Patricia Carpenter in Commemoration

Abstract

Patricia Carpenter (1923-2000) studied with Arnold Schoenberg for seven years (1942-1949) at UCLA and in private lessons. This experience proved crucial for her later research, teaching, and writing. Carpenter taught music theory at Barnard College and Columbia University from 1961-1989. The publication of the following two articles celebrates the 2004 renaming of the Music Theory Society of New York State's Young Scholar Award after Professor Carpenter. The previously unpublished paper, "Schoenberg's Tonal Body," was the keynote address at the 1988 MTSNYS conference. "The Piano Music of Arnold Schoenberg" is an early article (1961) that appeared in The Piano Quarterly} Those interested in Schoenberg's concepts of Grundgestalt, developing variation, and the Musical Idea, in both the tonal and post-tonal repertoire, will find these articles helpful. Both essays apply these notions concretely to music, including the first movement of Brahms 's Piano Quartet in C minor, op. 60 and Schoenbeig's piano pieces op. 1 1, no. 2 and op. 25. The following remarks are meant to introduce the kind of endeavor we believe Pat Carpenter was doing in these and her other writings.