Ligeti – Etudes pour piano

EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT

Ligeti’s Etudes, in the tradition of Debussy, Chopin, Liszt etc and their piano etudes. Pretty impressive, I think Ligeti is God and we are all terribly inferior, can never hope to attain such Godfulness and in general, should all give up before we can. Ligeti can do no wrong, his work is flawless and so on.
/wittyness

So seriously, why did I put a dalek in this post? Asides the fact that Daleks are supreme, and so is Ligeti, and therefor Ligeti is a Dalek, the Dalek and “EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT” are related to my current pattern of watching whole seasons of Doctor Who at a time, and also to the first etude from this book of etudes by whats’isface…

Etude 1: Desordre

This is a study in fast polyrhythmic playing on two hands. Immediately you notice some qualities to the composition: the bass clef has five sharps as a key signature, while the treble has none. Oooh, you crazy geezer, you. Secondly, this is the instruction: “Molto vivace, vigoroso, molto ritmico, semibreve=63″. Semibreve? Seriously? Is that necessary? Crazy kids these days…

The other instruction is this *) use the pedal sparingly throughout. Play the melody legato in both hands.

The piece seems to borrow from Messiaen’s rhythmic devices, as there is no metering and the barlines, as they are, shift around (a la ol’ Reichy-chap), in fact, you could say that Ligeti is using the technique of EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT, to shift our perception of accent. Let’s look at this more closely…

First bar:

3+5. That is the additive metre in both hands, if we use 8th notes as the division on which everything is based, then we also have the following metre implied.

RH: 2+3

LH: 2+2 (3 underneath)

I suppose you could call that 2:3:5:8, which is pretty polyrhythmic, when you think aboot it. In measure 4 Ligeti adds a 4:7 meter in the treble and a 3:4(8) in the bass, with a single 8th note rhythmic displacement at the end of the phrase on the treble clef. This ingoing rhythmic and accent-based displacement creates a flowing rhythmic texture that is indeed interesting.

There is rather a lot more to discuss on this, it’s a bit like a less amazing version of Vingt Regards su le`Enfant Jesus, by Messiaen.

Etude 2: Cordes a vide

More unmetred, bar-crossing crazyness from the God among humans, Ligeti… (dedicate to Pierre Boulez?).

This is a piece that is more concerned with harmonic exploration, but is no less rhythmically complex than the last. More overlapping phrases that create a sense of counterpoint that is literal, in the sense that most of the time things are going in opposing direction, but also rhythmic counterpoint where phrases begin at various notational intersections. Ie. from bar 11 onward, Ligeti has indicated certain points that MUST align when playing, which creates a 3:2 :6 (and other) such polyrhythmic patterns.

The form of this piece is dictated by how complex the harmonic density becomes, and through dynamic-based crescendos.

Etude 3: Touches bloquees

This is neat. Diamond notehead = depress the key silently and hold
Fat notehead = depress the key, sounding the note, and hold
Fat notehead tied to diamond: depress the key, sounding the note, and hold. The sounded note is joined on to the silent note in the next bar with a tie, even if the note continues to sound.

Extended techniques that don’t involve beating the piano, inserting screws, nuts and bolts into the strings, magnetic stimulation of the strings or playing inside the piano…

The idea with this is that the blocked notes inhibit the playing of certain other notes. This creates an interlocking rhythmic pattern akin to the kotekan in Balinese Gamelan music.

The complexity of patterns gets progressively denser and denser with lots of articulations and the difficulty increases to large wholetone chords and such.

Etude 4: Fanfares

This is a study in very fast ostinato playing that crosses the entire range of the piano with the same melodic gesture. The important thing is that there are no special accents to note the beginning of the bar compared to the subdivisions. It is 3+2+3. The other hand also echoes this but with chords rather than the constant subdivision.

As the piece progresses the rhythmic divisions get more complex and again, Ligeti engages an EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT to displace the rhythms, creating a polyrhythmic quality. Then he spreads the ostinato across both hands creating more fluency, then there is the doubling and the syncopation and the oh my GOD.

