Shane M Lynch – “Music Historiography and Useful Style Histories” 2008

1) Summary and Structure: Recent treatment on contemporary choral composers

o Argument: neo-impressionism ought to be applied to Whitacre, Lauridsen, and
Clausen
o Four components of his dissertation
 Defends the practice of “style labels” in the modern era
 Describes and defends the definition of impressionism and neo-
impressionism
 Analyzes particular examples fitting his definition
 Detailed analysis of many of Whitacre’s corpus

2) Definition of Neo-impressionism: a focus on the stimulation of the senses relies on:

o “sonority through the sound life-cycle” and the use of
o non-functional harmony, dynamics,
o text-driven rhythms, precision with notation, and
o blending of 20th-century styles.

3) Good initial step, needs refinement.

o Don’t disagree with his defense of using style labels like neo-impressionism (he’s
not overly dogmatic about it)
o Sensuousness well-defended from analyses and quotes
o Debate whether it fully applies to Lauridsen or not

4) Essential weakness = MYOPIC

o Limited to three composers
o Not enough on historical influence (Debussy is the only constant point of
historical reference).
o Needs a more comprehensive treatment of musical influences in the 20th century
(missing film, opera, musique concrete, minimalism) to explain differences
between impressionism and neo-impressionism.
o Overall: good starting point!