Elliott Carter (1908–2012) played a vital role in twentieth and twenty-first century Western art music, truly exemplifying the full breadth of American modernism. Capturing Carter's evolution comprehensively in one volume is a difficult task yet the distinguished authors of Elliott Carter Studies accomplish it very well with their in-depth analyses of works from all periods of Carter's output and by utilizing a variety of approaches, methodologies, and analytical tools. With such a diverse outlook, the book caters to a wide range of readers: musicologists, theorists, composers, and performers. Elliott Carter Studies is not only vital in expanding the scope of Carter scholarship, but it is one of a kind: it is the first multi-authored book of collected essays on Carter's music.Footnote ¹ As such, it complements the existing publications that feature biographical approaches, conversations, Carter's own writings, general methodologies, and specific topics.Footnote ² Further, as one of three books published on Carter in 2012 alone, this volume shows a growing interest in Carter scholarship.Footnote ³ Considering Carter's significant contribution to Western art music, the increase in awareness is fitting and well deserved.

Elliott Carter Studies features the leading international Carter scholars Jonathan Bernard, John Link, Arnold Whittall, Marguerite Boland, John Roeder, Andrew Mead, Dörte Schmidt, Stephen Heinemann, Felix Meyer, Stephen Soderberg, Max Noubel, Brenda Ravenscroft, Guy Capuzzo, and Annette van Dyck-Hemming. Although David Schiff does not contribute directly, his presence is nonetheless felt, as his seminal work, The Music of Elliott Carter, is cited by every author. The collection is a true collaboration, with each essay building on the previous one. Further, Bernard's opening argument underlies each chapter: Carter's fundamental compositional ideas which emerged during his neoclassical period of the 1930s and 40s – complexity, simultaneity, pantonality, text expression, and long melodic lines – were not abandoned in his later compositions; rather, Carter simply expressed them differently. These same ideas certainly characterize Carter's middle and late period works. Complexity, either rhythmic, harmonic or textural, is quintessential to Carter's oeuvre. Simultaneity becomes Carter's definitive trait in the First String Quartet (1951) (see Mead, Schmidt) with multiple textures of differing speeds, rhythms, characters, and themes, or the simultaneity of formal design in Carter's two concertos from the 2000s, where a secondary linear formal process extends within the ritornello form (see Boland). With the First String Quartet, Carter adopted pantonality, ingrained within the complex harmonic language of all-interval tetrachords (AIT) (see Link), which he further developed with his use of the all-triad hexachords (ATH), as in Symphonia (1993–96) (see Whittall), and all-interval twelve-tone chords, for instance, in the Oboe Concerto (1986–87) (see Heinemann). Text expression has been an important element for Carter in his vocal music since he returned to the genre with A Mirror on Which to Dwell (1975) (see Ravenscroft, Capuzzo, van Dyck-Hemming), and he often made extra-musical references to his instrumental works (see Noubel, Boland). Lastly, Bernard examines the long, continuing lines in Carter's Symphony No. 1 (1942), and makes a comparison to the long lines in his later works, such as “Anaphora” from A Mirror, Triple Duo (1983), or the Fourth String Quartet (1986). Hence, by explaining Carter's early neoclassical compositional ideas and then showing how each of these ideas were expressed in his later works, we see that Carter's path of compositional evolution was logical and necessary.

The book is divided into four parts: (1) Overview: music early and late; (2) Analysis and aesthetics; (3) Sketch studies; and (4) Music and text. However, the essays are by no means limited to these headings. Rather, each one is a complete and focused study that explores historical background, philosophical questions regarding changes in Carter's compositional aesthetic, and provides analyses of selected compositions with effective examples, graphs, and charts. As a collection, the essays cover a large range of topics – history, theory, philosophy, philology and hermeneutics – and offer a diverse set of viewpoints and a wide range of perspectives of Carter's extraordinary oeuvre.

