Baldwin-Wallace College
The Use of Variation Form in Frederic Rzewski’s The People
United Will Never Be Defeated!
by
Keane Southard
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Degree of Bachelor of Music
Music Theory Senior Project
Dr. Cleland
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Copyright © 2009 by Keane Southard All rights reserved
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Feldman, who began as my advisor for this project up until the day he passed away from ALS.
Thanks to Dr. Cleland for his guidance and support as my other advisor for this project.
Thanks to Frederic Rzewski himself for being kind enough to meet with me and for letting me interview him, which has enriched the content of this paper as well as my understanding of his
work immeasurably.
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Table of Contents
List of Charts and Examples………....6
Introduction………12
CHAPTER 1: Background on Rzewski Biography………...………13
MEV………...15
Improvisation………...17
Political Views………...18
CHAPTER 2: The People United Will Never Be Defeated Background on The People United Will Never Be Defeated……….22
Formal Construction………..23 Thema………30 Set I Variation 1………...40 Variation 2……….42 Variation 3……….48 Variation 4……….50 Variation 5……….52 Variation 6……….54 Set II Variation 7……….60 Variation 8….………....62 Variation 9……….64 Variation 10………...66 Variation 11………...70 Variation 12………...73 Set III……….79 Set IV……….80 Set V………...82 Variation 25………...83 Variation 26………...85 Variation 27………...88 Variation 28………...90 Variation 29………...94 Variation 30………...96 Set VI Variation 31……….110 Variation 32……….116 Variation 33……….122 Variation 34……….128 Variation 35……….137 Variation 36……….145
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Recap of Theme………...151
Conclusion………...154
Appendix A Second Structure………158
Appendix B Interview with Frederic Rzewski…..………..162
Appendix C “Bandiera Rossa” Text and Translation………...………..169
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List of Charts and Examples Chart
1. Recapitulation Relationships……….27
2. Key Scheme………...29
3. Rhythmic Scheme of the Theme………...39
4. Harmonic Tones in Variation 2, m.9-12………45
5. Musical Languages in Variations 1-5………53
6. Variation 30, Measures allotted for each Variation Recapitulated………96
7. Recapitulation Relationships, Key Scheme, and Variation Lengths………...155
Example 1. Theme, m.1-36………..35-36 2. Theme, m. 5-6, Descending Diatonic Bass line……….37
3. Theme, m.33-34, Descending Chromatic Bass line………...37
4. Theme, m.5-16, Harmonic and Cadencial Analysis………..38
5. “Basic Rhythm”………39
6. Variation 1, m. 1-12, Bass line (shown in circles) and Melody (shown in squares) Analysis………..41
7. Rhythmic Cells of the First Half of Variation 2………42
8. Melody and Bass line comparison, Variation 2……….43
9. Variation 2, m. 1-8, Melody (shown in rectangles) and Bass line (shown in circles) Analysis………..44
10.Rhythmic Cells of Variation 2 Melody………..45
11.Variation 2, m.9-12, m2/P5 Motive………...46
12.Theme, m. 9-12, m2/P5 Motive……….47
13.m2/P5 Motive and Hexachord 6-20………...47
14.Variation 3, m. 1-4, [045] Pitch Set Analysis………49
15. Theme, m.13, Melody and Variation 3, m.6, Bass Melody Comparison Theme,m.13,melody………..49
Variation 3, m. 6, Bass melody………..49
16.Variation 4, m.13-16, Melody Through Accents………...51
17.Variation 4, m.17-20, Melody (shown in squares) and Bass line (shown in circles) Analysis………..51
18.Variation 4, m.21, Basic Rhythm………...52
19.Variation 5 and Theme Melody Comparison……….53
20.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 6 Variation 6, m.1-2……….55 Variation 1, m. 1-2………55 Variation 6, m. 3-4………55 Variation 1, m 15-16……….56 Variation 6, m 5-6……….56 Variation 2, m. 5-6………56 Variation 6, m.7-8……….57 Variation 2, m.17-18……….57 Variation 6, m.9-10………...57 Variation 3, m.5-6……….57 Variation 6, m.11-12……….58
7 Variation 3, m.15-16……….58 Variation 6, m.13-14……….58 Variation 4, m.1-2……….58 Variation 6, m.15-16……….59 Variation 4, m.13-14……….59 Variation 6, 17-20……….59 Variation 5, m. 1-4………59
21.Variation 7 and Theme Comparison………..61
22.Variation 7, m.21-24, Melody (shown in rectangles) and Bass line (shown in circles) Analysis………..62
23.Variation 8, m 1-4, [045] Pitch Set Analysis……….63
24.Variation 8, m.13-16, Use of Basic Rhythm………..64
25.Variation 9 and Theme Comparison………..65
26.Variation 9 and Theme Comparison………..66
27.Variation 10 Melodic (rectangles) and Harmonic (circles) Analysis………...67-69 28.Variation 11 Analysis………...71
29.Variation 11 Composite Rhythm as Written in 4/4………...72
30.Variation 11 Composite Rhythm Re-Written in 5/4………..72
31.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 12 Variation 12, m. 1-2………..73 Variation 7, m. 1-2………74 Variation 12, m. 3-4………..74 Variation 7, m. 15-16………74 Variation 12, m. 5-8………..75 Variation 8, m. 9-12………..75 Variation 12, m. 9-12………76 Variation 9, m. 9-12………..76 Variation 12, m. 13-16……….76-77 Variation 10, m. 1-4………..77 Variation 12, m. 17-18………..77 Variation 11, m. 10-11………..78 Variation 12, m. 19-20………..78 Variation 11, m. 21-22………..78
32. “Bandiera Rossa” Melody……….80
33.Variation 24, m. 17-18………...81
34.Variation 25, m. 15-16, Analysis of m2/P5 Motive………..84
35. “Soldaritätaslied” Melody……….85
36.Variation 26, Theme and “Soldaritätaslied” Melody Comparison ………...86
37.Variation 26, m.21-28, Descending Chromatic Bass line (in circles)………...87
38.Variation 27, m.1-4, m2/P5 Motive and Descending Chromatic Bass line Analysis…...88
39.Theme, m. 13-15, Quarter note Walking Bass line………...89
40.Variation 27 and Theme Comparison………90
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42.Variation 28, m.27-42. Theme Melody (in circles) and Descending Chromatic Bass line (in rectangles)………...92-93 43.Comparison of Variation 28 and J.S. Bach Well Tempered Clavier, Book I, Prelude in C
Major
Variation 28, m. 49-52………...93
J.S. Bach, Well Tempered Clavier, Book I, Prelude in C major, m.1-4…………94
44.Variation 29 and Theme Comparison………96
45.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 30 Variation 30, m. 1-4………...98 Variation 25, m. 1-4………..98 Variation 30, m. 5-8………..99 Variation 25, m. 29-32………..99 Variation 30, m. 9-16………..100 Variation 26, m. 21-28………..100-01 Variation 30, m. 17-21………101 Variation 27, m. 1-4………101 Variation 30, m. 22………...101 Variation 6, m. 21-22………..102 Variation 30, m. 23……….102
