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Perspectives of New Music Perspectives of New Music
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Beneath the Skin of Time:
Alternative Temporalities
in Grisey's Prologue
for Solo Viola
L-?
Jeffrey J. Hennessy
Gerard Grisey
founders of the(1946-1998) is aswidely
movement known considered
French "spectralism," origito be one of the
nating in Paris in the mid 1970s. Spectral composers utilize the analyses
of the complex harmonic spectra of individual sounds as a primary pitch
resource. These spectra are orchestrated to produce "spectral chords,"
which are then manipulated in various ways including: filtering, fre
quency modulation, and evolving inharmonicity.
In many ways, the original spectral concept developed in reaction to
the compositional trends of the previous generation, what Grisey
referred to as the "misunderstanding of perception our elders had
attained," when they "ended up confusing the map with the lie of the
land."1 Instead of the artificial pitch organization of European and
American serialism, spectral composers sought new pitch resources
based on the organic qualities of sounds themselves. It is not surprising
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Beneath the Skin of Time 37
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38 Perspectives of New Music
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Beneath the Skin of Time 39
b) Continuous-Dynamic Average
1) continuous acceleration Predictability
"fuzzy 2) continuous deceleration
periodicity"
c) Discontinuous-Dynamic Slight Predictability
1) acceleration or deceleration
by stages or by elision
^ 2) statistical acceleration or
deceleration
e) Smooth
rhythmic silence
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40 Perspectives of New Music
= lowered by 1/8 tone h = raised by 1/8 tone k = raised by 1/4 tone * = raised by 5/8 tone fit = raised by 3/4 tone
Prologue for Solo Viola opens with a repeating unit that, in many ways,
provides the impetus for the musical content of the rest of the work, and
indeed the entire cycle. This is shown in Example 4. Grisey has referred
to these referential figures in his music as the "Initial Gestalten"12 I
have adopted the term "Initial Gestalt Unit" (IGU). The work's
publisher (Ricordi), in their composer biography of Grisey, describes
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Beneath the Skin of Time 41
Respiratory Cardiac
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42 Perspectives of New Music
Duration Contour
1 2 3 4 5
Event
EXAMPLE 5:
(RELATIVE AM
LOWEST P
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Beneath the Skin of Time 43
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CO
""Cr n < o c n'
Subsection 3
EXAMPLE 6: PROLOGUE SCORE EXCERPT SHOWING SUB-SECTIONAL DIVISIONS AND SEGMENTED DURATIONAL UNITS.
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Beneath the Skin of Time 45
each subsection as the listener awaits the arrival of each cardiac gesture
and thereby segments the chronometric continuum into individual
durational units, punctuated by the two-note pulses.
Although there is no time signature and no note duration hierarchy,
the score provides a great deal of temporal information. The individual
respiratory gestures are represented in proportional notation with a
consistent logarithmic acceleration throughout each gesture. Moreover
the tempo extremes of the accelerations are fixed. In the first subsection,
each respiratory gesture begins at seventy, accelerating to ninety notes
per minute. The cardiac gestures are also proportionally notated as a
shorter duration followed by a longer duration with a total span of one
second. Thus the composer exerts a great deal of control over the
chronometric durations of each musical event while preserving the free,
unmetered feeling.
The relative time spans of each segmented unit can thus be
approximated from the score. For example, Unit 1 contains two
respiratory gestures separated by a two-second pause, followed by a
cardiac gesture. As such, it is shorter than Unit 2, which contains two
successive respiratory gestures (offset by a breath) followed by a longer
pause, and then a third respiratory gesture followed by the cardiac
gesture. Unit 3 is shorter than either of the two previous units because it
contains two respiratory gestures separated only by a breath. Example 7a
summarizes each unit of the first subsection, indicating its gestural
content, relative duration, and actual measured duration of one
recorded performance.16 The relative durations are again assigned an
integer value ranging from 0 to 4 indicating shortest to longest
durations respectively. The same procedure can be followed for the
second subsection, which is shown in Example 7b.
Example 7c represents graphically the relative durations of each
segmented unit in each subsection as durational contour curves. Note
the inverted relationship of the two curves. The curves are, of course,
not exact inversions. However, for our purposes, what is most important
is the clear reciprocal relationship between the two subsections
concerning the durations of adjacent segmented units. That is, the
second unit in the first subsection is longer than the first while the
second unit in Subsection 2 is shorter than its predecessor, and so forth.
