In Harmony. Julian Anderson Introduces the Music and Ideas of Tristan Murail

In Harmony. Julian Anderson Introduces the Music and Ideas of Tristan Murail Author(s): Julian Anderson and Tristan Murail Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 134, No. 1804 (Jun., 1993), pp. 321-323 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1003053 . Accessed: 08/01/2014 08:42 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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The music of Tristan Murail

IN Julian

HARMONY Anderson

iintroduces

the

works

and

hy do we always have to think of music in terms of notes? ... We work with sounds,for which notes are simply symbols... Notes and sounds are not the same thing.'l Thus Tristan Murailten years ago in an articleabouthis then latest composition, Desintegrations (1982-83) for ensemble and tape. If that quote applies particularly well to Desintegrations itself, it epitomises equally accuratelyMurail's whole attitudeto composition over the last twenty years. Together with his contemporaryand close colleague, G6rardGrisey, he has resolutelyopposedthe serialand postserialtrendsdominantin so much new music, with theiremphasison such notationalconceits as parametricpermutation, rhythmic and intervallicsymmetry,octave equivalenceand muchof what is understood as the sine qua non of compositionaltechniquenowadays. In place of all this, the dominantforce is that of sound itself, and our perceptionof it. The use of the acoustic constituentsof sounds, or sound spectra,not only as the basis for large-scaleforms, but also as pitch andrhythmicmaterialin theirmusic has given rise to the cliche 'spectral music', by which the work of Murail, Grisey and their pupils is generallyreferredto. This is a highly misleadingterm,giving the impression of a jumble of sound spectra being chucked togetherto form a piece of music. In fact, sound spectrathemselves are far less compositionallydeterministicthan the acoustic continuity which links them, their relative consonanceor dissonance. This obsession with orgainiccontinuityplaces Murail,in particular,well outside the 20th-centuryFrench traditionof discontinuouslyjuxtaposing objets sonores, a characteristicof both Boulez and Murail's teacher Messiaen. For Murail, as for Grisey, 'the vehicle is less importantthanthejourney travelledin it... the objet sonore does not exist any morein itself; it is subsumedinto puredevelopment.'2 Murail'sfirst matureworks were composed aroundrecurringharmonic spectra(e.g. the naturalovertoneseries) whose simple consonances provide easily recognisable 'beacons for the listener in the constantflux of the music.'3 As in Grisey's music from this period (Periodes,Partiels) the appearanceof consonantspectrais explicitly linked with maximumrhythmicregularity(or 'periodicity'),creating clear points of rest and stabilityin the music, away from which progressive deviations are carefully measured and back to which the music constantlyreturns(thereis a strikingparallelbetweenthis idea and the use of similar 'point of rest' in Birtwistle's works such as

W

Meridian, Silbury air and ...agm... - the more so as these pieces

share with Grisey's Espace acoustiques cycle a 'tonic' E around which everythinggraviates).

