Ferneyhough's Dungeons of Invention Author(s): Richard Toop Reviewed work(s): Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 128, No.

1737, Gluck Bicentenary Issue (Nov., 1987), pp. 624628 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/965521 . Accessed: 16/11/2012 11:36
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Dungeons Ferneyhough's
Richard Toop
At the age of 44, Brian Ferneyhough remains one of the most controversialfigures in English (and European)new music. In recent years, though, the.statureaccordedboth to his worksand to the aestheticstancethat underliesthem what once seemedto be an intriguhas risen immeasurably: ing peripheralphenomenon now has assumed one of the centre-stagepositions in the European new-music scene. That doesn'tmeanthat it lackscritics;today,as at any other time, to be suspected of success is to attract resentment and scepticism. Besides, given that the catch-wordsof the late 1970s - 'New Simplicity', 'New Romanticism' etc - mainly led in a direction quintessentiallyopposed to was resistance modernisttranscendentalism, Ferneyhough's inevitable. It is significant perhaps that the traditionalobjections to Ferneyhough's work - its 'excessive complexity', its 'unplayability'and so forth - largely sought to address its externalformat(i.e. the notation)ratherthan its actual musical content (which is implicit in the notation,but not identical with it). And on the one hand, it may be that in these rathercapitulationisttimes, his refusalto recantany of his early precepts (in fact, the new works are in many respects more complex than ever) has won him a certain grudging respect. But there has to be more to the Ferneyhough ascent than dissident heroics - premieres apart,one listens to pieces, not to attitudes. And without in any way denigratingthe earlierworks, it seems fair to II, say that since about 1980, with Funerailles the Second -Icon -Epigram, StringQuartetandthe pianopiece Lemma his workhas acquireda new expressiverichnesswhich even at first hearing is able to burst through its hermetic surface, even if what one grasps initially is only, so to speak, the tip of the iceberg. For the last ten yearshis influenceon youngercomposers has been considerable,both directlyand indirectly:directly, throughFerneyhough'sactivity as a much sought-after compositionteacher(notably,until recently,at the Freiburg Musikhochschule),while together with Michael Finnissy he has been the figurehead for a whole generation of younger British composersincluding JamesDillon, Chris Dench and RichardBarrett,even though their music differs from his in some fairly essential respects. His work has also begun to attractthe top echelons of Europeannew music performers:the Arditti Quartethas performedthe Second Quartetwell over 50 times (a third quartetis currentlyunderway,and a fourthin prospect),Boulez and the EnsembleInterContemporain championedFunerailles, has and just about every flautistwith an interestin new music has taken up one or more of his flute pieces: Cassandra's Dream Song (1970), Unity Capsule(1975-6), and more 624

of

Invention

recently, the three pieces which form the cornerstonesof Carceri his recentCarceri d'invenzione cycle - Superscriptio, Of II d'invenzione and Mnemosyne. that cycle, which is the main substanceof Ferneyhough'sworkin the 1980s, more later. It is in the natureof Ferneyhough'screativepersonality that eachcompletedworkservesnot as a basisfor consolidation but almostas an obstacleto the next piece, as evidence that a particularaim has been achieved and may not be repeated.In passing, one could assert that the late works of Beethoven (and the early ones of Stockhausen)proceed on more or less the same premises. So inevitably, Ferneyhough's work seems to be in a perpetual state of crisis (the sine qua non, perhaps, of unremitting From time to time, these crises have transcendentalism). resultedin silence. Notably, these silences have come after works:afterFirecycle Beta of 1971 (resolvmajororchestral ed by work on the Time and Motion series, 1971- 7) and afterLa terre un homme est (1979). La terre,even morethan ad of Beta, was a sort of augmentatio absurdum Firecycle the increasingly andornatesingle lines of the preceding rich chamber works. For Ferneyhough, the way out of such crises has always been a work that found a new perspective from which to vindicate (or validate)obsessive detail. Thus FuneraillesII, far from retractingthe complexities of La terre,managesto extend them yet furtherby means I of a radical're-reading' the Funerailles text writtensome of two or three years earlier. Many of the worksof the 1970s (in particular,Timeand MotionStudyII for cello and electronics(1973- 6) and Unity Capsule) were intent on drawing the performer as drastically as possible into the act of performance through a dissociationof the player's left and right hands in the cello piece, and of breathing and fingering in the pieces for wind instruments,which could only (and intentionally) place the interpreterin a continual state of mental and physical stress. The Second Quartet of 1980 appears to move away from the violent physicality of the preceding works, and led some commentatorsto suspect an imminent'mellowing'of style, a moredirectandfamiliar kind of expressivity.That may be true, to the extent that the 'extended playing techniques' which figured so prominently duringthe worksof the 1970s play a less obvious role. But while this may lead to a lesser complexity of action for the player, the musical substance becomes, if anything, more complex; for as the composer says, the at structuralprocesseswhich were once articulated surface level by the differentkindsof playingtechniqueshave now sunk down to variouslevels below the surface,so that the music itself becomes, to some degree, the 'sediment' of