Variation 27, m. 17 (beginning of cadenza)………...102
Variation 30, m. 24-28………103 Variation 27, m. 56-61………103 Variation 30, m. 29-38………104 Variation 27, m. 75-84………104 Variation 30, m. 39-40………104 Variation 27, m. 105-106………105 Variation 30, m. 41-44………105 Variation 27, m. 115-116………105 Variation 30, m. 45-52………106 Variation 26, m. 29-36………106 Variation 30, m. 53-64………107 Variation 27, m. 85-93………108 Variation 30, m. 65-68………108 Variation 29, m. 11-14………109
46.Transition Phrase Comparison Variation 30, m.69-72………..109
Variation 12, m. 21-24……….109
47.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 31 Variation 31, m. 1-2……….110 Variation 1, m. 1-2………...111 Variation 31, m. 3-4……….111 Variation 1, m. 15-16………...111 Variation 31, m. 5-6……….111 Variation 7, m. 21-22………...112 Variation 31, m. 7-8……….112 Variation 7, m. 13-14………...112
9 Variation 31, m. 9-10………...112 Variation 13, m. 9-10………...113 Variation 31, m. 11-12……….113 Variation 13, m. 19-20……….113 Variation 31, m. 13-14……….113 Variation 19, m. 1-3……….114 Variation 31, m. 15-16……….114 Variation 19, m. 13-15……….114 Variation 31, m. 17-19……….114 Variation 25, m. 5-7……….115 Variation 31, m. 20………..115 Variation 25, m. 29-30……….115 48.Variation 31, m.21-24 Analysis………...116
49.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 32 Variation 32, m. 1-2……….116 Variation 2, m. 1-2………...117 Variation 32, m. 3-4……….117 Variation 2, m. 13-14………...117 Variation 32, m. 5-8……….118 Variation 8, m. 7-10……….118 Variation 32, m. 9-10………...118 Variation 14, m. 5-6……….119 Variation 32, m. 11-12……….119 Variation 14, m. 19-20……….119 Variation 32, m. 13-14……….119 Variation 20, m. 1-2……….120 Variation 32, m. 15-16……….120 Variation 20, m. 15-16……….120 Variation 32, m. 17-18……….120 Variation 26, m. 21-22……….121 50.Variation 32 m.21-24 Analysis………...121-22 51.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 33 Variation 33, m. 1-2……….122 Variation 3, m. 1-2………...123 Variation 33, m. 3-4……….123 Variation 3, m. 15………123 Variation 33, m. 5-6……….123 Variation 9, m. 1-2………...124 Variation 33, m. 7-8……….124 Variation 9, m. 21-22………...124 Variation 33, m. 9-10………...124 Variation 15, m. 5-6……….125 Variation 33, m. 11-12……….125 Variation 15, m. 23………..125 Variation 33, m. 13-16……….126 Variation 21, m. 13-14……….126
10 Variation 33, m. 17-18……….126 Variation 27, m. 1-2……….127 Variation 33, m. 19-20……….127 Variation 27, m. 57-58……….127 52.Variation 33 m.21-24 Analysis………...128
53.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 34 Variation 34, m. 1-2……….129 Variation 4, m. 1-2………...129 Variation 34, m. 3-4……….129 Variation 4, m. 13-14………...129 Variation 34, m. 5-8……….130 Variation 10, m. 1-4……….130 Variation 34, m. 9-10………...131 Variation 16, m. 7-8……….131 Variation 34, m. 11-12……….132 Variation 16, m. 18-19……….132 Variation 34, m. 13-14……….133 Variation 22, m. 1-2……….133 Variation 34, m. 15-16……….133 Variation 22, m. 13-14……….133 Variation 34, m. 17-20……….134
54.Comparison of Recapitulations of Variation 28 in Variation 34 and 30……….135
55.Variation 34, m. 19, and Variation 26, m.1 Comparison Variation 34, m. 19………..135
Variation 26, m. 1………136
56.Variation 34 m.21-24 Analysis………137
57.Variation 35, m. 17-18 and Variation 21, m.9-10 Comparison Variation 35, m. 17-18………138
Variation 21, m. 9-10………..138
58.Comparison of Variations and their Recapitulations in Variation 35 Variation 35, m. 1-2……….139 Variation 5, m. 1-2………...139 Variation 35, m. 3-4……….139 Variation 5, m. 13-14………...140 Variation 35, m. 5-6……….140 Variation 11, m. 13-14……….140 Variation 35, m. 7-8……….141 Variation 11, m. 21-22……….141 Variation 35, m. 9-10………...141 Variation 17, m. 3-4……….141 Variation 35, m. 11-12……….142 Variation 17, m. 16-17……….142 Variation 35, m. 13-16……….143 Variation 23, m. 1-4………..144
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59.Variation 35 m.21-24 Analysis………...145
60.Variation 36 Analysis……….147-49
12 Introduction
The composition that has brought Frederic Rzewski the most attention, fame, and recognition has been his hour-long set of thirty-six variations called The People United Will
Never Be Defeated! for solo piano. In 1990, Art Lange wrote the following regarding the work:
‘It is not often that one is fortunate enough to witness the unveiling of a musical masterpiece, simply because there aren’t many being written today. Yet Frederic Rzewski’s epic solo piano composition, The People United Will Never Be Defeated, certainly fills the bill.’ I wrote that, reviewing a recital by The People United…’s dedicatee Ursula Oppens, in 1978 (three years after the work’s completion; this was its Chicago premiere). Now, some 12 years later, I’m able to add another criterion to its masterpiece status: the test of time. The music has lost none of its ability to mesmerize us with its invention, or move us with its integrity.1
This work is a landmark in variation form, perhaps being itself a kind of new “variation” on traditional variation form. It has been performed numerous times throughout the world, has been recorded at least eight times. A performance of Rzewski performing the work himself has even been released on DVD.2
While the work can be explored and looked at in relationship to its extra-musical and political associations, which can greatly enhance the appreciation of this work, extra-musical aspects will only be briefly touched upon in this essay in order to focus on how the work functions successfully as a piece of music without the justification of extra-musical or
programmatic elements. More specifically, this essay will focus on Rzewski’s use of variation form, including how the theme is used and what elements are employed and developed within the variations.
1
Art Lange, Program notes for Frederic Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated! performed by Frederic Rzewski, Hat ART CD 6066, 1990, quoted in Richard Koloda, “The Piano Music (Post 1974) of Frederic Rzewski.” (MM Thesis, Cleveland State University, 1996), 202.
2
Frederic Anthony Rzewski, perf. Rzewski Plays Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, DVD, directed by Tony Adzinikolov. (Pleasantville: Video Artists International, 2008).
