Tonal Pairing and the Relative-Key Paradox in the Music of Elliott Smith
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15006294 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rob Schultz (University of Massachusetts Amherst, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2012-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Music Theory Online (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1067-3040 • E-ISSN: 1067-3040 |
| Publisher | Society for Music Theory (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.30535/mto.18.4.5 |
| OpenAlex | W1562692767 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 6 |
This article provides an introduction to American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith (1969–2003) by exploring his musical, lyrical, and personal predilection for ambiguity, contradiction, and paradox. Drawing upon Robert Bailey’s (1977, 1985) concept of tonal pairing and Candace Brower’s (2008) notion of pitch-space paradoxes, the article investigates the way in which these features manifest in selected songs from Smith’s catalogue, focusing in particular on his penchant for pairing relative keys and the use of paradoxical and/or contradictory themes in his lyrics. It then closes by advocating for further study of Smith’s music and the crucial role that contradiction and paradox plays in his approach to tonal structure
Aesthetics · Ambiguity · Art · Contradiction · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Lyrics · Musical · Musical form · Pairing · Physics · Computer Science · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Philosophy · Poetry Analysis and Criticism
| Citations per year | 0.22 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2017 - 2017 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |