George Frederick McKay · section 96 of 111

TOTAL MIXTURE (Vertical)

This has already been discussed as a principle of tonal interest (total mixture non-doubled) but it also needs to be emphasized as a “frontier” potentiality. Webern is also an innovator in the use of this technique, and his orchestral pieces should be studied as illustrations of total mixture, along with those of Boulez and other Twentieth-Century French composers. Mention must also be made of the way in which the American “Jazz” movement is similarly, but rather gropingly, reaching out in this direction by exploiting a great variety of small combinations.