Challengingthe system Chaos actual, or chaos virtual? DAVID BRUCE puts Birtwistle'sLast Night into its proper perspective

Oh what is he doing, the greatgod Pan even come under such anarchic 'attacks', but balance David Bruce is Down by the reedsby the river and context are still the primary organisational con- currently writing a Spreading ruin and scattering ban cerns. piece for the BBC The idea of a musical structure being attacked Composers Forum T HUS IS inscribed the score of Panic,1 Sir from within has previously been discussed in rela- tion to In one of 's now almost legendary Birtwistle's . the most 1. Birtwistle writes for the last of the 1995 Proms to have been written on Birtwistle in piece night cogent papers the following season. Whilst not exactly a 'programme', recent times Arnold Whittall identifies musical mod- alongside this this poetic fragment, as with that by Robert Graves ernists as those who 'challenge synthesis and inte- fragment: 'some- heading the score of Secret theatre, seems at least to gration even as they allude to it',4 a notion developed thing I remember from school but provide some kind of extra-musical context in by Whittall over a long period of time and applied by can't remember by which to the work. Secret theatre has been him to numerous modernist figures, including place whom (A. Noyes described as a of and whilst the Maxwell Webern and 'geometry comedy',2 Davies, Stravinsky.5Although maybe?'!) term 'geometry of chaos' hardly makes sense, Panic this notion is perhaps less applicable to, say, Boulez, certainly depicts a wild and at times chaotic expres- Carter or Schoenberg, all of whom attempt to create 2. See Arnold sive force whose appeal to the senses is not entirely a new and real kind of integration (even if Hans Whittall's article on Secret theatre in MT abstract. For the tabloids, it was chaos, an increas- Keller argued convincingly that Schoenberg belongs (January 1993), ingly rare opportunity to open the dusty old 'con- to the noble breed of the 'stylistically impure', sug- pp.17-19. temporary/squeaky-gate so-called music' file, last gesting that 'absolute purity of style seems possible used, I believe, to ridicule Stockhausen's string quar- only if you are prepared to say nothing whatso- 3. MT (November tet, in which each player sits in a different helicopter ever'6), it nonetheless applies well to earlier 'mod- 1995), p.616. (I caught a glimpse of this on 'And finally...' on News ernists' like Berg and Mahler. What these two com- 4. at Ten recently). Stockhausen tends these days to be posers share with Birtwistle and others is an accep- 'Comparatively ridiculed from within the New Music scene as well tance that musical is an illusion. complex: Birtwistle, unity essentially Maxwell Davies and as without; Birtwistle is, on the now one of (Even as to exist in the of the contrary, supposed masterpieces modernist analysis', our most Yet whilst 19th exists with reference to highly respected composers. century, unity only in Music Analysis many cognoscenti felt duty bound to support Panic what Anthony Pople calls a 'common practice... vol.13 nos.2-3 on the night itself, as an act of solidarity, I have which provides the models of harmonic progression, (October 1994), rarely heard colleagues coming out in support in the linear motion and so forth',7and whilst unity is pos- p.140. months since. The view tends to be that Birtwistle sible in terms of thematic relationships alone, 5. See, for example, has gone off the boil since the great days of the whether this is actually a necessity for its success is Jonathan Dunsby & 1980s (to any who retain this view, despite what fol- highly questionable.) For there is no doubt that the Arnold Whittall: lows, I would commend the forthcoming premiere ear attempts to impose unity on almost any consec- Music analysis in of the complete Celan settings and string quartets, utive series of musical sounds and is therefore open theory and practice Pulse shadows - the songs in particular show how to being 'tricked' into finding connections between (London, 1988) and Arnold Whittall: Birtwistle's in a beautiful melan- ideas which are barely, if at all, related. For what we facility capturing 'The in cholic has far from and that now call the this the to bottom line', lyricism disappeared) postmodernist opens gate MT Panic was chaos actual rather than virtual. number of different within the same (September really any styles piece; 1994), pp. Gavin Thomas, for example, has suggested that the for the 'modernist', however, there is still the need 'intricately conceived polyphonies collapse, in the for some kind of overall integration of style, whose 6. Hans Keller: heat of the moment, into what sounds like an impro- authority can then be 'challenged' through such Essays on music, ed. vised free-for-all'3Admittedly, there is no doubt that 'trickery'. In many cases the 'integrated' system Christopher Wintle on first hearing little can be easily absorbed beyond which is being 'challenged' is in fact tonality itself. In (Cambridge, 1994), p.218. the extraordinary sensation of wild energy emitted Berg's Violin Concerto, for example, as Pople has from the and drum-kit soloists. But I will there is a continuous flux between sections shown, 7. Anthony Pople: argue that whilst there are indeed a few sections in which are audibly tonal and more 'floating', atonal Berg: Violin Concerto which true harmonic and rhythmic chaos is allowed sections. The former, combined with other 'tonally (Cambridge, 1991), to reign (principally those areas with two, indepen- aligned' elements encourages a 'tonalistic perception pp.88-89. dently playing musical textures), these are actually of the detailed musical fabric'. But, as Pople contin- carefully planned 'attacks' on a system of clearly ues, 'the continuity of the musical perception thus defined and audible musical signals. Most of the achieved is an illusion - just as the continual corre- music may be wild and unruly in character, and may lation of the musical gestures with the well-known

