Being aware that pieces have relationships allows one to make instructive and informed juxtapositions of works. It builds up a sort of liturgical awareness of the interstices of place, date, context, scenario, personal circumstances, social concerns and much else. Part of the vocation of performance is to act as a liminal moment in people's lives, and music-making is far more likely to be stimulating when it is considered deeply.
Petipa—Balanchine—Cunningham
Ballet is about the relationship of music and movement. It is worth considering—in a 'binary' mode of understanding—that the action either 'does' or 'does not' match the sounds. An example of the exact matching is notable in Petipa's choreography which
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precisely describes Tchaikovsky's music for Sleeping Beauty (in Homans 2010: 273). By the same token, one example where the music and action are two seemingly unconnected trajectories of thought is in Merce Cunningham's work with John Cage (as in The Seasons of 1947). But having suggested that life is not just an 'either/or' situation, one can note that in Balanchine's choreography it is the relationship between Stravinsky's music and the actions that is intriguing, with ballet becoming in Homans's words 'its own language' (2010: 538). Elliott Carter calls it 'provocative' (in 1997: 302), and yet what is most challenging about this realisation is that it contests notions of progress. The contemporary assumption today is that ours is the most advanced civilisation which has built on and improved the past. If one claims otherwise, one is open to charges of 'nostalgia' and of 'living in the past'. Yet to blithely assume that what is happening now is by definition better than what has gone before is carte blanche to any amount of nonsense, justified purely by its later chronology. The strength of Stravinsky's ballets (one thinks of the diversity of Firebird (1910), Pulcinella (1920), Le Baiser de la Fée (1928), Jeu de Cartes (1937), Orpheus (1947) and Agon (1957)—one roughly from each decade of his 60 year career) is that they exemplify the true richness of this middle way. For, despite being hugely presecriptive as scores for performance, they declare their necessary relationship to other works (through their stylisation) and rejoice in their manifold interpretability.
In his preface to Book V of his Madrigals (1605), Monteverdi states that he wishes to make words the 'mistress' of music (rather than the other way round). While he is entitled to want this, this position of making it 'either/or' avoids the question of how music can speak for itself. Although music needs no verbal justification to survive, even when composers tackle music with music, they often still try to unpick it verbally since that is the natural mode for explaining things. But that same uniquely human articulacy prevents a true articulation of that which is being sought to express, for the gap between the two differing views (the rational and the irrational) is unbridgeable. No language or number system is able to accommodate both, and it is worth recognising that the universe (and humanity's universal experience) is greater than any one person's understanding of it. This inbuilt irreconcilability or imperfection is not a criticism of our collective idiocy but an essential component in the project of humanity. One might draw a parallel with the great Tudor compositions where false relations arise from the conflict of linear reasoning (melodies)
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and the lateral sums (harmonies) which they create. Yet these discrepancies are not inconvenient truths but flashes of enlightening: Tallis' Loquebantur not only word-paints the diverse tongues at Pentecost through its panoply of dissonance, but also mirrors the apparent confusion which may literally be the vocation of humanity.
Understandable as it may be to want things to be black and white, there is surely a place for the many shades of grey that exist, since it is these grey areas which offer real potential for further discovery and imagination. This intrinsic diversity mirrors Manley Hopkins's insight that the best things are dappled, speckled and not uniform. Music, likewise, may be necessarily un-univocal, always playing in that curious zone between sound and non-sound, itself and its non-self.
My pieces may well be 'provisional' or 'incomplete' or 'discussion documents', but I contend that they are just as 'finished' (as works of art) as a grand symphony, partly because they announce their contingency and relationship to others.
Few people would suggest that because a circle does not have a beginning or an end it does not exist: some art or, perhaps, even all art—which may similarly appear not to have a beginning or end—claims its space and invites encounter, exploration and reaction.
That I am making this point here in words is something required of me by the PhD format, but I believe that my compositions demonstrate a rich and rare blend of originality and musicological awareness which merits investigation, both verbal and non-verbal.
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Appendix
Op 48
All the below musical works take Bach's Prelude in C (from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier) as its starting point. Alphabetising these experiments is the least biased way of detailing them. Each is listed by title with forces required on the right, after the relevant page-number for its involvement in this commentary. Under the title is a very quick key to the design, and the projected timing is in brackets.