June 1993

The

Mu ca

ideas

of Tristan

Miurail

Murail'ssMemo Mura or horn andn and nine ne instruments Memoire-erosion re eros on(1976) ns rumen s 1976 for h s technique recurrent'points rest' through curiadopted adop edthis echn queoof recurren po n s oof res hrougha cur ous ana with h eelectronic ec ron cmus music. c The p ns ru analogy ogy w piece ece iss largely arge y an instruhe so mental men a ssimulation mu a onoof the so-called ca ed 'reinjection device ce from rom re n ec onloop', oop a dev ud os in n wh ve sound iss recordedon the he days oof ana which ch a live recordedon analogue ogue sstudios number of oother her tape-heads hrough a numbero ape heads too be p tape, ape passed through played ayed back aafter successive ve time me de hen sen he first rs tape er success sent back too the delays, ays then ape with h new sounds sounds: a procedure w with h an recorder too be comb combined ned w obvious obv ous bas basicc per Memoire-erosion, re eros on every sound periodicity od c y too it. In Memo with h he so soloo horn iss cop he ensemb ensemble, e initially copied ed by the n a yw played p ayed by the mechanical ca regu ha the he mus musicc ccircles rc es aroundin n absolutely abso u e ymechan regulariy, ar y so that ever-closer ever c oser concen canons. Bu But Mura Murail aalso so ssimulates concentric r c canons mu a es the he hiss ss wh blurred b urred per which ch accumu accumulate a e when a tape periodicity od c y and h ape iss hese as features ea uresoof the he mus musical ca repeatedly repea ed ycop copied ed and h highlights gh gh s these ensemble's e s imitations m a onsoof the he horn horn'ssma sstructure. ruc ure The ensemb material er a - ooften en consonant arpegg notes es - reduce it aga ssimple, mp e consonan us ssingle ng e no arpeggios os or just again n and aga he so soloist's o s s aattempts hs noise; se the again n too chaos and no emp stoo fight gh this naw cadenza nearthe he end - mere wild, d bark barking ngcadenzanear process - no notably ab y in merelyy n grea result in resu disorder. sorder F he so soloist o s ggives he p n the greater er d Finally na y the ves in, piece ece with h a sharpcclick ck as the he composer h himself mse sw switches ches ooff h hiss ending end ng w machine. ne imaginary mag narytape ape mach In E or flute Ethers hers (1978), u e and a qu o n vviola, o a ce cello, o 1978 for quintet n e oof vviolin, he flute he re relation a onoof the u e too the he qu m ar rombone the bass, and trombone, bass quintet n e iss ssimilar n Memo too that ha oof the he horntoo the he ensemb ensemblee in Memoire. re The flute u e proposes a ser models' s wh which ch the series es oof 'acoustic acous c mode he qu mu quintet n e aattempts emp stoo ssimun so do he mode modelss are progress deformed ormedinto n o a new late; a e in doing, ng the progressively ve yde which ch prov he pre or a new acous acousticc mode model from rom texture ex urewh provides des the pretext ex for the he flute, and so the he process con continues. nues The twin w n no notions onsoof process u e andso and total o a con he ha hallmarks marksoof Mura Murail'ss continuity nu yhave by now become the most charac characteristic er s cp rom this h s time me evo evolve ve in n an he mos sstyle y e - the pieces eces from unbrokenflow ow oof perpe en ex ure and timbre, mbre ooften perpetually ua yimitating m a ng texture ence aaltogether. he lack ack oof it, iss a ac ssilence, ence or the eschewing eschew ng ssilence oge her In fact, nE central cen ra preoccupa mos the he en entire rework work iss heard Ethers, hers as aalmost preoccupation onin rolled ed maracas maracas,a 'composed' against aga ns a backdropoof gen gentlyy ro composed rep replaceace ment for men or the he usua usual ssilence Murail ence ('in n any case imaginary,' mag nary as Mura which ch we are accus accustomed omedtoo listening music. c out) aga points po n s ou against ns wh s en ng too mus The maracasfunction unc on as an aud which ch one one'ss auditory oryscreen through hrough wh ears qu he mus he music, c mak quickly ck y become used too perce perceiving v ng the making ng the moment aat wh momen which ch they en - the he qu n a ssilent musicc in hey abrup abruptlyyfall quietest e es mus the he en entire re work - one oof ex extreme reme shock shock. Th Thiss iss on he mos most onlyy the Murail'ssconcern with h obvious obv ous examp enter erinto n oa d concerntoo en examplee oof Mura dialogue a ogue w the he listener's s ener s percep nh hiss work work, a concern expectations a onsin perceptions onsand expec

T me

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321

which informs every aspect of the music and has led him to explore the perceptual thresholds between such apparently distinct categories as harmonyand timbre,rhythmand pitch, form and material, and indeed sound and music. As Murailpoints out, when working with computers and synthesisers this latter distinction rapidly becomes meaningless- electronicsoundsoften have such a complex and lengthy internal evolution that they are already substantial stretchesof music. Transferthat thinkingto live instrumentalmusic and the distinction between form and material disappears - in a work such as Ethers,the form of the music is simply the evoution of its material. Consider, too, such hitherto eccentric instrumentalanalogies as complex bell sounds, woodwind multiphonicsor soundsobtainedby singing into an instrumentwhile playing:do you hear a timbreor do you hearharmony? These lattersounds are the donne of Ethers,the initial materialwhich startsthe whole process going. The resultant spectraof simultaneouslysung and played tones can be easily predicted: the sung tone modulatesthe played one, producingsum and differencetones of the two (ex.1). The harmonyof the opening section of Ethers is entirely derived from such 'ring modulation' PO.Jed nol #t +

r=.: =3Z' 93= h3.

nosn sung

,

Bg- 2 -h3.

a

> 655^h3.

