Abstract
Elliott Carter’s recent chamber music miniatures have been afforded much analytical attention, but comparable studies on his late orchestral compositions are rare; literature that does address Carter’s symphonic pieces tends to focus on extremely local harmonic occurrences, long-range polyrhythmic structures, or non-technical formal descriptions rather than presenting detailed accounts of compositions in toto. The investigative methodologies at play typically utilize combinatorial and set-theoretical techniques (which makes sense given the extent of Carter's interest in such matters as evidenced by the Harmony Book) or, of late, transformational theory. The past thirty years of research have been critical to our understanding of Carter's music but, since the composer is still actively writing, lacunae inevitably exist.
The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, is twofold. (1) It analyzes a significant "late-late style" orchestral work by Elliott Carter, Boston Concerto, in its entirety, making analytical remarks about every major section of the composition. Scholars have heretofore either overlooked symphonic pieces from this period altogether or studied short excerpted passages out of context. In particular, this dissertation focuses on how larger formal units are opened, concluded, and attain climax. (2) In doing so, the dissertation advocates for a more malleable methodology of analyzing form and harmony in contemporary music, particularly by incorporating (as deemed suitable) observations about "sound-in-time" phenomenology, duration, registral space, narrative, timbre, and contour into structural models founded upon traditional set-theoretical and combinatorial concepts.
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