Topics covered in the first hundred blogs

Looking for a simple way to locate topics covered in the blogs? As the first hundred blogs cover only four sheets on the Google blogger we have divided the material into four categories: Composers, Music and Psychology, Musical characteristics and Helping Novice composers.

Feedback and suggestions for improving on this format are welcome!

Composers:

Webern – order and flexibility / Webern lectures / Webern, repetition // Messiaen: Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum //

Lili Boulanger “Pie Jesu” // George Crumb “Vox Balaenae” // Takemitsu “Les Yeux Clos II” / Takemitsu Art v. architecture

The mode of limited transposition // R. V. Williams 6^th symphony // Nielsen 5^th symphony (the simplicity of)

George Sollazzi – overview of style // Jeff Lade – overview of style // Satie “Vexations” / Gnossienne 1 // Frank Bridge Sea Idyll,

Lament and Winter Pastoral / Frank Bridge Piano sonata analysis // British music of the 20^th century (full PDF) / Chopin:  So you want to write ‘beautiful’ music

Beethoven sonata in D (Architecture v. form) // Mozart rhythmic design (piano sonata K.309) / Rhythmic design in Mozart's piano sonata VII K.309 and Beethoven's Op.110

Links to G+ composer’s works (open invitation to add works) / 6 works and links (examples of G+ composer works)

Music and Psychology:

Creativity and aging / Be serious for a minute / Time Travel and music / Laughter / Repetition and brain worm

Music and the incubation period / Creating and experiencing emotional responses / Musical cues

Chunking and musical attention / further questions on attention / Motivation and musical experience /

What motivates you to write music? / Does your music target the right audience? / Deciphering musical codes / Music for meditation?

Why do we derive pleasure from listening? / Why do we listen to difficult music? / Why write difficult music?

Is human ‘messiness’ better than a synthetic performance? / What is wrong with synthetic music performances?

Musical characteristics:

Alternative approaches to rhythm 1 and 2 / Complex rhythms / Verbs of physical action / Relationships (pitch and rhythm)

The curious case of cyclic symmetric octaves / Nurtan Esmen thoughts on polytonality / Climax / Bitonality and Polytonality /

Symmetric scales (link to PDF) / Using 01 and 02 scales / Processes of transformation / Silence is dead…long live silence /

Harmony, sound colour and Beyond / A rose by any other name / Zen and the composer’s voice / Japanese aesthetics 2 / A

sampler of Japanese music / Jack of all trades? The synthesiser / The contest between live and synthetic sounds /

10 popular songs that deserve study / Bells and repetition / Minimal music past and present / The Tao of musical intentions /

Helping novice composers:

First steps in orchestration / Investigation into folksong (full PDF) / Composers tool box: Composition fault finder / The Zen of

Musical Reasoning / Walkthrough “Zen of Musical Reasoning” / Composer’s toolbox – size matters / Composer’s toolbox – How   to find your muse /

Deciphering musical codes / to compose is to be 3 times human / Where to go when I have run out of ideas 1 and 2 /

Parallel 5ths / Invitation, make a recording of this graphic score / the composer’s perspective /

Composer’s toolbox graphic scores / selecting a brilliant title / word and text / ostinato / drones / dynamics

Inspiration / Preparing to write for String Quartet - 10 suggestions / Esmen an immortal love song, incorporating folk music into

a more complicated structure / An investigation of folksongs

Relating pitch and rhythm - P.M. Davies

Relationships require a great deal of work to function well, and this is equally true for music as life in general. Recently our blog discussed the "pure work" notion where every component contributes to the potency of the final composition, a perfect marriage. This blog considers some relationships between pitch and rhythm and how the relationship changed in the 20^th century.

Ascribing prescribed rhythmic values to a row of pitches is a process of association, they are two separate designs fused into a statement that we regard or perceive as one. Extending the process to include dynamics, timbre or positions in space creates an exotic world of possibilities, these possibilities are so wide that their relationships require a blog all of their own, here we shall restrict ourselves (for the time being) to those arising from melody and rhythm.

While working on Peter Maxwell Davies's "Ave Maris Stella" as a student the first features that became a point of focus for me were the triadic characteristics of the melody, equal phrasing and a rhythmic design associated with the melody.

The opening line played by the cello as pitch classes (C = 0) forms

1, 5, 0, 4, 11, 8, 9, 6, 2

and the associated rhythmic values

1,6, 2, 7, 3, 8, 4, 9, 2

Rhythmic and melodic associations were not new to "Ave Maris Stella", one can hear lengthy melodic lines being conjoined with prescribed rhythms in early works like the organ fantasia “O Magnum Mysterium”. With "Ave Maris Stella" the rhythmic design is varied through a further association of the pitch material with an organizing system arising from a 9x9 magic square. In the first instance one could take these events as rotations and transpositions of the opening line. As a student I was interested by the results that arose from these associations, but I was equally concerned by the question of why such a pairing was made. As a student I found it sufficient to note that the design was numerically simple yet elegant, later I appreciated that such a design was essential to aid clarity when the treatment, particularly contrapuntal treatment became complex.