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Chapter 1: Background on Rzewski
Biography
Frederic Anthony Rzewski (pronounced Zhev-skee) was born on April 13, 1938 and grew up in Westfield, Massachusetts. He began playing the piano at the age of three and began composing shortly thereafter. At age four, he began studying with Charles Mackey of
Springfield, Massachusetts, who taught him piano and a little bit of composition. Mackey exposed Rzewski to music by Shostakovich and Schoenberg, as well as leftist politics.3 At the age of sixteen, Rzewski entered Harvard where he studied composition with Walter Piston, orchestration with Claudio Spies, counterpoint with Randall Thompson, and piano with Gregory Tucker.4 By this time he was already an exceptional pianist, although he hardly practiced and preferred instead to compose, and had made friends with composers Christian Wolff and David Behrman. Wolff introduced Rzewski to the music of John Cage, with whom Wolff was a good friend, being already established as a composer of avant-garde music. They sponsored concerts at Harvard of avant-garde music in a time when “the Harvard Music Department [was] where
3 Frederic Rzewski. “I am in the habit of trying to relate my work to the world around me” interview by
Vivian Perlis, 2 December 1984, Nonsequiturs: Writings & Lectures on Improvisation, Composition, and
Interpretation, edited by Gisela Gronemeyer and Reinhard Oehlschlagel. (Cologne: MusikTexte, 2007): 158-160.
4 It is interesting to note that Rzewski describes the Harvard Music Department as “not especially
interesting…Thompson was the best teacher there was as far as I could see. He certainly was the best teacher that I had there. I studied modal counterpoint with him, and that was a very lucky thing, because I think the important thing in counterpoint is that you have a teacher who genuinely likes counterpoint. And he loved it. He knew Palestrina backwards and forwards. He was able to inspire in the students a certain passion for things like species counterpoint, which is after all not that easy to do. But the other people, although some of them I felt quite close to, like Claudio Spies, with whom I studied orchestration, and I found him a very interesting teacher –I even wrote a piece which I dedicated to him, a trio for flute, trumpet, and piano. A kind of neo-Stravinskian piece. And then there were some interesting professors of history. Nino Pirotta was there for a while teaching Baroque and Post-Baroque music, and also Shigeo Kishibe from the University of Tokyo, who gave a very interesting course in Japanese music. So those were interesting courses. [Walter] Piston’s composition seminar was not terribly inspiring, because lots of times Piston didn’t even come to class, and when he did come to class he didn’t say very much. Of course that was his nature, anyway. He was a very nice man, but I don’t think we learned a great deal in that course.” Ibid., 162-64.
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Stravinsky and neoclassicism ruled. No one in Harvard was listening to Schoenberg and Webern”.5
After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard, he went to graduate school at Princeton where he studied with Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt from 1958-60.6 Then he traveled to Rome, Italy on a Fulbright Scholarship to study with Luigi Dallapiccola, but ended lessons very soon after. Rzewski recalls
But with Dallapiccola I made a serious mistake. When I first showed up there he asked me what I wanted to do. And I made, I think, a fatal mistake, which was to say to him that what I wanted to do was orchestration. This was the area where I felt I was weakest, and I wanted to concentrate on orchestration rather than on composition. And I think I gave the impression that I was not interested in what he had to say about composition. At first he agreed, he said fine, we’ll work on orchestration, and we did do several lessons of orchestration, but then one time I missed a lesson because I had gone to visit some friends in London, and when I came back from London I found a letter saying that Maestro Dallapiccola felt that I was not the kind of student that he wanted, needed to work with, and would I please go somewhere else. And I realized that I had made a serious mistake simply in –I must have given the impression of arrogance, because I probably was rather arrogant at that time. And now, it’s one thing I’ve always regretted, because I certainly could have gotten a lot from that man if I had approached him correctly.7
Rzewski remained in Rome for the next few years. He began to make his name as a performer while becoming the pianist for the Italian flautist Severino Gazzelloni. He began performing and recording many works by contemporary composers such as Boulez, Stockhausen, Bussotti,
5 Ibid., 166. 6
“If I found the Harvard Music Department not terrifically inspiring, I think the Princeton Music Department was even less so…. The lessons with Sessions consisted mostly of anecdotes, which were quite interesting, but there wasn’t a great deal of time to go into the actual technique of composition. And with Babbitt I think this was even more the case. My lessons with Babbitt consisted often of discussions of baseball or Broadway musicals.” Ibid., 168-70.
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Kagel, Cage, Feldman and Wolff. He even gave the premieres of Stockhausen’s Klavierstuck X and Plus-Minus in 1962 and 1964 respectively.8
In 1963, Rzewski was invited by Elliot Carter, who was also a former student of Walter Piston, to be part of the Ford Foundation artist-in-residence program and live in West Berlin for two years. While there he met fellow composer Alvin Curran, with whom he would later found the group Musica Elettronica Viva. During this time he began teaching, first at the Cologne Courses for New Music in 1963, 1964, and 1970, as well at the Center for the Creative Arts at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 1977 he was offered the position of Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatoire de Liege in Belgium, where he remained until retiring in 2003. In the past thirty years, he has been invited to teach for short periods of time at several institutions around the U.S. and Europe, including the Hochschule der Kunste in West Berlin, the Yale School of Music, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the Royal Conservatory of the Hague, the Hochschule fur Musik in Karlsruhe, Germany, and the California Institute of the Arts.
MEV
In 1966, while living in Rome, Rzewski founded Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) along with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum. The group was dedicated to playing live electronic music combined with improvisation in concerts or “happenings”. Jazz proved to be a huge influence, and jazz musicians such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, John Coltrane,
8
Harold C. Schoenberg’s review of a performance of Klavierstuck V describes Rzewksi’s playing, “He then turned to Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Klavierstuck 10.’ For which he dusted the keys of the piano with talcum powder and wore a pair of white workman’s gloves with the fingers cut off. This permitted him to make all kinds of glissandos with his palm. What with the glissandos, forearm and fist tone clusters, pregnant pauses and whatnots, there was a good half hour of esthetic commotion. Mr. Rzewski bespattered and weary, took his bows.” Harold C Schoenberg, “Music: Frederic Rzewski at the Piano.” New York Times 21 August 1963, 39, quoted in Koloda, 11.
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and Anthony Braxton all performed with MEV on occasion. Another large influence was John Cage and his understanding of music as a process and not a product.9 MEV worked to
incorporate the audience and non-musicians and also to break down some “outdated” musical traditions, such as notated music and the standard concert format. Incorporating the audience into the music-making is an early example of the unification theme later apparent in The People
United. The following are Rzewski’s instructions for one of MEV’s pieces which the audience is
to participate:
We are all ‘musicians’. We are all ‘creators’. Music is a creative process in which we all can share, and the closer we can come to each other in this process, abandoning esoteric categories and professional elitism, the closer we can all come to the ancient idea of music as a universal language…We are trying to catalyze and sustain a musical process, moving in the direction of unity, towards a sense of communion and closeness among all individuals present…The
musician takes on a new function: he is no longer the mythical star, elevated to a sham glory and authority, but rather an unseen worker, using his skill to help others less prepared than he to experience the miracle, to become great artists in a few minutes.10
MEV’s goal was to bring music down from the elitist status of the cerebral composer, such as is exemplified in his former teacher Milton Babbitt’s essay Who Cares if you listen? 11 to
something that can create social change and harmony between ordinary people. This dissolution of the traditional classical music concert was an attempt to free the performer and audience in
9 Patricia Ann Keyes, “The People United: An Analysis of Frederic Rzewski’s Variations for Solo Piano
and Examination of Selected Compositions from 1960-2003” (DMA Diss., Boston University. Ann Arbor: UMI, 2006), 51.
10
Michael Nyman, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999,) 130, quoted in Keyes, 53.
