The twentieth century piano sonata

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversitySince in the twentieth century the piano is no longer the important instrument that it had been in the nineteenth century, composers write less for it in any form, especially the sonata-form. The most prolific composers have been the Americans and the Russians with Scriabin, Prokofieff, Medtner and Miaskowski extremely active. Prokofieff, for example, wrote nine sonatas. Many of the most important artists of the century have completely ignored the form; Sibelius, Schoenberg, Debussy writing no piano sonatas whatsoever, and Strauss and Berg writing sonatas only in their youth. Bartok, Stravinsky and Ravel have each written only one work in this form. There is, nevertheless, a sizeable group of sonatas to be investigated as many composers have published works in this form. Sonatas from the following countries were examined: Germany, Austria, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, Latin America, Great Britain, and the United States. In considering each country, a brief historical background of those composers writing piano sonatas was included. The sonatas were analyzed according to: (1) musical form, (2) melodic content, (3) rhythmic elements, (4) harmonic characteristics, (5) contrapuntal devices, (6) pianistic styles and devices, and (7) general characteristics and trends. Contrasts, similarities, influences were noted and an effort was made to ascertain the directions the sonata style was following in each of the countries. From the individual countries works of the following composers were examined: (Germany) Boris Blacher, Ferruccio Busoni, Helmut Degen, Wolfgang Fortner, Harald Genzmer, Paul Hindemith, Karel Husa, Phillip Jarnach, the Swiss Rolf Liebermann and the Finn Yrjo Kilpinen; (Austria) Alban Berg, Gottfried Einem, Berthold Goldschmidt, Otto Jokl, Ernst Krenek, Franz Salmhofer, Leopold Spinner, and Ernst Toch; (Poland) Alexander Transman; (Roumania) Karol Rathaus; (Czechoslovakia) Alois Haba, Emil Axman and Erwin Schulhoff; (Hungary) Bela Bartok and Alexander Jemnitz; (Russia) Anatol Alexandrov, V. Belyi, B. Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Oleg Eiges, Jerzy Fitelberg, Markian Frolov, Alexander Glazounoff, Eugen Golubev, Alexander Gretchaninoff, Dmitri Kabalevsky, Alexander Krein, Nicholas Lopatnikoff, Nicholas Medtner, Nicholas Miaskowski, Leonid Polovinkin, Serge Prokofieff, Serge Rachmaninoff, Yuri Schaporin, Anatol Schenschin, Alexander Scriabin, Dmitri Slostakovitch, and Igor Stravinsky; (France) Georges Auric, Ernst Bloch, Paul Dukas, Henri Dutilleux, Vincent D'Indy; Darius Milhaud, Marcel Poot, Maurice Ravel and Daniel Ruyneman; (Italy) Ziannotto Bastianelli, Valentino Bucchi, Mario Castlenuovo-Tedesco, Luigi Dallapiccola, Enrico Mainardi, Ennio Porrino, and Guilio Cesare Sonzogno; (Spain) Ernesto Halffter, C. Halffter, and Joaquin Turina; (Latin America) Jose Ardevol, Jose Maria Castro, Carlos Olavez, Roque Cordero, and Juan Carlos Paz; (Great Britain) Arnold Bax, Lawrence Collingliood, Benjamin Dale, Howard Ferguson, John Ireland, H. V. Jarvis-Read, Constant Lambert, Kaikhosru Sorabji, and Michael Tippett; (United States) George Antheil, Samuel Barber, Hans Barth, John Becker, Paul Bowles, Louis Campbell-Tipton, Elliott Carter, Frederick Converse, Aaron Copland, Norman Dello Joio, Jacques De Menasce, David Diamond, Lehman Engel, Ross Lee Finney, Isadore Freed, Anis Fuleihan, Charles Griffes, Elliot Griffis, Roy Harris, Lou Harrison, Walter Helfer, Alan Hovhaness, Charles Ives, Werner Josten, Gail Kubik, Quinto Maganini, Alexander MacFadyen, Edward MacDowell, Leo Ornstein, Vincent Persichetti, John Powell, Roger Sessions, Harold Shapero, Arthur Shepherd, Timothy Spelman, Alexander Steinert, Walter Stockhoff, Alfred Swann, Virgil Thomson, and Godfrey Turner. It was found that most of the composers have followed the traditional sonata-form. Usually, a sonata-allegro serves as first movement followed by a slow movement and one or more rapid movements. The fugue appears often enough to be a significant device in the modern sonata. The most noteworthy examples are the fugues by Barber, Hindemith, Carter and Dutilleux. There are fine sets of variations in the Sonatas of Fuleihan and Dutilleux (Choral and Variations). The later Sonatas (6-10) of Scriabin are exceptions to the usual form, consisting of but one movement with different metrical sections. There are distinguished one-movement Sonatas by Bax, Berg, Krein, Prokofieff in his First and Third, but the form, as devised by Liszt, has not attracted a wide following. Instances of this form among American composers are the works of Barth, Harrison, Josten, Turner and Steinert. Some few works are loosely constructed formally and suggest fantasies or rhapsodies rather than a traditional sonata-form. Such a work is the Sonata of Hovhaness which abounds in cadenzas and improvisatory effects. The Sonatas of Sorabji are likewise nebulous in structure and content. Greatest experimenting with rhythms is noticeable in works of