Peter-Jan Wagemans: The big composers cookery book

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477 pages, 32 colour plates, hundreds of musical examples

This is not a music history textbook. This is a book that delves deep into the craft of composing itself, the structures and strategies used by composers to arrive at an ordering of their sound world, and their re- sponses to the world that surrounds them, or, in other words: the trifec- ta 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 theo- ry 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.

A few fragments:

 THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF THE GURRE-LIEDER

On 23 February 1913, Arnold Schönberg climbed the stage of the packed Großer Musikvereinssaal Auditorium in Vienna. Not just the hall was packed, but the stage as well. The Wiener Philharmonischer Chor, the Wiener Kaufmännischer Gesangverein, and the Wiener Tonkünstler-Or- chester conducted by composer/conductor Franz Schreker had just presented the first performance of the Gurre-lieder, written for one of the largest formations ever. The audience was beyond itself with en- thusiasm but Schönberg would not give them the time of day. He just took a bow for the performers and walked off the stage. One of those present called it “the strangest thing that a man in front of that kind of a hysterical worshipping mob has ever done”. Schönberg was angry, angry with the audience that did appreciate the Gurre-lieder – which he had written between 1900 and 1903 – but had fiercely rejected his new, atonal language. In his eyes, the audience, and especially the critics among them, had made a serious mistake: they had failed to understand that art was more than just a service to a hungry audience and that true art should set itself goals that transcended far beyond the direct need of the listener.

 Schönberg considered his new works the necessary next step after having exhausted the late-

 Romantic music idiom and at the same time these works safeguarded the hegemony of German   music. And there was an even bigger task for the true artist: to find the music that expresses true spirit of the time in music, and that music was definitely not to be found in the enormous musical cream cake that the audience had just applauded so passionately. And thus Schönberg did not bow to his admirers but went backstage with a long face.

THE HARMONIC LANGUAGE OF LE SACRE

The polychord is the simple yet effective principle for the harmonic language of Le Sacre. The most characteristic chords consist of a combination of two triads or 7th chords, sometimes sharpened by small chromatic clusters. He also uses triads with added notes (enriched harmonies). See Ex. 21.

The analysis brings to mind how Stravinsky always made his choices at the piano by ear. It also shows that there is no relevant development in the material within the duration of the work, but that the chords were found at the piano, almost by intuition, probably in relation to ideas for the instrumentation.

KUGELGESTALT DER ZEIT [DOME SHAPE OF TIME]

 Normally we depict time as a line, coming towards us as being the past, and stretching out in front of us as being the future, with a split second, where past and future touch each other in the present. Chronological time lies outside of our direct experience, like a clock that is independent of us. But in our perception, time curves around   us like a dome shape. We may remember things that are in the past, sometimes already far in the past which are much more relevant to us than things that happened yesterday, or an hour ago. Our experience of time is therefore very complex and consists of a conglomerate of mem- ories and expectations that is separate from chronological time. From this idea Zimmermann developed the compositional principle he called ‘pluralism’, which consists of juxtaposing quotes from the history of mu- sic, out of their context, but now placed in the context of his own present sound world, bringing the past and present together

CONTENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER I LET’S LISTEN TO THE LISTENER

1. Introduction
2. A system of social values
   1. The first archetype: telling stories
   1. The second archetype: music for dance
   1. The third archetype: creation of mystic space
   1. Conclusion
3. What is art?
   1. First layer: ideology
   1. Second layer: material
   1. Third layer: aesthetics
      1. Taste
      1. Tradition
      1. Art or utility?
   1. Fourth layer: Gestalt

CHAPTER II THE SECOND VIENNESE SCHOOL

1. Why Innovate?
   1. The first performance of the Gurre-lieder
   1. The burden of Hegel
   1. Art – Hegelians
2. The step to atonality
   1. Chromaticism and Reger
   1. Chromaticism and Tristan
   1. The emancipation of dissonance
      1. The consonance-dissonance dilemma
   1. The orchestra of the twentieth century music
   1. The Schönberg Verein
3. Analysis Schönberg: Fünf Orchesterstücke
   1. First movement. counterpoint of textures
   1. Third movement: the emancipation of the chord
   1. Fifth movement: musical prose
4. The emancipation of the chord
5. Analysis of Wozzeck, the atonal masterpiece
   1. Introduction
   1. Analysis

