Intro

Throughout this course we have learned and developed the technique required to analyses
western art music with most of our focus being works by Bach, Mozart, Schubert and
Beethoven. These compositional giants are great since almost all of their music is built on
triads and diatonic harmony and it always very easy to tell what is going on in any given
beat or measure as all the chord tones fall together in the intricate web of harmony which
they create. However, as time progressed composers began distancing themselves from
this simplicity, wanting to find new possibilities for music and harmonic structure in
general. Many turned to the world of atonality and 12 tone music, however there are many
who simply decided to find new ways of making tonal music less common practice
sounding. Erland Von Koch, a Swedish composer, is one such example. His saxophone
concerto breaks many of the trends set before him by baroque, classical and romantic
composers as he distances himself from diatonic harmony, logical chord progressions and
sometimes even a sense of a tonic existing, however he still manages to retain the sense
of tonality. This poster will examine how real world modern tonal composition does not
follow the basic rules that we were taught for "common practice" art music and how the
piece still manages to retain it's tonality despite missing what we were taught are essential
elements of tonal composition.

Determining Tonic
A notable development in modern solo music is that they have moved away from being
labeled by any specific key. For example, Bach's flute sonatas are known commonly as
"Sonata in e minor", "Sonata in G major"… etc. however this concerto and many other
works composed in the past hundred years have simply labeled these works as "Sonata" or
"Concerto" avoiding limiting their pieces tonal center to a single note or chord. Additionally,
composers have begun removing key signatures from the repertoire as can be seen in Von
Koch's concerto, as well as in both Muczynski's and Creston's saxophone sonatas to name
a few. This further distances the piece from a simple tonal center and creates a certain
ambiguity in where home lies.

Rather than focus on notes or chords to create a feeling of home, Koch borrows a
technique from Schoenberg and creates a motivic tonic whereby a gesture acts as tonic
regardless of the pitches which make it up. In the case of this Concerto this gesture is the
first statement made by the soloist (E-C-D) as well as the opening notes in soprano voice of
the accompaniment. This melodic shape returns time and time again both in the
saxophone as well as the orchestra and always arrives with a feeling of completion in the
same way that the tonic triad functions in Mozart or Bach. Furthermore, this motive
eventually inverts and signals the beginning of what I would call the Dominant the T-D-T
overlying structure of the piece.
Chord Progression
In the very opening of the piece Koch throughs a monkey wrench into the gears of simple
analyses. The opening sits comfortably in D Dorian and the opening chords of the orchestra
which prepare the audience and are supposed to situate them in a firm key are as follows.

iadd9-VII65-i6add9-III65-iadd9-v65
• The use of ninth chords is introduced in the "tonic" chords. This creates a sense of
dissonance in what would in otherwise be a consonance sounding sense of home.
This use of ninths is found throughout the movement as over half of the harmonies
on the first page alone have a ninth present.
• The Major VII chord is also used throughout the piece as a strong dominant function
within specific phrases rather than using v. v is used mostly in the movement to
function in deceptive cadences as can be seen here.
• III is also a chord which is used often in the piece interchangeably with I so much so
that the two are almost interchangeable which adds to the feeling of not knowing
exactly what the tonic triad would be at any given time.

Harmonic Movement
Koch decides to take a fairly uninteresting bass line motion through this movement, using
mostly stepwise motion from chord to chord. However, the harmonies he uses is where the
new age interest come from. Apart from the excessive use of ninths, Koch also employs a
very peculiar harmonic motion. Particularly in how he varies from driving towards iadd9
and III rather than always shooting for i as would be the case in other common practice art
music.
After the first page of the score the piece begins to avoid any key in particular and heavy
chromaticism ensues. It also features a heavy use of 9ths and 13ths which makes
determining the exact diatonic function of a chord difficult and makes them appear more
like clusters than actual harmonies.
Soloist vs Orchestra
There are sections of the piece where it appears as if the soloist and the accompaniment
are in two different keys such as at rehearsal number 5 where the saxophone is playing a
melody in E flat major while the underlying harmonies are centered around A flat Major.
This reinforces the idea of soloist vs orchestra which has been around since the beginning
by essentially having both play material which works harmonically together but each drives
towards a different tonic.

The Modern Sequence

Koch also employs a modern variation of sequences throughout the work such the one
found three bars before rehearsal number 4. The first two beats are part of an A2
sequence which started the bar before, the third beat is then a model of a new sequence
which is then interrupted by the more copes of the previous sequence before that is
interrupted by the copy of the model stated before that interruption as an A3 sequence
which is then copied again in the bar before 4, it is the repeated in the second half of that
bar and then the new section at 4 begins. This work is saturated with convoluted takes on
common conventions like this and further adds to the distance Koch is putting between
himself and older styles of composition.