the following composers: Scriabin who created complicated patterns involving binary and ternary rythms in unusual combinations, Stravinsky, Krein, Harris, Bartok, Antheil, Becker, Chavez, and Blacher, all of whom employ frequent metrical changes within a comparatively brief section. Ives and Sorabji, both highly daring, dispense with bar lines or metrical indications. Harmonically, there are a number of sonatas written in a conservative manner, even some of the more recent works. Instances of this conservatism are found in works of Campbell-Tipton, Maganini, MacFadyen, MacDowell, Converse, Powell, Shepherd, Steinert, Stockhoff, Collingwood, Jarvis-Read, Dukas, D'Indy, Genzmer, Degen, Raphael, Rathaus Axman, Schulhoff, Gretchaninoff, Alexandrov, Glazounoff, Medtner, E. Halffter, Turina, Bastianelli, Castlenuovo-Tedesco, Bucchi, Mainardi, and J. M. Castro. Highly individual are the harmonic idioms of Copland, Griffes, Ives, Milhaud, Ravel, Hindemith, Einem, Krenek, Husa, Bartok, Prokofieff, Kabalevsky, Scriabin, Slostakovitch, and Stravinsky. Free contrapuntal writing is responsible for some highly dissonant passages as, for example, a canon of three voices in the Bartok Sonata in which the three voices move at an interval of a ninth. Charles Griffes also achieved original effects from his use of dissonant contrapuntal voices. Stravinsky creates curious effects by the unusual contrapuntal arrangements of his voices. Likewise, Scriabin with his use of the chord built upon fourths and the manner in which the voices are arranged is responsible for unorthodox harmonies. The counterpoint of Milhaud forms unexpected harmonies. Atonality is the basis for the Sonatas of Ardevol, Chavez, Dallapiccola, Liebermann and Spinner vith Spinner being the only one to adopt the twelve-tone technique. Such composers as Rachmaninoff, Lopatnikoff, Miaskowski, Golubev, Frolov employ a form of contrapuntal writing which is more pianistic than intellectual. It is designed to bring out the richest possible sonorities from the piano. While there is considerable ingenuine and originality of style, the traditional idioms of Chopin, Schumann, Brahms appear in many of the works, even up to the present. In 1943, Lopatnikoff imitates the style of Chopin while at the same time Prokofieff in his Eighth Sonata writes in the manner of Schumann. Brahms' influence is selt in Arthur Shepherd, Medtner, Rathaus and Goldschmidt. The techniques of impressionism do not lend themselves to the formality of the classic sonata-form although Ravel, Ruyneman and Auric have composed sonatas in the idiom. There are instances of slow movements which are influenced by some of the impressionistic devices as, for example, the slow movement of the Elliot Griffis Sonata. Likewise, there appear brief passages which are reminiscent of impressionistic tone-painting in a number of different sonatas. The style of Scriabin is unique and may be termed a considerable contribution to piano technique. He employs widely-spaced figurations which cover the keyboard with their complexity. He seems to have had few imitators besides his immediate pupils, Polovinkin, Pavlov, Sabeneiev, Shapashinko, and Melkikh. Highly original styles occur in the writing of Charles Ives vho creates massive chords in complicated rhythmical patterns, in John Becker who experiments with percussive sounds in involved figurations often without any semblance to usual melodic lines. The Liebermann Sonata abounds in unusual effects. Bartok has utilized percussive chords as well as dissonant counterpoint and qy such unusual devices as broken chords in contrary motion, octave passages at the interval of a ninth has achieved unique sounds. Antheil attempts to depict the sounds of an airplane in his "Airplane" Sonata which he achieves qy a very free counterpoint and highly unorthodox harmonies. Among individual composers, Dutilleux, Medtner, Miaskowski, Rachmaninoff, Bax, Fuleihan, stravinsky have written distinguished works. Those sonatas that seem most successful are those of Charles Griffes, Bartok, Barber, Dukas, Hindemith, the mature works of Scriabin, Kabalevsky, and the later works of Prokofieff with particular emphasis upon his Seventh Sonata. The debt of the United States composers to European models is everywhere apparent from the works of the German-trained MacDowell to the present composers. MacDowell follows faithfully the traditional forms choosing, however, themes of a nationalistic nature which identity him with American folklore in the manner Grieg is identified with Norwegian idioms. Arthur Shepherd, John Powell and Roy Harris are strongly influenced by native American themes. With the advent of the 1920's, however, composers adopted the cosmopolitan style of the neo-classicists and the nationalistic element faded. The Sonata of Copland, for example, does not reflect an American idiom even though he has used such themes to great success in such works as his ballets. In the distinguished and recent Sonata of Barber, there is no hint of any American influence insofar as melodic line is concerned