Part I is an overview of Carter's neoclassical works (see Bernard, “The true significance of Elliott Carter's early music”) and the compositions of his late period (see Link, “Elliott Carter's late music”). By way of this juxtaposition, we are presented with the enormity, richness and diversity of Carter's output. Although these introductory chapters are somewhat general, they are important in that Bernard's main argument – namely, that the compositional techniques Carter developed during his neoclassical period were the basis of his later aesthetics – is supported in Link's essay, and illustrated in analyses by the other contributors. Bernard makes clear that complexity in Carter's early works cannot be compared to that of his later works, but rather to other American neoclassicists around the same time period, particularly citing compositions of Roy Harris and Aaron Copland. Hence, by not examining Carter's early music in isolation, Bernard situates the composer within the broader American neoclassical tradition.

Although Bernard's essay is an overview of Carter's early music, he deliberately leaves out the two ballets (Pocahontas, 1938–39, and The Minotaur, 1947) and his choral music, explaining that Carter did not compose in either genre past his neoclassical period. Nonetheless, if the purpose of the essay is to track Carter's compositional process and show how his early music set the grounds for his later works, then it would be fitting to examine those pieces that were the most significant to Carter's compositional development, and which constitute the largest component of his early output. The most curious justification Bernard offers is that his in-depth analysis of a song for a voice and piano, Voyage (1943), makes up for the exclusion of choral music. While his study of the song is detailed – Bernard examines its harmonic, melodic and rhythmic structures, form, and text expression – its inclusion cannot substitute for consideration of the choral works, given that the two genres call for different texture, voice leading, text expression, and orchestration, among other elements. However, owing to the strong collaborative efforts of the book, the omission is made up in Van Dyck-Hemming's essay in which she presents her thorough analysis of The Defense of Corinth (1941) for narrator, chorus, and piano four hands.

Part II consists of six compelling and thought-provoking analytical essays. Individually, each essay is a focused study of particular techniques Carter utilized in later works; collectively, they present a comprehensive picture of Carter's late-modernist aesthetics. Whittall's opening essay, ‘The Search for order: Carter's Symphonia and late-modern thematicism,’ poses three important questions: (1) what is late-modernist thematicism; (2) how does Carter employ it in his late music; and (3) what does it tell us about his late-modernist aesthetic? Citing Boulez, Whittall equates thematicism in late-modernism to ‘any recognizable object’ (p. 60). Through his analysis of the three movements of Symphonia, Whittall identifies Carter's harmonic language as the recognizable object in his late-modern works, particularly his preference for the all-triad hexachord (ATH) [012478], the two all-interval tetrachords (AIT) [0146] and [0137], and the all-interval twelve-tone chords (p. 58). Complementing Whittall's focus on harmony, Boland adds form as another characteristic element of Carter's late-modernist aesthetics (‘Ritornello form in Carter's Boston and ASKO concertos’), Roeder identifies cooperation (‘“The matter of human cooperation” in Carter's mature style’), Mead places emphasis on rhythm (‘Time management: rhythm as a formal determinant in certain works of Elliott Carter’), and Heinemann's discussion centres on Carter's melodies that are composed according to an interval-based melodic practice (‘Composition with intervals: melodic invention in Elliott Carter's recent concertos’). Schmidt's essay (‘“I try to write music that will appeal to an intelligent listener's ear.” On Elliott Carter's string quartets’) discusses the changing aesthetics in Carter's five string quartets. In this set of essays, the authors offer dense, in-depth, intriguing and engaging analyses of selected compositions, and utilize an impressive variety of analytical tools: sketch studies; mathematical formulas; examples and charts; and rhythmic, harmonic, spatial, and formal graphs, including graphing techniques developed by Henry Cowell, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and David Lewin that illustrate the complexities and relations of tempi.

