Reality, Destruction, and Acceptance
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Reality, Destruction, and Acceptance An analysis of the Berceuse, from Quatre Chants por Franchir Le Seuil, Mvt. IV “D’après L’épopée de Gilgamesh” Kevin Baldwin MUS 577: Composers of the Twentieth Century, Seminar: Gerard Grisey June 6, 2016 2 Gerard Grisey is known most notably for his works Prologue, Periodes, Partiels, and Modulations, and developed numerous spectral tools for himself in his earlier years writing these works. In Grisey’s later years, he expanded on his spectral techniques and began creating more elaborate, poetic structures. By conducting a metric, orchestral, and spectral pitch analysis, I will show that the Berceuse from Gerard Grisey’s Quatre Chants por Franchir Le Suiel, Mvt. IV “D’apres L’epopee de Gilgamesh” uses two corresponding sound objects, while also poetically corresponding to the text. The structure of the Berceuse is based around thirteen phrases - certainly an ominous number in a movement about the destruction of mankind. The metric system laid out over the thirteen phrases is in constant fluctuation (with the exception of the 10/8’s repeated at the beginning of the first to phrases), creating an expansion and contraction of beats per phrase. While the number of measures per phrase changes, this is a secondary factor. The intrigue of the structure stems primarily from the cyclical changing of the meters and the length per phrase. The cyclical nature of the meters is not necessarily always contained by phrase markers. While the first two phrases begin with 10/8, the first contracts and expands out to an 11/8, and the second contracts to a 9/8. Each phrase continues this pattern, though moves further away from the original 10/8. One may note the structural importance of the 10/8 metric marking due to two reasons. First, the repetition of the 10/8 three times in phrase one and twice in phrase two creates a strong identification of the metric duration. Second, through all the phrases, the 10/8 always appears, yet never ends a phrase. The avoidance of the 10/8 in such a manner reinforces its structural importance just as a constant usage may. 3 Figure 1 shows the metric structure cycle and its continual motion between 8/8 and 13/8. Each phrase begins in the middle of this cycle with a meter ranging from 9/8 to 11/8. While phrases one and two hint at the contraction and expansion of the metric cycle, the repetition of the 10/8 gives the two phrases the sense of being introductory. From here, a constant cyclical motion is established with no repetition of meter. While phrase three already establishes the 8/8, the lower threshold for the metric cycle, phrases four, six, and eight show a constant expansion ending with 11/8, 12/8, and 13/8 respectively. This cycle resets and repeats itself, expanding from 11/8 to 12/8 and 13/8 in phrases nine, eleven, and thirteen. Overall, the concept of expansion and contraction, as well as the cyclical ideal of moving away from and back to a given point will prove important to numerous aspects of this section. Another important point is that each phrase ends on a meter that has not yet been in the phrase, and includes a tempo change faster or slower. Any time the phrase ends with an 8/8 or a 9/8, the tempo increases; any time the phrase ends with an 11/8, 12/8, or 13/8 the tempo slows. The exception to this is phrase twelve, as it ends on a repeated 9/8 and does not contain a tempo change. It should be noted again that the 10/8 never concludes a phrase, reinforcing its importance. The length of a phrase in beats outlines its own interesting structure when paired with the harmonic structure. Two different sound objects can be identified according to the bass note: Sound Object One has a bass note of C, Sound Object Two has a bass note of any other pitch. This places phrase one, three, six, and nine through thirteen as part of Sound Object One, and phrases two, four, five, seven, and eight as part of Sound Object Two. This creates two separate lines for each sound object. In figure 2, note the near 4 merger of Sound Object One and Sound Object Two, as Sound Object One begins at sixty beats in the phrase, and Sound Object Two begins at twenty-nine. These two lines continue to meet towards the middle, with the exception of phrase eight as the outlier. In the section about pitch, I will attempt to show phrase eight as the point of maximum dissonance between the two sound objects, and phrase nine as the merging point of both. With forty-five beats per phrase as the median, both phrases come together to hover around this line, removing the extreme dissonance in phrase length. The concept of the two separate sound objects is