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(f>Jt1iAtn- 4Ones) Ex 1: HARMONICMATERIAL FORBARS1-33 OF ETHERS

chords,startingwith just the harmonicsof the resultanttones (on the strings), then gradually descending on to the fundamentalsas the flute enterswith the full chord. So what is usually a freakish'effect' in new music is thus coherently integratedinto a context logically derivedfrom it and in which it makes musical sense. Another area which has persistentlyfascinated Murail is that of unstable,sliding tempos and the ambiguitiesthey throw up. He has made a close study of the phenomenologyand psychology of acceleration and deceleration,a complex area involving logarithmically varying durations(as opposed to the subdivisionof a uniformbasic

beat usua bea usual in n wes western ernmus accelerandos erandosandr and ritarar music). c The pro prolonged ongedacce dandosin n Mura Murail'ssmus musicc d distort s or and transform the soundma rans ormhe soundmaterial er a in n an ex extreme reme fashion: ash on through acceleration era onan an en entire remus musihroughpro prolonged ongedacce cal phrasemay ca n o a ssingle middle dd e phrase may be compressed into ng e impulse. mpu se The m section sec on oof E Ethers hers compresses a subs substantial an a 40 40-second second sequence oof evolution u on first rs into n o appog hen into n o rap unison son spectral spec ra evo appogiaturas, a uras then rapid d un n o a texture ex ureoof tremolos remo osand and fluttertonguing chords,and finally chords ex na y into u er ongu ng(ex. extreme remerritardation arda onac actss as a magn 22). Converse Conversely, y ex magnifying y nggglass ass on a reveal more and more de detail a as it iss aallowed owed sound, en sound enlarging arg ngit too revea n wh which ch too be heard heard. The last as m minutes nu es oof Les increasing ncreas ng space in courantssde couran de l'espace or rring-modulated martenot eno and 1979 for espace (1979, ng modu a edondes mar ea urejust n wh which ch a gra orchestra) orches ra feature us such a sslowing-up, ow ng up in grainy ny sound iss reveal itss individual nd v dua impulses which ch are progressively progress ve y en enlarged arged too revea mpu ses wh he ex extent en that ha just hem occup he finally na y magn magnified ed too the us one oof them occupies es the wholee conc who section on oof the he work work. O Of course course, such p concluding ud ng sec pitch-toch o rans orma onsaand nd magn mbrehave have been pos rhythm rhy hmtransformations magnifications ca onsoof timbre posssible b e for or decades by sslowing sounds on a tape, ow ng down or speed speeding ngup up soundson ape but the bu he freedom reedom from rom technological restraints ra n sand and literalness era ness lends ends echno og ca res such transformations, rans erredtoo the he pure ns rumen a rans orma ons when transferred purelyy instrumental orce wh which ch makes music, mus c a flexibility, ex b y amb ambiguity gu y and compu compulsive s ve force them hem the he more exc and dramaticctoo listen s en to. o exciting ng anddrama A prom ea ureoof Mura Murail'ss works ssince nce 1980 has been the he prominent nen feature use oof frequency modulation a on(FM) he compu method hod FM - the requencymodu computer ersyn synthesis hes s me discovered d scoveredby John Chown or produc n Chowning4 ng4- for producing ngsoundcomp complexes exes in ns rumen amus music. c The lends ends itself se very we well too grad he purelyy instrumental pure grading ngthe relative re a ved dissonance ssonanceor or consonanceo consonanceof chords- or er or, too use spec spectral ra terhe degree oof 'inharmonicity' called ed 'inharnhar minology, m no ogy the nharmon c y (aa sound iss ca monic' mon c if itss spec not obey the he pa he spectrum rumoof par partials a sdoes no pattern ernoof the natural na ura harmon harmoniccser mechanics csoof this h s procedureare ssimm series). es The mechan n ou outline: ne the he sum and d difference erence tones ones oof two wo frere plee enough in p he 'carrier' carr er and 'modulator') ca ed the quences (called modu a or yyield e d comp complex ex sounds between ween harmonyand timbre mbre (as n rring but as in halfway ha way be modulation), a on bu ng modu the he mu he frequencies he modu multiples p esoof one oof the requenc es- the modulating a ngfrequency requencyn o the he process resultss are much more pre may be added into process. The resu predictable d c ab eandcon and controllable ro ab ethan hanrring n wh which ch the he harmon harmonmodulation, a on in ng modu ics cs oof aall frequencies saturation ura onoof resu resultant an nc uded crea requenc esare included, creating nga sa tones ones wh which ch qu deteriorates er ora esn intoo no noise. se By vary he ra ratioooof quickly ck y de varying ng the the he carr carrier ertoo the he modu modulator a orin n FM he resu resultant an sound comp FM, the complexes exes