The rhythms of a magic square worked in wool (Gill Hughes c.1995)

The use of the square when applied to rhythm offers the possibilities of equal and balanced phrasing, those who are familiar with magic squares will understand their feature of consistency in various methods of progressing through the grid. A quick word of warning to those reaching out for their tablets to Google the topic, the grids can throw up a large number of relationships which are interesting from the composer's point of view but the results can also be banal, of course that's true of number based systems in general. For Davies the equal lengths are particularly useful in bring his musical argument to a climax point where lines of different rhythmic durations conclude at the end of a movement. Of course this is possible without the use of a magic square, processes of augmentation and diminution to articulate the form of the work occur in several styles, periods and locations around the world.

When the music is purely linear and contrapuntal how does the composer anticipate the vertical harmony? If only one pitch was used this could make an interesting textural exercise, similarly with a small number of pitches, say the minor third stack, C, E flat, G flat, A. I have used variations on this approach in my own fractal art cycle, and if so inclined one can judge the worth of the exercise at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3_GF-zDIlQ&list=PLKjdfGS1edVGFFZKs56s-hLywsr5YMJ2q

We could extend the discussion to familiar constructs like the pentatonic or whole tone scale; perhaps readers would like to explore the possibilities for restricted harmony in the context of association with a magic square. The greater the number of pitches the more care is required to prevent the music becoming harmonically “messy”. In "Ave Maris Stella" the pitch motion and interval structure is very distinct, it (once again) demonstrates a balancing act between simplicity and complexity.

The only movement of Ave Maris Stella on You Tube is the sixth,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMpAex0-a4Y

primarily a marimba solo, with the later addition of drones and harmonics to build a climax into the seventh movement. Where the square dominates the order and structure of the other movements the construction here is less rigorous. This is not to say that the influence of the square cannot be heard, but the association with the rhythmic values give way to cascades of repeated and accelerating values to achieve a propulsion towards the seventh section. One can relate the phrases used to create the momentum to the square, but in keeping with characteristic writing for the marimba we have phrases repeated in different octaves, octave leaps on the same pitch, wedges of notes expanding outwards, and a number of diatonic runs, even at one point a whole tone collection. Listen out for the C' E F A B D figure which repeats several times in different guises, this is a reordered subset of the opening line.

The whole section has a sense of improvisation and freedom as the various methods of repetition create a sense of musical space.  "Ave Maris Stella" includes freely played figures, in the first movement where the cello plays through fixed values the alto flute plays decorative material (pitches drawn from the square), these form collections of events rhythmically showing accelerando and rit. decorations to the main theme.

One may question whether a greater degree of chance occurs in the vertical harmony when adhering to the strict rhythm and pitch formula of the square. This is particularly so when lengthy lines of triplets, quintuplets etc. are used as a counterpoint to the main line in works like "Stone Litany". In that work there are abundant harmonic references to the minor third, as in the final section with wineglasses tuned to C, E flat and played continuously. Careful listening reveals a number of devices that emphasize the association of the melody with tonal references in "Stone Litany". It seems that the composer is ensuring that the complex array of chords resulting from the counterpoint are underpinned by a foundation that is noticeable through repetition and texture.

The rhythmic character of music in the tonal period drew regularly on dance which originates with the action of human movement. Webern in his lectures (discussed in earlier blogs) makes a great play of the natural evolution of the 12 note system, yet he makes little reference to rhythmic matters in his lectures. Schoenberg however does focus on the rhythms of earlier dance forms, a characteristic which met with criticism from Boulez. How does Schoenberg ‘square the circle’ of relating dance music which depends on tonality and harmonic rhythm to 12 note music? He makes use of a number of associations with the earlier dance forms, accents, anacrusis, phrasing (12 note set per bar) etc. Of course thinking of the 12 note set as producing harmonic rhythm produces very different results in Schoenberg’s work to that of Baroque music. Nurtan and I have been discussing the question of the function of harmonic rhythm outside the tonal system, he condenses the argument to “it requires tweeking”. I agree.

Dance rhythms can be used as a section of parody for dramatic purposes or act as a psychological frame, often used to create nostalgic responses or imply historic associations. Such thinking is not new, all of these elements are present in "Der Rosenkavalier". If you want to explore the associations discussed above why not listen to Thomas Ades Three Mazurkas?  

Three Mazurkas for Piano, Op, 27:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gusGqwdLKcY

This blog briefly set out to consider relationships in music, whether they are between musical parameters or stylistic pairings.  This blog has restricted itself to the constraints imposed by Western music notation where we have become accustomed to certain types of association. Will contemporary music return to physical movements as the model for rhythm? Where it does, as in the music of Philip Glass and John Adams, the tonic and gravity of tonality is restored. In Peter Maxwell Davies's case tonality became an issue for his critics, it may be that his insights suggested that dance, a powerful influence on his work, requires it, and the price of its use worth paying.

