Fragmentation (music)

In music composition, fragmentation is the use of fragments or the "division of a musical idea (gesture, motive, theme, etc.) into segments." It is used in tonal and atonal music, and is a common method of localized development and closure.

Fragmentation is related to Arnold Schoenberg's concept of liquidation,[1] a common compositional technique that describes the reduction of a large-scale musical idea to its essential form (such as a contour line, a specific harmonic motion, or the like).[2] Liquidation informs much thematically-driven music, such as that by Béla Bartók,[3] Stravinsky, and Schoenberg himself. It is important to understand that, though they are related, fragmentation and liquidation are separate processes and concepts.

Further reading

References

  1. Schoenberg, Arnold. Fundamentals of Musical Composition. London, 1967. p. 58.
  2. After Michael Friedmann, course lectures and materials for MUSI 305: Analysis and Composition of Twentieth Century Music, Yale College, Yale University, fall 2008.
  3. Stein, Deborah. Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis, "Introduction to Musical Ambiguity". New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-517010-5. p. 87.