Two important points emerge in these discussions, which contribute to defining Carter's late-modernist aesthetics. One is that the notion of repetition is essential, as ridding music of repetition altogether threatens comprehensibility, continuity, and logical coherence. What becomes essential in Carter's treatment of repetition is not what he repeats, but how he repeats certain elements. For instance, Boland shows how textural repetition – the return of tutti with loud sustained chords, registrally spread in ASKO Concerto (2000) and the pizzicato and staccato texture in the Boston Concerto (2002) – allows Carter to construct a complex and novel formal process within a traditional scheme of ritornello. Hence, the idea of repetition as applied by Carter is decidedly modernist – it defines a ‘recognizable object’ in his music. The second key point is that the constraints Carter imposes in his compositions – rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic – reveal his aesthetic objectives and technical preferences. Whittall observes that the all-triad hexachord, for instance, becomes an identifying mark in his musical language, a source that signifies a freedom that is inherent in his post-tonal compositions. Similarly, Mead notes that by imposing certain rhythmic constraints, such as assigning instruments particular rhythms and speeds, Carter is creating a set of definable contingencies that can provide for him the variety of interlocked choices composers seek in making music. Roeder further elaborates that these streams, consisting of specific rhythms and tempi, combine not only to produce distinctive harmonies, but also to shape the dramatic and expressive trajectories of Carter's music. In Carter's late-modernist compositions, distinctive harmonies tend to consist of AITs, ATHs, and all-interval twelve-tone chords with retrograde-inversional invariance and parallel-inversional invariance, which Heinemann explores in his essay.

Schmidt's essay, commendably, takes a different approach from either Bernard or Schiff,Footnote ⁴ in that she explores how the genre of the string quartet, traditionally associated with explorations, aided Carter's road to ‘self-discovery.’ (189) However, after briefly describing the role politics played in shaping Carter's neoclassical aesthetics, the essay turns into a survey of Carter's five string quartets with an impressive collection of quotes from published and unpublished sources. Schmidt's use of sketches seems at times to be somewhat forced; rarely do her observations provide insights beyond what can be deduced through analyses of the published score. For instance, Schmidt refers to an undated polyrhythmic graph she believes to be unique to the Fourth Quartet, and vaguely describes it as outlining the temporal plan and ‘consisting of several pages taped together with the various layers color coded’ (p. 180) The sketch to which Schmidt is referring is a long-range polyrhythm graph, which shows how rhythmic events guide both the large-scale and local aspects of the quartet, and is by no means unique to this piece; Carter employed long-range polyrhythms and the supporting sketches in much of the music he composed during the 1980s,Footnote ⁵ and one such graph exists in the sketches for the Fifth String Quartet (1995).Footnote ⁶ Rather than explaining the content of the sketch or the meaning of the rhythmic figures and colours used on the pages, which offer significant insight into Carter's compositional process,Footnote ⁷ Schmidt notes only that pages contain holes left by thumb tacks. Although her inclusion of sketch study is appreciated, it is overly speculative, lacking concrete evidence and clear conclusions.

In Part III, Meyer demonstrates the true essence of sketch study with his exemplary analytical techniques (‘Left by the wayside: Elliott Carter's unfinished Sonatina for Oboe and Harpsichord’). Balancing captivating narrative with engaging analysis, Meyer guides us through the unfinished pages of Carter's Sonatina (1947), offering in the process a more precise understanding of the period when Carter parted ways with neoclassicism, and furthering our understanding of the two pieces from which Carter drew the material for the Sonatina – the Woodwind Quintet (1948) and the Sonata for Flute, Oboe, Cello, and Harpsichord (1952). Building on his previous study,Footnote ⁸ Meyer examines the sketches for all three movements, describing them concisely, and utilizes many other available sources – letters, published and unpublished writings, and personal interviews with the composer to clarify certain points – to reveal the composition's significance. In doing so, he shows that the first movement of the Sonatina appears simple on the surface and exhibits the traits of Carter's neoclassical style with its organic flow of ideas, continuous eighth note pulse, jazzily syncopated melodious themes, and linear texture. Yet, a detailed examination shows complexity far beyond the realm of neoclassicism with its theme lacing out in overlapping layers, creating a stratified compositional fabric that prefigures the contrasting textures in the Cello Sonata (1948). Exposing the underlying complexity of the Sonatina, Meyer further enhances Bernard's argument that complexity was a guiding force in Carter's neoclassical compositions.