A = 416 107
2 Cor Anglais, 2 Bassoons, 1 Contrabassoon,
'B major' Harpsichord
(2:32)
Also in 2 versions for harpsichord: a minute version; and an hour version
A Minute Waltz 103, 117, 126-7
Piano
D flat major (59 secs)
Aladdin's Lamp v, 100, 105, 117, 123
Harpsichord, Piano
a Solo-Duet with split pitch: (1:10)
Arutadrocs 117, 129-30
Alto Flute, Muted Trombone, Harp, Violin
A Serbian Folk Fiddle piece (2:30)
Bach Kata Log 148
Cello, Piano
E minor/major with Hebrew inflections (4:37)
Bachmaninov of Beverly Hills 108-9
2 Pianos
C major (1:02)
Can't Play, Won't Play! 105
Organ
Lisztian 'virtu-oso' (0:46)
Carmina Carmena 102
Cimbalom
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Der Lustige Witwer v, 106, 117, 130-1
Male Singer & (Male) Pianist (same person)
'Blues' in C major (1:56)
Dixit Dominus 101
Percussion (Trio for 4 players: 3 play left-
Exercise in harmonic rhythm handed only, with 'continuo' player playing crotales and tubular bells): Gong Ageng, Shaker, Cowbell, Finger Cymbals, Triangle, Woodblock, Crotales, Tubular Bells (2:04)
Getting Even 106
Bassoon and Piano
Bach sliced diagonally, interweaved with plainsong (1:45)
Gibraltar Gloria 104
Cor Anglais, Spanish Guitar, Vocalist
Serial - both good and bad (1:55)
Glucklicherweise 117, 134-5
String Orchestra, Xylorimba
Whole-tone and in C (3:04)
Hands Sax 102
Soprano Saxophone, Harpsichord
B flat (1:15)
Holy and Individual 106
Piano
Interweaved Bach/non-Bach (2:30)
Hungarian Flour Fudge 102
Piano
D/C major (1:08)
Ja-Pan v, 148
Shakuhachi, Flute (+ Shoji)
Heterophony - visible and invisible (1:19)
Just Dyeing to See it 106
Piano
White and Black - Aleatory (1:24)
Kontrafuge und Praeludium 110
Organ
167 Le v(i)ol de Bourdon 102-3
Organ
A minor (0:42)
Les Sornettes Sonores 103
Piano
C# minor (3:09)
Luke 10.1 148
Organ
The 70 disciples sent out in pairs (1:30)
Marianne and Cecilia 140
Fortepiano, Glass Harmonica (event. Piano)
F major (2:03)
Mind the Gap v, 117, 119-20
Piano, Harpsichord
Tonal intervallic complements (2:10)
No Bows Allowed 101, 140
String Quartet, Harp
C-based (split: quartet v. harp) (2:46)
Not my Field v, 117, 135-7
2 ensembles (and singer - silent - at concert pitch)
Watching Boulez and Schoenberg play together Piccolo, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Harpsichord;
Alto Flute, Viola, Guitar, Vibraphone, Harmonium
(2:20)
Offenbacharolle v, 117, 131-2
Piano, Violin (2 dispersed music-stands; one
E flat on left side of stage, the other on the right)
(3:24)
Open and Shut 104
Violin, Viola, Piano
CAGE trapping Bach (1:21)
Penguins and Polar Bears 117, 132-3
Piccolo, Cor Anglais; Marimba, Contrabassoon
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Prelude 465300.2751 (161049811271235) in C 111-2, 117, 120-21
Electric Piano
'Virus' of extended intervals (1:45)
Re:Creation - Usshering in Reality v, 106
String Quartet (with special lighting)
Logos - 4004BC (8:06)
Red Shoes v, 107
Electric Organ, Bass Clarinet, Clarinet in
C major A, Clarinet in B flat, Clarinet in Eb; also
Clarinet in B flat (for 'in-flight assembly') (2:32)
Returning the Complement 104, 117, 118-9
Piano
Totally non-Bach (1:10)
Shanghaied 117, 121-2
Piano
Pentatonic: 'black note' translation (4:00)
Sinister Developments 105, 117, 122-3
Piano (totally unprepared)
LH mobile, RH static but active (1:40)
Sonata K. 110
Piano
Mozart's first impressions of Prague (3:40)
Space-Time Continuuum v, 101
Gravity,
Flute, Tenor Saxophone, Tuba, Viola, Vibraphone
(also helpers to move players)
Re-spacing (mobile ensemble) (2:18)
Spieglein 104-5
Piano
F minor (contra C) (0:52)
Tea-tray 105, 123
Viola, Piano (and Sandwich)
A and E flat (accomp), C (solo) (1:57)
The Bad-Tempered Clavichordist 101
Pianoforte
169 The Interpretation of Drams 41
Violin/Fiddle, Piano (bankrupt nursing
D major home quality), inebriated Bagpiper
(4 mins)
The Powick Pianoforte Quintet v, 117, 128-30
Alto Flute, Clarinet in A, Bass Clarinet in B
A 'score' of mis-readings flat, Horn in F, Tenor Trombone, Bassoon; also baroque cello, 'audience member' and '2 psychiatric nurses' (pref. with wheelchair). (1:48 + interlude + partial repeat: 5 minutes)
The Rag Trade 103-4, 117, 124-6
Piano (pianola-style)
C sharp; 2 indian ragas; piano-roll (2:32)
The Star and Garter 123
Organ
Bach's inner workings à la Liszt (1:12)
The Third Degree 48
Organ
Utilising Tierce: C/E (2:37)
Tromperie 1872 102
Flute, Trumpet, Glockenspiel, Double Bass
Drones, Marie Celeste disappearance (2:05)
World Peace v, 106, 117, 134, 142
Zither, Hawaiian Guitar, Mandolin, Sitar,
A major incorporation of Chopin Balalaika, Oud (2:10)
WTC1 v, 106, 141-2, 148
2 Ensembles:
C major Preludes from Bk 1 and 2 Piccolo, Soprano Saxophone, Cor Anglais, Bass Clarinet in B flat, Tuba, Cimbalom, Tubular Bells, Glockenspiel, Double Bass; Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Viola, Cello
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