11 Milton Babbitt, “Who Cares If You Listen?” High Fidelity Magazine viii (1958): 38, quoted in Laura
Melton, Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated! An Analysis and Historical Perspective, (DMA Diss., Rice University. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1998), 7.
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order for a primitive, universal musical language to emerge.12 This is the same view Rzewski maintains while writing The People United. Before they disbanded in 1970, the group played over 200 concerts and these experiences greatly affected Rzewski’s later compositions.
Improvisation
In addition to composing fully written-out works, Rzewski is an incredibly skilled improviser, and often inserts improvisations into works he performs, and this interest greatly affects his compositional method. His interest in improvisation came from both the classical tradition of improvising composers such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart, and also from jazz. Christian Wolff writes:
One can also say that improvisation and composition are for Rzewski
inextricably combined. And, partly because composed, written pieces often have space for improvising with nothing or only the most general suggestions
indicated for the player, this interaction of what’s improvised with what’s written and their co-existence are themselves what the music is really about, what we should be listening to. This is not just a formal or procedural matter either. One can see it as the expression of an ideal and a dilemma of human living. No music, no genuine human action or feeling is without spontaneous impulse. The capacity and space for such impulse make up our human freedom. On the other hand, improvised spontaneity is always on the brink of arbitrariness and chaos or absurdity. The drama of that dilemma is the drama of Rzewski’s music.13 Rzewski himself talks about improvisation and composition:
Stravinsky once remarked that composition was simply improvising with a pencil. Lately, I’ve been trying to get into a state of mind where I can write off the top of my head, just slapping down ideas on paper as they appear. What passes today for legitimate composition today seems to be a much more formalistic endeavor, an attempt to emulate the procedures of science.14
12 Keyes, 54.
13 Christian Wolff, CD liner notes for Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
performed by Ursula Oppens, Vanguard Classics VSD-71248, 1993.
14Joshua Kosman, “Improvising with a Pencil: The Piano Music of Frederic Rzewski.” Piano and
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He believes his interest in improvisation and modern music is really just an extension of the classical tradition. He writes:
The classical tradition is a dynamic one of innovation. I consider the practice of performing music that is 150 to 200 years old to be an aberration of this
tradition…I consider people like myself composer/performers, to be the true inheritors of this tradition.15
Every time I play classical music, someone comes up and complains about it afterwards. A while back I played the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto with the New Hampshire Symphony. This was one of the last pieces written by
Beethoven that he played himself, and we also know that he did a lot of improvising. There are certain places in the Fourth where there are spaces for cadenzas – at least five; One in the first movement, once in the second, and at least three places in the third. There are written-out cadenzas, but we know that Beethoven sometimes played very, very long improvisations. And one can easily imagine that he probably extended them when performing. So I decided to do that: Improvise all five cadenzas and really play some long improvisations. But people got very upset. There was as much improvised music as there was of Beethoven’s written music in that performance.16
In many of his compositions, including The People United, he inserts spots for optional
improvisations, understanding that many concert musicians are not trained or comfortable with improvising, but leaving the option there for those who want to.
Political Views
As early as his undergraduate years, Rzewski’s music has been inseparable from his politics and has consciously used his music as a vehicle for social change. Because of this, he has been labeled a “political composer”. Patricia Ann Keyes explains that “because Rzewski has
15 Annette Moreau, “From Outside In; They Call Him Fred the Red, But His God Was Beethoven.”
Independent, November 20, 1993, quoted in Keyes, 15-16.
16
Lillian Tan, “Rzewski Fuses Jazz with Classical Music to Create Consciousness-Raising Concerts.”
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long taken an active interest in leftist politics – and has often reflected that interest in his music – he has inevitably acquired the tag of a ‘political’ composer”.17 Rzewski himself does not adhere to this label, saying:
I did not publish a book called Stockhausen Serves Imperialism, and I have never sat down in front of a tank. But somehow even my limited involvement in human life in general in my music, or in attempting to associate these things, has brought me the stamp of being ‘Fred the Red’. It’s not relevant to understanding my music. I happen to be interested in life and the relationships of music to life. I am not inspired by abstractions.18
Keyes sees this reluctance to be labeled a political composer as an attempt to keep the focus on the artistic appeal of his music instead of politics.19 Stephen Drury, who has performed and recorded The People United, supports this claim, and says that “He [Rzewski] doesn’t want to get locked in a box. His works are not agitprop, which might be useful socially but tends to be uninteresting artistically. He’s first of all a composer with a social conscience, but he’s
interested in writing good music”.20 His belief that music can inspire social change is strong and he believes all artists should take hold of its power in opposition to Babbitt’s artistic elitist position. Rzewski writes:
Of course music is a political force. It’s a very powerful political force. Music influences millions of people. If a composer comes to grips with this fact, this tremendous potential force that is in this form of art, then there is a possibility of really doing something to change the situation, perhaps on a small level at first, but nonetheless important. I think it’s very necessary today to begin to think of
17 Keyes, 73. 18 Morreau, 53. 19 Keyes, 74. 20
David Weininger,“Rzewski: Composer, Pianist, Iconoclast, Full of Eclectic Invention. His Work Doesn’t Fit Into a Box” The Boston Globe. June 19, 2005, quoted in Keyes, 74.
20
music as not simply a form of art for art’s sake but a form of spiritual expression that potentially influences masses of people.21
However, he also realizes the limitations that one artist can do to change the world through their art:
The important thing is to get past the notion that an individual can, with his own resources, make any significant progress on solving a problem which is social in nature. This is one of the biggest hurdles that artists have to overcome, the idea that art alone can solve problems that really need other forms of action. Art can help: it can be useful in solving human problems. It always has been and it always will be, but only as long as it recognizes its own limitations.22
In addition, while he often uses compositional styles that are less complex in order to be understood by a wider audience, he refuses to write lesser quality music while rejecting more complex and intellectual styles of composition.
It is possible to say, however, that such things as counterpoint, chromatic harmony, serialism, the techniques of electronic music, all basically discoveries of the classical tradition in evolution, represent major acquisitions of the human intellect, objective leaps forward in its drive to understand and interpret both nature and its own relation to nature. It would be foolish to sacrifice such things on the grounds that they originally developed in the service of this or that ruling class in various stages of history, just as it would be foolish to scrap this electric typewriter on which I now am writing, merely because its original reason for being was to generate profits for IBM! This typewriter is a beautiful machine, and I need it. Similarly, the masses of people need beauty, and they need it in its most advanced, most complex, most difficult form.23
Politically, Rzewski is usually labeled as a Marxist. Without a doubt we can at least conclude that Rzewski’s political beliefs are well on the left side of the political spectrum.
21 Joe Goldberg, “The Art of Political Process, Frederic Rzewski,” WaxPaper, 5/7 (1979) 21, quoted in
Keyes, 75.
22 Ken Terry, “Frederic Rzewski and the Improvising Avant-Garde.” Downbeat (Jan. 11, 1979) 40, quoted
in Keyes, 76.
