Conference Agenda

A recently discovered analytical note by Luciano Berio (1925-2003) for Sequenza I for flute (1958) illuminates how for him harmony was not just a pitch structure, but a structure characterized by the interplay of different “dimensions” (parameters) over time. The note explains each of the four parameters involved—(1) “frequency” (pitch), (2) “time” (rhythm), (3) “intensity” (dynamics), and (4) “morphology” (articulation, timbre)—beyond what Berio had indicated in Two Interviews (1985, 97-99) and states the following rule: “We can imagine an independent evolution of the 4 parameters so that at least 2 parameters are always present at their maximum state. When 4 + are present [i.e. when four parameters are at maximum state]: max. complexity [/] density [/] Ascolto ‘poliphonico’ [sic].” Sequenza I owes its title to the fact that it “was built from a sequence of harmonic fields” (Berio 1985, 97). While there are no surviving sketches that demonstrate the harmonic fields with their level of density, I show how Berio’s note allows us to infer the latter directly from the final score. In the opening harmonic field (first two lines of the score), for instance, three parameters are at maximum level of density—with (1) large pitch leaps, (3) predominantly loud dynamics, (4) sharp attacks—and one is at minimum level—with (2) very short durations.

Beyond Sequenza I, and with evidence from Berio’s sketches held at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, the paper illuminates this and other strategies of constructing harmony as object-in-time, and what Berio means by “polyphonic listening,” in: Sincronie for string quartet (1963-64), where he planned the fluctuating orchestration and levels of parametric activity in the harmonies using graphic notation; Passaggio for soprano, chorus, and orchestra (1961-62), where harmonies represent timbre modulations in time; and Tempi concertati for flute, violin, two pianos, and four orchestral groups (1958-59), where harmonies are in flux via gradual shifts in pitch and orchestration.

Benjamin Britten was a British composer strongly steeped in the tonal tradition. However, from the 1950s onwards, serialism began to appear, becoming a prominent technique in a number of significant works, including the War Requiem (1962) and Death in Venice (1973), as he began to engage with recent trends in avant-garde music (Rupprecht 2013). While there is some scholarship on Britten’s serialism, notably Bradshaw (1960), Whittall (1990) and Rupprecht (2013), there is no systematic study of the varying degrees and idiomatic use of this technique. Therefore, in this paper I show how serialism manifests as chromatic aggregates in what I term “twelve-tone thinking.” This manifests as three main types:

1. Twelve-tone ostinato (a row of twelve tones used as a repeated motive)
2. Twelve-tone triads (triads built on each note of the row)
3. Linear twelve-tone rows

The degree of structural importance of serialism varies in each work, typically not employed as a totalizing technique, instead forming a part of Britten’s larger compositional process culminating in a complex motivic patchwork. Overall, the three types have five shared characteristics:

1. Rows set horizontally
2. Internal interval repetition (repetition of an interval-class within a row)
3. Row repetition
4. Limited transformations (often using retrograde and inversion without transposition)
5. Connection to tonality (including use of triads and diatonic fragments)

This presentation sheds light on Britten’s notoriously veiled composition process by analyzing the twelve-tone aggregates of his late style and demonstrating a synthesis between tonal and atonal composition.

As part of his search for a ‘third way’ that was neither tonal nor atonal, Ligeti’s late works often create a disunity of musical space in which vertical and horizontal dimensions are in conflict. One common technique for achieving this is dividing the aggregate into complementary collections, segregated by hands (for piano works), timbre, register, or rhythm. Looking at the directed pitch-class interval distributions that occur melodically within the collections (intra-harmonies) and those that occur harmonically between them (inter-harmonies), in Ligeti these distributions are typically equally and oppositely distinctive, with some interval classes being plentiful in the intra-harmonies and relatively rare in the inter harmonies, while the converse holds for other interval classes.

Despite this melodic-harmonic divergence, Ligeti often manages to create a relatively unified musical space. The opening of the Piano Concerto alternates between Bb modal rock harmony and E modal mixture. In Der Zauberlehrling, which partitions the hands into white-key diatonic and black-key pentatonic, divergent melodic and harmonic profiles are united through the use of triads and a relatively clear though deformed descending circle-of-fifths sequence. At the climax of the second movement of the Piano Concerto, also divided into black and white keys, the hands fuse together through a consistent cross-type transformation yielding nearly parallel voice leading and a progression that cycles through slightly varying sonorities. The presentation will look at other examples of unifying divergent materials in the Galamb Borong, En Suspens, and Entrelacs.

Another related technique for achieving (dis)unity is the use of parallel planing, where harmonic and melodic structures are opposed. For example, whole-tone chords transposed along the notes of a Guidonian hexachord, which draws equally from the two whole-tone collections, yield a completely flat distribution of pitch classes. Reversing the situation with the Guidonian hexachord transposed along a whole-tone collection again yields a flat pitch-class distribution. This use of highly distinctive chords and melodic outlines, one balanced and the other unbalanced with respect to the whole-tone collection, is used in many places throughout Ligeti’s late works.