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Description
Alexander Minney, MUS303: Music History 2
Faculty Mentor(s): Professor Carolyn Guzski, Music
Morton Gould (1913-1996) had an extensive compositional career that spanned nearly the entirety of the 20th century. Towards the final years of his life, he began to compose using less conventional techniques. One of these compositions, Diversions for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra (1991), is a prime example. For any potential performer of this piece, the writing styles defy anything one might expect from Gould's previous musical experiments with time and sound. My study uses a full-score analysis to discover how Gould managed to write such a unique piece, while not drifting too far from the cohesive structure and integrated sound one would expect from a composer of his enormous talent. With research into the conventions that emerged from the Modernist period in music history, along with ideas about the use of instrumentation authored by Gould himself, this analysis seeks to explain the artistic solutions that Gould devised in his Diversions. Overall, within this relatively brief entry in Gould's compositional output, I analyze his unique sound within a traditional structure.
Publication Date
2021
Recommended Citation
Minney, Alexander, "The Diversions of Morton Gould" (2021). Arts. 17.
https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/srcc-sp21-arts/17