23
Rzewski, “All artists are compromisers”, Nonsequiturs: Writings & Lectures on Improvisation,
21
With regards to his political motivation behind The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, Rzewski writes,
During the time I was living in New York (1971-76), I became more and more concerned with the question of language. It seemed to me there was no reason why the most difficult and complex formal structures could not be expressed in a form which could be understood by a wide variety of listeners. I was also concerned with what appeared to me to be a crisis in theory, not only in music but in many different fields, including science and politics: the absence of a general theory to explain phenomena and guide behavior. I explored forms in which existing musical languages could be brought together. A series of variations for solo piano, The People United Will Never Be Defeated! was the main expression for these ideas at the time.24
Overall, Rzewski believes that creating art is always an act of defiance against social oppression. Artists are in fact able to turn into some kind of reality (even if only in a partial
and imperfect way) the age-old dream of what life would be like in a
non-repressive society based on an economy of abundance, in which people would be free both from need and from domination, and able to pursue their inborn
creative impulses, without having to alienate their labor in the service of an external authority….This explains the continuing need for art and artists: Their work provides a model for the creative negation of an oppressive reality.25
24Frederic Rzewski, CD liner notes for Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
performed by Frederic Rzewski, Hat ART CD 6066, 1990, quoted in Melton, 4-5.
25
Rzewski, “Music and Political Ideals”, Nonsequiturs: Writings & Lectures on Improvisation,
22
Chapter 2: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
Background on The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
The impetus for the creation of The People United Will Never Be Defeated! came from Rzewski’s friend, and concert pianist, Ursula Oppens. She asked him to write a work for her to premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for the Washington Performing Arts
Center’s U. S. Bicentennial Celebration on February 7, 1976.26 She was working on the Diabelli
Variations of Beethoven at the time and perhaps this stimulated Rzewski to write a large-scale
set of variations to either rival or accompany this piece.
The Chilean Revolutionary song “El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido”, written by Sergio Ortega in 1973, serves as the theme of Rzewski’s variations (the English translation of the song’s title is “The People United Will Never Be Defeated”). Laura Melton describes the
political context in during which the song was written.
From 1970 to 1973, Salvadore Allende was in power in Chile, commanding the first freely elected Marxist regime in the West. This was a difficult three-year period in Chile with a complex network of political and economic problems that resulted from Allende’s attempt to nationalize many of Chile’s domestic and foreign-owned industries, primarily the copper industry. He also raised wages, improved social services and began land redistribution programs, all of which helped the lower class and angered the middle and upper classes. Also unhappy were American businesses and corporations such as ITT and Anaconda Copper. Chile was soon without foreign capital which caused shortages and enormous inflation, which led to strikes, demonstrations, and counterdemonstrations dissolving Allende’s coalition. This led to a coup in September of 1973 when Augusto Pinochet took over. The ironic twist to the to the political nature of the piece becomes clear when one considers the CIA’s successful attempt to
destabilize the Allende regime by channeling millions of dollars to the opposition via the press, politicians, businessmen and trade unions.27
26
Of the premiere, Rzewski says “I got there late because the train broke down from New York, so I missed the first part of the concert. I think she [Oppens] played Beethoven Opus 110. I heard my piece, I think. I don’t remember now.” Frederic Rzewski, interview by author, 21 June 2008, tape recording, University of
Cincinnati, Cincinnati. (See Appendix B for complete transcription of the interview. Subsequent references to this interview will include the page number of the appendix.)
23
Ever since, the song has become world famous and is an anthem for the Chilean resistance. Keyes points out the irony between the subject matter of the song and the premiere of Rzewski’s work:
For a piece that draws its primary inspiration from a leftist chant that was used to support Salvador Allende’s socialist government, it is remarkable that the
premiere went ahead. One supposition is that the organizers of the Bicentennial celebration in Washington were unaware of the political nature of the thematic materials used for the variations. Whatever the reasons for its inclusion in the celebration, Rzewski certainly must have enjoyed making a political statement in this context.28
Formal Construction
The People United is cast as a theme, thirty-six variations, and recapitulation of theme.
In order to musically represent the concept of unification, Rzewski chose a form that would represent this. He chose his own Second Structure, a free improvisation piece he performed several times as a member of MEV in the 1970’s, as a model for the variations. The “piece” simply consists of a text which describes a musical form. Rzewski explains:
This was a form which in my group, MEV, we used a number of times as a kind of form to keep in our heads in the course of a free improvisation. Since it was free improvisation, this form, although it perhaps provided some kind of a
platform for an impro, it never developed in as strict a way as one could imagine. So that’s why I decided to make a written out version of it…It was a rather rigorous application of the model that you find in that text.29
The following is taken from the text of Second Structure, which details six stages that each “represent some particular way of dealing with time”30:
28 Keyes, 108.
29 Rzewski, interview by author, 160. 30 Ibid.
24 1. Simple events 2. Rhythms 3. Melodies 4. Counterpoints 5. Harmonies
6. Combinations of all these.31
The first five points above are different and contrasting elements, while the sixth synthesizes all the elements together. As a musical form, Rzewski chose this for setting the song because the musical form itself represents the idea of unification. Rzewski does this by using many different styles within the variations and bringing them closer together. Rzewski comments on his
tendency to use diverse styles and elements in his music and how they can be used together: Such attempts to integrate traditional musical language with the analytic
techniques of contemporary practice are considered by some to be suspect, if not outright regressive, coming as they do after the total “tabularasification”
undertaken by the serialists. I consider the very interesting possibility that
entirely new ground may be broken in the synthesis of newly acquired techniques with older traditions, and this on both sides of the equation: first, because new technologies (such as electronics), as well as new composing techniques make it possible to subject traditional material to a series of transformations, in such a way that it is perceived in a quite new fashion; and second, for the (less apparent but no less important) reason that similar technical advances in areas outside of music (such as communications) have altered our consciousness of these same traditions, and have brought us into close contact with similar traditions in areas of the planet that, only a few decades ago, remained relatively remote and unknown. Such a process of synthesis, both within and outside the universe of music, has made it possible to move out of the confining dogmatism of serial thinking—what Pousseur calls the “symmetrical negation” of tradition into a kind of musical thinking that is both broader (embracing a variety of traditions of diverse social and geographical origin) and deeper (moving freely back and forth through history) than any previous framework for a musical creation. It becomes possible, for the first time, to speak seriously of a possible “world music,”
turning the ancient utopian idea of music as a “universal language” into a reality. And this, not as in the work of some composers (like Stockhausen, in Cardew’s view), as the forceful integration of diverse cultures into a Western model, but rather as a gradual and harmonious confluence, under peaceful and mutually satisfying conditions. Already a new generation of musicians is emerging,
31Frederic Rzewski, CD liner notes for Frederic Rzewski’s Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works,
1975-1999 performed by Frederic Rzewski, Nonesuch 79623-2, 2002. (See Appendix A for complete text of Second
25
equally at home in both written and improvising traditions, for whom the notion of “composition” will take on hitherto unknown aspects.32
While it is interesting to discuss how each variation fulfills the descriptions of the previously mentioned stages, this would entail an analysis outside the scope of this essay.
The idea of combining several diverse elements that characterizes this form actually comes from another work, Plus-Minus of Karlheinz Stockhausen, written in 1963. Rzewski describes this work as “not really a piece. It’s kind of a formal scheme for a composer to use to write a piece and has this idea of there are a number of elements and then a final element which involves a combination of all those things”.33 Rzewski also performed in the world premiere of this work.
