The 1957Encyclopédie Larousse[1] defines acell inmusic as a "smallrhythmic andmelodic design that can be isolated, or can make up one part of athematic context". The cell may be distinguished from thefigure ormotif:the 1958Encyclopédie Fasquelle[1] defines a cell as "the smallest indivisible unit", unlike the motif, which may be divisible into more than one cell. "A cell can bedeveloped, independent of its context, as a melodic fragment, it can be used as a developmental motif. It can be the source for the wholestructure of the work; in that case it is called agenerative cell."[2]
Arhythmic cell is a cell without melodic connotations. It may be entirely percussive or applied to different melodic segments.
History
editThe term "cell" (German:Keim) derives from organic music theorists of the nineteenth century.Arnold Schering adopted the term, along with "melodic kernels" (Melodiekerne) in his analysis of 14th-centurymadrigal, one of the first uses ofGestalt psychology in music theory.[5]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^abquoted inNattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990).Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990).ISBN 0-691-02714-5.
- ^Nattiez 1990, p.156.
- ^Garrett, Charles Hiroshi (2008).Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century, p.54.ISBN 9780520254862. Shown in common time and then in cut time with tied sixteenth & eighth note rather than rest.
- ^Sublette, Ned (2007).Cuba and Its Music, p.134.ISBN 978-1-55652-632-9. Shown with tied sixteenth & eighth note rather than rest.
- ^Ian D. Bent, revised byAnthony Pople (2001)."Analysis, §II. History, §4. 1910-1945".Grove Music Online (8th ed.).Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.