Petals by Saariaho (comparison to other works)

Petals - Saariaho comparisons

Structure – contrast between ‘fragile colouristic passages Similar to the contrasting phrases of the flute and voice in
and more energetic passages’ ‘Songs of a mad king’ – Peter Maxwell Davis
Uses conventional stave notation As in ‘The song of the white horse (Blowing Stone) - Bedford
Despite this – no bars or bar numbers More like Vox 5 by Wishart, which is measured in seconds
Some aleatoric elements in that the length of passagework Very similar to ‘Songs of a mad king’ which includes
is not fixed. repetition of passagework an unknown number of times –
Also Zyklus by Stockhausen – where the percussionist can
start anywhere in the score and go in any direction
Use of individual symbols to represent playing techniques, Similar to the extended playing techniques used in ‘Zoom
which are then shown in a key. Tube’ – Ian Clarke
Use of quarter tones Also Zoom tube and in the brass parts of ‘The blowing
stone’
Electronic distortion Used heavily in ‘The blowing stone’ to create the noise of
the wind passing through the hole in the stone.
Electronics - Reverb Used heavily in ‘Vox 5’ to create the images of bees,
thunder, guns etc
Electronics – Harmoniser (change of pitch) Here the original
sound is blended with the shifted sound – which is never
more than a quarter tone.
Dynamics – Extreme from silence through pppp-ffff Ian Clarke’s ‘Zoom tube’ ranges from ‘niente – nothing’ to
fff, crescendoing to sffz
Textures – monophony (10) The whole of stripsody by Cathy Beberian, which is
unaccompanied voice
Double stopping (11) String parts in ‘St Veronica wipes his face’ – Peter Maxwell
Davis
Harmonics As used in the solo flute part of ‘Zoom tube’
Colouristic block sounds Used in ‘The blowing stone’ for wind sound and in Vox 5
Tempo – quick and vast changes Used in Stripsody as the singer passes through the
contrasting pictures of a comic strip
No metre As in Zyklus. Here the percussionist is free to explore
different, relatively fixed ideas in a relative time frame.