In our next blogs we will explore further the aspect of flexibility; at the present time Nurtan is exploring mathematical systems of generating randomness and the musical quality of the results while I am placing my focus on the various degrees of freedom found in electronic music of the 50’s and 60’s.

Order and flexibility, the transition from serialism to total serialism

Webern’s lectures on 12 note music make a number of bold statements, for the purpose of this blog the following are selected to provide a route into the discussion regarding order and flexibility.

·         12 note music is an inevitable outcome of progressive developments in Western music.

·         12 note music is a method that creates comprehensibility through repetition and order.

·         Comprehensibility requires the control of foreground and background material (gestalt).

·         The overtone series is the basis for the progression to new music; it generates consonance and dissonance, cadences, and is responsible for the eventual development of key change, the weakening of the tonic which results in the liberation of music from the tonic.

Webern’s overriding concern (as it seems to me) is order, an order where gravity and the gluing together of material to create a coherent and strong structure is the substance of art. We have a century of developments after Webern to see how this argument plays out, and in order to take a constructive view on flexibility in music it is necessary to touch on the next musical stage, serial composition up to the period around the 1950’s. While I have inbuilt reservations about composers discussing their own works it is fascinating to read through Boulez’s (changing) views regarding order and structure, and his essays aid our understanding of the different ways of perceiving “flexibility”, so it is to his texts and interviews that this blog turns.

Before engaging with Boulez’s own music it is worth noting his views on Webern in his early essays. The first view concerns Webern’s “technical perfection” and “formal purity”, which he senses acts as a barrier to wider public recognition. This is a concern that Webern addresses in his own lectures. This problem of accessibility in Boulez’s view arises as a result of the newness or “novelty” of the language. He argues that the means of expression makes Webern a significant figure in the development of music.  It is quite clear that Boulez identifies with Webern in this matter: 

I consider that methodical investigation and the search for a coherent system are an indispensable basis for all creation, more so than the actual attainments which are the source or the consequence of this investigation. I hope it will not he said that such a step leads to aridity, that it kills all fantasy and since it is difficult to avoid the fateful word all inspiration.

Boulez also writes about the severance of new music from the earlier tonal period, citing Stravinsky for rhythm and the 12 note composers for their weakening of tonality. He considers this severance as a historical necessity arising out of serialism, and as such continues the processes outlined in the Webern essays.

When writing about his own music Boulez makes use of a number of terms that are of different degrees of intuitive comprehensibility, the following link to Peter Tannenbaum’s work on Boulez has as an appendix a list of some 80+ of these terms which the reader might find of some interest.

file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/Boulez%202.pdf

Despite the necessity to adapt to the terms which Boulez uses the main arguments are relatively straightforward when we filter out the principal notion of control and freedom.

Like Webern Boulez holds to the idea of comprehensibility being rooted in every part of the composition being necessary; the play between foreground/background materials for Webern is present in Boulez’s idea of a purity in the final composition. The idea that components of a composition have to have a function which relates to the composing intention is not new, what is different after Webern is the model for selecting the composing material, and that this has a prescribed system of organisation.

Boulez discovered that the use of precise ordering effects the number of choices available, where this seen as an advantage by some composers it raised questions in Boulez’s mind. Boulez recognises that complete control necessitates a total overview of the work before the process of realisation begins.  He accepts that in attempting to create the situation in which every musical unit has a necessary function an element of surprise is lost. This surprise is primarily the concern of the composer, though one has to assume that Boulez also feels that is an issue for the listener. One may think that there are parallels with the planning in Beethoven’s notebooks, but the essential difference comes down to the difference between prescriptive and flexible variation of material.

Like Webern Boulez considers processes of evolution, but in his case this evolution arises from the composer’s engagement with the music itself. By employing the techniques of composition one learns to identify mannerisms, regularities and characteristics which in their turn enrich the engagement. While there is little that is new in this, it once again echoes Webern’s lectures regarding the choice of material:

Linking up with my last remarks, I should like to say something today about the purely practical application of the new technique. But first I'll answer a question put to me by one of you: "How is free invention possible when one has to remember to adhere to the order of the series for the work?"

Here is Boulez in conversation with UE:

I think that if you have an interesting and productive relationship with the material, the material certainly will compose for you. But you must know how it is composed. And I find it wonderful to think of it such that the material in fact composes with you, and you compose with the material.

http://www.universaledition.com/Pierre-Boulez/composers-and-works/composer/88/aboutmusic

Boulez adopts the stance that there is a difference between the exploration of a plan and its realisation, the logic of the music is not music in itself. The composer is seen as a guide who offers a “pathway” through possibilities by selective, informed choice.  If a situation arises where some element of the work is unplanned (an unexpected encounter on the pathway) then it is outside the control of the composer and therefore valueless in that it does not contribute to the whole. One can immediately recognise the gap between e.g. Boulez and Crumb where quotation in the latter composer’s work is an essential factor, and does not arise specifically from the content of the vessel that contains the quotation.