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Brian Ferneyhough
(photo: Malcolm Crowthers)

these processes. And even a single phrase, such as that of the solo violin in bar 3, can have five different kinds of material embedded in it (quadruplestops, rising figures, trills, harmonics, glissandos), each of which will subsequently generate its own developments (ex.1).
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The Second Quartetis, as JamesDillon puts it, arguably The Second Quartetis, as JamesDillon puts it, arguably the only postwar quartet (or the only substantial one) to sit comfortably in the 'great tradition' that leads from Beethoven via (perhaps)Brahms to the Second Viennese School, in the sense that it finds new perspectivesfor the quartetas a discursivemedium, as opposed to a primarily coloristicone (as in Ligeti'sSecondQuartet,or morerecently, Xenakis's Tetras). The piece that follows it, Lemma-Icon-Epigram for solo piano (1981) is, for me, even more remarkable:one of the very few piano works of recent years that one can set confidently alongside the sonatas of Boulez and the best of Stockhausen's Klavierstiicke. underlying ideas are in many ways a reIts studies interpretedresidue of the Renaissance/alchemical that led, in the mid-1970s, to Transit.To quote the composer, the three-partform derives from mostnotably the a poeticform,the Emblema, by developed Italian poetAlciatiduringthe firsthalfof the 16thcentury. In general to which usage,thetermis taken meananepigram
Ex.2

describes else. so something thatit signifies something Later threecomponents: superscription a developments distinguish in an (oradage), image,anda concluding epigram whichthe Predictably, the model exists only to be transcended. Detailed commentarieshaving alreadyappearedelsewhere I shall simply touch on a couple of aspects.First, compared to a composer like Xenakis, Ferneyhough's approachto keyboardwriting is deliberatelyconventional,in the sense
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that for all its difficulty it lies well under phenomenally well-trained fingers. Second, Lemma-Icon-Epigram manages,even with the restrictionof two hands,to extend the discursive polyphony of the Second Quartet yet further. After a quarterof a century, the disruptive hyperthematicism of Boulez's Second Sonata finally finds a legitimate heir. This is already clear in the whirlwind transformations the very first bar (ex.2). The linearity of of the openingsoon 'cell-divides'into an increasingly dense polyphony,which is swept asideby the massivechordsthat initiatethe Iconsection, but soon managesto infiltrateback into the texture, eventuallyoverwhelmingthe chords that had displacedit. The Epigramsectiontakesthis polyphony
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Inevitably, Ferneyhough found parallels with his own creative aims and methods, which involve many concurrent structural levels, eachwith its own complexgenerating And the rigorousconstraintsoperatingwithin principles. each of these layers permit another interpretationof the title Carceri d'invenzione: 'Dungeons of Invention'. Much of the forcefulnessand richnessof the Carceri pieces arises both from the conceptual obstacle courses that the composer sets himself in the realizationof individual layers, and from the violent collisions between these layers. The cycle, which had its first complete performance the at DonaueschingenMusic Days on 17 October1986, consists

