Elliott Carter Studies Online

VOLUME 5 (2025)

Papers from the Special Session “Elliott Carter: 10 Years On,"
at the AMS/SEM/SMT Joint Annual Meeting, New Orleans, November 10, 2022:

Introduction

Guy Capuzzo

November 5, 2022 marked the tenth anniversary of Elliott Carter’s death. To commemorate this date, the editors of Elliott Carter Studies Online organized a session at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory titled “Carter: 10 Years On.” It served as a follow-up to the 2009 session “Carter 101,” which recognized Carter’s 101st birthday. “Carter, 10 Years On” brought together three prominent Carter scholars whose papers explored the role of narrative in the Fifth String Quartet, developed pedagogical approaches for introducing undergraduates to Carter’s music, and studied the sketches for Epigrams (2012), Carter’s final composition. Together, the papers illustrate the vitality and range of current Carter scholarship and highlight the aesthetic and technical challenges his music continues to pose.

Christian Carey (Rider University) opened the session with “Narratology in the ‘Practice Session Model’ of Elliott Carter’s Fifth String Quartet.” This paper was subsequently published in the journal Tempo.(1)Carey 2023.

Peter Smucker (Stetson University) then presented “Carter, Pedagogy, and the Undergraduate Theory Curriculum.” Noting that Carter’s music mostly appears in theory textbooks to illustrate the concept of tempo modulation, Smucker argues that it has more to offer. He develops a listener-focused approach to presenting Carter’s music in the undergraduate classroom and offers sample assignments and class activities aimed at creating a wider range of learning experiences.

John Link (Professor Emeritus at William Paterson University) presented the third and final paper of the session, “The Publication of Elliott Carter’s Epigrams.” When Carter died in 2012, his final work, Epigrams, was complete in a draft score and in the early stages of editorial production at Hendon Music, Boosey & Hawkes. Because Carter could not review proofs of the score, the task of resolving any uncertain readings fell to his friends and colleagues. Link’s paper describes that process and how it was informed by the study of Carter’s autograph manuscripts.

Anne Shreffler (Harvard University) served as session respondent. In keeping with the session title, she noted that while Carter scholarship has remained active in the decade since his passing, performances of his music have decreased in number. If Carter’s music is to remain alive and relevant, Shreffler said, performers must program and record his works. One way to do this is to focus on pieces that do not require extensive rehearsals. Shreffler then shared ideas on avenues for future Carter research. These included disability studies; the role of humor and wit (à la Haydn); the metaphor of “conversation”; new editions of his scores; connecting Carter’s musical and political views to those of his contemporaries; the notion of “the subversive viola”; and, finally, further pedagogical work in the vein of Smucker’s paper.

By making Smucker’s and Link’s work publicly available here, the editors of Elliott Carter Studies Online hope to provide a snapshot of a recent noteworthy juncture in Carter scholarship and to lay the groundwork for future scholarship.

Papers from the Special Session “Elliott Carter: 10 Years On," at the AMS/SEM/SMT Joint Annual Meeting, New Orleans, November 10, 2022:

Footnote

1. Carey 2023.

Bibliography

Carey, Christian. 2023. “Narratology in the Practice Session Model of Elliott Carter’s String Quartet No. 5.” Tempo 77, Issue 305 (July): 17-25.