Page 101 - Glasbenopedagoški zbornik Akademije za glasbo v Ljubljani / The Journal of Music Education of the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, leto 13, zvezek 27 / Year 13, Issue 27, 2017
P. 101
Paul Crowther, MUSIC AS VIRTUAL EXPRESSION
produced by electronic devices and tapes). The remarkable thing is that much of the
material develops in a conversational way, or, on occasion as a presentation of
quasi-voices or points of view – sometimes in conflict, sometime in a kind of nervous
harmony with one another.
In a work such as this everything hangs on the timbre and rhythms of sound and the
uniqueness of their phrasings. Kontacte seems, in particular to present different ways of
imaginatively spatializing temporal duration. In some passages or episodes this serves to
make us feel at home with the imaginary environment thus created; in other passages, it
alienates us from it.
Much of Stockhausen’s work involves a combination of traditional instruments and
electronic devices. And in some of his work, elements of the tonal system are involved but
somewhat concealed within an extraordinarily complex structure Mantra of 1970 (a work
for two pianos and electronic accompaniments, notably a ring-modulator) is a case in
point. The electronic devices give the rhythms and timbres of the piano parts a kind of
uncanny penumbra. In formal terms, there are a few improvised elements, but the work is
scored – and centres on two counterpointed formulae or melodies sustained by devices
such as driving rhythms and repeated notes. Throughout the work, the two pianos seem to
come together in phrases that create a kind of disassociational whole, i.e. one which
discloses a sense of things lost, losing, fading, disappearing, fraying, or decomposing.
However, whilst these factors have a negative meaning they also involve new things
coming into being, and it is the unsettling emotional ambiguity of this coming apart into
new creation that Mantra successfully evokes.
It may be that a great deal of other avant-garde music – at the extremes of tonalism or
going beyond it – exploit this same general area of association. But each piece does this in
its own particular way. It establishes the association by engaging with the listener’s own
personal history to revivify the ambiguity in terms of things previously experienced or in
terms of imagined possibilities.
The point is, then, that even music outside the traditional tonal system, or which works at it
very limits, can evoke features bound up with aesthetic self-becoming – albeit with a
narrative structure that is much more allusive than it is descriptive.
In this discussion, then, it has been argued that the musical work projects possibilities of
experience that are created by another person or persons, but which do not require
reference to the circumstances of the work’s creation in order to be intelligible. Its
expressive features can be enjoyed on the performer’s or audience’s own terms. More
specifically, through the tonal system, music’s vocal or instrumental melodic/
harmonic/rhythmic structures parallel the way that emotional intonations of voice and
gesture (and their developments) are intelligible from a distance. This virtual expression
allows the audience to be, as it were, blended with the expressive dimension of the work in
a way that is not possible through other art media. This theory was supported by sustained
discussion of a number of examples, namely the childrens’ song Frere Jacques, Gallus’s
101
produced by electronic devices and tapes). The remarkable thing is that much of the
material develops in a conversational way, or, on occasion as a presentation of
quasi-voices or points of view – sometimes in conflict, sometime in a kind of nervous
harmony with one another.
In a work such as this everything hangs on the timbre and rhythms of sound and the
uniqueness of their phrasings. Kontacte seems, in particular to present different ways of
imaginatively spatializing temporal duration. In some passages or episodes this serves to
make us feel at home with the imaginary environment thus created; in other passages, it
alienates us from it.
Much of Stockhausen’s work involves a combination of traditional instruments and
electronic devices. And in some of his work, elements of the tonal system are involved but
somewhat concealed within an extraordinarily complex structure Mantra of 1970 (a work
for two pianos and electronic accompaniments, notably a ring-modulator) is a case in
point. The electronic devices give the rhythms and timbres of the piano parts a kind of
uncanny penumbra. In formal terms, there are a few improvised elements, but the work is
scored – and centres on two counterpointed formulae or melodies sustained by devices
such as driving rhythms and repeated notes. Throughout the work, the two pianos seem to
come together in phrases that create a kind of disassociational whole, i.e. one which
discloses a sense of things lost, losing, fading, disappearing, fraying, or decomposing.
However, whilst these factors have a negative meaning they also involve new things
coming into being, and it is the unsettling emotional ambiguity of this coming apart into
new creation that Mantra successfully evokes.
It may be that a great deal of other avant-garde music – at the extremes of tonalism or
going beyond it – exploit this same general area of association. But each piece does this in
its own particular way. It establishes the association by engaging with the listener’s own
personal history to revivify the ambiguity in terms of things previously experienced or in
terms of imagined possibilities.
The point is, then, that even music outside the traditional tonal system, or which works at it
very limits, can evoke features bound up with aesthetic self-becoming – albeit with a
narrative structure that is much more allusive than it is descriptive.
In this discussion, then, it has been argued that the musical work projects possibilities of
experience that are created by another person or persons, but which do not require
reference to the circumstances of the work’s creation in order to be intelligible. Its
expressive features can be enjoyed on the performer’s or audience’s own terms. More
specifically, through the tonal system, music’s vocal or instrumental melodic/
harmonic/rhythmic structures parallel the way that emotional intonations of voice and
gesture (and their developments) are intelligible from a distance. This virtual expression
allows the audience to be, as it were, blended with the expressive dimension of the work in
a way that is not possible through other art media. This theory was supported by sustained
discussion of a number of examples, namely the childrens’ song Frere Jacques, Gallus’s
101