Exponential Lower Bounds for Polytopes in Combinatorial Optimization

We solve a 20-year old problem posed by Yannakakis and prove that there exists no polynomial-size linear program (LP) whose associated polytope projects to the traveling salesman polytope, even if the LP is not required to be symmetric. Moreover, we prove that this holds also for the cut polytope and the stable set polytope. These results were discovered through a new connection that we make between one-way quantum communication protocols and semidefinite programming reformulations of LPs.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. This version of the paper will appear in the Journal of the ACM. The earlier conference version in STOC'12 had the title "Linear vs. Semidefinite Extended Formulations: Exponential Separation and Strong Lower Bounds

Addressing the Eviction Crisis and Housing Instability Through Mediation

The United States faces a staggering eviction crisis. St. Louis City and St. Louis County illustrate the numbers found in major cities throughout the country. The high number of eviction lawsuits filed in these areas present opportunities to address evictions outside of litigation, specifically through housing court mediation. The Mediation Project provides free mediation services for the pro se housing dockets in both St. Louis City and St. Louis County Circuit Courts. Using the Mediation Project as an example, this Article proposes that mediation is one of the cheapest, easiest, and most effective ways to intervene to decrease housing evictions and promote housing stability

Relativistic Effects in Simulations of the Fragmentation Process with the Microscopic Framework

We simulate the fragmentation processes in the \CaCa collisions at the bombarding energy 1.05 GeV/u using the Lorentz covariant RQMD and the non-covariant QMD approaches, incorporated with the statistical decay model. By comparing the results of RQMD with those of QMD, we examine the relativistic effects and find that the multiplicity of the $\alpha$ particle after the statistical decay process is sensitive to the relativistic effects. It is shown that the Lorentz covariant approach is necessary to analyze the fragmentation process even at the energy around \Elab = 1 GeV/u as long as we are concerned with the final observables of the mass distribution, particularly, the light fragments around $A = 3 \sim 4$.Comment: 8pages, Latex is used, 3 Postscript figures are available by request from [email protected]

Determination of the source dwell position of an afterloading device with a detector array

It was the aim to develop and test a measurement technique for the source position of an afterloading system using an electronic two-dimensional detector array (2D array). A "GammaMed plus IX" high dose rate afterloading device (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, USA), and a Seven29 2D detector array (PTW Freiburg GmbH, Freiburg, Germany) have been used. A hollow needle has been connected to the afterloading device. Its outer diameter is 3.0 mm and its length about 220mm. A 14 mm thick Perspex slab was fixed in a reproducible position on the 2D array. Above the 14th detector row, a groove was cut in the slab which accommodates the hollow needle in a fixed position relative to the 2D array. In order to define the position of the source, the signals of the detectors in the 14th detector row have been evaluated. A theoretical curve depending on the source position and strength, has been fitted to the acquired detector signals. It has been shown that the reproducibility of the measurement technique - including the reproducibility of the source placement - was within 0.15mm. This method can not only replace film measurements, it is also more exact and less time consuming

Refining fast simulation using machine learning

At the CMS experiment, a growing reliance on the fast Monte Carlo application (FastSim) will accompany the high luminosity and detector granularity expected in Phase 2. The FastSim chain is roughly 10 times faster than the application based on the GEANT4 detector simulation and full reconstruction referred to as FullSim. However, this advantage comes at the price of decreased accuracy in some of the final analysis observables. In this contribution, a machine learning-based technique to refine those observables is presented. We employ a regression neural network trained with a sophisticated combination of multiple loss functions to provide post-hoc corrections to samples produced by the FastSim chain. The results show considerably improved agreement with the FullSim output and an improvement in correlations among output observables and external parameters. This technique is a promising replacement for existing correction factors, providing higher accuracy and thus contributing to the wider usage of FastSim.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, CHEP2023 proceedings, submitted to EPJ Web of Conference

