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The Shaping of Time in Kaija Saariaho's Emilie

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The Shaping of Time in Kaija Saariaho's Emilie THE SHAPING OF TIME IN KAIJA SAARIAHO’S ÉMILIE: A PERFORMER’S PERSPECTIVE Maria Mercedes Diaz Garcia A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS May 2020 Committee: Emily Freeman Brown, Advisor Brent E. Archer Graduate Faculty Representative Elaine J. Colprit Nora Engebretsen-Broman © 2020 Maria Mercedes Diaz Garcia All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Emily Freeman Brown, Advisor This document examines the ways in which Kaija Saariaho uses texture and timbre to shape time in her 2008 opera, Émilie. Building on ideas about musical time as described by Jonathan Kramer in his book The Time of Music: New Meanings, New Temporalities, New Listening Strategies (1988), such as moment time, linear time, and multiply-directed time, I identify and explain how Saariaho creates linearity and non-linearity in Émilie and address issues about timbral tension/release that are used both structurally and ornamentally. I present a conceptual framework reflecting on my performance choices that can be applied in a general approach to non-tonal music performance. This paper intends to be an aid for performers, in particular conductors, when approaching contemporary compositions where composers use the polarity between tension and release to create the perception of goal-oriented flow in the music. iv To Adeli Sarasola and Denise Zephier, with gratitude. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the many individuals who supported me during my years at BGSU. First, thanks to Dr. Emily Freeman Brown for offering me so many invaluable opportunities to grow musically and for her detailed corrections of this dissertation. I would also like to extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. Nora Engebretsen for her deep insights and guidance throughout my research and for having introduced me to concepts that have shaped my musical thinking. Also, thanks to Dr. Elaine Colprit for introducing me to music cognition, which has been critical to my development as a performer. I am grateful for my committee members, Dr. Brown, Dr. Colprit, Dr. Engebretsen and Dr. Brent Archer for their help in the research and writing process and for their generosity with their time. I could not have completed this document without their knowledge and support. I would like to thank everyone who made possible the performance of the opera Émilie which lead to this document: to the musicians for their generosity and openness, to Dr. Michael Laurello for his role as sound designer and for helping with technical logistics. Thank you to the Katzner Award for supporting this project. Especially thanks go to Dr. Hillary LaBonte, soprano, who sang wonderfully the role of Émilie. I would like to thank the BGSU community for their continuous support in the artistic projects I did over my years of studies. To Dr. Marilyn Shrude, for always supporting with her presence every concert I was ever part of and for having had the vision of creating a very unique doctoral program where I had the opportunity to meet many interesting colleagues and musicians. vi I cannot forget my “American” family who has been crucial to my academic success. I could not have done this without the unconditional love and support of my friends: Allen Otte, Denise Zephier, Deb Helton and so many others. Finally, thank you to my family: my parents Mercedes and Manuel, my brothers Manolo y Rafael and my partner in life Johannes, for giving me their love every single day. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1. DEFINITION OF LINEARITY AND THE ORGANIZATION OF TIME IN POST-TONAL MUSIC ......................................................................................................... 5 Linearity ..................................................................................................................... 10 Non-Linearity and Problems of Categorization......................................................... 13 The Role of Performers in the Shaping of Time ....................................................... 14 CHAPTER 2. SAARIAHO’S MUSIC ................................................................................. 19 Timbre and Texture as Generators of Form ............................................................... 22 Saariaho as an Opera Composer ................................................................................ 28 CHAPTER 3. ÉMILIE. BRIEF SYNOPSIS AND FORMAL OVERVIEW ....................... 33 Instrumentation .......................................................................................................... 42 Heterogeneity of Time ............................................................................................... 44 CHAPTER 4. TEXTURE, TIMBRE AND TIME IN ÉMILIE ............................................ 47 Timbre and Texture as Generators of Form in Émilie ............................................... 48 Growth/Life/Decay and Sonic Expansion/Contraction ............................................. 54 How the Times Interrelate ......................................................................................... 56 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSIONS. TEMPORAL ANALYSES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PERFORMERS AND CONDUCTORS ................................................................................ 59 Performative Decisions .............................................................................................. 61 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 64 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 67 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 4.1 Example Growth/Life/Decay ..................................................................................... 55 ix LIST OF TABLES Tables Page 3.1 Meta-Sections in Émilie and Approximate Duration ................................................ 42 3.2 Predominant Temporal Focus by Scene .................................................................... 45 1 INTRODUCTION As a conductor, I have a strong interest in phrasing and how phrasing shapes the overall form, and in the performance and study of contemporary music. My early training as a conductor emphasized the study of phenomenology as developed by Sergiu Celibidache.1 That approach had a very strong focus on the study of formal structures and phrasing and on how to bring them out during performance. Direction or phrase towards a goal or climax is accomplished by extroversion or building of tensions and introversion or release of tension.2 During my doctoral studies at Bowling Green State University I learned about Jonathan Kramer’s studies of time, as well as about Albert Bregman’s “Auditory Scene Analysis”.3 These studies opened additional possibilities for score study in preparation for performance. Kramer’s ideas about different ways of organizing time4 have been particularly influential on my thinking: the linearity familiar from—but not exclusive to—tonal music, the different ways to express this linearity, including multiply-directed linearity, and the experience of non-linearity and its different expressions, such as in Moment time or Vertical time. I experienced the enormous possibilities of these theoretical approaches for performance and for listening to music. 1. Konrad von Abel, “Phenomenology of Music,” Musikproduktion Hoeflich, accessed November 27, 2019, https://www.musikmph.de/phenomenology-of-music/ 2. Lucia Marin, “Basic Fundamentals of Phenomenology of Music By Sergiu Celibidache as Criteria for the Orchestral Conductor,” Theses and Dissertations (dissertation, University of Kentucky, 2015) https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=music_etds) 3. The term Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA) was coined by psychologist Albert Bregman and proposes that the human auditory system organizes sound into meaningful elements. Albert Bregman, “Progress in Understanding Auditory Scene Analysis.” Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 33, no.1 (2015), 12-19. Another interesting read is David Huron, “Tone and Voice: A Derivation of the Rules of Voice-Leading from Perceptual Principles,” Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 19, no. 1 (2001), 1-64. 4. Jonathan Kramer, The Time of Music: New Meanings, New Temporalities, New Listening Strategies (New York: Schirmer Books, 1988). 2 I realized there was very little written about time in post-tonal music, especially from the perspective of a performer. In post-tonal music, which lacks traditional harmonic progressions that establish a sense of goal-oriented directionality, composers have used other musical means to create linearity. Kaija Saariaho, for instance, has expressed an interest in creating direction in her music by using texture and timbre. I chose to write about a work by Saariaho because she is a composer I admire and, even more so, because she has expressed interest in creating form through texture and time and I chose her opera Émilie (2008) in particular because it was a work that I had the possibility to perform. Thus, the practical experiences I had in rehearsals and performances serve as a source of information for this dissertation. When studying pieces that use texture and timbre structurally, as is the case in much of Saariaho’s music, a conductor has to identify how
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