Rzewski takes the form set forth in Second Structure and employs it in two different dimensions. The six stages of Second Structure are used on a micro and macro level. The work contains a total of thirty-six variations, which are broken down into six sets of six variations each. In this way, each set is a complete form, where five variations are contrasting and use the material from the theme in different ways, while the sixth of each set recapitulates and
synthesizes the material of the previous five by drawing them closer together.
In the same way, the six sets themselves embody the form, where the first five sets each have their own character emphasizing different musical elements of the theme and the sixth recapitulates and synthesizes. The first variation of the final set recapitulates the first variation of each previous set, the second variation recapitulates the second variation of each previous set, etc. Following this pattern, the thirty-sixth and final variation is both a recapitulation of the sixth
32 Rzewski, “Melody as Face: On The Interpretation of Perceived Phenomena”, Nonsequiturs: Writings &
Lectures on Improvisation, Composition, and Interpretation, 140.
26
variation of each set, which were themselves recapitulations, and of the previous five variations of the sixth set, which were also recapitulations as well. In other words, what we have in the final variation is a recapitulation of all of the previous variations into one, or more correctly, all of the material and characters of the twenty-five “original” variations, or of all the variations not including the recapitulation variations. The following chart shows these relationships:
27 Chart 1 Recapitulation Relationships
28
The idea of six stages was introduced to Rzewski by the Living Theatre, of whom he collaborated often with in the 1970’s, who got it from the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.34
This form is also similar to the poetic form of the sestina, in which there are six stanzas of six lines each. Each stanza uses the same six words that end each line but in different combinations. The poem then ends with a three-line envoi that, in a way, recapitulates the previous material by using all six end words in a condensed form. This form was created by 12th century troubadours in France and likely developed separate from the previously mentioned Jewish source.35
While the theme contains thirty-six measures, each variation contains exactly twenty-four, except for the variations in the fifth set, where “it’s supposed to go haywire”36 and the variations vary from fourteen measures (not including repeats) to 116 measures (not including repeats). This consistent structure of twenty-four measures and similar phrasing preserves the coherence throughout this long work and makes Rzewski’s use of vastly different compositional methods and languages as clear as possible. This consistent structure also helps to maintain the clarity in the most diverse and enigmatic variations (outside of Set V, of course) such as
Variations ten and eleven, as we will examine later in this essay.
The key scheme of the variations is also carefully planned out and significant to the form. The theme itself is in D minor, and so is the first variation. Each subsequent variation is then in the minor key a perfect fifth higher than the previous one (even though several variations can be
34 Ibid, 162.
35 Mark Strand and Eavan Boland, The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (New
York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000), 21-23.
29
considered pantonal,37 each variation beings, ends, and has at least some tertian harmonies that correspond with the harmonic progression of the theme). This goes on around the complete circle-of-fifths over all twelve minor keys for the first twelve variations, or first two sets. The next twelve variations, or two sets, are all in D minor, and the final twelve go around the circle-of-fifths one more time by rising fifths.
Chart 2 Key Scheme
Variation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Key Dm Am Em Bm F#m C#m G#m D#m Bbm Fm Cm Gm Variation 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Key Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm Variation 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Key Dm Am Em Bm F#m C#m G#m D#m Bbm Fm Cm Gm
In this way, there is a tripartite structure that takes advantage of the fact that there are twelve different pitches on a piano and that this is a multiple of six and a factor of thirty-six. This creates a tonal balance throughout the whole composition, where the journey through all twelve minor keys in twelve variations is followed by a stable plateau of twelve variations in the original key of D minor, then travels once again around the twelve minor keys to come back to the original tonality of D minor for the recapitulation of the original theme once again. This key scheme also relates directly to the harmonic material of the theme, where a circle-of-fifths progression is used in the B phrase, which will be shown and discussed later.
37 This author prefers to use the term “pantonal” where others would use the, I believe, incorrect term
30 Thema
As previously mentioned, the theme is the Chilean revolutionary song “El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido” (The People United Will Never Be Defeated) composed by Sergio Ortega in 1973. As a response to the political turmoil, this song became popular throughout South America as a chant for unity against political oppression. Ortega describes the inspiration behind the composition of the song.
One day in June, 1973, three months before the bombing by Pinochet’s military coup, I was walking through the plaza in front of the palace of finance in Santiago, Chile, and saw a street singer shouting, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” –a well-known Chilean chant for social change. I couldn’t stop, and continued across the square, but his incessant chanting followed me and stuck in my mind.
On the following Sunday, after the broadcast of the show “Chile Says No to Civil War,” which I directed for Channel 9, we went with a few artists to eat at my house outside Santiago. Upon arrival I sat down at my piano and thought about the experience in the plaza and the events at large. When I reproduced the chant of the people in my head, the chant that could not be restrained, the entire melody exploded from me: I saw it complete and played it in its entirety at once. The text unfurled itself quickly and fell, like falling rocks, upon the melody. In their enthusiasm some of my guests made suggestions that were too rational for the situation I was composing in. Out of courtesy I pretended to accept, but arranged myself to leave the text in its symptomatic landscape.38
The text is as follows:
38
Sergio Ortega, CD liner notes for Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, performed by Stephen Drury, New Albion NA 063, 1994.
31
De pie, cantar que vamos a triunfar Arise, sing, for we will triumph Avanzan ya banderas de unidad Flags of unity advance
Y tu vendras marchando junto a mi Come marching with me and behold the Y asi versa tu canto y tu bandera florecer Blossoming of your song and your flag La luz de un rojo amanecer The light of a red dawn
Anuncia ya la vida que vendra Announces the life to come
De pie, luchar el pueble va a triunfar Arise, fight, the People will triumph Sera major la vida que vendra The life to come will be better A conquistar nuestra felicidad Let us win our happiness
Y en clamor mil voces And in a clamor a thousand voices Mil voces de combate se alzaran diran cancion Of combat rise and recite
de libertad A song of liberty
Con decisional patria vencera With decisiveness the nation will be victorious
Y ahora el pueblo que se alza en la lucha And now the People rise in the fight Con voz de gigante gritando adelante With a giant’s voice they cry
El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido The People United Will Never Be Defeated El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido The People United Will Never Be
Defeated39
Two days after its completion, the song was performed in public by the Chilean musical group “Quilapayun” and they later made a recording. The song was also popular in Italy, where many Chilean exiles where living as well, and Melton believes that it was while Rzewski was living in Rome in the early 1970’s that he probably heard the tune for the first time.40 However, Rzewski writes himself that “I first heard Sergio Ortega’s song at a concert given by the Chilean group Inti-Illimani at Hunter College in the fall of 1974.”41 After first hearing the song, Rzewski “walked out onto the street singing the melody, and it never left [him] from that time on.”42 The piano piece was then written in September and October of 1975.
39
Ibid., Translation by Elena Hammel and Maria Letona.
