1. Artist
Statement:
Zane
Gillespie,
DMA
My
work
explores
how
seemingly
independent
phenomena
actually
share
an
identity
of
essence.
I
demonstrate
this
equivalence
by
creating
works
that
map
one
thing
onto
another
—
that
is,
to
use
the
terms
of
discourse
of
a
Generative
Theory
of
Tonal
Music1,
by
associating
each
element
of
a
given
set
of
well-­‐formedness,
preference,
and
transformational
rules
(the
domain)
with
one
or
more
elements
of
a
second
set
(the
range)
—
so
that
this
quasi-­‐mathematical
operation
becomes
essential
to
a
composition’s
existence
as
a
work
of
art.
Furthermore,
although
my
works
involve
significant
pre-­‐compositional
infrastructure,
listeners’
experiences
are
typically
communicated
in
a
manner
that
describes
a
Tredician
neo-­‐
romanticism.
Considered
more
abstractly,
my
aesthetic
practice
also
amounts
to
a
mapping
of
neo-­‐conservatism
onto
post-­‐modern
principles,
comprising
a
philosophy
that
values
“textual
unity
and
organicism
as
totalizing
musical
structures.”2
This
approach
rewards
listeners
with
an
immediate,
visceral
sense
of
the
music’s
presence,
while
simultaneously
inducing
a
subliminal
awareness
of
its
algorithmic
conceptual
motivation,
which,
paradoxically
enough,
is
responsible
for
what
the
listener
is
consciously
aware
of
as
the
pre-­‐modern
meaning
of
the
work.
My
interest
in
neoconservative
postmodernism
reflects
several
of
my
artistic
influences.
Foremost
are
musical
grammarians
like
Fred
Lerdahl,
whose
spiral
form

2. Artist
Statement:
Zane
Gillespie,
DMA
2
takes
a
simple
musical
idea
and
expands
on
it
through
a
recursive
process.
Second
are
composers
such
as
John
Harbison
and
minimalist
pioneer
Steve
Reich,
who
explore
musical
concepts
through
designs
in
which
stylistic
eclecticism
often
includes
the
appropriation
of
the
hierarchical
nature
of
common-­‐practice
harmony.
My
work
builds
upon
their
rejection
of
modernism
by
directly
and
meaningfully
returning
to
tradition
through
an
elision
of
both
pre-­‐
and
post-­‐modernism,
thereby
preserving
humanist
mores
in
an
attempt
to
renew
(in
listeners)
an
engaging
sense
of
concert
music
as
an
admired
product
of
the
Zeitgeist.
Examples
of
Works:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zp4ifldv69uaviu/AAAXs6kkLuQ1rQsChYkb-­‐
lVYa?dl=0
1
Fred
Lerdahl
and
Ray
Jackendoff
(1983).
A
Generative
Theory
of
Tonal
Music.
MIT
Press.
2
Jonathan
Kramer
(1995).
"Beyond
Unity:
Toward
an
Understanding
of
Musical
Postmodernism,"
pp.
22,
24.
In
Concert
Music,
Rock,
and
Jazz
since
1945,
ed.
Elizabeth
West
Marvin
and
Richard
Hermann,
11-­‐34.
Rochester,
N.Y.:
University
of
Rochester
Press.
Website: https://zane-gillespie.squarespace.com/