Compositional Languages
Fall 2012
Instructor: Prof. SIGMAN
Tuesday 13:00-15:00
Lecture XI
End-of-Semester Schedule
• 11/27: 20th century Polyphony: Ives, Varèse,
Nancarrow
• 12/04: Musical Timbre
• 12/11: Final Project Presentations; Study
Guide distributed
• 12/18: FINAL EXAM (시험)
Final Project proposals
• LAST CALL!
New Assignment!
• To be posted to Website later today
• Topics: Musical Texture, Counterpoint,
Polyphony, and Elliott Carter
Topics
• I. Ives: Collage, Polytemporality, and Memory
• II. Varèse: Planes, Machines, and Futurism
• III. Nancarrow: Poly-temporal Super-human
Canons
I. Charles Ives
A. Biography
• (1874-1954, Danbury, CT, USA)
• Son of church organist George Ives
• Conducted musical experiments in
microtonality and poly-temporality (2
marching bands, different keys and tempi)
with his father
• Founded a successful life insurance (보헙)
company (MET Life) in New York
• Not well-known as a composer during his life
B. New England Transcendentalism
• Influenced by literature of the 19th century
New England transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo
EMERSON, Henry David THOREAU, Louisa May
ALCOTT, etc.
• Many of his titles refer to these authors
C. Sense of Time, Place, and
History
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Traditional festivals
Nature scenes in New England
Parades
Urban soundscapes
American hymns (찬송가) and war songs
D. Collage and Quotation: Concord
Sonata (1916-1919), Movement III
• “The Alcotts”
• [Piano Sonata No. 2]
• Pitch material: polytonality and tone clusters
1.Quotations
1) American hymns
2) Beethoven Symphony No.5 motive
3) Bridal March from Lohengrin [Wagner]
2. Collage in Visual Art
3. “The Alcotts”: Score and
Recording
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmWAGh
C7b5w
E. The Urban Meets the
Transcendental: “Two
Contemplations”
• The Unanswered Question
• Central Park in the Dark
• Both composed in New York in 1906
1. The Unanswered Question
• For 4 flutes, solo trumpet, and off-stage string
quartet
• “a kind of collage in three distinct layers,
roughly coördinated”
• Trumpet: poses “the eternal question of
existence”—never to receive an answer
•
Unanswered Question: Layers
• 1) Strings: slow, distant, and diatonic (G
Major)
• 2) Trumpet (or English Horn or Clarinet or
Oboe): repeated, close, and atonal
• 3) Flutes: increasingly atonal and aggressive
• Polytemporality (3 layers at different speeds,
out of phase with each other)
• Cyclical (순완하는), NOT developmental
Score and Recording
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkaOz48c
q2g
2. Central Park in the Dark
• For chamber orchestra
• “a contemplation of nothing serious”
• Use of collage, quotation, polytonality,
atonality
• Depiction of city street scene (in 1906)
Programme Description
The strings represent the night sounds and silent darknessinterrupted by sounds from the Casino over the pond- of street
singers coming up from the Circle singing, in spots, the tunes of
those days- of some ‘night owls’ from Healy’s whistling the latest
of the Freshman March- the “occasional elevated,” a street
parade, or a “break-down” in the distance- of newsboys crying
“uxtries”- of pianolas having a ragtime war in the apartment
house “over the garden wall,” a street car and a street band join
in the chorus- a fire engine, a cab horse runs away, lands “over
the fence and out,” the wayfarers shout- again the darkness is
heard- an echo over the pond- and we walk home.
Popular Music Quotations
• “Hello! Ma Baby” (ragtime)
• Washington Post March (marching band)
Recording
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qPZbHN
uZzI
II. Edgard Varèse
A. Biography
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(1883, Paris-1965, New York)
Moved to New York in 1915
Associated with Surrealist and Futurist poets
Mentor to Elliott Carter
Composed works for chamber ensembles,
orchestra, and electronics (Poème
électronique and Déserts)
B. Ionisation (1929-31)
• For ensemble of 13 percussionists
• Title: ionisation (이온화) of molecules
1. Layers
• 1) sounds of indefinite pitch (woods, skins,
metal percussion)
• 2) sounds of definite pitch (chimes, piano)
• 3) sounds of continually changing pitch (high
and low siren, lion’s roar)
2. Compositional Techniques
• 1) rhythmic motives: varied, accelerated,
decelerated, and superposed
• 2) “planes of sound”: multiple lines fusing into
unified, interlocking (and clashing) blocks at
different speeds
Depiction of urban environment—very different
from Ives!
3. Live Performance
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TStutMsL
X2s
III. Conlon Nancarrow
A. Bio
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(1912-1997)
Born in the US; lived most of his life in Mexico
Primarily composed music for player piano
Invented a rhythm machine (later constructed
by Trimpin)
B. Player Piano Study No. 21:
Canon X (1950s)
Polytemporality:
• Layer I begins slowly in low register;
• Layer II begins fast in high register
• Layer I accelerates and rises in register
• Layer II decelerates and falls in register
• The 2 voices meet in the middle
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2gVhBxw
Rqg