THE MUSICAL TIMES / APRIL 1996 11 Ex.l: Alto saxophone, 6 bars after O x r

X X

mf jiP,r-3il~-- in __,', _^,3, L ----3, .... 2p-F~:f- ~f7F>i~v% i fry I~H~si Ff -f

f ifY wff -I ,

8. Op.cit. dramatic programmeof the work gives the false example of this kind of 'dramatic flow' in Birtwistle's impression of a continuous musical narrative.The output and is perhaps the only one of his pieces to 9. See, for example, music is not coherent, end with an affirmative - to reach some kind RhianSamuel: organically,self-referentially 'bang' but "makessense" because at of rather than in every point something goal dissolving away '', in it is an active CambridgeOpera alwaysrecognisable through cogni- Journal, vol.4 no.2 tive framework'.8 T- t _HE PRINCIPAL process of achieving (1992), pp.163-78. Birtwistle'smusic, however,does not deal in dia- momentum is by simple repetition, logues with tonality,nor (apartfrom in the very gen- apotheosised most famously in The rite of eral way outlined at the beginning of this article) spring. Birtwistle plays with this inherent with 'dramaticprogrammes', so what exactly is the property of repetition, affecting an increasingly men- system being 'challenged'? In Earth dances, for acing tension. The solo line in Panic, for example, instanceit is, as Whittallhas argued the authorityof repeats no less than 14 times in succession a rhyth- the tonal centre D as a source of gravitythroughout mic pattern first heard at letter O (ex. 1 shows a few the movement.The music returnsto D at a number of these, marked 'x'; notice the incremental dynam- of importantpoints in the piece, but its tenacity is ics, which, when combined with the ever closer rep- challenged,partly by a C# at one point, but also sim- etitions create a strongly cumulative effect); but it is ply by its absence in interveningsections. Whittall in the orchestral accompaniment where repetition also talks of the dialogue between 'stillness' and really comes to the fore, with barely a texture in 'movement'.The combinationof these two elements which it is not significantly involved. This is, of is, he maintains (as with the Berg), enough to pro- course, an area in which Birtwistle has been operat- vide Pople's'active cognitive framework'for under- ing for some time - even the opening of the 1965 standing the piece. In Panic these ideas become piece, Tragoedia,despite the work's sectional, appar- increasingly important. The two separate frame- ently non-progressive form, uses short repetitive works suggestedby Whittall- one of movement,the fragments to drive the music on; it is only when used other of harmony- are vital listening tools without continually over a longer time span, as has happened which the listener might easily become lost in the more often in recent years, that the music really complex mesh of sounds. builds up an overall driving momentum. I would like first to concentratefor a moment on The forward momentum in Panic can, however, the propertiesof driving forwardmotion which so be undermined from time to time, through what clearlyaid the impressionof the Panic'sover-the-top Whittall calls the dialogue between 'stillness' and frenzy (although the feeling of forwardmotion is of 'movement'. The music moves between its clearly course aided by the harmony,as we shall see). This defined sections by a variety of means: sometimes it kind of momentumhas become increasinglyimpor- stops temporarily on a simple orchestral chord or tant in Birtwistle'smusic in recent times:it was pre- tremolo, as at letter B; some sections are linked by a sent to an extent in the Sinfonietta pieces of the flurry of saxophone writing, as at I; others still flow 1980s (the new interest in linearity in the recent straight into one another, as at P, or simply collapse, operas,as noticed by some commentators,is part of as at D1. The latter are the most straightforward - the same general trend9)and more overtly,despite the flow simply continuing in one direction or some conflictingtensions, in Earthdances, a work of another, whereas the stop-start nature of the first which, in many ways, particularlyin terms of its two approaches gives Birtwistle the leeway to change powerful dynamic and dramaticenergy, Panic is a pace by sleight of hand. Put simply, we think the direct descendant.Panic is indeed the most extreme music is again momentarily pausing whereas it has

