Opposites Interact: Motivic Organization in Shapey's Clarinet Concerto

Abstract

Ralph Shapey's Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Group (1954) presents an intricately plotted narrative of two prominent musical ideas in apparent opposition. One, a [0,1,2,3] tetrachord realized as a motive in the shape of a wedge, saturates its confines chromatically. The other, a twelve-tone row generated solely through interval class 5, is a lyrical evocation of diatonicism. Evolving gradually from mere hints at the Concerto's opening, the two ideas achieve and retain distinctive identities that interact at different levels of structure and crystallize in a remarkable moment of equilibrium at the Concerto's approximate midpoint. Through his idiosyncratic serial techniques, Shapey transforms the row through interpolations, saving conventional serial operations for non-dodecaphonic, contrapuntal settings of the wedge motive.

Keywords:

• Shapey
• Twentieth Century
• Concerto
• Clarinet
• Motive
• Interpolation

Notes

[1] Shapey noted both location and dates on both the first and last pages of the autograph full score. I am grateful to the Theodore Presser Company for the loan of a facsimile of this score.

[2] Measures 109 and 110 are exactly the same except for the placement of rests: in m. 109, each of the four eighth rests occurs at the beginning of a beat.

[3] As discussed below, this list does not include the many [0,1,2,3] tetrachords that are not ordered as wedges, which could justifiably be included with a broader interpretation of the motive.

[4] Shapey confirms that this is indeed the row (Shapey, 1965–66, p. 2).

[5] When shorter durations are used for a pitch belonging to the row, immediate repetition of the pitch often prolongs its total temporal span.

[6] The beginnings of the row's repetitions, however, are routinely unheralded and even disguised. For instance, the grouping of the B ending one presentation with the E beginning the next occurs routinely (see Figure 1, m. 113, beats 3–4). This grouping habit, in combination with the row's construction from a single interval class, may make recognition of the start of a new repetition of the series challenging for listeners who do not possess absolute pitch.

[7] Shapey cites this bar as an example of basic material that returns elsewhere in the section, but does not name or describe the motive (Shapey, 1965–66, p. 1).