An analysis of Priaulx Rainier's Barbaric Dance Suite for piano

[摘要] Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986) was a South-African born composer whose highly originalcompositional style attracted great attention during her lifetime. She spent most of her life inEngland, but was inspired by the images and recollections of her youth in Africa. Despite thecritical acclaim she received, little research has been done about her, both in South Africa andabroad. Additionally, the nature of existing sources is mostly not analytical, but ratherprovides an overview of her life or general aspects of her style. Although some conclusionshave been drawn about her compositional style, they are not thoroughly substantiated byconcrete analytical evidence. Also, the focus is mostly on her prominent rhythmic use (oftenlinked by authors to the 'African element of her idiom), with an evident disregard of theother aspects of style, most notably with regard to pitch coherence.This research attempts to correct this unbalanced discourse by analysing one of her few solopiano works, the Barbaric Dance Suite (composed in 1949), and pointing out significant pitchrelations, similarities and contrasts. The rationale for selecting this specific work originatedfrom Rainier's own pronouncement that 'The Suite is a key to all my later music, for in thethree DANCES, their structural embryo is, on a small scale, the basis for most of the laterworks. Although the scope of the research did not allow for a comparative analysis, it isstrongly believed that the conclusions reached in this study could also be applicable to manyof Rainier's other works, especially of the early period.The study consists of an introduction in which the Barbaric Dance Suite is contextualised,followed by the main body of the thesis that consists of a detailed analysis of each of the threemovements. The foremost method of analysis used is set theory analysis, which could bebriefly described as a method whereby (particularly atonal) music is segmented andcategorised in pitch class sets. As set theory focuses exclusively on the dimension of pitch,traditional methods of analysis are employed to examine the other musical parameters. In theconclusion, the analytical results are contextualised with regard to existing pronouncementson Rainier's oeuvre. The study also comments on the applicability of set theory as analyticalsystem in Rainier's music. The many complex pitch relations that were discovered by theintensive analysis of pitch content has given enough evidence to conclude that Rainier's useof sonorities has been unjustly neglected in the discourse of this work and perhaps also in hermusical style as a whole. It is hoped that further detailed analysis of her use of sonorities inother works could lead authorities to revise the insistent pronouncements on her rhythmic usein favour of a more balanced assessment of all aspects of her compositional style.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University