12 THE MUSICAL TIMES / APRIL 1996 Ex.2 An exampleof the writingfor drum-kit I------______

high dry instr.(wood, metal)

instr.not feet

Ex.3:Alto saxophone4 bars afterC1

cantabile r3 -i

P p' 11p actually arrivedat a slower section; conversely we apparently changing direction without cause; it says sometimesthink we have arrivedat a slower section, much for Birtwistle's mastery of long-range timing whereas it is actually only a momentarypause. For that this never happens, despite moments when it is example, on paper the section from S until U is all challenged almost to the limit. calmer music, with a brief interruption near the beginning from two bars of fortissimo, staccato NE OF the primaryconveyors of the both brass,just beforeT. However,the effect of these two the forward energy, its stop-start nature, bars in performanceis to make us think that the fast as well as, of course, contributing to some music is continuingand that the previouseight bars of the general feeling of abandon, is the of calm were only temporary.We are then further drum-kit. Functioning outside the harmony, in surprisedwhen this assumptionalso turns out to be rhythmic patterns which only occasionally interlock false and we are, afterall, back in the calmersection. with other members of the group, its prominence in The jolting effect of these two surprises takes our much of the piece inevitably but intentionally adds a attention away from the fact that what has actually layer of confusion to the proceedings. The kit-player happenedis simply the arrivalof a slow section. In is not usually told precisely which instruments to the same way, we are twice jolted by the two bars, use. Instead he is given two, or occasionally three four afterJ1, first as the slow music suddenly inter- layers, within each of which he may choose any rupts the frenetic action and appears to continue instrument he likes (ex.2). There are also frequent with the arrivalof the flute solo; then again, when further written instructions, such as 'only high the faster music after all continues on its way. By sounds, mainly metal'. Sometimes there is the contrast,in sections such as that threebars afterG1, instruction to repeat a pattern using the same instru- a more sustainedinterrupting section of slow music ments each time, allowing a more defined repetitive is given the impressionof continuingmomentum by texture to emerge (this happens particularly involv- a nervously ticking drum-kit (very similar in effect ing the hi-hat). At other times, as in the closing to a moment in Earthdances, when a sizzling hi-hat pages, the instruction is simply 'freely improvise, sustains the energy) - here we enjoy the feeling of using all instruments', accompanied by a graphic paradoxthat the music seems to have slowed down, 'squiggle' to suggest speed. The freedom thus but is evidentlystill pressingon. In this case, thereis granted to the kit-player makes for one of the few therefore no surprise when the music does once examples in contemporary music of a piece in which again burst into life (two before Hi). With these the drum-kit does not sound out of place, politely kind of effects,Birtwistle clearly wants to undermine tapping out a few simple rhythms at the back of the our knowledge of our position in the piece, so that ensemble: this is up-front, unashamed writing. Yet any other sudden changes of pace are heardin light despite being, in itself, one of the textural joys of of them. Nevertheless,this process of 'activelisten- Panic, the kit is essentially used as an accompani- ing' must be finely balanced, so that we are never mental instrument, highlighting changes in texture, unsure for more than a few moments where we are qualities of greater or lesser tension, or joining in in the 'dramaticplot'. By losing track of the plot, with other instruments' rhythmic figures. such games would become meaningless, the music On a number of occasions the kit is joined by a

THE MUSICAL TIMES / APRIL 1996 13 Ex.4 (selected lines only)