• The first triangle: Wir arme Leut [Us poor folks]
  • The second triangle: Wozzeck as father
  • The third triangle: the drama
  • The fourth triangle: buffo
  • The fifth triangle: one of the people
  • Nature
  • The ambiguity of the music material in Wozzeck
  • Invention over a key
  • Importance
• Some Notes on melody in the Second Viennese School
  • The unendliche Melodie
  • The ostinato
  • The gliding rhythm
    • Avoiding repetition
    • The use of the whole tone scale
• The twelve-tone technique
  • Origin
  • The tone-rows
  • Analysis of the first twelve-tone work, a Waltz!
  • Analysis of Alban Berg’s Lyrical Suite, first part
    • Introduction
    • Analysis of the row
    • Detailed analysis
  • Analysis of Anton Webern’s Symphony (1928)
    • Importance
    • Row analysis
    • Mirrored ensemble
    • The first movement
      • Harmonic regions
      • Rhythmic units
    • The second movement
  • Gedanke – Raum – Unity
    • Gedanke
    • Raum [space]
    • Unity

CHAPTER III PARIS

1. Introduction
2. A comparison between Paris and the Second Viennese School
3. Sub-languages
   1. Sub-language: modes
      1. Debussy’s Voiles
      1. The Messiaen modes
      1. Modes in De Tijd [Time] by Louis Andriessen

• Sub-language: coloured melody
  • Sub-language: period style quotation and object quotation
  • Sub-language: montage
  • Sub-language: harmonic enrichment
    • Enriched harmony
    • White Music
    • Multi-tonality
    • Polychords
    • The magic of colour. The emancipation of the chord
• Some analytical comments on Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps
  • The rhythm of Le Sacre
  • The harmonic language of Le Sacre
  • The use of modes in Le Sacre
  • Quotation in the Sacre
• Analysis of Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920)
  • Form
  • Material
• Edgard Varèse
  • Introduction
  • Style
    • Textures and form
    • Tone organisation in Octandre and Arcana
  • Analysis of Arcana
• Olivier Messiaen
  • introduction
  • Rhythm
  • Modes
  • Style oiseau
  • Montage in Couleurs de la cité céleste (1964)

CHAPTER IV THE SATZ

1. Introduction
2. Elements of the Satz
3. Different music for different times
4. Some examples
   1. The regular rhythm
   1. Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite (1915)
      1. The Satz as command: Soviet Realism
      1. For the people verses of the people
      1. The five commandments
   1. Mozart and a popular tune
   1. Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms (1930), second movement: fugue
   1. Shostakovich, beginning of the Fourth Symphony (1935-36)
   1. Stravinsky, Symphony in C (1940), beginning of the second movement
   1. Honegger, Symphony nr 5 (1951), beginning of the second movement

• After 1950
• Béla Bartók
  • Introduction
  • Synthesis
  • Revolution, evolution
  • Modes, polymodality and chromatism
  • Mistuning
  • General spirit connected with folk music
• The atonal Satz: Matthijs Vermeulen
  • Introduction
  • General spirit
  • Vermeulen’s melody
  • The textures
• Different tonalities
  • Benjamin Britten and Leo Janá ek

7.1.2    Sentence structure

• Form
  • Speech melody
  • Folk music
  • Unterweisung im Tonsatz
    • Introduction
    • Principles
    • The chromatic tone row
    • Interval value
    • Chord value
    • Application
    • New and very handy concepts
    • Analyses
    • A strange result
• Redefining the Satz. Ligeti: Etudes for piano
  • Introduction
  • Importance
  • Influences on the Etudes
    • Influences on the Ligeti Etudes: Béla Bartók
    • Influences on the Ligeti Etudes: Conlon Nancarrow
    • Influences on the Ligeti Etudes: Claude Debussy
  • Analyses
    • Etude 1: Désordre
    • Etude 2: Cordes à vide
    • Etude 4: Fanfare
    • Etude 5: Arc-en-ciel
    • Etude 15: White on White

CHAPTER V YOUNG MUSIC, MODERNISM AFTER WORLD WAR II

1. Music after the catastrophe
2. Darmstadt 1951
3. A little arithmetic
   1. Subsidies.
   1. How to get rich?
4. The punctual beginning: Structures I by Pierre Boulez
   1. Modes de valeurs en d’intensités.

Messiaen’s most speculative work

• Structures I
• Stockhausen
  • Stockhausen as the archetype of the young genius
  • Klavierstück I
  • …wie die Zeit vergeht.       [how time passes] and Gruppen
    • Pitch and duration
    • Pitch to group
    • The duration of the various groups.
    • The group
    • Utopia or development?
      • The durational formant
      • The pitch matrix
    • The spatial ordering
• Pierre Boulez: Penser la musique aujourd´hui and Pli selon pli
  • Introduction
  • A summary of Boulez’ Penser la musique aujourd´hui
    • Introduction
    • The five parameters
      • Pitches
      • Durations
      • Dynamics
      • Timbre
      • Space
    • Musical space and syntax
    • Conclusions
  • Some notes on Pli selon pli
• New complexity
• The controlled chance

