Author Description

George Rochberg (1918-2005) was a leading American composer who experimented with various musical styles. Influenced by Schoenberg and Dallapiccola, Rochberg started composing serial music in the mid- 1950s. However, his serial music contains more traditional elements than Schoenberg¿s serial style, and this makes his music more accessible and understandable to the listener. Rochberg blended serialism with traditional styles of melodic presentation, rhythm, and formal structure. This book deals with exploring Rochberg¿s structuring of the 12-tone series and examining his linear and vertical structures in his two representative serial works:Twelve Bagatelles for Piano and Symphony No. 2. It also reevaluates Rochberg¿s position as a theorist, a composer, and a critic by examining where Rochberg¿s theory comes from and how his theory influenced later composers and theorists.