Al =c.192/216

I i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~, j

second percussionist and a timpanist, sometimes by virtue of its similarity in register and timbre (low operatingindependently - at letter C, for example sustained violins) to some of the appearances of the the timpanist and percussionist begin at quaver D, part of a return to a similar area of quiet, tempo- equals 102 and accelerate,while the drum-kitplays rary stasis rather than the arrival of an opposing a steady quaverequals 168. The saxophone and the force. drum-kit together also play in rhythmic indepen- Paradoxically, the multiple tonal centres in Panic dence quite frequently, usually brought back are more stable than the single centre in Earth dances together with the rest of the orchestraafter a few by virtue of their greater frequency They control and bars, either by pauses or visual cues, resulting, harmonically define many of the sections of the inevitably,in periodsof rhythmicchaos. It is perhaps piece. At the same time, on top of the anarchic, per- this featureabove all which createssuch a shocking cussive 'attacks' mentioned above, the stability of effect for the first-timelistener. We will now move these 'centres' is also harmonically 'challenged', not on to look at the harmony of Panic, which, whilst only by several sections in Panic which are not providing no all-encompassing system, does, I grounded by the pitch centres, but also within sec- believe, go a long way to providing a clear frame- tions when the saxophone line becomes long and work, within which, such 'unruly'elements can be chromatic (e.g. from two bars after letter U up to the allowed to exist. returning Db three bars after V). Indeed it could be The most importantharmonic material in Panicis argued that this 'challenge' occurs in the majority of adumbratedin the saxophoneline itself, in the form cases, in that the ability of one note, albeit in a of centresof gravityof the kind Whittalldescribes in prominent bass register and at important points in relation to Earth dances. Most prominent amongst the phrase or section, to be a controlling force over these are the recurringpitches in the bottom register all intermediate notes (often copious in number) is of the saxophone, such as the E of the opening, the somewhat questionable (making all the more impor- Dbat letter T, or the D at C1 (ex.3). These invariably tant a balance in performance in favour of the saxo- mark the beginning or the end of a phrase;the sax- phone, a feature which did not seem to exist in the ophone moving away in chromatic zig-zags or recent second performance in the Queen Elizabeth scales, only to be sucked back to one of these gravi- Hall). Whether or not this is the case, the use of tational centres. Unlike Earthdances, with its long- these tonal centres is the first and, I believe, the most term emphasis on the pitch D, Panic does not sug- important of a series of frameworks within which gest any overall binding centre. Instead it offers a the piece begins to make sense. Furthermore, com- choice of gravitationalcentres - Db,D, Eband E, any pared with Earth dances for example, the challenge of which, it seems are possible alternativesat any to the comprehensibility of the harmony as evinced given time. The only real rule that seems to operate by the stability of these tonal centres is much is that none should be present for too long and so reduced, in that the gap between their successive establish itself as more permanent.Rather, each is reappearances is significantly shorter. used as the centre of a particularsection, without Sections without any of the saxophone's four bass there being any overall Schenkerian movement pitches also often have their own centres: at five bars between those sections. Incidentally,the presenceof before El, for example, when the low tonal centres four different but adjacent pitch centres demon- are replaced by a recurring D an octave above mid- strates an importantfeature of Birtwistle'sapproach dle C, and at six after J1 by an E a tone higher. In to composition - it is often register and timbre those sections where there are no real pitch centres, which control movement more than pitch itself. As our attention is usually directed to repeated rhyth- such, this could suggest that the C# which Whittall mic figures, either in the saxophone, or the rest of sees as an opposing force to the D in Earthdances is, the orchestra. Ex.4 shows a typical pattern which

14 THE MUSICAL TIMES / APRIL 1996 continues throughout the section from A1 up to ten Ex.5: some details omittedwhere partsoverlap I------_--_ before B1. Saxophone and percussion interlock every 18 semiquavers (three bars); two combined provide a stream of semiquavers; whilst 1. after 9 combinedupper woodwind the rest of the orchestra (here only is shown) play an overlapping pattern (marked 'z') which kl~11-1. repeats every 17 semiquavers (the slight mismatch is highly characteristic of Birtwistle). Pitch here is con- trolled by register - the saxophone phrase repeats the same basic shape, in the same register, whilst 5. after M- combinedupper woodwind varying the pitch contour; the rest of the orchestra as with the oboe in the example, confined to three or four adjacent notes. This use of register provides an alternative 'cognitive framework' to that of pitch centres. We follow the variation that occurs within each strand, rather than their overall combination. There are therefore essentially two types of mate- 1. after 2 flutescombined rial which are not concerned with tonal centres - repeated rhythmic patterns, not really 'thematic' in that they hover between neighbouring notes; and the use of shapes or contours, more recognisable in themselves as musical ideas. The whole is piece Alto Sax. indeed full of the combinations of these two ele- [] ments, the shapes often being twisted into repeating fragments and vice versa. Most recur throughout the * -B-- ~ ~, ~~ <_ work and although they are not intended as musical signals, actively carrying the work's meaning, they do bind together the character and flavour of the piece. One such recurring shape takes the form of three ris- ing/falling notes which generally either outline a sev- very clear example occurs at 10 before B1. The sax- enth or ninth, or consist of either of those two inter- ophone leaves behind its repeated figure and vals consecutively. Although they do sometimes becomes wilder, throwing off flurries of scales end- appear alone, they tend to form sequences, with each ing in a screaming top E (marked 'growl'). Whilst of the three pitches moving to an adjacent pitch in the upper winds settle onto sustained high notes, the the next figure (though not necessarily all in the brass begin to 'take off'. The piccolo , for same direction). They can be found in varying forms example, still playing a similar staccato pattern to in the woodwind at numerous places, also permeat- the trumpets shown in ex.4, a few bars earlier, ing the saxophone writing from time to time (see moves gradually upwards from a chromatic move- ex.5). The saxophone part itself also has numerous ment between Db and Gb to one between C and A, trademarks, such as fast runs alternating minor sec- finally arriving at a high D (ex.6). The effect of the onds with other intervals (see the last bar of ex.7). entire brass section shifting gradually higher in a We can add to the above a further framework for stuttering motion is quite tremendous in the power understanding the harmony in Panic - that of for- of its forward energy. There are many similar exam- ward motion. As we have seen, the repetitive ele- ples, not always involving simple chromatic move- ments themselves contribute a great deal to this pro- ment, such as the trumpets and horns in the lead-up cess (at Al, for example, the repeating saxophone to U, whose repeating top note of Bb moves up to D phrase mentioned earlier (ex.4) is given the instruc- and then A. Here again what is clearly most impor- tion 'always pressing forward'). The harmony often tant is the registral shift of increasing instrumental adds to this, but again it is harmony as register tension more than the precise notes themselves. which plays the crucial role, the feeling of moving Finally, movement between neighbouring notes in on being achieved by the expansion of register. A the solo line itself often suggests forward motion, for

