Gosh, what an interesting piece. The first thing I noticed was how the first 15 seconds or so sounds exactly like the Dolby Digital introduction that they have at the cinema.
The second thing I noticed was, in some parts, how incredibly dense the sound was because of those glisses. Obviously this wasn’t a constant, there were times that the sound thinned out to just a triangle, or to some small subsection of the orchestra. I had honestly never heard such a dense, thick orchestration and it’s entirely due to these intense clusters that Xenakis develops throughout the orchestration.
The pieces isn’t 12 tone, it uses Xenakis’ unique mathematical mind to use things such as the fibonacci sequence to develop his scales and choose the notes in his melodies. At the same time, however, the piece could also be considered microtonal, due to the very long glisses that no one could possibly play in time with one another, and having different sections moving independently adds to this.
This piece demonstrates the use of mathematics to create a very musical piece and the use of huge blocks of sound to create an interesting structure
My Bloody Valentine and this record ‘Loveless,’ has become synonymous with the term ‘shoegaze’, a ridiculous title of a genre that refers to the mid 80′s – early 90′s alternative rock movement, with bands (inspired by mostly by The Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain and Sonic Youth) exploring the sonic capabilities of guitar music with much involved studio work and experimentation with various pedal effects such as wah-wah, delay, distortion and reverb effect pedals. Generally, the music is slow paced with a simple song based structure (ABAB etc), a heavily dense and involved texture with layers upon layers of distorted guitar overdubs and the vocals being quite low in the mix, providing a quite ethereal and soothing quality (very melodius too, almost using the voice as an instrument in its own right).
‘To Here Knows When’ is the perfect exemplification of this style, yet bears a different attitude to sound compared to other groups of the time, without the use of effect pedals. The guitarist wavers the tremolo bar as he strums, causing the strings to bend in and out of tune as he plays. This style lends to the illusion of multiple overdubs, which is really the result of the unique playing style and involved studio work. The vocals often imitate this gliding effect, slowly swooning in long sustained notes, careening in a smooth conjunct motion along with the crashing waves of distortion, arpeggiated synth, low reverberated drums and the pitch bend of the tremolo bar.
The effect is quite indescribable, ‘dreamlike’ comes to mind. I suppose this correlates closely to the idea of an alternate reality attained through studio manipulation of sound, a world where guitars don’t really sound like guitars, soft whispers overbear drums drenched in echo, all while chaotic distortion bleeds through the ambiguous soundscape, providing a lush and unique mix of timbre.
The contrast between chaos and beauty is a fair enough analysis, but doesn’t do justice to the overall conception. I think that the vision for this piece comes down to the combination of each sound to be perceived as a unified whole, each instrument has its role of course, but in the end it all just becomes, a sound. This notion is strengthened by the fact that the album is recorded entirely in mono, due to the groups principle member (Kevin Shields) strive for this effect, with “the guitar smack bang in the middle and no chorus, no modulation effect”.
I admire this piece most for its ambiguous direction and vision, its exploration of timbre and ambitious (yet seemingly effortless) conception, reveals the endless possibilities that are yet to be discovered in sound. To end with, here’s the clip for it:
‘Daaaaamn, you know you’re pimp when you got John Cage shoes’
27’10.554 is a great listen for anyone working on the percussion assignment and studying the score has been much of the inspiration for my own piece.
The score itself is organized so that each page equals one minute, with numerical seconds scattered above the stave on certain parts, to indicate where you are within the piece. The stave’s are not strictly organized but it doesn’t make the piece harder to follow and lends towards a more free form approach (considering there’s no meter either), with time being your main guide.
The introductory page is brief, describing certain symbols, note values and ways of interacting with the different instruments (the main ones being metal, wood, skin(?) and interestingly, a stave which, well, can be anything such as a synth sound, whistles or whatever really). The zig-zag horizontal lines that curve up and down on each stave generally indicates dynamics and for a long, sustained drone sound to be made (most commonly with a sheet of metal). The result of these drones lead to some interesting sounds and are quite obscure (similar to the bow being played on the cymbal or the stick with the rubber ball being used on the surface of the bass drum, except more creative), most often when the sounds are called for on the ‘miscellaneous’ stave, so it’s not really clear exactly what you’re hearing.
The general structure of this piece lends towards a contrast between clusters of sound, to long drawn out silences and very low drones. These silences can last up to almost a minute or more, which is a signature of many John Cage pieces, but I feel it almost disrupts the flow of the piece (listening for the first time, I thought my speakers had a faulty connection).
Overall, this is still a very well crafted piece and worth checking out.
A solo piano piece in 5 movements, Etudes Pour Piano portrays Ligeti’s masterful compositional technique, pushing the technical limitations of the pianist with unconventional non-metered rhythms, interchanging phrases and patterns and extremely precise articulations.
This is the 1st page of Movement 1, notice the lack of a time signature (though the number of quavers equal a steady 4/4 meter, this changes quickly) and the difference in key signatures in the Bass and the Treble. The first two bars indicates a strong emphasis on 2 contrasting statements (dun-duuuuun….dun-duuuuun), forming a unified phrase which becomes the basis of the entire movement.
This phrase becomes reversed in the third and fourth bar (among many other modulations later on). In the process of this, the bars in the Bass clef go out of sync with the Treble, though more precisely, the Treble drops the offbeat following the ’4′ and begins a new bar, whereas the Bass gains a new downbeat on the ’5′, thus the Treble loses a beat (1+2+3+4) and the Bass gains one (1+2+3+4+5). Ligeti is in a sense implementing the ‘phasing’ technique for the number of beats, which gives the piece a great sense of continuity and growth.
This formula remains consistent for the entire movement, along with modulation of the original ‘dun–duuun’ phrase (different note values, retrograde etc) and often the Treble and Bass parts imitate each other and swap roles.
Overall, an interesting listen and an involved study score.
String Quartet No.8 is a multi-movement work, comprised of 5 movements, I. Largo, II.Allegro molto, III.Allegretto, IV.Largo, V.Largo. The piece is unified by asignature trademark motif that was unique to Shostakovitch, comprised of the notes D-Eb-C-B (which stands for his initials in German spelling). This short motif is used and manipulated in many ways, sometimes played slowly and peacefully, or sometimes is rough and jagged (as exemplified in movements II,III,IV) and being played in short semiquaver stabs. This is a great example of a short motif being explored and transformed into a fully realized composition.
Each movement often preceeds one another in stark contrast (eg I. Largo to II. Allegro), a method of tension-release is prevealant, with moments of intensity followed by slowerm more subtle moments. The role of each string player often has 2 players in the low register as support and 2 in the upper register for melody (though this is never fixed). The 2nd movent has alot of staccato in the strings with a polyphonic texture, the 2 groups of string players often imitating each other and swapping roles to maintain fluid exploration of the instrumentation.
What I learnt most from this is how when developing an idea, you allow yourself the most freedom when you maintain the bare basics of the motif and not rely on specific pitches or rhythmic patterns to make it a coherent idea. Shostakovitch explores all these possibilities in such a way, which makes this a worthwhile listen.
This is a blog for staff and students in the Composition Program at Monash University.
We intend to keep a record of our study, thinking and compositional projects to document our work, show the world outside what we do and invite comment. We hope that over time the blog will provide useful hints and ideas about the creative processes of composition.
Recent Comments