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yet further (ex.3), before finally 'self-destructing', and breakingup into half-ironic, half-nostalgicfragments. The idea of the superscription,the adage,carriesacross for to Ferneyhough'snext work, Superscriptio solo piccolo (1981), which ends up five years later as the 'motto' that launchesthe 90-minutecycle Carceri d'invenzione (1981- 6). As with La terreest un homme,the cycle gained a basic stimulus from the visual arts, in this case, Piranesi's exseriesof etchingsof'Imaginary proto-surrealist traordinary, Dungeons'. There is no literalpictorialintent in the music - for all the technicaldifficultyof his work, Ferneyhough is no latter-day Liszt. Whatfiredhis imagination was, above the enormous energy that seemed to be latent in all, Piranesi'svast, architecturally 'impossible'structures:the way in which each picture seems to want to burst out of its own boundariesand conquerthe surrounding space. He came to the conclusion that one of the principalcauses of this startlingsense of energywas the way in which, in many of the etchings, the variouspartsof the architectural structure, however cogent in themselves, seem to be in direct conflict with one another - seem to represent opposing lines of force with no choice but to collide.
626

of seven pieces: 1 Superscriptio piccolo solo (1981) for 2 Carceri I d'invenzione for 16 instruments(1981 - 2) 3 Intermedioalla ciaccona for violin solo (1986) 4 Carcerid'invenzione for flute and chamber orII chestra (1984) for 5 Etudes transcendantales mezzo-soprano,flute, oboe, cello and harpsichord(1982-5) and 6 Carcerd'invenzione for 15 wind instruments III 3 percussionists (1986) 7 Mnemosyne bass flute and tape (1986) for Even this listing shows some connectingthreads.In effect, there are three cycles of pieces, interwoven in a manner reminiscentof Boulez'sLe marteau sansmaftre: prelude the and postlude for piccolo and bass flute respectively, the three Carceripieces for chamber orchestra, and two intermedii- the violin solo, and the Etudestranscendantales (originallysub-titled'IntermedioII'). In addition,the solo flute (Ferneyhough's own instrument) makes a gradual registral descent throughout the cycle, from piccolo via (Superscriptio) normalflute(Carceri to alto flute (parts II)

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of the Etudes)and thence to the bass flute (Mnemosyne). The flute, But as one might expect,therearecomplications. for example, invades all three cycles; and of the prelude-postlude pair, whereas Mnemosyneis the only piece of the seven to state explicitly the eight chords on does not use them which the cycle is based, Superscriptio the at all. As for the intermedii, violin piece is a reworking of aspectsof Mnemosyne, done at the last moment(but none the worse for that), whereasthe Etudesare a kind of ninepart diary summarizing all the technical and expressive preoccupationsof the Carcericycle. Though a piccolo solo may seem a bizarrelymodest way does spell out in to launch a major work, Superscriptio emblematicform some key technical aspects of the piece, most notably the use of unorthodoxtime signaturessuch as 4/10 and 5/12 to triggersuddenchangesof velocity(ex.4).
Ex.4

Phantasiefor violin and piano, the solo partwas completed beforethere was any traceof an 'accompaniment'.The effect of the piece is dazzling: it is like a kaleidoscopewith mirrorsarrangedto ensurethat symmetriesinterpenetrate in ever-unpredictable ways. Again, both soloist and ensemble are enmeshedin a systematizedanthologyof repetition strategies, ranging from the exact to the ultra-elliptical. And, uniquely within the cycle, it signals a partialreturn in to the '1970s aesthetic'of pieces like Unity Capsule, that the notion of'flute timbre'is subjectto constantrenegotiation (ex.5). In termsof the concert-hall premiere,the main drawback of the Carcerid'invenzione cycle is, perhaps, that its two principal 'masterpieces'are precisely the pieces that deII mandrepeated hearing.Carceri is one of these;the Etudes the transcendantales, longest componentof the cycle, is the

