The Style Characteristic And Influence Of Third Stream Music:Compositional Ideas And Techniques Of Gunther Schuller

Third stream. A term coined by Gunther Schuller (1925-), in a lecture at Brandeis University in1957, for a type of music which, through improvisation or written composition or both, synthesizes the essential characteristics and techniques of contemporary Western art music and various ethnic or vernacular musics. At the heart of this concept is the notion that any music stands to profit from a confrontation with another; thus composers of Western art music can learn a great deal from the rhythmic vitality and swing of jazz, while jazz, musicians can find new avenues of development in the large-scale forms and complex tonal systems of classical music.Through the passage of time and Schuller’s relentless practice, the concept was developed while extended its meaning and coverage beyond the description for the original form of music. The concept has a focus on the expansion of compositional ideas and the possibility of development for wider range of music styles. Schuler’s proposed "fusion" concept seems to combine the music genre with many different regions, integrate different ethnic musical language to point out a direction. It also provides a theoretical support for complex musical phenomenon in the20th century."Third Stream" has been experienced more than fifty years in the world, when we re-examine through studying into "Third Stream", we discover that it has inextricably linked with wide range of historical processes of social changes. From1960s to the1980s, all types of art display the similar characteristic of "comprehensive and inclusive". Especially in classic music, its characteristic showed a "diverse mixed" form. The classification of the art of music and the boundaries of real life are slowly integrated. This phenomenon is a typical characteristic of the postmodern art. This integration came from postmodernism. In fact, before the "postmodern" era, we’ve already discovered this concept has been reflected in Schuler’s work. Furthermore, the "fusion" has become the core of its aesthetics and creative idea. I believed that the "third stream" is the foreshadowed of the postmodernism in the musical field and act as a "precursor" for the features displaying in the postmodern music. In addition, the "Third Stream" also provides the possibility development for both of theory and practice. Therefore, the purpose of the "Third Stream" is to discover the veins of modern music, to search the diversity of modern music. The "fusion" concept of "Third Stream" provides us a method to create a possibility of new musical language and a new form. As the result, the original pursuing of a "single doctrine" creative ideas have changed, the penetration of multicultural musical language led to music diversity, different levels of musical performances and practices were influenced by the new ideas and the new ways, and experienced with a carrier of various composition techniques to produce a new musical phenomenon. The "Third Stream" brings us not only a practical music, but also lead a new force to change people’s concept.In this thesis, the study will focus on "Third Stream" music of Gunther Schuller and analyze his compositional ideas, intentions, and core materials; the analysis is conducted through analytical techniques to investigate the characteristics and composition techniques combined with my music composing. From pitch organizational relationships to musical structure and sound combinations, through my point of view, are based on modern and post-modern aesthetics to completely unify the music practice. I will investigate into the nature of the phenomenon as my theory, by utilizing the morphological and characteristic of Schuller’s music from different periods as a starting point to discuss its technology and technique. Even though there are some music with the same musical language, based on different ways to interpretation of playing the music, different outcomes will arise. It should be specified that the jazz music theory is not the discussion in this thesis.According to the information that the author has on hand, there is existing literature about "Third Stream" concept and history to be evaluated. Most of these materials have a central focus on the description of the music phenomenon but lacking the analysis of distinctive sort of Schuler proposed "fusion" concept and his unique creative methods. Therefore, this thesis is going to fulfill the perspective vacancies in the relevant field, and also revealing the characteristic and generality in music theoretical and practical aspects. Author believes that there are certain academic reference values linking with this detailed analysis.