Ex.6: ,6 barsbefore B1

J=192 i -i t7 vt ? v 97vTbj e i i.e ig ^ b>te3 ,

t^6? .^'^Wrr^. i ,p^hrv^.j

THE MUSICAL TIMES / APRIL 1996 15 Ex.7:Alto saxophone, 1 bar beforeX r------J=;c.132 '"-3~"33 rnI J=c.144 I 6-gTn- ^I S L______

Music examplesare example the two chromatic notes before both V and to our understanding of Panic. We are aware of some ? & Boosey X (ex.7). One could also argue that the movement kind of rhythmic structure in the trumpets and HawkesLtd and between the four 'tonal centres' themselves in the but are unable to it in kind of kind place any reproducedby constitutes a kind of onward motion context relative to the orches- permission. saxophone part independently playing rather than a static meandering between four equal tra, which itself consists of several different elements alternatives. layered on top of one another. At these moments, With the combination of the above elements - the despite the registral layout which so assists less return to tonic centres; repeating rhythmic patterns rhythmically complex sections, the detail of the and motivic shapes which are harmonically defined polyphony really does become lost, and we are aware by register; and the impression of driving forward only of the 'great god Pan... spreading ruin and scat- motion - we can begin to come to terms with much tering ban'. They are, however, only moments - Panicreceives its of the harmonic activity of Panic. As was mentioned another important one is three after K up to M; there thirdperformance earlier, there are also a number of moments, some are a few shorter ones, such as at Q - whose chaotic during the South very brief, others more extended, in which the saxo- violence only temporarily threatens the work's struc- Bank Centre's phone and parts of the brass section ture. The of outlined above creates Birtwistle play indepen- array techniques retrospec- dently of the conductor. These sections are not writ- an edifice which is to allow Birtwistle tive, 'Secrettheatres' strong enough ten for the effect of a but to so with the of on 1 May.Pulse particular cross-rhythm, experiment boldly sovereignty shadowsreceives its rather for the general impression of abandon which logic; at the same time, this experimentation makes world premiereon is such a strong feature of the piece. Moments such explicit the properties of chaos which are elsewhere 29 April. as three bars after Y onwards are the real challenges only depicted.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle at the Royal Festival Hall

12 April 16 April Lontano with Sarah Leonard Winner of the Grawemeyer Award 19 April Endymion Ensemble BBC Symphony Orchestra. and BBC Singers 26 April London Sinfonietta with and Martyn Brabbins 29 April ArdittiQuartet and Capricorn Director: Stephen Langridge 1 May The London Philharmonic Designer: Alison Chitty 2 May The Philharmonia Orchestra Dancers and actors by arrangement with 4 May The Richard Alston Dance the National Theatre Studio Co and London Sinfonietta Theater der Stadt, Heidelberg March8, 13, 21, 26 April1,6, 7, 12, 20, 29 "Afascinating story - the Wiener Operntheater has a great success with The Second Mrs Kong." WESTDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG "An excellent musical performance - a fascinating theatrical event." KURIER "Warm,earthy bubbling sounds flowing like lava, shooting high like geysers; a soaring chant something between recitative, sweet modality and belcanto: This s one of the outstanding opera scores of today." SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

UniversalEdition (London) Ltd 48 Great MarlboroughStreet LondonW1V 2BN

16 THE MUSICAL TIMES / APRIL 1996