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Peter-Jan Wagemans
THE BIG COMPOSERS COOKERY BOOK strategies and structures in new music from 1900-present
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Book and cover design Music typesetting Print Photo author
Celia Hadeler Hertzog Booyse Wilco, Amersfoort Teo Krijgsman
The translation of this book has been made possible with financial support of Codarts, University of the Arts (Rotterdam) ISBN/EAN 978-90-824089-6-6
© 2021 Peter-Jan Wagemans and Albersen verhuur bv/Deuss Music, The Hague © Musical examples, see Acknowledgments, pp. 453-457.
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form, without written permission from the publisher: Deuss Music, Fijnjekade 160, 2561 DS The Hague, The Netherlands www.deussmusic.nl
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CONTENTS
PREFACE
15
CHAPTER I LET’S LISTEN TO THE LISTENER
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1. 2. 3.
Introduction A system of social values 2.1 The first archetype: telling stories 2.2 The second archetype: music for dance 2.3 The third archetype: creation of mystic space 2.4 Conclusions What is art? 3.1 First layer: ideology 3.2 Second layer: material 3.3 Third layer: aesthetics 3.3.1 Taste 3.3.2 Tradition 3.3.3 Art or utility? 3.4 Fourth layer: Gestalt
19 21 22 23 24 24 25 25 27 27 28 28 28 29
CHAPTER II THE SECOND VIENNESE SCHOOL
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1. 2.
Why innovate? 1.1 The first performance of the Gurre-lieder 1.2 The burden of Hegel 1.3 Art-Hegelians The step to atonality 2.1 Chromaticism and Reger 2.2 Chromaticism and Tristan 2.3 The emancipation of dissonance 2.3.1 The consonance-dissonance dilemma 2.4 The orchestra of the twentieth century music 2.5 The Schönberg Verein
31 31 32 33 35 35 36 37 39 42 43
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Analysis of Schönberg: Fünf Orchesterstücke 3.1 First movement. counterpoint of textures 3.2 Third movement: the emancipation of the chord 3.3 Fifth movement: musical prose The emancipation of the chord Analysis of Wozzeck, the atonal masterpiece 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Analysis 5.2.1 The first triangle: Wir arme Leut [Us poor folks] 5.2.2 The second triangle: Wozzeck as father 5.2.3 The third triangle: the drama 5.2.4 The fourth triangle: buffo 5.2.5 The fifth triangle: one of the people 5.2.6 Nature 5.2.7 The ambiguity of the music material in Wozzeck 5.2.8 Invention over a key 5.2.9 Importance Some notes on melody in the Second Viennese School 6.1 The unendliche Melodie 6.2 The ostinato 6.3 The gliding rhythm 6.4.1 Avoiding repetition 6.4.2 The use of the whole tone scale The twelve-tone technique 7.1 Origin 7.2 The tone rows 7.3 Analysis of the first twelve-tone work, a Waltz! 7.4 Analysis of Alban Berg’s Lyrical Suite, first part 7.4.1 Introduction 7.4.2 Analysis of the row 7.4.3 Detailed analysis 7.5 Analysis of Anton Webern’s Symphony (1928) 7.5.1 Importance 7.5.2 Row analysis 7.5.3 Mirrored ensemble 7.5.4 The first movement 7.5.4.1 Harmonic regions 7.5.4.2 Rhythmic units 7.5.5 The second movement 7.6 Gedanke - Raum - Unity 7.6.1 Gedanke 7.6.2 Raum [space] 7.6.3 Unity
44 44 48 48 52 52 52 53 54 56 57 58 59 59 59 61 62 62 62 62 62 63 64 65 65 66 68 73 73 73 75 83 83 83 83 84 84 84 84 86 86 87 88
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CHAPTER III PARIS