Complementing Meyer's analysis of the sketches housed at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Soderberg offers intriguing studies of the sketches housed at the Library of Congress. In his essay (‘At the edge of creation: Elliott Carter's sketches in the Library of Congress’) Soderberg observes that 1940s sketches indicate Carter was already thinking about compositional ideas that he would gradually develop over the next six decades: metric modulation, and aggregate formation and the organization of harmonic material that eventually resulted in the Harmony Book. With their superb understanding and familiarity of the sketch material, both Meyer and Soderberg effectively demonstrate how sketches shed light on Carter's personal solutions to the critical, practical and theoretical problems he faced during a particular period.

Part IV takes a hermeneutic approach to analyzing Carter's vocal and instrumental genres inspired by extra-musical sources. Without neglecting an examination of the harmonic and rhythmic language employed, the authors offer insightful interpretation of the texts on which Carter modeled his compositions. By exploring the technical means by which Carter expresses layers of meaning in his vocal pieces, where text is placed at the centre, we can gain insight into his compositional practices and into the process by which he ‘clarifies the text’ (pp. 272–3) Furthermore, since Carter selects poetry that parallels his current compositional concerns, examining the extra-musical in his work is telling of his compositional evolution and process. Noubel opens the set with his analysis of the extra-musical meaning in Carter's orchestral piece Three Illusions (‘Three Illusions … and maybe a fourth: a hermeneutic approach to Carter's recent music’) since each of the movements bears a title and a reference to particular texts. Noubel's interpretation of the first movement can be challenging to accept, considering that Carter changed the title from the original title Gallematius to Micomicón after he completed the piece, hence, his reference to Cervantes's Don Quixote was clearly an after-thought. Nonetheless, Noubel proceeds to analyze the movement in relation to Don Quixote, pointing out certain general similarities between the composer and the writer, such as the ‘broken continuities’ in form, plurality of events, diversity of character types, and multi-layered perspective of time. While all the characteristics are present in the works of both Carter and Cervantes, the qualities described are no different than in the works of James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Jean Cocteau, or Thomas Mann, to name a few, all of which influenced Carter's compositional development decades earlier.

Ravenscroft (‘Layers of meaning: expression and design in Carter's songs’), Capuzzo (‘Text, music, and irony in What Next?’) and Van Dyck-Hemming (‘Words and music in The Defense of Corinth’) explore extra-musical meaning in Carter's vocal pieces. Ravenscroft offers another impressive reading of the songs from cycles, A Mirror on Which to Dwell, In Sleep, In Thunder (1981), Of Challenge and Of Love (1994), and In the Distances of Sleep (2006), incorporating critical analyses of the poems.Footnote ⁹ For instance, her interpretation of ‘Metamorphosis’ illustrates Carter's difficulty of setting the poems of Wallace Stevens to music, due to their ‘quick changes of character, use of irony and employment of unusual words’ (p. 284) Capuzzo, in his study of Carter's opera What Next?, affirms Carter's preference for text that displays irony, an attribute that underlies the opera's libretto. He focuses on the relation of text to music, by scrutinizing the restatements of the [0137] AIT. The four essays reaffirm that Carter's preference for particular harmonic and rhythmic language, form, texture, treatment of text, and his concern with the relation between the one and the many, were all developed in his early period, but manifested differently throughout his eight-decade musical career.

Elliott Carter Studies is an extraordinary volume and a vital contribution to Carter scholarship. Stimulating analyses of over fifty compositions, mostly from Carter's relatively unexplored late period, are supported with outstanding diagrams, examples, charts, graphs, and original sketches. With a variety of approaches and a diversity of topics, it offers fresh perspectives on the evolution of compositional process in Carter's oeuvre. The contributors explore and question historical events and reexamine structures, finding new ways to situate Carter within the American modernist tradition.