Boulez explores the notion of a ground plan and its limitations, he writes about “chance by automatism”. He considers the construction of music via number systems and pitch permutations and decides that if a composer fails to select his own “pathway” or impose his will on the material then one is failing to compose, instead the result is a generation of kaleidoscopic, potentially meaningless, patterns. He also considers other composers alternatives to the method of sound selection by less rigorous approaches, “Chance by inadvertence”. Here he includes graphic notation and randomized selection (coin tossing, dice etc.), in fact any music that minimizes the composer’s control. Boulez considers that the outcome of these methods fall on the shoulders of the performer rather than the composer. There are of course many methods of ensuring a partnership between composer and performer, but his concern is the “purity” of the work produced.

Though this is a very brief outline of a stage in Boulez’s thinking about structure, it serves to illustrate the situation that brings this composer to consider alternatives to complete control, alternatives that were of interest to his one-time friend John Cage, mobile form.

The recurrent theme of writings by Boulez and about Boulez is intellectual rigour, and his criticisms of less-rigorous or non-rigorous approaches could be read as weakness in the structure or musical argument of that music. This leads to the question, does flexibility as in the inclusion of quotation in music as in the music of Ives and later George Crumb signify that is a weaker composition?  

For those who wish to read more about the thought processes that lead to Boulez’s aesthetics I would strongly recommend the following link to a thesis by David Walters:

file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/12%20note%20blog/Boulez%20aesthetics.pdf

This blog is a brief summary of the lectures given by Webern in 1933. There were many times while selecting Webern’s main points that I wanted to add views of my own, but that will come in a later blog. It is intended as a starting point for wider discussion.

The full Webern lecture text is available as a PDF on the web in a translation by Leo Black, and includes comments and notes of particular interest.

http://archive.org/stream/antonwebernthepa007300mbp/antonwebernthepa007300mbp_djvu.txt

While these extracts may help formulate opinions regarding the development of Webern’s thinking the full text is indispensable and should be read as a whole.

It is our hope that this introduction to 12 note music will suggest to the reader a number of questions regarding a pivotal point where the advantages of a flexible musical system gave way to a more rigorous style. We certainly hope to encourage such questions in the next blog. Two questions have been placed on the graphic which provides an overview of the following blog.

In the lectures of 1933 Webern sets out to help the layman understand the purpose and functions of 12 note music and he states that it is necessary, indeed imperative that audiences recognise that there are “rules of order”. In these early stages Webern engages in a philosophical discussion about sources of order which he describes as the “craftsman’s method” without which nothing “genuine” can be achieved. He also refers to the idea of certain principles within music as natural and as such have to follow predetermined laws. Later in the lectures he amplifies the idea:

Art is a product of nature in general, in the particular form of human nature. What perspectives this opens! It's a process entirely free from arbitrariness.

His argument is that 12 note music is a result of a lengthy progression starting with chant. He sees that in this progression there are many examples of new music, all that is required for this term to be applied is that it provides an original encounter with sounds “never said before”. He also uses the term “obsolete” which implies that not all music survives to be thought of as art. Webern then turns to what he considers the natural feature of music, the overtone series, and ascribes the qualities arising from the series to the development of Western music, which he believed showed that it had been “assigned a special path”.

Webern expresses the view that wrong evaluations can be made for a number of reasons when appreciating great art. He is preparing his audience to accept that 12 note music has its place in the great scheme of musical history. In order to empathise with the new music particular attention has to be given to the differences between surface and in depth listening. This music and its appreciation has to engage the listener to empathise with the “laws of musical form-building”. Webern emphasises that such responses are not immediate:

Where something special has been expressed, centuries always had to pass until people caught up with it.

The changes inherent in the “something special” i.e. the 12 note system are recognised as being challenging, he comments on the view held by those who prefer the older, less dissonant music:

…we should be clear that what is attacked today is just as much a gift of nature as what was practised earlier.

One of the recurrent themes of the lectures is intelligibility or comprehensibility. Like the artist he considers this needs to be seen/heard as a complete view, where outlines are clear. His argument draws on the idea that such a view has to consist of foreground and background material; it can be taken a single line is insufficient for a musical presentation, it lacks “room” for the types of expression that have developed in the Baroque and Classical periods.

Surely it's remarkable for one person to sing and another to "add something!" So there's a hierarchy: main point and subsidiary point something quite different from true polyphony.

The lectures give us an insight into Webern’s emotional involvement in this argument regarding the development of music:

The first person who had this idea perhaps he passed sleepless nights he knew: it must be so!

Much is made of repetition in these lectures, he understands that it is the basis of formal construction and musical form and cannot be taken away from the development of the 12 note system:

…the basis of our twelve-note composition is that a certain sequence of the twelve notes constantly returns: the principle of repetition!

