Pitch organization and form in Alfred Desenclos's two saxophone works

French composer Alfred Desenclos (1912-1971) published very few pieces but, in the words of saxophonist Jean-Marie Londeix (1932-), "Each of his works is the result of profound reflection."1 Desenclos's Prelude, cadence et finale for alto saxophone and piano (1956) and Quatuor pour saxophones (1964), though widely performed, have received limited analytic attention. This thesis aims to present, in music-theoretical terms, evidence of the deep thinking that Desenclos brought to bear in structuring these particular compositions.;Analysis of pitch organization in the Prelude, cadence et finale demonstrates a system comprised of three minor-third cycles used hierarchically and in a manner analogous to tonic, dominant, and pre-dominant functions. Close analysis of the composition's formal design reveals that, superimposed over the individual forms of the three movements, the work as a whole (performed without break) adheres to sonata form.;In the Quatuor, referential pitch classes and set classes organize the pitch material of the piece. The first movement, whose motivic-melodic design is that of sonata form, employs referential pitch classes to create an analogue to the drama of opposing keys in conventional sonata form. Movement two uses the same referential pitch classes as movement one, but reverses which of these occur in stable and unstable contexts. The final movement reasserts the referential pitch class and set class material of the previous two movements, and decides in favour of the pitch-class hierarchy that was established in movement one.;The conclusions reveal that Desenclos's compositional style in these pieces combines post-tonal pitch organization with traditional formal structures and processes.;The analyses are limited in scope to pitch organization and formal structure. The general analytic method asks two questions: Which techniques of pitch organization and formal design derive from the common-practice-period style? How have these techniques been altered within the post-tonal style of pitch organization? Methods for analyzing post-tonal techniques are derived from Bryan Simms (Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure, 1996) and Joseph N. Straus (Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory, 2005). The notion of post-tonal analogues to tonal techniques derives from methods illustrated in Wallace Berry's Musical Structure and Performance , 1989.;1Jean-Marie Londeix, "Prelude, Cadence et Finale" in Jean-Marie Londeix: Master of the Modern Saxophone, James C. Umble (Cherry Hill, N.J.: Roncorp Publications, 2000), 229.