ABSTRACT
As Talma wrote about The Alcestiad, it was clear that her use of serialism was becoming more and more variable. In her analysis of Wozzeck and her own works, Talma had determined that most serialism could not be heard, much less correctly parsed, by audiences. However, while she later described the music of the later years of her career as “non-serial atonal,” she continued to use serial materials much in the same way she had for The Alcestiad: dividing rows into pentachords and hexachords that could be used to create axial centricity, creating tonal centers within rows, using soundings to vary materials outside of traditional variation forms, and otherwise manipulating materials to her own ends despite their origins in a 12-tone row. This did not keep her from continuing to write serially, however: her 1980 work for cello and piano, “Lament,” is entirely serial. Between late 1967 and 1985, when she composed her last work for full orchestra, Talma was highly productive and possibly at the height of her career in terms of visibility and number of performances. The Alcestiad’s success in Germany had made European performers and institutions more aware of her music, and at home in the United States she was finally getting the kinds of commissions she had long sought.