Naturally repetition leads to the use of variation, relating material to the first statement. He cites Beethoven and his use of motives:

By "motives" we mean, like Schoenberg, the smallest independent particle in a musical idea. But how do we recognise one? Because it's repeated!

Webern next deals with the development of tonality towards the chromatic scale and the weakening of the tonic. He uses the term “ambiguous” for certain chords, this term may indicate his (and Schoenberg’s view) of a weakness in the use of the tonal system in the late 19^th century. The linear progression of music is not over stretched by the use of more complex chords, but nevertheless requires renewal, and that renewal must be based on the music of the past.

By repeating the theme in various combinations, by introducing something that is the theme unfolding not only horizontally but also vertically that's to say a reappearance of polyphonic thinking. And here the classical composers often arrived at forms that recall those of the "old Netherlander" in their canon and imitation.

These thoughts lead Webern to Bach and the Art of Fugue, a work held in high esteem and one which he transcribes in part

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=webern+art+of+fugue+transcription&view=detail&mid=BB7357CADBF3BC36E04DBB7357CADBF3BC36E04D&FORM=VIRE

Another strand of Webern’s argument concerns the tonic or keynote which provides the musical structures with their designs and unity. He demonstrates that over time this became “unnecessary” and the gradual erosion of the potency of the tonic leads us to the stage where the ear became used to its absence, even at the end of a work as the work in itself satisfied the audience. This takes us into the realm of the logic of 12 note construction

we felt the need to prevent one note being over-emphasised, to prevent any note's " taking advantage " of being repeated.

However this internal lack of repetition was balanced by the adhesive quality of the row in the composition as a whole:

…unity is completely ensured by the underlying series. It's always the same; only its manifestations are different.

These manifestations are now well known to us, O,I,R,RI, the 48 variants.

As we have seen Webern argues that the tonic, once the most powerful force, has given way to a music without a key. There is an acknowledgement that the tonal system shaped the structures of pre-12 note music and this leads him to examine how the 12 note system can create comprehensibility without a tonic.

Canonic, contrapuntal forms, thematic development can produce many relationships between things, and that's where we must look for the further element in twelve-note composition, by looking back at its predecessors.

The later lectures work through the history of musical styles leading to the 12 note system. Lecture 6 opens with a bold statement

Before we knew about the law we were obeying it. ….Twelve-note composition is not a "substitute for tonality" but leads much further.

Having made such a statement Webern returns to explain that his connection with the listener hasn’t entirely been forgotten. He understands that the untrained ear may not be able to “always” follow the row, adding that

Something will stick in even the naivest soul.

He also shares with his audience his approaches towards formal construction:

one aims at as many different intervals as possible, or certain correspondences within the row symmetry, analogy, groupings (thrice four or four times three notes, for instance).

...Schoenberg's, Berg's and my rows mostly came into existence when an idea occurred to us, linked with an intuitive vision of the work as a whole; the idea was then subjected to careful thought, just as one can follow the gradual emergence of themes in Beethoven's sketchbooks. Inspiration, if you like.

Inspiration will become a key concept in the following blogs where flexibility and rigour are examined in the light of the composer's comments in these lectures.

Creativity and aging.


In this blog I want to make reference to the first movement of Ralph Vaughan William’s 9th symphony, his last symphony, but before considering some features of the music I would like to reflect on how age plays a part in the creative process, and how it may help us understand RVW’s symphony and other 9ths.

Most of us associate one’s later years with decline. Our newspapers are filled with the notion that the growing numbers of over 60’s, over 80’s and over 100’s are an increasing burden on our financial resources and services. Younger members of society are encouraged to take out pensions to guarantee their well-being into extreme old age.


It may surprise some readers to know that this view of decline is not universally held and there are challenges to the notion that the reduction of ability and physical well-being is an inevitable result of age, rather they are a result of treatable disorders. In the simplest terms the difficulties we associate with age can be regarded as a challenge to physicians to find remedies. In terms of creativity we have the potential to keep developing our ideas into extreme old age.

We recognize that many musicians retain their powers of expression and interpretation into late life, many conductors continue their careers well past their 80th year, (Karl Boehm, 86; Adrian Boult, 100; Arturo Toscanini, 90; Leopold Stokowski, 96, Boulez 90) and a glance at the works produced by Elliott Carter after his hundredth birthday shows that artistic enquiry remained a significant factor to the end of his life.

We must move away from the belief that such people as mentioned above are the exceptions to the rule, many artistic fields have similar examples, and I understand that for folk-art the larger proportion of craftsmen/women are in the later stages of life.

Psychologists have identified an inner compulsion towards creative work throughout our life,
but also recognize that this compulsion changes in the way it manifests itself.

There are recognizable periods or phases in the approaches we take to creativity in our“second-half” of life. Psychologists have also stated that people have a greater sensitivity to their inner-world and creative imagination in later life.

