Timbre as Discourse Contemporary Performance Practice on the Violin Mieko Kanno D. Phil University of York Department of Music February 2001 Abstract Timbre as Discourse: Contemporary Performance Practice on the Violin addresses first the issues of musical timbre that concern our general musical discourse, in order to clarify the foundation upon which we operate our practice of music making — both composition and performance. Our current performance practice, regardless of the historical period of the repertoire concerned, embodies the latest state of the continuum of philosophical developments surrounding music over the centuries. The violin is then taken as a reference point to examine this continuum through its position in the current state of practice. Musical performance raises inevitable questions of contextuality through its reliance on time and space for expression. On the other hand, musical composition has developed to extend beyond the boundary of the traditional notion of performance. Appropriate contextualisation of such manifestations — extended technique and unique notational practices — is sought by examining their effect on the perception of musical timbre. The examination concludes with a discussion on the employment of time and timbre in the context of Xnoybis for violin by Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) and aims to elucidate issues relevant to the performance practice of new music. 2 Contents Abstract 2 Contents 3 Preface 6 Acknowledgements 8 I. Introduction to the question and framework of timbre 9 1. The fundamental location of timbre in musical discourse 9 What is musical 'content' ? 9 The composition of musical sound 11 The question of identity 14 Issues involved in the concept of timbre 17 Timbre and temporalities 21 Raw-timbre and the role of performer in musical practice 24 2. Timbre as cultural product 30 The influences of society and social 'ideas' 30 The fabric of tradition 33 Views on historicity 37 H. Timbre and composition: the idea of semiology in musical discourse 40 The work of art and its varied representations 40 The question of text 43 Notation in music 46 Contributions of semiology 49 The approach towards musical expression 54 i. Production of music 54 ii. Further production (reproduction) of music 57 The location of semiology 60 Concerning the elements of semiology 62 i. Discussion 62 ii. Example 65 3 III. Controlling timbre 71 1. Towards a pragmatic analysis of the function of some timbral parameters.. 71 The continuity of acoustic identity in varying contexts 71 The identity of a sound, and its timbral parameters and technical actions 74 2. Vibrato 80 Vibrato as an expressive technique 80 Historical examination of vibrato 82 The role of vibrato in the performance practice of new music 88 3. Fingering 97 Fingering technique and timbral parameters 97 Traditional approach 99 Fingering in new music 105 4. Speed and pressure of the bow 112 Functions of the bow on the violin 112 Musical differences offered by changes in the speed and pressure of the bow 113 i. Discussion 113 ii. Examples 118 5. Vertical actions of the bow 129 Varied points of contact and their relationship with the musical context 129 i. Discussion 129 ii. Examples 132 Theexistential instrument 140 IV. Musical notations and their 'code of practice' 144 Rhythmic indeterminacy in Medieval manuscripts: Hermetic semiosis in earlierforms of notations 145 Indeterminacy in indeterminate notation 151 Indeterminacy in action notation 159 Indeterminacy in standard notation 172 Subjective indeterminacy and opportunistic reading 177 V. Sculpting in Time: temporality and the music of Giacinto Scelsi 183 Density of experience 183 4 Xnoybis: the question of musical content 191 Time and movement 194 Xnoybis: time and its perceptual qualities 198 Xnoybis: timbre and multiplicity of representation 202 Performance as a work of art 207 Appendix I 213 Quotations on Vibrato 214 Appendix II 219 Richard Barrett: air — study for violin (1993) 220 Mathias Spahlinger: adieu m'amour for violin and cello (1983) 221 John Cage: Eight Whiskus (1985) 224 Helmut Lachenmann: Toccatina for solo violin (1968) 226 Appendix III 231 Scelsi: Xnoybis for solo violin (1964) — first movement 232 Bibliography 238 5 Preface Increasing specialisation in music has tended to enlarge the separation between the activities of composition, performance and musicology, leading to polarisation. One consequence of this has been a variety of startling technical advances in individual disciplines, where techniques have become refined to an almost esoteric level. However, this development has in some cases progressed at the expense of aesthetic and practical considerations. The growing variety of modern society brings into question whether contemporary musicians really have the necessary training and culture to execute an integrated and artistic performance which recognises the complexity of the music in hand. Specialisation in performance has modified the scope of practice on the violin centring around the works of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the period considered as the golden age of the instrument. The establishment of performance practice in this repertoire around the first half of the twentieth century culminated in several well-known publications on the 'art of violin playing' (these will be discussed in Chapter Three). The principles established at this time are still the basis of modern violin playing. However, this has slowed down further investigation into areas of recently developed musical discourse. It is thought that as composition and musicology develop and diverge, ideas in performance practice ought to change accordingly. The question is therefore why such a development has not influenced performance. The answer lies in the unique circumstance of music whereby performance is the only discipline that deals with a single dimension of time. Assuming that developments in other disciplines in the twentieth century have their foundation in the written form of their medium, this thesis considers first the converging area of musical being (as expressed in the temporal dimension) and then the relationship between composition and performance. Historical and theoretical studies of music may advance the level of understanding of a musical work. The expertise derived from musicological studies may lead to a more informed notion of performance practice, which then deserves to be realised by an appropriate means of execution. However, the investigation into the means of execution has often been left unchallenged. I suggest that this is the 6 most elusive but perhaps the most crucial of all interpretative skills because of its immediate affectivity in performance. Interpretation is a combined act of intellectual and physical understanding. In the end what is at stake is creativity, since the lack of such aggregate skills may restrict an imaginative space. Hence this thesis approaches the question of musical timbre, the nucleus of energy which projects music in space and time, as a process towards understanding the network of relationships between all levels of interpretation. Although cross-disciplinary studies have been developing in recent years, certain areas of the repertoire are left behind, such as the music of today. Indeed, performance practice in contemporary music is rarely discussed; the expertise involved in the separate disciplines is such that the gulf between performer and composer has tended towards a mutual distrust. Arguably, however, this new repertoire demands an even higher level of interpretative skill. It is when interpretative skills achieve competence and become subject to an imaginative function that a truly artistic performance may emerge. The final and most important feature of any reading/execution of a musical text is the exposure of that text to the vitality of the imagination. 7 Acknowledgements Many thanks to Prof. Roger Marsh for his support throughout this project. Others have also made numerous contributions to the project and I would like to thank Anton, Daniel, James, Nic, Nicky, and Paul in particular. However, the outcome of this project is my own work and I am responsible for all the attributes within it. This work is dedicated to my parents with appreciation of their support for my vocation and of their belief in the power of education, to both of which I owe a significant part of what I am. 8 I. Introduction to the question and framework of timbre 1. The fundamental location of timbre in musical discourse' What is musical 'content'? Eduard Hanslick addresses this question in The Beautiful in Music: • . it is precisely the "specifically musical" element of the creation of inventive genius which the contemplating mind apprehends and assimilates. These concrete musical images, and not the vague impression of some abstract feeling, constitute the spirit of the composition. The form (the musical structure) is the real substance (subject) of music — in fact, is the music itself, in antithesis to the feeling, its alleged subject, which can be called neither its subject nor its form, but simply the effect produced.2 For Hanslick music possesses an aesthetic autonomy, so that what he calls 'feeling' (GefiAl) does not manifest itself except in specifically musical elements. It is in the form's communicative capacity that we perceive the feeling. Therefore the musical structure is the substance by virtue of accommodating 'concrete musical images'. The 'specifically musical' element (the combination of definite successions of sound)