Internal Morphology of Mandibular Second Premolars Using Micro-Computed Tomography

To examine root canal morphology of mandibular second premolars (Mn2P) of a mixed Swiss-German population by means of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). Root canal configuration (RCC) of 102 Mn2P were investigated using micro-CT unit (µCT 40; SCANCO Medical AG, Brüttisellen, Switzerland) with 3D software imaging (VGStudio Max 2.2; Volume Graphics GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany), described with a four-digit system code indicating the main root canal from coronal to apical thirds and the number of main foramina. A total of 12 different RCCs were detected. 1-1-1/1 (54.9%) was most frequently observed RCC, followed by 1-1-1/2 (14.7%), 1-1-2/2 (10.8%), 1-2-2/2 (4.9%), 1-1-3/3 (3.9%), 1-1-1/3 (2.9%), 2-1-1/1 (2.9%) and less frequently 1-1-2/3, 1-2-1/2, 2-1-2/2, 1-1-2/5, 1-1-1/4 with each 1.0%. No accessory foramina were present in 35.3%, one in 35.3%, two in 21.6%, three and four in 2.9%, and five in 2.0%. In 55.9% Mn2Ps, accessory root canals were present in apical third and 8.8% in middle third of a root. Connecting canals were observed less frequently (6.9%) in apical and 2.9% in the middle third, no accessory/connecting canals in coronal third. Every tenth tooth showed at least or more than three main foramina. Almost two thirds of the sample showed accessory root canals, predominantly in apical third. The mainly single-rooted sample of Mn2Ps showed less frequent morphological diversifications than Mn1Ps

Medication beliefs predict uptake of preventive therapy in women at increased risk of breast cancer: a Latent Profile Analysis (Abstract only)

Background: Preventive therapies such as tamoxifen are a risk reduction option for women at increased risk of breast cancer. Uptake of preventive therapies is low. The Self-Regulatory Framework identifies the role of beliefs about medication and its impact on treatment decisionmaking. We examined whether women at increased risk of breast cancer can be categorised into groups with similar medication beliefs and whether belief group membership was prospectively associated with uptake of preventive therapy. Methods: Women (n =732) attending an appointment at one of 20 centres in England to discuss breast cancer risk were approached; 55.7% (408/732) completed a survey containing the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) and the Perceived Sensitivity to Medicines (PSM) questionnaire. Self-reported uptake of tamoxifen at 3-month follow-up was reported in 258 (63.2%). The optimal number of medication belief groups were identified using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA). Results: Uptake of tamoxifen was 14.7% (38/258). The LPA model fit statistics supported a 2-group model. Both groups held weak beliefs about their need for tamoxifen for current and future health. Group 2 (38% of the sample) reported stronger concerns about tamoxifen and medicines in general, and stronger perceived sensitivity to the negative effects of medicines compared with Group 1 (62%). In a multivariable model, women classified into Group 2 (low need, higher concerns) were more likely to be: aged ≥50 years (vs. 36–49 years), OR=0.56, 95% CI: 0.34–0.93, p=.024). Women with low necessity and lower concerns (Group 1) were more likely to initiate tamoxifen (18.3%; 33) than those with low necessity and higher concerns (Group 2) (6.4%; 5). After adjusting for demographic and clinical factors, the OR was 3.37 (95% CI: 1.08 – 10.51, p = .036). Conclusions and implications: In this UK multi-centre study, uptake of breast cancer preventive therapy was low. An important subgroup of women reported low need for preventive therapy and strong medication concerns. These women were less likely to initiate tamoxifen. Understanding subgroup differences in medication beliefs may enable the development of personalised interventional approaches for supporting informed treatment decision-making

A machine learning route between band mapping and band structure

The electronic band structure (BS) of solid state materials imprints the multidimensional and multi-valued functional relations between energy and momenta of periodically confined electrons. Photoemission spectroscopy is a powerful tool for its comprehensive characterization. A common task in photoemission band mapping is to recover the underlying quasiparticle dispersion, which we call band structure reconstruction. Traditional methods often focus on specific regions of interests yet require extensive human oversight. To cope with the growing size and scale of photoemission data, we develop a generic machine-learning approach leveraging the information within electronic structure calculations for this task. We demonstrate its capability by reconstructing all fourteen valence bands of tungsten diselenide and validate the accuracy on various synthetic data. The reconstruction uncovers previously inaccessible momentum-space structural information on both global and local scales in conjunction with theory, while realizing a path towards integrating band mapping data into materials science databases