Ex 2 ETHERS© Sa aber UMP and reproduced by perm

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Jun 1993

can be made more or less inharmonic;if, for example, the carrier and modulatorare in a simple whole-numberratioto each other,the result will be a harmonicseries (or partof it); the less they are, the more inharmonicthe result. In computermusic, FM has been typicallyunemployedto produce timbreswhich are largelyinharmonic,such as bell sounds. Murail's large orchestralwork Gondwana(1980), a study in bell sounds, is composed solely with FM procedures. The opening chordis shown in Ex.3 (for those who wish to do theirsums I have put the first few calculationsbelow the music example),which also shows the orchestrationof the chord;the relativeintensitiesof an FM soundaretaken into accountin Murail'sorchestration,as are the characteristicsof a

basicc tripartite ascent-culmination cu m na onpo andhor hor, a bas process rocessoof ascen point-repose n repose r par ep four our Each the he of the he processareaaltered, iss recyc times. mes time me details de a so ered recycled ed in and and andharmon harmonies esd distorted s or edn the he varying vary ngdegrees degrees, gestures ges ures rhythms rhy hms musicc from romwh he d which ch the diss correspondingly correspond ng yre rethought. hough The 'original' or g na mus n fact ac the he third he large-scale tortions or onsder derive ve iss in h rdsec section on too be heard heard,the arge sca e so that form orm mov owardsthe he 'definitive' de n ve sec section onso ha itss cclimax maxoccurs occurs moving ng towards aalmost mos exac he go section on po he who wholee p Murail exactlyy aat the golden den sec point n oof the piece. ece Mura h s mu Monet'ss ng e process too Mone comparesthis multiple p erecompos recomposition onoof a ssingle n wh which ch the Rouen Ca Cathedral hedra pa he same sub paintings, n ngs in subject ec iss reworked from romd different eren ang various oustimes mes oof day he angles es aat var day. As if too emphas emphasise sethe Murailhas the he hom which ch intervenes n ervenesso he cu culminatm na hom, wh analogy, ana ogy Mura solely e y aat the rom four ourd different eren pos one per section, on p ing ng po point n oof each sec play ay from positions ons(one across reach to o e progress section) sec on sstarting ar ngooffstage s age left, progressing ng centrestage cen res age aat the he third h rdsec hework workooffstage section, on andconc concluding ud ngthe gh s agerright. he po doctrinaire r na reccharacter harac eroof Mura Murail'ssme methh Despiteethe Desp potentially en a yrrigid, g d doc not pr ods oof compos n e ec ua composer but bu composing, ng he iss no primarily mar yan intellectual composer, or whom techniques one for heor esrema remain nsubord subordinate na etoo aura aural echn ques and theories remains nsopen too the sense and poe he acc accidental den a d discovscov poeticc impulse. mpu se He rema he chance encoun ha the he bes best way oof encounter, er be ery, the ery believing ev ng nowadays that n en onsmay frequently oundby no not tryrealising rea s ngcompos compositional ona intentions requen ybe found ry nd them:5 hem 5the he very titlee oof h hiss latest a es work es work,Serend ing ng too find Serendip, p iss a testiThe vivid h s Thev v d co colours oursand andexpress hiss bes best mony too this. expressive veimmediacy mmed acyoof h Vues aeriennes ennes prove be better er work, such as Gondwana work Gondwana,S Sillages ages and Vuesaer than hanany verba verbaljustification that ha Murail's Mura s is s music mus c for or the he not no ear, ear us ca on eye, eye beautiful u mus musiccaat that. andexceed ha exceedingly ng ybeau

