John Cage: “What I do, I do not wish blamed on Zen.”

During the period following the recent blogs on rigour and flexibility Nurtan and I have been discussing randomness, our starting points were different, his a mathematical perspective, mine its historical place in 20^th century music. Inevitably one line of thinking colours and informs the other; this took us to imposing random elements on a plainsong to test out some of our ideas. While all this is fascinating it emphasised that our starting point in recent blogs regarding rigour and flexibility requires further exploration. Even when reduced to a focus on Boulez and Cage it is a wide ranging subject, one every novice composer needs to understand as part of his or her “musical toolbox”. Having written about some of the aesthetic elements of Boulez’s work, and having considered his concept of the “pure” work where reason and rigour are fundamental to the composing process, it is timely to look at some of the ideas behind Cage’s approach, to clarify the essential differences, and similarities between the two, (a matter which should be all the easier as they both wrote a great deal about their artistic intentions).

I used the term random in the introduction and it is one of a number of terms that crop up alongside indeterminacy, aleatoric music and chance-controlled music, all of which can be associated with the term ‘flexibility’.  The three questions that can be examined in the context of a short blog are what effect does the use of flexibility have on a composition, can it coexist with rigorous planning, and does it produce similar or dissimilar musical results?

The opening quotation suggests that Cage understood that relating any artistic endeavour to a philosophy like Zen is going to generate contradictions and debate. Even in his pre-Zen days Cage was pushing the boundaries of traditional approaches to music making. His early music had a mathematical foundation and his interests took him to study with Cowell and Schoenberg, the latter composer reveals to us an element of Cage’s alternative thinking in his often mentioned quotation regarding his pupils:

  "There was one...of course he's not a composer, but he's an inventor—of genius."

There is a clear progression to Cage’s work starting with his interest in the flexibility of events in the work of Ives through to Cowell which later leads to his development of chance-generated music.  This progression could be explored purely in terms of musical consequences without reference to Zen, but if that approach was taken we would miss out on the developing interest in oriental philosophy and its effect on the arts in the latter half of the 20^th century.  Let us consider a few ideas which were influential in providing fertile ground for flexibility in the arts:

The world can be represented as it is, the artist only needs to make “uncoloured” observations.

Occidental thinking views nature as requiring control while oriental thinking places an emphasis on an affinity between man and nature.

Oriental art historically endeavours towards economy and simplicity.

It can be argued that European art and music in particular also aimed at economy, but from the period where music modulated and changed key, greater complexity became inevitable, pushing composers further away from the pull of the tonic. Webern sets out the case in his lectures covered in a previous blog. The affinity between man and nature and uncoloured observation takes us towards a frequently discussed outcome of Buddhist enlightenment, a direct experience of the world. In this state everything is connected (oneness), there is no hierarchy.

Adapting the above ideas to music generates some radical outcomes:

No one sound or event is more significant than any other.

Attempting to control experience (or our experience of music) is valueless, attempting to control everything is impossible. Every action or event we perceive can become music/art, as Cage says:

I saw that all things are related. We don’t have to bring about relationships.

The religious implications of the process of enlightenment are well represented in Cage’s writings, and its thinking is also well represented in the psychedelic sub-culture of the 1960’s and presented by such authors as Aldous Huxley in his “Doors of Perception” .

Music can involve us in “a moment when, awareness of time and space being lost, the multiplicity of elements which make up an individual become integrated and he is one.” (Cage).

The next statement directed at the audience demonstrates a difference in emphasis between Eastern and Western values, the first part could be applicable to both (if we are talking about listening to music) while the second is distinctly oriental:

What is important is to insert the individual into the current, the flux of everything that happens. And to do that, the wall has to be demolished; tastes, memory, and emotions have to be weakened. (Cage).

What is also evident is that such actions come with a cost, one that would be wholly unacceptable to Boulez:

…if we want to use chance operations, then we must accept the results. We have no right to use it if we are determined to criticize the results and to seek a better answer.

The Canadian scholar of Eastern thought Victor Hori makes an interesting observation regarding “Pure Consciousness”, such a state

…without concepts, if there could be such a thing, would be a booming, buzzing confusion, a sensory field of flashes of light, unidentifiable sounds, ambiguous shapes, color patches without significance. This is not the consciousness of the enlightened Zen master.

Whether or not it represents the consciousness of the Zen master, or indeed if this statement is true in every detail confusion is a possible outcome of complete musical freedom, but is Cage’s music “free” of all constraints?

If we take “Cartridge Music” as an example we find that there are a number of restrictions on time (length of events) and timbre. If we listen to the available performances on You Tube we recognise a family resemblance in the performances. Within individual performances we hear the percussive sounds produce regular rhythms and repeats of timbre, there is no doubt that this is organised sound. In the most free of all Cage’s works, 4’.33” we are most familiar with it being performed in a concert hall where specific restrictions are in place to the range of sounds we hear, should the work be performed in the open air, in a factory or garden our perceptions would be changed. It seems that we lean towards placing constraints even when they are not indicated or even implied.

Returning to Cartridge Music the 20 page score contains graphic indicators for the number of performers (maximum 20), each performer is given indicators (points, circles and a stopwatch) which shows the time allocated to events such as pitch and dynamics/amplitude. There is also a scheme to introduce sounds other than through the cartridge made by applying contact microphones. The You Tube video filming a performance makes demonstrates the process clearly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaNHAswN2hU

This second link gives a performer’s view, I don’t agree with everything in these notes, but it offers interesting historical viewpoints and relates to the question of rigour and flexibility:

http://www.anothertimbre.com/cartridgemusic.html

One issue arising from Cartridge music is that if a musician was inclined he/she could create a work of the same timbre, impose time and dynamic restrictions etc. and create a rigorous, reproducible composition. Family likeness, no Zen. If the composer was interested in the music having flexibility it would be a simple exercise to share the composition as a MIDI file and permit as many variations in the structure as there are people with the interest to play with it. In truth there is no reason why the given sounds could not form the basis of a “pure” work where each element is accountable and related to a single source.

Of course all these developments are now history, and the Zen thinking is scaffolding that provided a change of direction, a structure creating an empty space that could be filled with whatever a composer desired, and with the advent of sampling “whatever” is the state of play. As in the Biblical statement “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness?” we should recognise that rigour and flexibility are, as always with music, two distinct characteristics that permit life and progress.

Composer's toolbox PDF

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_EeqYYl3MfMeXpXY1ZSOWI4bVk/view?usp=sharing


Titles include:

Dynamics

Drones

Ostinato

Words and text

Select a brilliant title

Graphic scores a recipe for composition?

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.