Etude 5: Arc-en-ciel

So I’m sure there’s a Japanese rock guy who uses “Arc-en-ciel” in his stage name…

This is my favourite of the etudes:

*) Varying tempo: The metronome mark represents an average, the semiquaver movement fluctuating freely aroudn this average tempo, as in jazz.
**) Play all accents very clearly.

The tempo marking is “Andante con eleganza, with swing, semiquaver ca. 84.”

Genius. The result is that it is a completely notated, and stunningly elegant, jazz solo.

Again he employed the EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT, but in this example it doesn’t create a sense of dissonance, but rather a sense of fluid movement and form.

The harmony becomes increasingly more dense as the piece progresses.

Etude 6: Automne a Varsovie

This is cool, lots of ostinati again, but this time with gradual shifts (a la minimalism) in pitch material, but it is basically continual transformation of the initial material, which eventually ends up at the bottom of the piano. Viva la composition techniques.

Exterminate, exterminate.

-Vince

Rachmaninoff – Opus 23. Piano Prelude #5

After spending too much time discovering how incapable my limited piano playing was of performing any of the works from this collection of preludes, I headed to youtube and enjoyed some impressive performances. The piece is in G minor and begins in a March style, the contrasting and highly emotive middle section is in the key of the Dominant chord (D Major), when we return to the opening material it is presented in the Subdominant key (C minor) and moves back to G minor for the ending of the work. Form wise it’s not particularly exciting, very common, but ultimately a good framework for such a composition.

Much more interesting to me was how extremely idiomatic it is for the piano. The left hand is continuously jumping octaves, in some bars four notes are sounded and left to ring as eight note chords are played frantically over the top, but the bit that really got me, was hard to see on the score and I only really noticed it listening to recordings, is the melodic writing that appears in what I can only really describe as the Alto part. The middle ground between the left and right hands around middle C. The slower middle section of the work at first glance contains two things. 1. Arpeggio-like runs in the left hand and full chords presenting melodic material in the right. As the slower sections progresses a melody can be heard in this middle region, on the score it is a combination of occasional notes in the left and right hand which makes it hard to spot.

In the march section I found it interesting to observe how the music was notated. This section often sounded like it was played by two pianos, and to create that effect both bass and treble staves are often littered with rests, if the rest is above the note it suggests the 2^nd piano is playing, and if the rest is below the note it suggests the 1^st piano is playing.

Doing this score study on a piano piece has highlighted how difficult and complex piano writing can be, as you have less options to work with it is potentially harder to write well for piano than for a large ensemble. This is definitely an area I should do some further research into.

Warren.

Debussy – Piano Preludes (Book 1, #6)

This is exciting. My first Debussy analytic encounter for the blog.

Listen first, then read.

In this piece, Debussy creates an engaging sonic atmosphere with just the piano, one that, if you let it, will conjure up images and ideas. It is quite hard for me to describe just how beautiful this music is, I think I lack the English vocabulary to do so, or perhaps it is an example of music being music.

Impressionism - hinting at, but not revealing.

The music of Debussy is sometimes called Impressionist, though I doubt that is true. However, there are some characteristics of what little I know of impressionism as a movement, that are audible in this piece. The vagueness of harmony – while not being atonal. In one article the author refers to this as “static” harmony, meaning it goes nowhere. It’s as though the sound is suspended in time, morphing and changing very subtly, akin to minimalism. But back on impressionism, each musical gesture hints at something, at an image? A scene? For Debussy, apparently it was footsteps in snow.

Snow in Korea!

He so named this piece after composing it, as with all of the piano preludes. Scribing the title at the bottom of each piece rather than the top, letting the music say what it will without any preconceived notions on what it should be about

Debussy effectively manipulates register changes as musical changes, subtle variations in his motivic ideas and short bursts of melodic interlude. Using an analysis discovered in a canceled subject for 2010, I will attempt to describe the general form of the piece:

Large form:
A B A C A coda, though the coda is just a variation on the melodic ideas presented on top of the motive, which is presented, though not finished, earlier in the piece.