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1. Introduction 89 2. A comparison between Paris and the Second Viennese School 91 3. Sub-languages 92 3.1 Sub-language: modes 92 3.1.1 Debussy’s Voiles 93 3.1.2 The Messiaen modes 95 3.1.3 Modes in Andriessen’s De Tijd [Time] 95 3.2 Sub-language: coloured melody 96 3.3 Sub-language: period style quotation and object quotation 97 3.4 Sub-language: montage 102 3.5 Sub-language: harmonic enrichment 103 3.5.1 Enriched harmony 103 3.5.2 White Music 106 3.5.3 Multi-tonality 107 3.5.4 Polychords 108 3.5.5 The magic of colour. The emancipation of chord to sound 108 4. Some analytical comments on Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps 110 4.1 The rhythm of Le Sacre 110 4.2 The harmonic language of Le Sacre 112 4.3 The use of modes in Le Sacre 113 4.4 Quotation in Le Sacre 114 5. Analysis of Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920) 116 5.1 Form 116 5.2 Material 117 6. Edgard Varèse 120 6.1 Introduction 120 6.2 Style 121 6.2.1 Textures and form 121 6.2.2 Tone organisation in Octandre 124 6.3 Analysis of Arcana 126 7. Olivier Messiaen 131 7.1 introduction 131 7.2 Rhythm 133 7.3 Modes 135 7.4 Style oiseau 135 7.5 Montage in Couleurs de la Cité Céleste (1964) 137
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CHAPTER IV THE SATZ
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1. Introduction 2. Elements of the Satz 3. Different music for different periods 4. Some examples 4.1 The regular rhythm 4.2 Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite (1915) 4.2.1 The Satz as command: Soviet Realism 4.2.2 For the people verses of the people 4.2.3 The five commandments 4.3 Mozart and a popular tune 4.4 Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms (1930), second movement: fugue 4.5 Shostakovich, beginning of the Fourth Symphony (1935-36) 4.6 Stravinsky, Symphony in C (1940), beginning of the second movement 4.7 Honegger, Symphony nr 5 (1951), beginning of the second movement 4.8 After 1950 5. Béla Bartók 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Synthesis 5.3 Revolution, evolution 5.4 Modes, polymodality and chromatism 5.5 Mistuning 5.6 General spirit (connected to folk music) 6. The atonal Satz: Matthijs Vermeulen 6.1 Introduction 6.2 General spirit 6.3 Vermeulen’s melody 6.4 The textures 7. Different tonalities 7.1 Benjamin Britten and Leoš Janáček 7.1.2 Sentence structure 7.1.2 Form 7.1.3 Speech melody 7.1.4 Folk music 7.2 Hindemith’s Unterweisung im Tonsatz 7.2.1 Introduction 7.2.2 Principles 7.2.3 The chromatic tone row 7.2.4 Interval value
139 141 146 148 148 149 149 152 153 155 155 158 158 159 159 162 162 163 164 165 171 172 173 173 174 174 175 183 183 183 187 188 189 189 191 192 193 193
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7.2.5 Chord value 7.2.6 Application 7.2.7 New and very handy concepts 7.2.8 Analyses 7.2.9 A strange result Redefining the Satz. Ligeti: Etudes for piano 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Importance 8.3 Influences on the Etudes 8.3.1 Influences on the Ligeti Etudes: Béla Bartók 8.3.2 Influences on the Ligeti Etudes: Conlon Nancarrow 8.3.3 Influences on the Ligeti Etudes: Claude Debussy 8.4 Analyses 8.4.1 Etude 1: Désordre 8.4.2 Etude 2: Cordes à vide 8.4.3 Etude 4: Fanfare 8.4.4 Etude 5: Arc-en-ciel [Rainbow] 8.4.5 Etude 15: White on White
195 198 198 199 199 205 205 205 206 206 206 206 210 210 214 215 216 218
CHAPTER V YOUNG MUSIC, MODERNISM AFTER WORLD WAR II
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Music after the catastrophe Darmstadt 1951 A little arithmetic 3.1 Subsidies 3.2 How to get rich? The punctual beginning: Structures I by Pierre Boulez 4.1 Modes de valeurs en d’intensités. Messiaen’s most speculative work 4.2 Structures I Stockhausen 5.1 Stockhausen as the archetype of the young genius 5.2 Klavierstück I 5.3 ...wie die Zeit vergeht.... [how time passes] and Gruppen 5.3.1 Pitch and duration 5.3.2 Pitch to group 5.3.3 The duration of the various groups. 5.3.4 The group 5.3.5 Utopia or development? 5.3.5.1 The durational formant 5.3.5.2 The pitch matrix 5.3.6 The spatial ordering