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In CarceriI, the same procedures are combined with other strategies, such as the division of the chamber orchestra into characteristicinstrumentalgroups which are gradually eroded, both internally and by a series of 'interventions'(tuttis),and the idea of repetition(represented by a rangeof proceduresrangingfrom literal repetitionto The following violin Intermedio fairly arcanere-readings). not only acts as a buffer zone between the first two Carceri pieces; as the last piece to be composed, it representsalso
Ex.5

other. In the context of a single performance,it is not particularlyhelpful to say 'These pieces will (would)grow on you'. Yet in all honesty, it is all one can say. They are the cycle's hermetic core but at the same time its richest ore. Other commentatorshave alreadylinked the Etudeswith Pierrot lunaireand Le marteausans maitre, and it is my conviction, based on an initial scepticism which wilted in the face of experience,that the equationsarejust ones, both in terms of quality, and of a legitimate contemporary

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a fracturingof the otherwisechronologicalsequenceof the cycle's component parts. In effect, it is an extremely aggressive, even exhibitionist 'double' of the rather serene which, a little over an hour later, will piece (Mnemosyne) bring the cycle to a close. The idea of repetition assumesalmost obsessive proportions in Carcer II, which (assuming the customaryinterdefinival)ends the firsthalf of the cycle. By any reasonable it is a flute concerto (and thus Ferneyhough's only tion, of 'concerto' date);the importance the flute partis doubly to underlinedby the fact that it can be performedseparately d'invenzione (as Carceri Ia), and that, as with Schoenberg's

redefinitionof an expressionistaesthetic.The notion of the 'mid-lifecrisis' is one that writerson music have rarelyaddressed, and I shall not attempt to embrace it here. Suffice it to say that Ferneyhough has commented on the Etudes in the following terms: At thispoint- in 1982- I suppose wasin a rather I negative, disorientated about mood of thingsin respect mymusic, many andI felt it necessary try andworkthrough to them.Maybe to lookinto questions death,andwhatit is abouta work of of art that gives it a certainpermanence, againstits as immediate ephemeral, expressive capacity. 627
it's a question of age . . . but I certainly felt that I wanted

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The sombre aspects of the Etudesare conveyed not only by the texts (by Ernst Meister and Alrun F6rtig) but also by the instrumentation,which is, probably fortuitously, the same as Elliott Carterhad used in his Sonataof 1952, and represents a desire on Ferneyhough's part to break away from what he sees as the rather anaemic sound of the 'Pierrot'ensemble, in favourof something more hardedged. The treatmentof the voice is a sort of 1980s anthology not only of vocal practice,but of the possible relations of music and text. Carceri d'invenzione even more than its predecessors, III, is a virtuoso showpiece, as the opening clarinet solo with its Superscriptio-like 'tempo triggers'shows (ex.6). In comparison the final Mnemosyne,for bass flute and tape, seemsalmostdisconcertingly reticent,thoughFerneyhough rejects the idea of its constituting a 'tasteful quiet ending'. The title invokes the Greek goddess of memory, but even here, there is a typical Ferneyhough twist:

the piece is a memory of something which has been implicit for the previous 80 minutes (a sequence of eight 'base' chords), but never stated. And for all its restraint in terms of dynamiclevels, Mnemosyne ultimatelyachieves an extraordinary as if Ferneyhoughhad hypnoticintensity, of suddenlybecomethe snake-charmer the residuesof High Modernism. Or, put another way, Eliot's notorious whimper manages to be a Big Bang at the same time an appropriateending for what may well prove to be one of the key works of the 1980s.
Music examplesare reproduced permissionof Peters Edition. by

Brian Ferneyhough a featured is at composer thisyear'sHuddersfield Music Festival (20-29 Nov); the British premiere Contemporary of his 'Carcierid'invenzione' cyclewill be on 28 November.

FERNEYHOUGH

New Publications
Etudes Transcendantales (1982-85)
Flute, Oboe, Soprano, Harpsichord,Violoncello Study score P-7310

Intermedio alla ciaccona (1986)

Solo Violin Performingscore P-7346

Available from your local music dealer or Peters Music Shop, 119-125 Wardour St., London W1V 4DN. (Tel. 01-437 1456) For furtherinformationon the works of Ferneyhoughcontact The Promotion Department, Peters Edition Ltd., 10-12 Baches Street, London N1 6DN. (Tel: 01-251 6732)
813

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