Joonas Kokkonen's "Free" Dodecaphonic Composition?
Abstract
Edward Jurkowski, University of Lethbridge, Alberta
Abstract
This paper challenges the prevalent notion that such features as multiple row
orderings, incomplete row statements, and harmonies which seem to bear no
relationship to a precompositionally assumed row ordering in the dodecaphonic
compositions by the Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen are the result of a
deliberate disregard of the compositional practices of such classical dodecaphonic
composers as Schoenberg and Webern. Rather, Kokkonenís works are seen to
contain a highly sophisticated and imaginative use of the twelve-tone system,
where dodecaphonic procedures are not compositional ends in themselves but,
instead, serve larger structural intentions in a work.