220 225 227 227 228 229 229 230 233 233 235 237 237 240 241 242 244 244 247 250
[READ ONLY] 6. Pierre Boulez: Penser la musique aujourd´hui and Pli selon pli 250 6.1 Introduction 250 6.2 A summary of Boulez’ Penser la musique aujourd´hui 250 6.2.1 Introduction 251 6.2.2 The five parameters 251 6.2.2.1 Pitches 252 6.2.2.2 Durations 253 6.2.2.3 Dynamics 256 6.2.2.4 Timbre 256 6.2.2.5 Space 256 6.2.3 Musical space and syntax 257 6.2.4 Conclusions 258 6.3 Some notes on Pli selon pli 261 7. New complexity 263 8. The controlled chance 263 8.1 Kontakte (1958-60) 265 8.2 Klavierstück X (1955) 265 8.3 Klavierstück VI (1954) 265 8.4 Mobile form 266 8.5 Action scores 267 8.6 Boulez and coincidence 268 9. Cage and Adorno, two ideologists of freedom 269 9.1 John Cage: freedom through chance 269 9.2 Theodor Adorno: the impossibility to be free 274 9.2.1 Consequences 274 9.2.2 Philosophie der neuen Musik 275 9.2.3 Adorno’s influence on Young Music 277 10. Organisation of tone fields 280 10.1 Coloured blocks, the early works of Krzysztof Penderecki 281 10.2 Interval manipulation and sound fields: Witold Lutosławski 283 10.2.1 Introduction 283 10.2.2 Harmony 284 10.2.3 Horizontal notation, controlled aleatoric 287 10.2.4 Narrative language 290 10.2.5 Analysis of String Quartet (1964) 290 10.2.6 Analysis of Livre pour orchestre (1968) 294 10.3 Moving clusters: Luigi Nono 298 10.3.1 Analysis of Nono’s Como una ola de fuerza y luz 298 10.4 Micro-polyphony: György Ligeti 304 10.4.1 Analytical remarks on Lontano (1967) 304 10.5 Iannis Xenakis: chance manipulation as an instrument of control 306 10.5.1 Introduction 306
[READ ONLY] 10.5.2 Calculating the details of a sound mass 10.5.3 Analysis of Herma (1961) for piano solo 10.5.4 Criticism 11. Spectral music 11.1 The origin of spectral music 11.2 The theory 11.3 Applications 11.4 Analysis: the harmonic language of Tristan Murail’s Dèsintégrations 12. An American competitor: the pitch-class set theory 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Principles of the pitch-class sets 12.3 Overview of the ways to manipulate the series of numbers 13. Electronic music 13.1 Introduction 13.2 Electronics outside of classical music 13.3 Classical music 13.4 The studios 13.5 Desirable or undesirable consequences? 13.6 Live electronics 13.7 Instruments 13.8 The modern orchestra
307 311 314 316 317 320 322
CHAPTER VI HYBRID MUSIC
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Introduction Charles Ives 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Analysis of The Fourth of July After World War II 3.1 Postmodernism in philosophy 3.2 Postmodernism in architecture and design 3.3 Postmodernism in painting 3.4 Postmodernism in film 3.5 Postmodernism in music 3.6 Summary Some remarks on Berio: Sinfonia 4.1 Introduction 4.1 The Swingle Singers 4.2 Mahler 4.3 The use of texts 4.4 The third part of Sinfonia Pluramon, Hymunion in Harmondy
345 347 347 348 356 356 357 359 359 360 362 362 362 363 363 364 365 366
324 329 329 329 330 332 332 333 335 335 337 338 339 341