40 Melton, 15.
41 Rzewski, liner notes to Rzewski Plays Rzewski. 42 Ibid.
32
While Rzewski chose to use this song in part because of his belief in the message of the song and political associations with it, he also considered the actual musical content of the song. He comments, “This tune, you’ve heard it before, it’s like the famous Paganini theme on which Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski and so on wrote variations. That’s the other thing, it’s a theme that immediately suggests variations.”43 Rzewski also talks about the properties and amazing ability of a melody, such as this, to retain its character:
Certain trends in twentieth-century music would reduce all categories of sound and silence to one level. In my opinion, however, those elements of a sound complex which are perceived as “tunes,” as melody, are linked to a separate faculty for recognizing specifically human sounds, as distinct from sounds in general; they are analogous to those elements of a complex visual image which are selectively perceived as together forming a recognizable human figure or face. Melody would be, therefore, for the art of music what the human form, especially the human face, would be for the visual arts. Because of this special quality of “timelessness” (in the case of melody) or “spacelessness” (in the case of the face) –that is, the ability of the recognized figure to stick together, to retain its identity even when removed from a context, from the rest of time or space—it should be possible to subject both types of figure, melody and face, to a
considerable degree of abstraction and distortion, without losing recognizability: more than would be the case with ordinary noises or shapes…44
Melton summarizes Rzewski’s reason for using the song, “it satisfied his political beliefs, it stings the bicentennial celebration by celebrating a government that the American government helped to overthrow, it is an inspiring song musically and it is highly accessible, satisfying one of the main facets of his musical philosophy.”45
He later obtained the recording of the song by the group Quilapayun and notated the theme from listening to and transcribing it. Rzewski explains, “I just transcribed it from the recording, which is actually, I heard it as being in a triple rhythm…When I later saw the actual
43 Rzewski, interview by author, 160.
44 Rzewski, “Melody as Face”, Nonsequiturs: Writings & Lectures on Improvisation, Composition, and
Interpretation, 138.
33
score I saw it was dotted-eighth and sixteenth.”46 In addition to changing the rhythm of the theme, Rzewski also changed the key to D minor, while he says the original is in A minor, although the recording by Quilapayun is in G minor.47
The recording by Quilapayun begins with three two-measure statements of the title of the song, simply chanted without exact pitches. The accompaniment, acoustic guitars and drum to emphasize the rhythm, enter on the third statement of the chant. The voices then begin singing the tune in four-measure phrases, in the form of ABBABBCD which is then repeated with different words where D is the non-sung chant. After the repeat, the chant is sung a few more times by some while the tune is sung on the syllable “la” until the end.
In Rzewski’s piano piece, the entire theme spans thirty-six measures, which is broken down into nine four-bar phrases. The fact that the theme lasts thirty-six measures parallels the macro-structure of thirty-six variations. This phrase structure can be analyzed as
(Ch)ABB(ABB)’C(Ch)’ where “Ch” stands for the chant. All of these four-bar phrases can be further broken down into groups of two two-bar phrases. For the chant, which is sung by Quilapayun without exact pitches in the recording, Rzewski uses the same rhythm while adding pitches in octaves from the melodic material of the “ABB” sections. The pitches from the first two-bar phrase are very similar to the first two-bar phrase of “A” with a couple added notes. The ABB section presents the written-out-swung melody in the right hand with a slow stride-like (alternating bass notes and chords in a higher register) left hand in quarter notes at a mezzo-forte dynamic level. In the (ABB)’ section, the dynamic level is boosted up to forte while the right
46 Rzewski, interview by author, 159.
47 On the recording by Stephen Drury, a recording of the tune by Quilapayun is included and this is the
recording that is analyzed in the following paragraph. Frederic Rzewski, The People United Will Never Be
34
hand melody is raised an octave and often has added harmonic tones attached to it. The right hand also has an extra melodic note added to each short melodic statement, as in the opening chant. The left hand also extends its register down an octave while joining the right hand in the quicker triplet eighth note rhythms. In the C phrase, the music begins at pianissimo and crescendos to forte while using repeated chords. The theme then ends with a louder variant of the opening chant, with a steady descending chromatic bass line in the left hand and accented melody notes, often in octaves fleshed out by harmonic tones, all at fortissimo. The following example shows the entire theme and labels the phrases.
35 Ex. 1 Theme, m. 1-3648
48
All of the examples from Rzewski’s piece come from The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: 36
37
The structure for each of the variations of twenty-four measures in length (in other words, all of the variations excepting Set V) correspond to the ABB(ABB)’ section of the theme.
The most striking elements of the theme, and the motives that are often exploited by Rzewski in the subsequent variations, include the bass line, the melody, the harmonic progression, the phrase structure including cadences, and the rhythm. With the bass line, Rzewski specifically uses the descending diatonic motive from “A” and the descending chromatic motive of the beginning of “(Ch’)”.
Ex. 2 Theme, m. 5-6, Descending Diatonic Bass line
Ex. 3 Theme, m.33-34, Descending Chromatic Bass line
From the melody, the most common melodic motive that is derived from the theme is a minor second followed by a perfect fifth (m2/P5). Its significance and origins will be discussed later.
From the harmonic progression, the circle-of-fifths sequence from phrase B is used often in the variations, as well as in the key scheme of the variations themselves. In addition, the phrase structure and cadences are also often maintained. The following example analyzes the
38
cadences and harmonic progression of the ABB section (which are the same for the [ABB]’ section as well excepting the final cadence) of the theme, which corresponds to the harmonic progression in many of the variations (except those in Set V).
Ex. 4 Theme, m.5-16, Harmonic and Cadencial Analysis
Rhythmically, two aspects of the theme are used in the variations. There is a common “basic rhythm” that underlies each of the eighteen two-bar phrases, and this basic rhythm is also frequently used by Rzewski. There are only three different rhythms for all of the two-bar phrases in the theme (excepting two note extensions in m.12 and m. 24, one note reduction in m.28, and notes that are held through the rests in m.29-36): from the chant (m.1-2), “A” (m.5-6), and “A’” (m.17-18). These are all variations on a basic rhythm taken from the occurrences of the notes on the beats of each two-bar phrase.
39 Ex. 5 “Basic Rhythm”
In addition, the rhythmic scheme of the theme is also maintained in many variations. The following chart shows the rhythms used is each section.
Chart 3 Rhythmic Scheme of the Theme
SECTION CHANT ABB (ABB)’ C (CHANT)’
# of measures
4 12 12 4 4
rhythms Eighth notes Quarter notes, triplet quarter and eighth notes(swing)
Triplet eighth notes
Eighth notes Eighth notes
What we have is rhythmic progression of slow-fast-slow, or simple-complex-simple. This progression is used throughout many of the variations.
40
Set I
Variation 1
The first variation maintains the D minor tonality of the theme, is completely tonal and monophonic with two pitches never sounding at the same time. The pointillistic technique of octave displacement is employed throughout. Nearly the whole range of the keyboard is used, from the lowest A to the highest Bb. Both the bass line and the melody are present (with some notes being omitted), but have been combined into a single disjunct melody with huge leaps. The following analysis shows the use of the bass line and melody in the first half of the variation.
41
Ex. 6 Variation 1, m. 1-12, Bass line (shown in circles) and Melody (shown in squares) Analysis
Because the melody and bass line are presented in one single monophonic line, the bass line is often syncopated instead of on the beat as in the theme. The phrase structure follows exactly the ABB(ABB)’ section of the theme with six four-bar phrases. Rhythmically, all two-bar phrases use the basic rhythm. More specifically, the first twelve measures and the last four use only eighth notes, which is the same rhythm as the chant. In the fourth and fifth phrases, the rhythms quicken to a majority of sixteenth notes, just as it does in the corresponding phrases of the theme.