Beneath each presentation of the motive is a pedal chord, which as the piece expands (giving an even larger degree of form, small -> large -> small -> large that does not strictly follow the A B A C A form) develops into parallelism, which I had to look up. Apparently it’s everything you’re not allowed to do in first year theory. Those parallel fifths of doom that you’ll fail theory for if you use. How dare Debussy do such a thing. Well, here’s an idea… it’s a valid musical expression just like any other. Yeah yeah, in four part harmony, it reduces the parts effectively to three, but whatever. Anyway, Debussy uses this to great effect, expanding and providing a consonant contrast to the dissonant seconds used in the motive.

On top, again, of the pedal and the motive is melodic figuration, hinting at references to the motive but never actually referencing it directly. These ideas are all presented again throughout the piece.

Debussy was also one for the use of symbols in his music, now whether or not these symbols are musical representations of real-world things (as evident by the Debussy influence on Takemitsu – see Rain Tree) or are symbolic of other things, I’m not sure. I’ll work that out when I finish reading Debussy: Impressionism and Symbolism. According to one website: “[Edgar Allen Poe] believed in the “confusion and intermingling of all sense-impressions.” The two are linked, clearly: “Statements such as these cannot be presented directly, but rather must be slowly impressed upon the reader by means of slow development and suggestive handling. To quote Edmund Wilson, “Poe’s work is not so much what he actually says that matters as what he makes the reader feel, and that he had elements in him that corresponded with the indefiniteness of music and the exactitude of mathematics.” (click for more)

Also present in this piece is a sense of call and response, right throughout the repetitions of the “A” sections but not in the others, another use of contrast. Call and response, non-call and response.

I very much like the ambiguity, the peacefulness of this piece and of other Debussy works.

Des pas sur la neige (footprints in the snow)

-Vin

Webern – Sonatensatz (Rondo) fur Klavier

From Webern, with love.

This is an interesting piece for me to study, when considering Anton Webern, and the first, I believe, since I started at Monash, that is not from the list. So I trust the people who follow such things will excuse my deviation from the set listening list in favour of following something of great interest, from someone of great interest. For the information of those in power to judge such things, this is the first of a bunch of list-deviations in favour of Webern.

The piece was written circa 1906 and not found until 1965, in an attic of his daughter-in-law’s childhood attic. It was written in Webern’s early period and is not actually non-tonal, but it is chromatic. I’m quite pleased with finding this piece because it shows a great many techniques and also shows some interesting ways of using techniques that were later developed.

Webern has used the rondo form for the construction of this piece, with a slight variation. It is as follows: A B A(2) C A(3) B(2) A(4) D. Each of the repetitions of an already stated idea are gradually transformed. Now I just noticed something else interesting about this form. The final D section is actually a further A section (A(5)) and a brief overview of the whole form. If we detach that section entirely, we have a palindromic form: A B A | C | A B A; as it stands, it is asymmetrical: A B A | C | A B A | D. Two larger forms: A B A C | A B A D || perhaps.

Techniques/Concepts

Chromaticism

This is the aspect that I have learned the most about from studying this piece, not just the chromaticism that Webern uses, which is not atonal/12-tone as such, and I think probably one of the most useful things for me to learn and to use when studying 12-tone music and writing using arrays, tonerows, set-theory, etc, is the use of tone centers or tonal gravity*. For those of you who heard the two movements of my piece “Rain” for piano last year, I used this exact concept then, using notes that deviated chromatically away from a tone center but always returned to it. Luciano Berio does the same thing with his Sequenza VII for oboe, constantly gravitating away from the note B and Bartok uses it in Music For Strings, Percussion and Celeste. In Sonatensatz, Webern uses keysignatures to indicate his tonal centers, which is interesting, and adds the requirement for double-sharps and double-flats because the music is always referring back to its tonal center. This tonal gravity technique could be used to great effect in twelve-tone music, using tonerows etc. For example, you could write a series of tonerows off of the one tonic. I’m sure it’s been done before, but have not come across such.

Melodic Leading

This is the most striking application of compositional technique used by Webern in this piece, not the most obvious, but certainly the most elegant and the most well thought out. Without using conventional harmonic cadences to signify key changes, (ie. V/new key – I in new key) or something similar, he has used melodic leading relying on the chromaticism to blur the tone centers enough to make the keychange transparent. The end of the first section (which is in C minor) leads from Ab down to B natural, the first bar of the second section (‘modulated’ to A major) starts on an A.

