| This dissertation proposes a theoretical approach whereby an understanding of gesture can facilitate the analysis and performance of Roger Sessions' solo piano works. Sessions prioritized gesture as a central component of music. In his book Questions About Music, he states, "it is the quality and character of the musical gesture that constitutes the essence of the music, the essential goal of the performer's endeavors." Although Sessions focuses on intra-musical gesture, he implies an important link to extra-musical gesture as manifested in the bodily movements executed by the performer.;Sessions articulates four distinguishable traits of gesture: it is human-generated, expressive, invisible, and transient. Additional researchers on gesture suggest that it is comprised of multiple "levels" or dimensions that are interrelated. Sessions' writings support the idea of a hierarchy of gestural units. Francois Delalande, Michelle Biget-Mainfroy, and Jane Whitfield Davidson concur that the physical gestures of the performer project aspects of the musical structure. This study shows how compositional parameters such as pitch structure and set presentation contribute to the projection of musical gesture.;In analyzing main gestures in Sessions' Pages From A Diary (1937--1940), Second Sonata for Piano (1946), and Five Pieces for Piano (1975), the motivic profile of each gesture is examined. Combinations of certain related elements, such as melodic contour, rhythm, intervallic relationships and articulation, characterize the sound of the music. Interactions between these elements demonstrate how the sound changes through time. Despite differences between gestures, certain elements tend to be closely connected. Articulation and interval voicing tend to exert powerful influences on physical gestures of the pianist. Gesture establishes continuity within movements and between movements of a work. It also indicates the formal structure of the music.;Sessions' concept of gesture is multi-dimensional, incorporating an assortment of motivic elements, changes and interactions between these elements, the physical movement necessary to produce sound, and the expression needed to communicate meaning. Gesture encompasses the complete life span of a musical work, thereby warranting detailed examination. |