[READ ONLY] 5.1 Introduction on Hymnen 5.2 Structure 5.3 The electronics 5.3.1 Equipment 5.3.2 The Russian anthem 6. Kugelgestalt der Zeit: Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten and Requiem für einen jungen Dichter 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The roads leading to the Requiem für einen jungen Dichter 6.2.1 Environment 6.2.2 Musical environment 6.2.3 Texts in the Requiem 6.2.4 Kugelgestalt der Zeit [dome shape of time] 6.2.5 Zimmerman, the composer of radio plays 6.3 Some analytical remarks about the Requiem für einen jungen Dichter 6.3.1 Prologue 6.3.2 Requiem I 6.3.3 Requiem II 6.4 Some notes on Die Soldaten 7. A flirt with low culture: Peter Schat’s To You 7.1 Amsterdam 7.2 To You (1972) 7.3 Analysis of To You 8. Peter-Jan Wagemans 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Viderunt Omnes (1988) for ensemble 8.3 As I Opened Fire (1985) for piano solo 8.4 Strollin’ from Het Landschap [The Landscape] (1989) for piano solo 8.5 Frozen Ritual (2013) for small ensemble 9. The jazz connection 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Gershwin and Bernstein 9.3 Robert Graettinger 9.4 Frank Zappa and pop 9.4.1 Introduction 9.4.2 Zappa and pop 9.5 John Zorn 9.6 Wolfgang Mitterer 10. Music and visuals 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Small scale music theatre
366 366 368 368 369 371 371 372 372 373 374 376 376 377 377 377 378 379 381 381 383 384 387 387 388 388 390 390 395 395 396 397 397 397 400 402 404 404 404 407
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10.3 10.4
The advent of the music video in pop music New development?
407 408
CHAPTER VII MINIMAL MUSIC
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1. Introduction - Dada and Fluxus 1.1 Dada 1.2 Fluxus, the counterculture 2. Minimal Music in the U.S.A. 2.1 A brief history 2.2 Reception 2.3 The three main minimal musical streams 2.3.1 Loops and pulses 2.3.2 Minimal under the influence of conceptual art and Fluxus 2.3.3 Totalism 2.4 Ambient 2.5 A comparison between Downtown Music and Young Music 2.6 Sources and influences on Minimal Music 3. The pop band and minimal 4. European minimalism 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Louis Andriessen: De Tijd [Time] 4.2.1 Amsterdam and New York 4.2.2 The conceptual character of De Tijd 4.2.3 Composition of the ensemble 4.2.4 Time, metre, and eternity 4.2.5 The time bells 4.2.6 Further detailed analysis De Tijd 4.2.7 The pitch material of De Tijd 4.2.8 Harmonic reduction and underlying tone rows of De Tijd 4.3 God and melancholy, Arvo Pärt, Henryk Gorecki, Galina Ustvolskaya
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX ABOUT THE AUTHOR COLOUR PLATES I-XVI COLOUR PLATES XVII-XXXII
410 410 411 414 414 415 416 416 420 426 426 427 427 427 429 429 430 430 433 434 434 435 436 439 445 448
453 458 466 478 after 96
after 368
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PREFACE
PREFACE
Goethe wrote that “architecture is frozen music” And so I posit that music is melting architecture Whose lava-like glow rockets a spotlight Onto the neglected majesty of the castles within us. LUCIEN ZELL1
This is not a music history textbook. This is a book that delves deeply into the craft of composing itself, the structures and strategies used by composers to arrive at an ordering of their sound world, and their responses to the world that surrounds them, or, in other words: the trifecta of analysis, historical context, and philosophical context behind the written music. The book is intended for composers, professional musicians, and music lovers who crave to know how composers operate. My presupposition is that the reader has sound knowledge of traditional music theory and of music history. I only give biographical details of a composer or an era when this is especially relevant to a composer’s musical choices. As I have chosen to give analyses and process descriptions, the number of composers I mention is limited. However, I give in-depth analyses of the most representative works from each period after 1910. For an informative overview of the history of music since 1910 I recommend Alex Ross’ book The Rest is Noise. 1
In Tiny Kites (Dos Madres 2019).