Cadence/cadential points

Rather than harmonic cadences, Webern uses dynamic cadences, rhythmic cadences etc. to create “tension” and “release”, or musical punctuation as I prefer to call it.

Beethovenism

The other striking quality of this piece is how simple everything is. Just like everything I’ve looked at of Webern’s, he sticks to simple rhythms, patterns, etc and makes it at times complex (for contrast/cadential interest), he sticks mostly to conventional minims, crotchets, quavers and semiquavers. He does use a few cross-rhythms, for interest and great imitative effect, but compared to Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartok and others of the same era, Webern does not use complex rhythmic patterns. Now, what does this have to do with Beethoven? It’s not only his rhythm technique that is “simple”, but also how much he can get out of a very simple idea: let’s take the A section motive: C Bnat C (see not atonal) Bb, with the rhythm: crotchet, dotted quaver, semiquaver, crotchet. Very simple. This forms the basis for the entire section and he gets vast amounts of fresh music out of it, using imitation, registral change, harmonic variation, chromatic alteration, phrasing variations, rhythmic flattening/augmentation, rhythmic diminuendo, etc etc. This is how it’s like Beethoven. Remember the 5th Symphony? Dun dun dun duuuun… that motive is mutated in amazing ways.

More Webern, coming soon.

-Vin

* Tonal Gravity: there is an idea floating around that the lydian mode (major #4) has the greatest tonal gravity, the idea being that it is the only mode which has a full collection of perfect fifths, and is thus the most harmonically stable in relation to the fundamental. Let’s look at C lydian (F#). C D E F# G A B is the pitch collection. When stacked as successive fifths: C G D A E B F#. It is important to note here that C to G is a P5, G to D is as well, and importantly, the B to F# is as well. It would be a diminished 5th if it were from C major. The idea of gravity then comes from the fact that every single one of those notes reinforces the fundamental of C, causing the strongest tonal relationship available.  Interesting. What would the chords be? Imaj7, II7, iii-7, iv-7b5, Vmaj7, vi-7, vii-7. Unless I’m mistaken… now if you were to flatten that V chord to make it dominant, you’d still have your regular harmonic function there, using a lydian tonality. Most interesting. G B D Fnatural instead of F#.

Something to think about perhaps?

This idea is (badly) interpreted from a book called “The Lydian Chromatic Concept” which I borrowed from the library earlier this year, but did not get a chance to thoroughly read. I understand this perfect fifth order as the concept, though.

RACHMANINOV – PIANO ETUDES 8 Etudes, Opus.33

GRAVE
Very dramatic and sinister. Heavy chords are played, in repeated semitone steps – E to E# back down to E. Very much like Star Wars. This then lengthens out in rhythm, leading us to chromatic descending runs. It goes back into the “Star Wars” theme, which through out the next minute is transformed into different pitches and sometimes into different variations in rhythm. The piece continues on like this, gradually getting thicker in texture (more chord members being doubled), until it reaches the last two bars, whereby the E – E# theme is repeated, gradually getting faster, until a final octave C chord is played.

MODERATO
This is very “Ave Maria”. Once again, rippling piano arpeggios are played lightly in the bass, whilst in the treble, quite simply, three Bb crochets are played martele. It’s beautiful and angelic, by far my favourite movement of this series. It is broken up by thick chords in the bass, then leading into a faster version of the original motif- from semi quavers to demi-semi quavers. The piece is really broken up though, when a broken chord of E# is played in the bass, and from there on, the piece becomes a contest between dissonant and consonant. It has a very uncharacteristic ending – more like the ending to the other movements.

