New compositional paths between Carter's harmony and grammatology

The research project aims to underpin an innovative approach by linking composition to music theory from a path-breaking methodological angle. The originality of this research approach is grounded, indeed, on the definition of a new paradigm in music composition: the researcher will investigate if and how Elliott Carter’s harmony – as it was systematized in his Harmony Book - can be the drive to explore novel composition paths throughout the values of a ‘new humanistic’ prospect while leading it towards a deconstructionist approach. In this regard, Carter’s harmonic praxis plays the original role of a postmodern, grammatological ‘Renaissance atelier’, while it tries to set out creative interconnections which lead both music composition and its theoretical approach at the frontiers of poststructuralism. Powered by the new creative paradigm of cross-domain methodology, the highly multidisciplinary approach to inquire into Carter’s harmony entails pivotal aesthetical implications as well as a new perspective – grounded on deconstructionism and generative-transformational grammar - applied to music composition trajectories. The use of a ‘traditional’ toolkit is now revaluated, notably Carter’s harmonic grammatology as it is systematised in his treatise and solid compositional techniques. Consequently, a performative projection is produced as symbolically imagined by the ‘author’ and as elicited from the composer’s interpretation. The applied methodology sheds then light on the real value (aesthetic asset) of the whole creativity sphere: the creative process rather than the final artistic artefact. The resulting essay, scores, performances and recordings (the cd Gestures released by Ema Vinci Records) form the corpus of material to be disseminated for future research, also focusing on what the concrete use of the research would mean for a nowadays composer.