Also worthy of note is the relationship of these curves to the pitch
contour curve shown in Example 5. The second curve in Example 7c is
isomorphic to the pitch contour of the IGU, while the first curve in 7c
is again related by inversion.
As intriguing as it might be, I am not trying to posit a kind of
structural unity based on contour curves, only that the piece contains
multiple levels of dynamic contour that correspond to a number of
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46 Perspectives of New Music
Relative Actual
Unit Content Duration Duration(s)
respiratory, 2s pause, respiratory, breath, cardiac 12
respiratory, breath, respiratory, 2s pause, respiratory, 16
breath cardiac
Relative Actual
Unit Content Duration Duration(s)
respiratory, breath, respiratory, breath, cardiac 1 10
respiratory, breath, cardiac 0
respiratory, breath, respiratory, breath, respiratory, 14
breath, 2 cardiac
respiratory, breath, respiratory, 2s pause, respiratory,
breath, respiratory (with echo), Is pause, respiratory, 25
cardiac
respiratory, breath, respiratory, breath, respiratory, 20
breath, respiratory, 3 cardiac_
EXAMPLE 7
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Beneath the Skin of Time 47
example 7 (cont.)
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Perspectives of New Music
(FOLLOWING IGU).
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Beneath the Skin of Time 49
12 3 4
Event
Pitch Co
Event
Different Ending
EXAMPLE 8 (CONT.)
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50 Perspectives of New Music
pitch in each gesture that is played with vibrato), and then is followed
by a decrescendo (unless it ends with the loudest note). Example 9
displays the volume contour curves for the first four respiratory gestures.
The amplitude maximum pitch changes each time. This not only alters
the dynamic shading of each gesture, but also highlights a different pitch
or "overtone partial" each time, thus changing the "colour" of the
composite sounds.
Volume curves also affect the durational perception of each
respiratory gesture. This is akin to a sound's attack gradient and release
time. The second respiratory gesture following the IGU begins with the
loudest pitch and decrescendos throughout the duration of the gesture.
Here the durational and volume curves are isomorphic. This dynamic
envelope is similar to that of a percussion instrument, which has a rapid
3 4 5
Event
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Beneath the Skin of Time 51
EXAMPLE 9 (CONT.)
attack and quick release. In the fourth respiratory gesture following the
IGU, the durational and amplitude contours are inversions of each other
(a crescendo over the course of the gesture). In a sense, this gesture is
similar to a string or wind instrument with a slower attack and longer
release. Thus, at least to my ears, the fourth gesture seems to last longer
than the second gesture despite their chronometric equivalence.
The first subsection ends with a gesture that could be characterized as
an unexpected sonic jolt (see Example 6). Here the material differs
radically from the previous gestures. For one thing, the entire unit
decelerates in opposition to the accelerations of all previous respiratory
gestures. Also, it is made up of three-note gestures with disjunct and
angular contours. The first three pitches comprise the sixth, eighth, and
eleventh partials of the harmonic series, which then become inharmonic
when flattened by eighth-tone increments in each subsequent three-note
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52 Perspectives of New Music
gesture (see Example 3). For the first time in the piece, there are also
inter-gestural timbral modifications as the gesture begins alto sul tasto
and progresses to sul ponticello. The performance instructions indicate
that this entire unit should be thought of as an aside or an echo. The
effect is much like a Doppler shift and can be thought of as the
reverberation of elements in the previous gestures that degrade as they
fade out. All of this sets this ending gesture apart from the preceding
music, and thus (according to Grisey) causes time to contract and forces
the listener into a future timepoint. Indeed, this gesture actually
foreshadows many of the processes that will take place in later sections.
The second subsection proceeds much like the first but also begins to
introduce foreshadowing elements that jump out of the prevailing
process. For the first time, in the middle of the third line, we hear the
cardiac gesture repeated twice in succession. It is later repeated three
times at the end of the subsection. As well, the cardiac gesture at the
beginning of the fourth line appears without a preceding pause for the
first time and acts like an interruption. This interruption effect is even
more pronounced because of the sudden dynamic shift (from p to nip)
and the sul tasto timbral change. The cardiac gestures thus begin to take
on a periodicity of their own, distinct from that of the respiratory
gestures. This periodicity continues to assert itself throughout the rest of
the piece, eventually fusing with the respiratory-like gestures in the latter
half of the piece.
