GE THE ORIGINS OF SYNTHETIC TIMBRE SERIALISM AND THE PARISIAN CONFLUENCE, 1949–52 by John-Philipp Gather October 2003 A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of State University of New York at Buffalo in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Music COPYRIGHT NOTE The first fifty copies were published by the author. Berlin: John-Philipp Gather, 2003. Printed by Blasko Copy, Hilden, Germany. On-demand copies are available from UMI Dissertation Services, U.S.A. Copyright by John-Philipp Gather 2003 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many persons have contributed to the present work. I would like to name first and foremost my major advisor Christopher Howard Gibbs for his unfailing support and trust throughout the five-year writing period, guiding and accompanying me on my pathways from the initial project to the present study. At the State University of New York at Buffalo, my gratitude goes to Michael Burke, Carole June Bradley, Jim Coover, John Clough, David Randall Fuller, Martha Hyde, Cort Lippe, and Jeffrey Stadelman. Among former graduate music student colleagues, I would like to express my deep appreciation for the help from Laurie Ousley, Barry Moon, Erik Oña, Michael Rozendal, and Matthew Sheehy. A special thanks to Eliav Brand for the many discussion and the new ideas we shared. At the Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, I am grateful to Jacquelyn Thomas, Peter Schulz, and Rohan Smith, who helped this project through a critical juncture. I also extend my warm thanks to Karlheinz Stockhausen, who composed the music at the center of my musicological research. Since 1998 Stockhausen organized festivals for performers and researchers interested in his music in Germany. Here I met Richard Toop and Jerome Kohl, who took an interest in my work on Gesang der Jünglinge. In the last phase of my project, I concentrated my efforts on the origins of post-war serialism and Jerome Kohl’s expertise in serial music, his stimulating arguments regarding the content of my thesis, and his valued assistance in editorial matters crucially contributed to the present study. I also wish to thank my companion Andres Zlotsky—not only for his help in stylistic matters during the later stages of my work, but also for excellent advice in the art of iii interpretation and his support in some less interesting duties of daily life. Alex, the cat, followed the progress of my project at close range—claiming his seat on top of a primary or secondary source or purring next to the computer keyboard—and deserves many thanks for his loving presence. Finally, I wish to thank my parents Herbert and Hildegard for their love and encouragement to lead this dissertation to its conclusion. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements............................................................................................................iii List of Figures..................................................................................................................viii List of Tables....................................................................................................................viii List of Abbreviations..........................................................................................................ix Abstract................................................................................................................................x Note to the Reader.............................................................................................................xii Abbreviated Citations.......................................................................................................xiii Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: Classic Timbre Serialism Before 1949............................................................32 Leibowitz and the Athematic Music of Webern........................................................37 Messiaen’s Rhythmic Polyphony..............................................................................62 Boulez’s Classic Timbre Serialism............................................................................74 Chapter 2: New Materials Composition Before 1949.....................................................104 The Formation of Silence........................................................................................106 Cowell’s Overtone Serialism...................................................................................109 v Towards Knowing About Nothing..........................................................................145 A Universal Theory of Modern Music....................................................................163 Chapter 3: The Transatlantic School 1949–52................................................................171 Cage Surveys Modern Music...................................................................................173 The Tezenas Lecture-Concert..................................................................................176 Messiaen’s Mode de Valeurs...................................................................................184 Cage, Boulez, and Klee...........................................................................................195 Dialectics of Freedom..............................................................................................202 The Transatlantic School.........................................................................................207 Chapter 4: Radio Research and Concrete Music 1948–51..............................................230 Radiophonic Research 1948....................................................................................233 Concrete Music 1949–51.........................................................................................266 Chapter 5: Neo-classicism or Serialism 1949–50............................................................296 Karel Goeyvaerts.....................................................................................................297 Cage and Goeyvaerts’s Turn to Webern..................................................................305 Jean Barraqué...........................................................................................................309 vi Boulez’s Seminar on Timbre Serialism...................................................................316 Chapter 6: Towards Pointillism 1951–52........................................................................321 Origins of Darmstadt...............................................................................................321 Karlheinz Stockhausen............................................................................................327 Herbert Eimert.........................................................................................................336 Darmstadt Summer School of 1951.........................................................................341 The Promised Land..................................................................................................345 The Serial System....................................................................................................351 Pointillism................................................................................................................371 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................380 Bibliography....................................................................................................................385 Appendix..........................................................................................................................416 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: NUDE DESCENDING A STAIRCASE, NO. 2.........................................................26 FIGURE 2: PIANO VARIATIONS, OP. 27, SECTION I, MM 1–7..............................................59 FIGURE 3: CROSSING MIRROR SYMMETRIES IN WEBERN’S OP. 27....................................60 FIGURE 4: MEDIEVAL HINDU RHYTHM SIMHAVIKRÎDITA...................................................69 FIGURE 5: RHYTHMIC POLYPHONY, BEGINNING OF MESSIAEN’S L’ANGE AUX PARFUMS..70 FIGURE 6: BEGINNING OF A RHYTHMICON MEASURE.....................................................137 FIGURE 7: SCHAEFFERIAN FOUR-NOTE INSTRUMENT......................................................237 FIGURE 8: RAILWAY STUDY: FIRST SCORE OF FRENCH ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC......242 FIGURE 9: SCHAEFFER’S FIRST SKETCH OF THE ABSTRACT-CONCRETE DIALECTIC.......273 FIGURE 10: THE GENERAL MUSIC THEORIES OF CAGE AND SCHAEFFER.......................277 FIGURE 11: REGISTRAL PLANNING OF GOEYVAERTS’S OPUS 1, PART 2.........................347 Figure 12: Valency Charts for Goeyvaerts’s Opus 1.......................................................348 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1: STRUCTURAL RHYTHM OF FIRST CONSTRUCTION IN METAL............................152 Table 2: Schaeffer’s Changing Set of Primitives............................................................246 viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AMS American Musicological Society Darmstadt Darmstadt Summer School (Darmstädter Ferienkurse...) GRM Groupe de Recherches Musicales GRMC Groupe de Recherches Musicales Concrète IGNM Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik INA Institut National de l’Audiovisuel ISCM International Society for Contemporary Music PSF Paul Sacher Foundation.