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In the twentieth century, theory becomes an important, sometimes even the most important factor in the field of composition, frequently running ahead of the sounding results. To find examples of this, we only need to look at the analysis of Stockhausen’s Gruppen for three Orchestras (Chapter V, 5.3). Up until the twentieth century, music theory always followed behind the practice in attempting, sometimes decades later, to find a perception-based explanation and ordering in the new music. The principal method to arrive at the insights articulated in this book is in the first place the analysis. Although this makes the text less accessible for the interested layman it is unavoidable if we actually wish to reach the core of this art form, which is by nature rather abstract. My chosen methods of analysis are: - A description of the working process, the ordering of the musical parameters and the strategies that are chosen by the composer as guidelines to reach these ways of ordering. All composers know how vitally important they are. Just putting a pitch on the paper and then hoping to find the next pitch is a totally hopeless way of working. - When zooming out from the actual details of the work, my next question is: why does it sound as it sounds? Every composer works within a given tradition, which puts pressure on the composer to aim for a certain sounding result. This tradition can be the tradition of a whole century, like it was in the nineteenth century, or a quite recent one, perhaps the developments of the last year or even only the mighty voice of the composition teacher. However long or short or circumstantial, for a young composer these traditions work as a powerful guideline, sometimes impossible to escape. I am interested in both the circumstances which led to the musical choices and the parameters of that musical style. - Behind all that music, there are socio-political pressures, which sometimes quite unconsciously, sometimes overpoweringly heavily play a role in the stylistic choices of a composer. The stylistic choices in the happy sixties in Germany and the Netherlands were made in quite another setting from those made by the composers who had to work under the terrifying shadow of Stalin. But philosophical and political ideals could be of great influence too. Looking at all these aspects in detail, I hope to get rid of the false belief, that composers are special people because they are born with an inner CD collection with all their works already written. And then, there is still one question left:
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PREFACE
- Zooming out completely, we finally encounter the listener, the one at the receiving end of the line of communication, as art is a form of human communication; in my opinion the highest developed, most playful, emotional and fulfilling form of communication. The one that makes up for the violent mess we collectively make of our existence on this beautiful planet. To stretch its importance, my first chapter is devoted to that listener. How do we perceive music as human beings, why do we remember it, love it, hate it, why does it make us cry or make us believe we are turned into better persons? And why is some of it called Art? The music of the twentieth century consists of so many different schools that any book about it must severely limit itself. The number and variety of masterpieces of twentieth-century music literature alone far surpasses that of the nineteenth century! I was therefore obliged to make firm choices and in doing so I have tried to thoroughly study the most distinctive works. This means that, to my great regret, many fascinating works and individuals that equally defined this extremely rich era were left out. The book is already voluminous enough as it is…
I did not have the intention of writing this book from my perspective as a composer. Still, all analyses say something about the person who does the analysis, even though I have tried to be objective. On the other hand: a book without opinions may become rather dull. Finally, this book meets the constantly recurring demand by students, to whom I have with great pleasure taught the course ‘analysis of new music’ over the past twenty years. Time and again they insisted that I should put my classes in writing and during the final year before my retirement I was no longer able to resist their call. This book intends to answer the most diverse questions, questions that kept coming up: what are the main streams; how did composers arrive at their, sometimes extreme, positions; how can we understand the analytical writings of hardliners such as Stockhausen, Boulez, and Xenakis? And they wanted analyses that give insight as to why the notes that there are, are there. Thanks are due to the rightholders, who gave permisson to reproduce the many musical examples; a full list is given in the Acknowledgment chapter. The students’ intelligent questions and their heart-warming involvement have made this book necessary for me to write. I owe a debt of gratitude to my former employer, Codarts University of the Arts Rotterdam, which not only enabled me to spend much time on writing the
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book during the final year of my tenure, but also financed the English translation. A special thanks to Rob Broek. I also thank the critical readers, in the first place the brilliant composer, and former master student of mine, Adam Hakooz. I thank Ben van der Sluijs, lecturer Cultural Philosophy at Codarts in Rotterdam who casted a critical eye on the philosophical backgrounds, Hertzog Booyse, music copyist, editor and arranger who did the numerous examples and of course publisher Bèr Deuss, who dared to take the risk of publishing this book, critically commented on the text, and made sure that it became the fine publication it is.