Pitch contours become slightly more angular in the second
subsection. For example, the last two respiratory gestures of the second
subsection feature sudden registral shifts between extreme pitches. This
is shown in Example 10. In the penultimate gesture, the pitches ascend
by skip to the fourth and highest pitch only to fall immediately to the
lowest pitch. This accentuates the lower registral extreme, separating it
from the prevailing registral density.17 Two contour leaps appear in the
final gesture, with two resulting registral shifts. The overall wave-like
characteristic of each respiratory gesture remains intact; however, these
sudden registral shifts induce a weak level of pulsation created by the
accented registral extremes. As we shall see, the succeeding third
subsection features much stronger and more pronounced inter-gestural
pulsation.
Finally, the overall volume increases in the second subsection, with
each amplitude envelope beginning at pp and crescendoing to mp. The
amplitude extreme {mp) of each respiratory gesture thus matches the
volume level assigned to the cardiac gestures, eliminating the amplitude
opposition between the two gestures. The second subsection therefore
maintains the overall time dilation effect induced by the sonic
preaudibility, but offers more interjections of unexpected sonic jolts, and
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Beneath the Skin of Time 53
Registral Shifts
begins to prepare the way for the eventual fusion of respiratory and
cardiac gestures.
Subsection 3
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54 Perspectives of New Music
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56 Perspectives of New Music
What can be objectively written about the skin of time when, according
to Grisey, each individual listener subjectively perceives this level of
musical temporality? Despite the specific nature of an individual's
temporal perspective, I maintain that there are temporal universals, if
only in a relative sense. In other words, despite the fact that we all
interpret two contrasting temporal states in our own ways, the idea that
we may universally recognize the change in temporality at all is
significant. For this reason, I have chosen to concentrate on phenomena
in this music that I believe are aurally perceptible on the musical surface
to most listeners, rather than on possible deeper abstract relationships.
Even a cursory review of this piece will discern periodic processes giving
way to more dynamic ones throughout the section we have examined.
Through a closer examination of the layers beneath the skin of time, we
come closer to deducing the individual's personal temporal perspective,
even if the most we can hope for is a generalized and relative picture of
the 'skin' itself.
Grisey's anatomical metaphor of musical time implies that temporality
in music is akin to a living system, and as such, exists in a constant state
of growth or decay. This is particularly apt when considering that the
perception of isolated temporal layers, and their relationships to one
another, constantly change with each repeated listening. Indeed, my
initial temporal experience of listening to the piece is now a distant
memory itself. Musical preaudibility is greatly enhanced by my increased
familiarity with this music. There are now no more unexpected events.
Thus, by Grisey's definition, the very act of listening to this piece (or
perhaps reading this paper) alters the musical timeline. Not only is the
skin of time affected, but the flesh and skeleton also exist in a permanent
state of flux. Thus, by choosing to focus on time as the primary musical
element, Grisey has created a piece with a musical identity as fleeting as
time itself.
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Beneath the Skin of Time 57
Notes
5. Grisey (1987).
6. Ibid., 244.
7. Ibid., 245.
8. Ibid., 272.
9. Some recent scholarship has indeed directed attention to temporal
issues in Grisey's music. See Jean-Luc Herve, Dans le Vertige de la
Duree: Vortex Temporum de Gerard Grisey (Paris: L'ltineraire, 2001)
and Angelo Orcalli, "Gerard Grisey, 'duree reelle' e dilatazione del
tempo musicale," Sonus 3(4) (1991): 36-38.
10. Note that all pitches are rounded to the nearest eighth-tone, as is
the case in the Prologue.
11. See Rose (1996) for an explanation of the process of evolving inhar
monicity in Spectral composition.
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58 Perspectives of New Music
17. The phenomenon of contour accent has been much discussed. For a
formal definition and treatment of this type of accent, see John
Roeder, "Beat-Class Modulation in Steve Reich's Music," Music
Theory Spectrum 25/2 (2003): 275-304.
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