8.1       Kontakte (1958-60)

• Klavierstück X (1955)
  • Klavierstück VI (1954)
  • Mobile form
  • Action scores
  • Boulez and coincidence

• Cage and Adorno, two ideologists of freedom
  • John Cage: freedom through chance
  • Theodor Adorno: the impossibility to be free
    • Consequences
    • Philosophie der neuen Musik
    • Adorno’s influence on Young Music
• Organisation of tone fields
  • Coloured blocks, the early works of Krzysztof Penderecki
  • Interval manipulation and sound fields: Witold Lutos awski
    • Introduction
    • Harmony
    • Horizontal notation, controlled aleatoric
    • Narrative language
    • Analysis of String Quartet (1964)
    • Analysis of Livre pour orchestre (1968)
  • Moving clusters in Luigi Nono’s piano concerto

Como una ola de fuerza y luz

1. Analysis of Nono’s Como una ola de fuerza y luz
   1. Micro-polyphony: György Ligety
      1. Analytical remarks on Lontano
   1. Iannis Xenakis: chance manipulation as an in strument of control
      1. Introduction
      1. Calculating the details of a sound mass
      1. Analysis of Herma (1961) for piano solo
      1. Criticism
2. Spectral music
   1. The origin of spectral music
   1. The theory
   1. Applications
   1. Analysis: the harmonic language of Tristan Murail’s Dèsintégrations
3. An American competitor: the pitch-class set theory
   1. Introduction
   1. Principles of the pitch-class sets
   1. Overview of the ways to manipulate this series of numbers
4. Electronic music
   1. Introduction
   1. Electronics outside of classical music
   1. Electronics in classical music
   1. The studios
   1. Desirable or undesirable consequences?
   1. Live electronics
   1. Instruments
   1. The modern orchestra

CHAPTER VI HYBRID MUSIC

1. Introduction
2. Charles Ives
   1. Introduction
   1. An Analysis of The Fourth of July
3. After World War II
   1. Postmodernism in philosophy
   1. Postmodernism in architecture and design
   1. Postmodernism in painting
   1. Postmodernism in film
   1. Postmodernism in music
   1. Summary
4. Some remarks on Berio: Sinfonia
   1. Introduction
   1. The Swingle Singers
   1. Mahler
   1. The use of lyrics
   1. The third part of Sinfonia
5. Pluramon, Hymonium in Harmondy
   1. Introduction on Hymnen
   1. Structure
   1. The electronics
      1. The studio for electronic music at the WDR
      1. The Russian anthem
6. Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten and Requiem für einen jungen Dichter
   1. Introduction
   1. The roads leading to the Requiem für

einen jungen Dichter

• Environment
  • Musical environment
  • Texts in the Requiem
  • Kugelgestalt der Zeit [dome shape of time]
  • Zimmerman, the composer of radio plays
  • Some analytical remarks about the Requiem für

einen jungen Dichter

• PrologueRequiem IRequiem II
  • Some Notes on Die Soldaten
• A flirt with low culture: Peter Schat’s To You
  • Amsterdam

7.2       To You (1972)

7.3       Analysis of To You

• Peter-Jan Wagemans
  • Introduction
  • Viderunt Omnes (1988) for ensemble
  • As I Opened Fire (1985) for piano solo
  • Strollin’ from Het Landschap [The Landscape] (1989) for piano solo
  • Frozen Ritual (2013) for small ensemble
• The jazz connection
  • Introduction
  • Gershwin and Bernstein
  • Robert Graettinger
  • Frank Zappa and pop
    • Introduction
    • Ensemble pieces
    • Zappa and pop
  • John Zorn
  • Wolfgang Mitterer
• Music and visuals
  • Introduction
  • Small scale music theatre
  • The advent of the music video on pop music
  • New development?

CHAPTER VII MINIMAL MUSIC

1. Introduction – Dada and Fluxus
   1. Dada
   1. Fluxus, the counterculture
2. Minimal music in the USA
   1. A brief history
   1. Reception
   1. The three main minimal musical streams
      1. Loops and pulses
      1. Minimal under the influence of conceptual art and Fluxus
      1. Totalism
   1. Ambient
   1. A Comparison between Downtown Music

and Young Music

• Diagram of sources of and influences on minimal music
• The pop band and minimal
• European minimalism
  • Introduction
  • Louis Andriessen: De Tijd [Time]
    • Amsterdam and New York
    • The conceptual character of De Tijd
    • Composition of the ensemble

• Time, metre, and eternity
  • The time bells
  • Further detailed analysis:
  • The pitch material of De Tijd
  • Harmonic reduction and underlying tone rows of

De Tijd

• God and melancholy, Arvo Pärt, Henryk Gorecki, Galina Ustvolskaya