Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Doctoral Applied Arts 2014-5 The Preservation Of Subjectivity Through Form: The Radical Restructuring Of Disintegrated Material In The Music Of Gerald Barry, Kevin Volans And Raymond Deane. Adrian Smith Technological University Dublin, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/appadoc Part of the Composition Commons, Music Education Commons, Musicology Commons, and the Music Theory Commons Recommended Citation Smith, A. (2014) The preservation of subjectivity through form: the radical restructuring of disintegrated material in the music of Gerald Barry, Kevin Volans and Raymond Deane.Doctoral Thesis, Technological University Dublin.doi:10.21427/D7401T This Theses, Ph.D is brought to you for free and open access by the Applied Arts at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License THE PRESERVATION OF SUBJECTIVITY THROUGH FORM: THE RADICAL RESTRUCTURING OF DISINTEGRATED MATERIAL IN THE MUSIC OF GERALD BARRY, KEVIN VOLANS AND RAYMOND DEANE Adrian Smith BMus Submitted for the qualification of PhD Dublin Institute of Technology Conservatory of Music and Drama Supervisor: Dr Mark Fitzgerald May 2014 ABSTRACT This thesis examines Adorno’s concept of ‘disintegrated musical material’ and applies it to the work of the Irish composers Raymond Deane (b. 1953), Gerald Barry (b. 1952) and Kevin Volans (b. 1949). Although all three of these composers have expressed firm commitments to the ideal of creating new and radical works, much of the material in their music is composed of elements abstracted from the tonal past. This feature of their work would seem contrary to the views of Adorno, who is commonly seen as advocating progressive composition using only the most advanced means. This view comes across most strongly in Philosophy of New Music—his most well-known book on music—in which Stravinsky is accused of musical regression with his ‘inauthentic’ use of folkloric and archaic forms from the past. On this basis the so-called postmodernist period of the past forty years— which has encouraged the playful re-incorporation of historical material—would seem very much out of step with Adorno’s modernist aesthetics. However in some of his lesser known writings on Mahler, Berg, Bartók, and even in some earlier work on Stravinsky, Adorno managed to discern a number of positive aspects to their reincorporation of disintegrated materials in a way that would seem to contradict his verdict on Stravinsky in Philosophy of New Music. This thesis aims to unravel the issues at the heart of this contradiction to see if a radical musical aesthetic based on such material remains a possibility in the era of postmodernism. Through a detailed examination of the work of these three composers, this study aims to demonstrate how this material is recycled in their music in a way which attains new structural interrelations that transcend the fragmentary nature of the material itself. ii DECLARATION I certify that this thesis which I now submit for examination for the award of_____________________, is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others, save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. This thesis was prepared according to the regulations for postgraduate study by research of the Dublin Institute of Technology and has not been submitted in whole or in part for another award in any other third level institution. The work reported on in this thesis conforms to the principles and requirements of the DIT's guidelines for ethics in research. DIT has permission to keep, lend or copy this thesis in whole or in part, on condition that any such use of the material of the thesis be duly acknowledged. Signature __________________________________ Date ______________ iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to many people for their support over the duration of this project. First and foremost I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr Mark Fitzgerald. Mark has been an encouraging figure since my undergraduate years where he introduced me to Irish contemporary music and first floated the idea of research in this area. Since then his knowledge and guidance have proved to be a tremendous support while his high standards and rigorous scholarship have inspired me to try to achieve similar results in my own work. I would like to thank the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences for granting me a scholarship to pursue this project and I would also like to thank DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama for assisting me financially over the past two years. I am also grateful to Dr Kerry Houston for all his help and encouragement. In terms of accessing scores, recordings and archival material the staff at the Contemporary Music Centre were indispensable throughout my research and I would especially like to mention Jonathan Grimes and Tricia Lyons who were always extremely accommodating in this regard. There are a number of friends whom I wish to thank; my flatmate Fiachra White for allowing me to colonise the living room table from time to time and David Moriarty for his stimulating discussions and his generosity in providing me with scores and articles from his own research on Gerald Barry. I would also like to thank my friends Paul Madden, Robert Madden, Mark O’Donnell, Niall Martin and Robert Smyth for helping me to keep things in perspective. Finally I must thank my parents and my brother for their kindness and generosity not only during this PhD but throughout my education as a whole. Without their unwavering support this project would not have been possible. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................ ii Declaration .................................................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... iv List of Music Examples ............................................................................................. vii INTRODUCTION: RADICAL MUSIC IN A POSTMODERN CONTEXT ................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: RECYCLING ADORNO: ADOPTING A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ‘SECOND-HAND’ MATERIAL AND THE PROBLEM OF FORM .................................... 22 I) Philosophical Background ................................................................................ 24 II) Adorno’s Philosophy of New Music ................................................................. 32 III) Critique ............................................................................................................. 39 IV) Implications ...................................................................................................... 50 V) Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 58 CHAPTER 2: CONFRONTING THE OBJECTIFIED OBJECTIVELY: THE MUSIC OF GERALD BARRY ................................................................................................... 61 I) Career Overview ............................................................................................... 63 II) Paradigm Analysis: Objectivity and Brutality in Sur les Pointes ..................... 81 III) Objective Structuring in Texture, Harmony and Orchestration........................ 93 IV) Balancing Extremes: Two Contrasting Approaches to Form in Chevaux-de-frise and Agnes von Hohenstaufen ............................................. 109 V) Barry’s Vocal Style......................................................................................... 123 VI) Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 136 CHAPTER 3: FROM AFRICA TO ABSTRACTION: THE MUSIC OF KEVIN VOLANS ......... 138 I) Career Overview ............................................................................................. 141 II) Adorno on Folk Music .................................................................................... 149 III) The African Paraphrase Series........................................................................ 152 IV) Assessment 1: The African Paraphrase Series as a Political Statement ........................................................................................................ 178 V) Assessment 2: The African Paraphrase Series as a Pathway Towards a New Musical Language ................................................................ 181 VI) Analysis: Cicada and ‘No Composition’ ........................................................ 188 VII) ‘The Blank Canvas’: Further Developments in String Quartet No. 6 and The Concerto for Double Orchestra ............................................... 203 VIII) Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 208 CHAPTER 4: THE PLAY OF CONTRADICTIONS: THE MUSIC OF RAYMOND DEANE ..... 210 I) Career Overview ............................................................................................. 211 II) Paradigm Analysis: Structural Dialectic in Embers