42
For the last four-bar phrase, the music returns to only eighth notes, unlike the corresponding phrase in the theme. This is the same slow-fast-slow rhythmic progression from the theme and is also used in several subsequent variations. As the melody and bass line are retained in this variation, naturally so are the cadences.
Variation 2
With the second variation, the music begins its first trip around the circle-of-fifths, moving up to A minor. Like Variation one, Variation two contains twenty-four measures (a trend that will continue for every variation until number twenty-five) and corresponds to the same six phrases of the theme. Progressing from the monophonic first variation, the music now moves to a two-voice texture.
This variation is characterized by its use of rhythmic cells instead of the basic rhythm. In the first half of the variation (the first three four-bar phrases), the notes of the melody are always presented in two note groups in the rhythm of a quarter note (often written as two eighth notes tied over a bar-line) slurred to an eighth note. Meanwhile, the bass line and other harmonic tones are presented in a rhythm cell of a staccato eighth note followed by an eighth-rest.
Ex. 7 Rhythmic Cells of the First Half of Variation 2
These two entities are further always distinguished by dynamics, with the melody always at a louder dynamic than the harmonies (usually forte and piano, respectively) and by the fact that the melody is always syncopated while the harmonies are always on the beat. The melody of the
43
theme has now been simplified and transformed to fit these rhythmic cells. The following example compares the use of the melody and bass line in the first two phrases with the theme. Ex. 8 Melody and Bass line comparison, Variation 2
The following example shows the use of the melody and bass line in the first two phrases of this variation.
44
Ex. 9 Variation 2, m. 1-8, Melody (shown in rectangles) and Bass line (shown in circles) Analysis
Like variation one, octave displacement of the theme abounds, and the melody and harmonies nearly always alternate hands. In the first B phrase, all of the melodic seconds from the theme are inverted into sevenths.
Also like the first variation, the second half of the variation speeds up with its frequent use of sixteenth notes. While the rhythmic cell with the bass line and harmonies remains constant, the rhythmic cell of the melody has evolved from the quarter note plus eighth note cell to four sixteenth notes with the final note tied to an eighth note followed by two more sixteenth notes.
45 Ex. 10 Rhythmic Cells of Variation 2 Melody
Both of these cells have the same duration and are syncopated. In this new cell, the pitches of the melody from the corresponding first phrase of the variation are highlighted by accents.
It is interesting to note that the third phrase of the variation introduces the first chromatic pitches and is the first passage where the tonal center is temporarily ambiguous in the variations. Through the course of this phrase, the harmonic progression of B gradually becomes less and less present until we cadence on the dominant at the end of the phrase. The following chart analyzes this drift away from the clear harmonic progression:
Chart 4 Harmonic Tones in Variation 2, m.9-12
LOCATION OF PASSAGE M.9 BEATS 1+2 M.9 BEATS 3+4 M.10 BEATS 1+2 M.10 BEATS 3+4 M.11 BEATS 1+2 M.11 BEATS 3+4 M.12 BEATS 1+2 M.12 BEATS 3+4 Harmony iv (dm) VII (GM) III (CM) VI (FM) ii (bm) V (EM) i (am) V (EM) Harmonic tones present in passage Root, 3rd, 5th Root, 3rd, 5th Root, 3rd Root, 3rd, 5th
Root, 5th Root, 3rd Root Root, 3rd, 5th Number of harmonic notes in passage 6 6 4 4 3 (including enharmonic spellings) 4 1 6
While the harmonic progression of the theme vanishes, the stepwise motion of the melody of the theme is still used in the melodic rhythmic cell, employing chromatic neighbor tones of the harmonic and melodic notes.
While the second half of the variation begins with a return to the tonal writing of the opening phrase of the variation, the second phrase of the second half turns back to chromaticism. Here we see the first appearance of the m2/P5 motive that will play a very significant role
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throughout the rest of the piece. It can also be identified as the pitch set [045], which also takes into account any inversions of the intervals (major sevenths and perfect fourths). By looking at this variation we can see how this motive, which on the surface has little to do with the theme, is derived from melodic and harmonic aspects of the theme and why it is used so much by Rzewski throughout these variations.
The fourth and fifth phrases of this variation, which constitute two-thirds of the second half of the variation, display a quickening of the rhythms by arpeggiating the harmonies, just as in the corresponding phrases of the theme itself. The second B phrase of the first half introduced chromaticism and now the first B phrase arpeggiates these chords. What results is a minor second, from the chromatic neighboring tones, and a perfect fifth, from the outer notes of the harmonic triads. Looking back at the third phrase of the variation, the motive is used half melodically and half harmonically:
Ex. 11 Variation 2, m.9-12, m2/P5 Motive
If we look back to the B phrase of the theme, we also see the origins of this motive, both
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downbeat. While this is happening, the bass line is dropping a perfect fifth (or inverted and up a perfect fourth) around the circle of fifths. This can also be seen as the sevenths of each chord resolving down to be the third of the next chord in a chain of seventh chords:
Ex. 12 Theme, m. 9-12, m2/P5 Motive
Another reason Rzewski may have used uses this motive is because when it is extended and repeated, it creates the pitches of a 6-20 hexachord (according to Allen Forte’s
classifications),49 otherwise known as a Bartok or augmented scale, which alternates minor 2nds and augmented 2nds.
Ex. 13 m2/P5 Motive and Hexachord 6-20
This hexachord can be used as a link between tonality and pantonality and can be employed in both languages. It is symmetrical, repeating the m2/+2 which creates an equality between the notes of the scale, just like in a whole-tone scale, but can also be used to create augmented, major, and minor triads. In this way, Rzewski can easily move between tonality and pantonality,
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which already has played a part through the first two variations and will continue to play a large part in the rest of the variations.
While the uses of this hexachord in the subsequent variations can be analyzed, and have been by others such as Robert Wason50, this author has found too many holes in the variations when analyzed in this way and instead will analyze the same material motivically and by identifying the pitch sets in an attempt to leave no holes.
Variation 3
While variation one was completely diatonic and variation two mixed diatonicism and chromaticism, variation three completes the transformation to pantonality. According to the circle-of-fifths progression of the variations, this variation should be in E minor, and, while it is pantonal, it is most near to the key of E minor, as evidenced by beginning on an E and three of the first four pitches contain the pitches of the E minor triad. In addition, the final three pitches outline the triad as well. There are also a few places where the corresponding harmonies of the theme transposed to E minor are suggested (m.16, beats 3+4: V, m. 17, beats 1+2: iv, m.22, beat 1: III)
What dominates this variation is the use of the [045] pitch set. Nearly all of the melodic material comes from this set. This is used freely in a primarily two voice texture whose rhythms nearly always employ eighth notes against triplet eighth notes in a three-against-two relationship. The following analysis shows the many uses of the pitch set in only the first four measures of the variation.
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Robert W. Wason, “Tonality and Atonality in Frederic Rzewski’s Variations on ‘The People United Will Never Be Defeated!’” Perspectives of New Music 26.1 (1988), 108-43.