A link may help those who wish to look at greater detail into the phases of creativity in ageing,
it is not an overlong PDF:

http://www.peopleandstories.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/RESEARCH-ON-CREATIVITY-AND-AGING.pdf

Cohen (the author of the above PDF) identifies the following stages:


“Midlife Revaluation”: confronting one’s own mortality.

“Liberation” phase: freedom from paid work and the time available to follow own interests.

“Summing-up” phase. Looking at the events of one’s past and creating a narrative from these
events.

“Encore” phase: reaffirming beliefs and opinions and exploring variations on those opinions.


Earlier reference was made to 9th symphonies, there are of course late symphonies which are 10ths, Maxwell Davies’s is a recent example. Written during his treatment for leukaemia (approaching his 80th birthday) it revisits interests developed in his time as a student in Rome and his awareness of the architect Borromini. The architecture of music is a key consideration for Davies, this short quote gives a flavor of his thinking:

One has to try as a composer, I feel, to improve the quality of listening by putting pointers in one's work to help people to hear in a way, not so much as they did, but which will make clear to them the new architecture which is crystallising out of the music of the early part of this century.

I mention these points as they show aspects of the phases referred to earlier. Whether 9th, 10th or 32nd (as in the case of Brian), it is the maturity reached through working a set of large scale composition that interests me here.


RVW’s 9th symphony (in E minor) was composed during the period 1956 to 1957. Vaughan Williams died on the 26 August, the day on which the symphony was due to be recorded by Sir Adrian Boult, (there is a 30" recording of Boult sharing the news with the orchestra on the day).

Vaughan Williams's original idea was to create a programmatic symphony based on Thomas Hardy’s book Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Knowledge of the intention may help illustrate the thinking e.g. behind the contrast of the “Stonehenge” melody for saxophone and the “drummer boy” theme in the second movement. It is known that Holst and Williams held Hardy in high regard, our blogs have touched on Holst’s “Egdon Heath” and its contrasts of harmonic language.

Once again we are in the area of the “Encore” phase, there are reference to earlier, indeed very early works, while the opening chords of the 9th show a striking resemblance to the close of the final movement of his 6th. We may also consider that RVW is revisiting discussions with his friend Holst (who by this time had been dead for over 20 years), compare the similarities between the harmonic language of the opening of “Egdon Heath” and the opening melody of RVW’s 9th symphony.

The first movement, originally titled “Wessex Prelude” has a beautiful curve as its opening 4 bar phrase, rising from E to D flat. If we examine this as a set we have a 0,1,3,4,7,8 collection. If we compare the flute figure at rehearsal mark 3 we have a closely related theme in outline (the essential difference being the F natural to A flat upper notes, this interval is to become significant later in the movement) yet both set structures are identical, while the following violin melody shown forms a subset of 01368.

The saxophone parallel chord texture restates the collection 0,1,3,4,7,8. The remaining material is always traceable to the first set, even with the rhythmically distinct figure at 5, preceded by the cantabile clarinet figure at 4, one of the most beautiful transitions in RVW’s works.

The manuscript gives an overview of the two outer movements (the first in black ink, the fourth movement in blue). Placed in the center is what I consider to be the source of the material for both movements. If we consider these as a single joint movement we have a close relation to Sibelius 7, and for this reason I considered it worth joining the two movements as a single unit in a 2 piano arrangement, available on You Tube:

https://youtu.be/DHYfCUVmVJM


All of this only touches on the mastery of developing thematic characters from the original “curve”, but it does show RVW’s firm grasp on the technique of musical development at the end of his life, while revisiting ideas from his past, an endorsement of the “encore” and other phases of life.

Be serious for a minute.

Some months ago I bought a copy of 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life by Roger– Pol Droit.  The experiments are challenges to our way of acting and thinking about matters that we take for granted, as in “Try on Clothes”. Some might seem familiar to John Cage and Zen enthusiasts: “Encounter pure chance”, “Listen to short wave radio” or “Be aware of yourself thinking”. "Be serious for a minute" takes a similar approach but its intention is to explore some musical considerations.

Be serious for a minute

Duration 1 minute

Props None

Effects critical

If you have made the effort to be serious you may have encountered some problems, perhaps one of these:

What am I going to be serious about? How can I be serious, I am in no mood to be serious? There are far too many pressing problems for me to worry about making an effort to be serious.

Given that our attention to everyday life is forever mercurial exercises like this are quickly put to one side and we move on to the real concerns of the day.

Having imitated Droit’s style let us move back to familiar blogging territory. Many years ago in my early teens I listened to Tchaikovsky’s final symphony and asked myself “how does he sustain a particular mood for such a long time”? At that time I held the view that one’s artistic work reflected the emotional state of the creator as he/she worked, I imagine it is a view that has been shared by a number of people.