ALLEGRO CON FUOCCO

A fast opening, very much, in my opinion, a continuation from the previous movement. It then becomes grand when the piano plays 3, 6,1,3, 6,7 chords, gradually slower until we reach the leading note, building suspense. It then seems to go into a exactly the same theme of the previous 7 bars, only it has been transposed up a third

NON ALLEGRO
This piece is very flight of the bumble bee-esque. It runs up and down the 12-tone scale in semi-quavers. Like the piece before it, it is also defined by quavers in the bass, giving it a syncopated effect. Whilst it’s an intriguing and obviously well written piece, there doesn’t seem to be much I can write about other than what has already be written, given that the piece is made up of chromatic runs in the treble and rhythmic definition in the bass, which doesn’t dramatically change throughout the piece. To me, it wasn’t melodically pleasing as some of the pieces that have come before it. This leads onto a completely different theme. It is now very heavy, with surging dynamics, very thick with diabolical chords. This then changes into a rippling arpeggiated section, which towards the end, returns to the original motif, ending in the same grand manner it started in.

-Alexandra

RACHMANINOV – PIANO ETUDES 8 Etudes, Opus.33

MODERATO
The first section of this piece is made up of the same them of two semi-quavers and a crochet – F, E, F. At bar 5, the theme is built on, with quavers underneath, giving a syncopated feel to the piece. This theme then ascends and eventually becomes a semi-quaver run, staccato being the main written articulation. At bar 22, the theme changes a little – instead of F/D, F/D, E/A,F/D.E/G,F/D,G/E,E/C, F/D,D/B being played in the treble, F/D, F/D, E/A,F/D,G/E, F/D, E/A, F/D, F/D, E/C, D/B, C/A, D/B, E/C is played, leading to a new section. This leads back to the original theme of the piece and from there becomes a series of chromatic runs, which is defined by crashing quaver chords in the bass. Eventually, the piece comes out of this, and integrates this new theme with the original semi-quavers to crochet theme, which in transformed in pitch. The theme is played in many different ways, each with different underlying accompaniment. It sometimes has rolling arpeggios in the bass, or it stick to the original staccato syncopation motif.

GRAVE
This piece uses the lower register of the piano for really thick, dark and menacing sound, which eventually lengthens out into what can only be described as musical depression. Notation wise, the beginning of this piece uses quaver to minim variation – in doing this, the dissonant chords (mostly minims) are almost lunging out. The contour is disjunct. Once again, this is in 5/4, for reasons I believe surround the fact that there is less rhythmic pulse. Then comes the meno mosso for a total change of motif. Again we hear the rippling effect, with a C1 and C2 being played underneath. From here, the piece changes completely. It is no longer sad and “muddy” in sound, as we come to the “molto tranquilito” section ,which is truly blissful. Again, made up of the undercurrent of arpeggios with sustained notes in the treble. However, the Poco piu` mosso brings back that dissonant and sad sound again, gradually getting heavier and heavier in sound as it goes. But again, it changes, this time BACK to poco tranquilito, and the piece eventually fades out on the blissful motif.

ALLEGRO
In this section, Rachmaninov explores further, what I before described as the “angelic” section and also the “rippling effect. This piece is predominantly made up of lots of bass arpeggios as undercurrents and lots of broken chords. As in the first piece, he uses a main theme underneath sustained notes in the upper register – before it was syncopation, in this piece, it is the use of arpeggio. It is a piece based mainly on expression and has many many accelerando, ritardandos and a tempo changes marked in, making the piece very interesting to listen to, but very hard to follow on a score!

ALLEGRO MA NON TROPPO
The first part of this section is in 4/4 and is predominantly just made up of syncopation, with a single held note above it to provide melodic intrigue. It goes into a 5/4 are then returns to 4/4, for the reason, I’m assuming is the rhythmic effect he wanted – 5/4 gives it a more “flowing” sound, and I assume he returns to 4/4 for emphasis on the beat again. It then goes into 6/4, where it runs a small chromatic scale from A-F descending. The 6/4 section is much the same as the 4/4 section, although the highlighting notes above the syncopated melody are less forceful/percussive. It then goes into 5/4, which is less percussively driven and in its overall sound, it is sadder than the jumpy and lively section it started with. After the 5/4 area, it goes back into 4/4, into what, in my opinion, is angelic and sweet in manner. It’s a quiet interlude in-between all the musical mayhem. It doesn’t last long, as the piece reverts back to its original theme, but to me, it seems to have changed into a more serious and “march-like” variation of the opening of the piece. From here, he uses his main motif and the “angelic” sound I mentioned before, in contrast with each other. As he does this, there are too many time signature changes to note, so for now, I shall leave that out of the equation. To finish the piece, he creates a beautiful rippling effect, via the use of syncopating arpeggios, and then going into a quaver section in the treble, where he uses descending arpeggios. The piece continues, growing more dissonant towards the end, finishing the section with just a ghost of the original theme it started with.