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OPENINGSPECTRUM OF MURAIL'SGONDWANA (B.3) - notes in brackets are

not played here (A+B= 599.65 Hz [Trumpet 3]. A-B= 184.35 Hz [Horn 4] A+2B= 807.3 Hz [Trumpet 1] A-2B= 23.3 Hz [not played] A+3B= 1014.95 Hz [Clarinet 3] A-3B= 230.95 Hz [Horn 3] etc).

typicalbell sonority,with its tendencyto highlighta maintone (G on the second horn), a 'hum' tone (G# on the tuba) and a few higher frequencies, such as the high Ab on the first clarinet. The ratio between the carrierand the modulatoris far from a whole-number one, and so the complex very inharmonic.As the sectionprogresses, the ratiobetweenthe two becomes increasinglysimple,until a totally consonantcomplex is arrivedat, which in fact consists of two superimposedharmonicseries). The hard,bell attackof the chordsis softened into a totally smooth one in the course of a slow but constant acceleration,so thatby the end of the sectionthe chordshave merged into a haze of trillsfromwhich a new processstarts. Murail'smorerecentworkhas delved into the areasof discontinuity, abridgedprocessesand contradictedexpectation. The firstpiece in the new manner, Desintegrations (1982-83), could not form a greatercontrastwith Gondwana;whereasthe latterseems to unfold in a single musicalbreath,Desintegrationsconsists of eleven highly contrastedsections. The raw materialof the work is derived from instrumentalspectraanalysedby computer. Successive sections are based on the timbresof the piano, flute, clarinetand trombone,subjecting themto a varietyof processesincludingsplitting(highlighting one areaof a spectrumafteranother),progressivestretchingof their frequencies and frequency modulation. The rhythmic language is more complex and elusive than in previous works and the rate of change generally swifter. The role of silence, both for dramatic effect andas a meansof punctuatingandarticulatingform andphrase structure,is also vastly increased. Similarly, in Time and again (1985) and Vues aeriennes (1988) the listener is offered only glimpsesof a single process,or severaldifferentversionsof the same process in succession. In Timeand again, the temporalstructureis constantlybrokenup and enrichedby echoes and distoredmemories of earlier sections or premonitionsof future ones; the overall goal towardswhich the structureis propelledbecomes clear only fairly late in the piece. In Vues aeriennes, scored for piano, violin, cello

June 1993

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Mu

The London S will ggive he UK prem Tristan s an Sinfonietta n on e a w ve the premiere ere oof Tr Murail'ss Serend Mura at a the he Hall Ha on 25 Festival Fes va Royal Roya Serendip p July. Ju y Notes No es

n Darms 11. Tr Tristan s anMura u ns in 1982. 22. Darmstidter d erB Murail,'Spectres Spec reseet lutins' Beitrige, e r ge 1982 GerardGr note o e too Par Partiels e s (1975). b d 44. John 1975 33. ibid. Grisey. sey Programmen The syn audioo spec means of frequency Chowning. Chown ng 'The synthesis hes s oof comp complex ex aud spectra raby by meanso requency modulation' modu a on in n JAES vol. 21 no. 77, 1973 1973. 55. Tr Tristan s anMura Murail. 'Questions 21, no JAES,vo Ques onsde n En ccible' b e in 1989. no.8, 8 1989 Entretemps re empsno

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