So what is “serious” and why do we regard it as a value so highly? Two useful definitions can be applied:

That which is demanding and requires careful consideration and application.

Acting or speaking in earnest, rather than in a humorous or light-hearted way.

The first definition seems to be perfectly suited to musicians. Without stating the obvious we all agree that there are many demands on performers, composers and listeners when approaching a great work of art, several of these demands have been considered in our blogs, most recently that of attention which is particularly problematic for the physically less active listener.

Art music (the opposite face of folk music) makes great play of the application to detail, organic growth requires step by step logic and serious listeners delight in how subtle the alterations can be in developing musical material.

From Classical times onwards the separation of the composer’s music from his hands to those of the performer placed new demands on the detail required in a score to show musical intentions. In our own time this problem has resulted in many scores being prefaced by pages of instructions as each composer explores a range of new approaches to texture and rhythm in particular. In the light of these comments are we to consider the work of La Monte Young as wholly unserious in the "Compositions 1960"? Here are the instructions for #4

Instructions:

Announce to the audience that the lights will be turned off for the duration of the composition (it may be any length) and tell them when the composition will begin and end.

Turn off all the lights for the announced duration.

When the lights are turned back on, the announcer may tell the audience that their activities have been the composition, although this is not at all necessary.

The arguments for the serious side of such compositions are well known, but at the time the humorous presentation here (as with a number of Cage’s writings) must have created mixed feelings amongst critics and audiences.

The second definition is particularly important to the music of the 20^th century. Being serious is a matter of constraint. Musicians love working with restrictions, they can offer types of scaffolding that enable rapid progress. Educationalists also like scaffolding in early stages of learning, but are wary of their being over used and retained for too long. The development of the 12 note system may have seemed like a blessing to scaffolders, but that view is fraught with danger. The system is not a form nor is it a formula for expression, yet the view held by many that the two are inseparable, with the emotional content expressionistic. The association of 12 note music with expressionism reads like an inescapable chain of historical events; brutality, industrial growth, inner conflict and neurosis all have their part to play in the voice of the serial style, and these are among the dominant concerns of the first half of the century.  

If we listen to the music of Webern we are presented with some interesting considerations regarding seriousness. He is methodical, and his music is associated with structure, so much so that his work was adopted as the source of educational study for serialism by many, if not most, universities. Yet Webern’s music is not expressionistic, it is abstract in the sense that it draws on design, canons and palindromes in particular, these arising from his studies of medieval music. Here we have beauty in form. The PDF “Anton Webern and the influence of Heinrich Isaac” makes interesting reading for the above named sources of Webern’s composing style, a development from his earlier involvement with Romantic ideals.

http://www.bestmusicteacher.com/download/webern_isaac.pdf

The last accusation one could make against Webern is not being earnest (2^nd definition), but it is one that was often made against the British composer Malcolm Arnold. Arnold had the gift of presenting humour in music, and his film music makes great use of parody and instrumental colour as in the “Belles of St. Trinians”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF7MiZ5UxDg

as Kenny Everett used to say, “all done in the best possible taste”.

It seems to have been a problem for many that Arnold could write light-hearted music and symphonies. There is an implication that one cannot be humorous and intellectually rigorous. This of course was not a problem for the first Viennese school. Not only are Arnold’s symphonies logical, sometimes employing 12 note music techniques, they can be intensely dark and serious. The first symphony is remarkable in contrasting the two sides of his personality, particularly in the first movement which is driven by the aggressive opening rhythm. The movement presents a kaleidoscope of emotional changes bordering on the psychotic. The music has many features in common with Nielsen’s 4^th and 5^th symphonies both in design and quality. Interrupting the darker side of the music there is a violin and harp episode in the fourth minute which is akin to an offstage comment in the theatre, it has a cheeky character, but this evolves from the pianissimo level and light scoring to a full attack on the ear. The symphony is played in full here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdElsJMZ4NI

To conclude, for the composers who read these blogs I shall paste some further instructions in the style of Roger-Pol Droit.

Be serious for two minutes

Duration: 2 minutes

Props: An instrument/voice

Effect: instructive

Improvise two contrasting pieces, the first serious the second humorous.

Having followed the exercise determine which was easier. Try again and sustain the mood for longer.

Reconsider.

Time travel and music.

I listened the other day to a podcast from the BBC series “All in the Mind”, it explored the idea of mental time travel and how we revisit our past and anticipate the future. It explored the idea of the uniqueness of this activity to mankind. Having made progress with the research into primates being able to sign and respond to a limited vocabulary it seems that we desire something more complex than the use of language to demonstrate our uniqueness on this planet.

As we have said before music is an art form played out in real time, performers, composers and listeners are all deeply involved with the passing of time and perhaps less obviously involved in the anticipation of what is to come. We must also be aware of the instant at which we perceive the unfolding drama of music, I use ‘perceive’ as the physical processes of response may mean that we are constrained from responding in the present, but experience delays, more of that later.