-Alexandra

Voiles – Claude Debussy

Voiles means 'sails or veils'. What? This isn't funny or humorous at all? WELL ****!

Voiles, for solo piano, is the second prelude from his Premier Livre. I found this piece incredibly interesting to listen to due to the apparent lack (for the most part) of a tonal centre. This is due to Debussy’s use of the whole tone scale which permeates the entire piece with the exception of a small passage that is in the pentatonic scale and a couple of chromatic runs. This whole tone scale gives the piece a feeling of drifting along, not aimlessly but without a clear direction. The Bb in the bass in bar 5 would suggest that to be the tonal centre of the piece but I think that due to the nature of the whole tone scale the piece defies conventional harmony and therefore does not use a tonal centre at all. The descending thirds motif has a haunting quality that I do rather like and in conjunction with the chords in the left hand gives the piece a very haunting feel. This free-flowing section is juxtaposed by a very distinct and rather beautiful midsection, in which Debussy changes the tonality and pitch class to a pentatonic scale. This section, while coming as a surprise, does not feel at all out of place within the context of the primarily whole tone piece. It serves as a short brk from the obscure harmony of the whole tone sections by providing a tonal centre and more conventional harmony. Overall I really enjoyed this piece and it showed me how the use of a scale can be used to portray specific emotions.

Richard Meale – Coruscations for solo piano

This is one of the most interesting compositions I have come across from Australian composer Richard Meale.

According to the sticky note attached to the score, coruscate means to give forth flashes of light, sparkle, glitter; to exhibit sparkling virtuosity. This definition certainly fits many of the unusual elements that comprise this composition.

The majority of the piece is made up of rapidly played figurations; short passages which are intended to be played ‘fast to as fast as possible’. At the end of each passage the performer is required to either: make an appropriate pause before going on; make an appropriate hesitation before going on; or make no hesitation at all and go on the next passage immediately. Some figurations are to be played uguale (equal; in a similar manner), and these passages will often contain internal rhythmic groupings.

One aspect which makes this composition unique is that is has no time signature or key signature. The rapid passages are made up of seemingly random notes, often encompassing wide leaps over the piano. At no stage does there appear to be a distinct melodic voice. Instead, the piece, as the above definition suggests, is made up of groups of sparkling notes; comparable to the idea of giving forth flashes of light.

Interspersed amongst the figurations are moderato passages which are more chord-based (still no time or key signatures though) and often include a decrease in dynamic, sometimes down to pppp. These slightly languid passages provide an effective contrast to the rapidly-played figurations by creating a more timid, mysterious mood.

Many elements of the piece are to be interpreted by the pianist. These include most of the dynamics, tempo, the use of pedal, and the way the performer plays the figurations (they do not have to be perfectly even). Apparently this composition is intended to reflect the distinct sounds of the Australian environment, such as the heat and vibrant bird calls. When you listen hard you can hear some of these sounds embedded into the music.

The only way I could listen to this composition was on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTr8rqk9DBA. The pianist, Edward Neeman, has somehow managed to memorise the piece. What an effort.

- Tully

Bartok, B. Mikrokosmos Vol. 1

He uses a strong sense of contrast to transform the character of the music throughout the short sections. In the first section there is a manic crazed feel, with a highly energized rhythmic line and staccato melodic line.  This then abruptly transforms to a more gentle, lyrical character with the melodic line suddenly being legato and sweeping with diatonic glissandi. This then transforms again back to the crazes manic character. The character is constantly changing and transforming throughout, mostly through the use of contrast.

- Sascha

Talk: Benjamin Zander on music and passion

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Very interesting speech by someone who seems to be a very interesting person. He helps an entire audience enjoy listening to classical music.

It probably helps that he’s a very tasteful pianist.

Anyway, enjoy.

Vin