FIVE THESIS PIECES: FIVE COMPOSITIONAL EXPLORATIONS HOLGER SCHOORL A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF MUSIC GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COMPOSITION YORK UNIVERISTY TORONTO CANADA JUNE 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53847-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-53847-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada FIVE THESIS PIECES: FIVE COMPOSITIONAL EXPLORATIONS by HOLGER SCHOORL A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS © 2009 Permission has been granted to: a) YORK UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES to lend or sell copies of this thesis in paper, microform or electronic formats, and b) LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA to reproduce, lend, distribute, or sell copies of this thesis anywhere in the world in micro form, paper or electronic formats and to authorize or procure the reproduction, loan, distribution or sale of copies of this thesis anywhere in the world in microform, paper of electronic formats. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. IV Abstract My thesis details the progression of my compositional style from one that relied on predetermined structural mechanisms to a style of composing instinctively with sound. A predetermined structural mechanism is a plan that one establishes in advance of composing a piece of music. These ordering mechanisms place a large emphasis on what lies behind the music. I once used ordering mechanisms to help me write music; however it was a methodology that did not suit me. I am more interested in sounds; in my view music is a sequence of beautiful sounds. In order to write beautiful music I felt I needed to listen only to the sounds and let them suggest what I should do. The five thesis pieces are attempts at finding a way of composing with sounds without any form of predetermined structure. V Table of Contents Abstract iv List of Score Samples vii Introduction 1 Part 1: Undergraduate Pieces, Polyphony; Bach and Messiaen 3 1 Woodwind Quartet (Carnival of the Intervals) 3 2 Polyphony I: Bach 7 3 Polyphony II: Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony 10 4 Juxtaposition, Obviousness and Repetition in Messiaen 12 5 The excess of polyphony: Bach and Messiaen 17 6 Piano Trio (materials) 21 7 Piano Trio (form) 28 Part 2: Sounds, Computers, Stalactites, Instinct and Morton Feldman 34 1 Sound Love 34 2 Gorecki's Tam-tams 44 3 Computer music and Stalactite composing 46 4 Instinct 49 5 Feldman's Forms 56 6 Feldman's Sounds 58 vi Part 3: Thesis Pieces 61 1 Nonet 61 2 Sextet (for a quintet) 67 3 The Guitar (Trio 1, Trio 2) 76 4 Trio 1 78 5 Trio 2 84 6 Quintet 91 7 Duo 95 Conclusion 101 Bibliography 104 Appendix A (scores) 107 Sextet 108 Trio 1 120 Trio 2 128 Quintet 139 Duo 154 Appendix B (Cds) 160 vn List of Score Examples Example 1. Ligeti, Gyorgy. Musica Ricercata 4 Example 2. Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Adagio and Fugue in C minor 8 Example 3. Bach, Johann Sebastian. Goldberg Variations 10 Example 4. Messiaen Olivier. Turangalila Symphony (statue theme) 13 Example 5. Messiaen Olivier. Turangalila Symphony (gamelan texture) 14 Example 6. Messiaen Olivier. Turangalila Symphony (syncopated rhythms) 14 Example 7. Messiaen Olivier. Turangalila Symphony (piano chord crescendo) 15 Example 8. Messiaen Olivier. Turangalila Symphony (descending chord) 15 Example 9. Piano Trio, (opening) 22 Example 10. Piano Trio, (cluster motives) 23 Example 11. Piano Trio, (flattened melodies) 23 Example 12. Piano Trio, (staccato confused counterpoint) 24 Example 13. Piano Trio, (ending of A section, first movement) 25 Example 14. Piano Trio. (B section opening) 26 Example 15. Piano Trio, ("fun" music) 27 Example 16. Piano Trio, (opening of second movement) 30 Example 17. Piano Trio, (themes first movement, second section) 31 Example 18. Schoenberg Arnold. Piano Concerto 39 Example 19. Berg Alban. Wozzeck. 40 viii Example 20. Debussy Claude. La Mer 41 Example 21. Bartok Bela. Fifth String Quartet 41 Example 22. Ravel Maurice. Piano Concerto in G 42 Example 23. Verdi Giuseppe. Otello 43 Example 24. "irrational," nineteen year old melody 54 Example 25. Nonet, (two melodies) 62 Example 26. Sextet, (opening materials) 69 Example 27. Sextet, (repetitive material, discovery of the method) 70 Example 28. Sextet, (slightly altering repeated motive) 71 Example 29. Sextet, (an excerpt from the slightly altering repeated passage) 72 Example 30. Sextet, (first flute, clarinet, viola sonority) 73 Example 31. Sextet, (second flute, clarinet, viola sonority) 73 Example 32. Sextet, (piano and cello motive) 74 Example 33. Sextet, (an excerpt from the alternating three identities passage) 75 Example 34. Trio 1. (first busy material) 81 Example 35. Trio 1. (second busy material) 82 Example 36. Trio 1. (third busy material) 82 Example 37. Trio 2. (opening material) 86 Example 38. Trio 2. (vibraphone, guitar and toms playing on separate beats) 87 ix Example 39. Trio 2. (guitar and toms melody) 88 Example 40. Feldman Morton. For John Cage, (chromatically ascending passage).. 92 Example 41 Quintet, (primary motive) 94 Example 42. Duo. (staccato passage) 96 Example 43. Duo. (first guitar and trombone echoing passage) 96 Example 44. Duo. (second guitar and trombone echoing passage) 97 Example 45. Duo. (teenager melody) 99 1 Introduction. The thesis pieces I wrote from the summer of 2007 to the winter of 2008 were written in order to discover a compositional process that suited me. Despite my age - I am this year thirty three - I am rather inexperienced as a composer. My first piece of music conceived as notes on staff paper was not written until five years ago. Before that, I had been an aimless musician; for a few years I had given up on music altogether. As an undergraduate student I was unsure of how to put a piece together. Therefore I followed conventional notions about form in order to compose. The act of composing was an inconsistent and unpredictable one. I often got blocked without knowing how to get out of it. While it was a joy to play music or to create music for pieces, like melodies, the idea of a piece, of a musical object was a problem. The primary concerns I had was how to understand the chronology of a piece of music: why does one thing follow the next? Why is one thing similar or dissimilar from what preceded it? Moreover how long should one thing go on for before something else can interrupt it? My response to these questions was to imagine that there was a meaningful way to order a piece and that the meaning of a piece is wrapped up in how it is ordered. As I wrote pieces that were highly ordered I became less convinced of that conclusion. I increasingly felt that positing a piece's meaning in its ordering mechanism actually prevents me from listening to the music by directing me to what lies behind it. 2 What I started looking for was a way of making music that did not involve the use of perceptible order. I wanted to direct my attention to the surface of the music. The thesis pieces are explorations of the possibilities of composing without predetermined structure, and of composing freely with sounds. The thesis will be divided into three broad sections: my compositional process as it existed during my undergraduate years, the composers who influenced it - Bach and Messiaen - and the difficulties I had with it. The second section will describe my experiences that showed me a way out of these difficulties, and my discovery of Morton Feldman's work which confirmed my suspicion about my process and general attitude towards music and showed me how I might better proceed. The third section is an analysis of the thesis pieces themselves and shows how they are attempts at overcoming my earlier compositional problems.