Let us begin with familiar examples of visiting the past. We have built up a hugely profitable recording industry on reworking performances of Baroque and earlier music. There is considerable research to demonstrate why certain choices are made but in all truth reconstruction of music is as much an act of imagination or mental time travel as it is science. Many unfinished scores have been completed, some, like the final fugue from the Art of Fugue have several possible workings while others may require less speculation, for example the orchestration of piano scores. Reconstruction from sketches is a task requiring considerable empathy with the composer's technique, and the musical world owes a debt to the work done with Elgar and Maher in particular. This is not time travel as in Star Trek but the deep insights gathered through diligence provides opportunities for pleasure and discussion.

Listeners attempt reconstructions when they recall previously heard music. I understand that I am not alone in having lucid recollections of music, rather like an MP3 player being switched on in my head. On a lesser level I can conjure up a melody and play it at the keyboard adding appropriate (and sometimes more exotic harmonies). All of this is revisiting past material which forms a template from which I can draw at will. Some Jazz players enjoy blending melodies into an improvisation when the harmonic formula is shared, it can be amusing or even striking if well prepared. This idea of a matrix of events like a cutlery drawer from which you draw the appropriate tool for the job has an important role to play in the process of anticipation.

Anticipation is an everyday event in our lives, we are sometimes surprised by the fact that our bodies have taken over the task of picking up the correct screwdriver for those tiny computer parts before we realise that they are needed. In terms of artistic matters we may anticipate how a novel or film will evolve, it is often the essential part of the entertainment provided. We may anticipate the outcomes of discussions on political or philosophical matters, though we are learning that anticipating the results from a large community can be unreliable.

For music the process of anticipation is essential as it often requires rapid and skilled responses, whether accompanying students in an examination, performing in an ensemble, improvising in a group, or controlling a mixing desk. Slow responses can terminate and ruin any of these, and experience helps provide rapid responses that make the errors pass by with little or less attention.

Musicians like actors often picture themselves performing in a hall or theatre with audiences before the event, for many it is a way to overcome the sense of fear before the presentation. The usual model for anticipation is stimulus / reaction, repeated as a chain of events for the duration of an activity. In “guided imagery” there is no real stimulus though we may use our memory to simulate the sense of expectation. In the sporting field much is made of visualization, but to think of the action as visual is misleading, the kinesthetic and auditory functions are equally important. I recall a visit to Cardiff Arms Park where I was shown how their amplification system was used on entering the playing area to get players used to the roar of the crowd and increase the adrenalin before play. Those who are unfamiliar with the technique may start with this short but intriguing document:

http://www.humankinetics.com/acucustom/sitename/Documents/DocumentItem/10855.pdf

The quantity of material as stimulation in music can be large. Consider the information in sight reading a single line from a vocal score at a moderate pace. Now reflect on the idea of playing the Ives piano sonata (Concord) at sight which is on a par with climbing Everest. Remember that if the stimulus has to be processed (reaction) there will always be a time lag. This applies to reading a text, and research has been done to determine the time lag in the process of the working of the eye, processing the text, recognition of patterns and conventions, e.g. speech marks, use of italics, rhyme in poetry, bold lettering and so on. The lag is increased if the text has to be read out to an audience. Many of us are aware of the power point curse of people reading from the slides, and our gratitude when there is an experienced user who draws on experience and uses the slides as simple markers. In order to perform a reading, whether it is text or music, we cannot let the chain of physical events slow us down, so we draw on the matrix of experience. Having played many Bach piano pieces it is easier for me to sight read a new Bach piece than it is to play a Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue, and that may be easier than playing a Bax sonata, and that again easier than a piano sonata by Nurtan Esmen even though the technical demands may not be dissimilar. Put another way we can make predictions even though we may not know the exact context.

In our experience we may know for example the reactions demanded of us in playing a scale and gather that requirement as a chunk of information rather than read one pitch after another. At the level we are discussing the structure of the performance is prepared before notes are played. Psychologists recognise that we are creating structures from birth to develop anticipation.

The notion of training now takes on a different emphasis, repetition isn't the means to accelerating our responses, rather it is the development of the experiences which form the matrix that permit rapid reactions. For the improviser anticipation is the filtering of possibilities from the schemes in his / her experience, the main material is already in place.

To return to teaching, one could describe in words how to play an instrument, but this sort of instruction does nothing for the novice performer. There are physical interventions, demonstrations and many repetitions of basic movements. No one really knows how these skills are incorporated to produce a performer, how the individual actions move onto the level where we no longer pay attention to the control of single events, we abandon our concern for the basic structures, we have to, as dwelling on any part of it interferes with the process.

This has its part to play in the listening process, and, to return to the previous blog on musical climax, a significant part to play in the engagement we have on an emotional level with the music we enjoy.

For most of us the subject of conceptual involvement in the past and future is understood at an intuitive level, but when applied to music making we often take the miraculous, like time travel, for granted.