reinforced with an orchestration analysis. Each sound object, mainly through the first eight phrases, has a distinct orchestration, as seen in figure 3. This is visible in that the gong, pitched at C1 and giving the bass C of Sound Object One, is only played in phrases one, three, and six of the first eight phrases. While the cello plays in every phrase, the rest of group II (alto sax, tenor sax, cello, crotales) never plays in Sound Object One, but only in Sound Object Two. While it can be argued that the saxophones are unused due to their rich overtone spectrum and could dilute the spectrum used in Sound Object One, it still reinforces the two sound object theory. Phrases nine through thirteen take on a slightly different orchestration and direction. While it was previously presented that phrase nine functions as a meeting point between the two sound objects, the orchestration from phrase nine through thirteen reinforces this idea. Phrases nine through thirteen largely use the same orchestration as Sound Object One, but with the addition of vibraphone (and later the crotales) and the removal of the clarinet two. The addition of the vibraphone and crotales coincides with the pitch movement of partials above the C bass note in the gong, allowing the pitch to 5 continue rising. In order to understand the function of the pitch material of phrase nine through thirteen, it is first necessary to look at the pitch in the two sound objects before the meeting point. In Grisey’s earlier works, his focus for pitch organization and orchestration revolved around instrumental additive synthesis. Francois Rose explains, “For the beginning of Partiels (1975), Grisey was stimulated by a sonogram analysis of a pedal low E1 (41.2 Hz) on the trombone. He selected some component frequencies and orchestrated them. That is why this technique can be metaphorically referred to as ‘instrumental additive 1 synthesis.’” It does not seem apparent that Grisey is using this instrumental additive synthesis, although he developed techniques during this time such as harmonicity and inharmonicity, which are noticeable in this piece. To create a partial analysis of a spectrum, it is important to identify the fundamental. While in Partiels, for example, the trombone plays the pedal low E1 fundamental, Berceuse offers a unique challenge. A cursory glance at the pitch material per phrase, or the pitch reduction in figure 4, exposes a sizeable interval above the fundamental of each pitch set. All the pitches in a phrase may be grouped together due to the blurred texture combining the undulating gestures of all the instrumental parts. With each phrase beginning with a low pitch from the gong, harp, or double bass, which is not repeated for the continuation of the phrase, pitch material in higher octaves in the blurred texture may be considered a resonance of the bass note played. Where the Berceuse becomes more complicated to analyze than older works such as Partiels is in the 1 Francois Rose, Introduction to the Pitch Organization of French Spectral Music. Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Summer, 1996) pp. 8 6 compositional and poetic choices Grisey uses; in this moment this complication exists in trying to decide which pitch to consider the fundamental. With C2 (65.4 Hz.) as a recurring pitch, as previously established as the fundamental of Sound Object One, one may consider this the fundamental over which to create a partial analysis. With Sound Object Two consisting of bass notes that are not the C1, one could consider the bass pitch of each pitch collection as the fundamental. Considering the partials of Sound Object One with C1 as the fundamental, in its entirety (from phrase one to thirteen), the partials would move from: Phrase one: 1, 2.25, 3.5, 4.5, 5.25, 6.25, 8.25, 9.75, 20 Phrase thirteen: 1, 4.5, 5.25, 6.25, 9.75, 10, 11, 13, 21, 24, 26, 29, 32, 34, 36 Only these two phrases are shown as an example to highlight the motion of partials from the beginning to end of Sound Object One. One could argue using C1 as the fundamental, as phrase one has six of eight inharmonic pitches, and phrase thirteen having four of fourteen inharmonic pitches. Converting these proportions to percentages, phrase one is seventy-five percent inharmonic and phrase thirteen is twenty-nine percent inharmonic. Three of the inharmonic partials (4.5, 5.25, 6.25) carry over from the first phrase to the last. This motion from inharmonicity to harmonicity could be appropriate as it applies to the text and ethos of the lullaby; with a mood of acceptance to the destruction of mankind, the combination of a progression towards harmonicity and the upwards direction of the partials would properly color the concept.