatment of political topics this dissertation argues that Four Pieces can be read as a narrative in which transgression represents an oppressed subject or subjects that struggles against a dominant order that represents oppressive power structures responsible for fomenting chaos and preventing unity. A live performance by the author of Four Pieces, recorded in March 2012 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is included as four supplementary .wav files titled “Piece 1,” “Piece 2,” “Piece 3,” and “Piece 4.”

Narratives of political struggle in Frederic Rzewski’s Four Pieces
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Created on 5/1/2022
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Additional Information

Publication

Dissertation

Language: English

Date: 2022

Keywords

Four Pieces, Narrative, Politics, Rzewski

Subjects

Rzewski, Frederic. $t Pieces, $m piano $n (1977) $x Analysis, appreciation

Social conflict $z United States

Music $x Social aspects

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