brian ferneyhough's lemma icon epigram

Brian Ferneyhough's Lemma-Icon-EpigramAuthor(s): Richard ToopSource: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Summer, 1990), pp. 52-100Published by: Perspectives of New MusicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833008 .Accessed: 03/06/2011 03:11

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BRIAN FERNEYHOUGH'S MMA-ICON-EPIGRA M

RICHARD TOOP

for Cecilie, Michael, and Paul

PEOPLE SOMETIMES ASK why it is that one decides to analyse a particular contemporary work, and what one hopes to prove in the process of

doing so. Although there are certain general answers one can give that cover the majority of cases, I personally tend to attach more value to

particular motivations, which may vary from one analysis to the next. As far as Brian Ferneyhough's Lemma-Icon-Epigram was concerned, I suppose I could list three principal motivating factors:

1. My initial excitement on hearing the work in a performance by Massimiliano Damerini (a recording from the 1981 Venice Biennale),

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

reinforced by hearing an even more impressive studio performance by James Avery, and my growing (and now, I think, unshakeable) con- viction that this is one of the few great solo piano works of the second half of the twentieth century;

2. The discovery that my excitement was shared by many other people: by friends, performers, and composers (not mutually exclusive categories!);

3. The fact that the composer was kind enough to give me copies of extensive sketches for the work.

The last consideration was frankly crucial. My own primary interest in analysis is as a means of reconstructing the creative process: of showing not just how a thing is done, but why. With composers like Boulez or Stock- hausen it is often possible-though not really desirable-to do this without recourse to sketches; with Ferneyhough, for reasons that will become apparent, I believe this not to be the case. For him the creative process is not a predetermined path, but a labyrinth, and the completed work is, in a sense, an arbitrary by-product of that labyrinth, to the extent that there is nothing predestined or predetermined about the outcome of any particular moment in it: each moment is, rather, the inspired momentary response to a given set of constraints-in each case, other solutions, equally compelling, would have been thinkable. And yet, of course, there is a final outcome, a "definitive score"-however superficial that "definitiveness" may be-and it is with that published score that this analysis is ultimately concerned: with giving some idea of what it is, and what lies behind and around it.

Another, less creditable motivation should also be admitted to: for the analyst, as for the performer, Ferneyhough's work is a sort of Himalayan peak inviting and resisting conquest. Inevitably, a certain Narcissism, and a certain desire to be seen, accompanies any projected assault on this peak. The mitigating ethical factor is the certainty of failure (more acute for the analyst than the performer): one knows-even if no one else perceives it- how often what is said is merely a coverup for what one was unable to say.

A final caution is due. In view of the fascination which Ferneyhough's music holds for many young composers, it should be emphasized that, even at its most precise, there is no respect in which this analysis will teach the reader "how to compose like Ferneyhough." It will have achieved some modest success if it demonstrates that the only way to compose like Ferneyhough is to be Ferneyhough. What it offers is, perhaps, an ethical model rather than a compositional one.

For the rest, since the score of Lemma-Icon-Epigram is headed by a quotation from Baudelaire-"Tout est hieroglyphique"-I shall appropriate four more lines from that poet to denote, in advance, the limitations of what follows:

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Perspectives of New Music

Et l'harmonie est trop exquise, Qui gouverne tout son beau corps, Pour que l'impuissante analyse En note les nombreux accords.

Nevertheless, I shall try.

Lemma-Icon-Epigram, a fourteen-minute work for solo piano, was completed in June 1981. Astonishingly, Massimiliano Damerini was able to give the first performance later that month, at the La Rochelle Festival. In a brief preface to the published score,1 Ferneyhough explains the tripartite form as follows:

The title of this work refers to a poetic form, the Emblema, developed most notably by the Italian poet Alciati during the first half of the sixteenth century. In general usage, the term is taken to mean an

epigram which describes something so that it signifies something else. Later developments distinguish three components: a superscription (or adage), an image, and a concluding epigram in which the preceding elements are commented upon or explained.

In a note for the Venice Biennale, he continues this preface:

The tripartite structure of this baroque concetto has been reflected in the present composition, and serves as a vehicle for my present concern with the concept of musical "explication" in musical terms. The first section, essentially linear in character, separates out surface gesture and subcutaneous generational strategy almost entirely, resulting in a ver- tiginous flight away from the centre, a de-condensation of material, which constitutes itself in the act of attempting to prevent its elements from disappearing over the edge of discourse. The second section imposes an "aesthetics of will" upon essentially static chordal material which makes several attempts, in vain, to escape its given frame. It reacts as a brittle carapace, reflecting back to its constituents through the mirror of themselves. The concluding part begins during the final decay of the second (polymetrics) and begins to assemble a practice of theory around the isolated positions of previous sections: the compositional/transformational techniques of Part I (themselves the "material") and the sonic identities of Part II are forced to confront one another in a short explosion of reconstitution, thereafter fading into silence, or turning back obsessively into themselves, perhaps suggest- ing the ultimately tautological nature of resolution.2

54

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

Le style est l'homme: Ferneyhough's telegraphically condensed literary matter is the natural counterpart of his compositional style. The specific details of his introduction will be discussed below in the context of those parts of Lemma-Icon-Epigram to which they refer. But the mere word "literary" gives rise to immediate reflection: in passages such as the above, not only the notion of "discourse," but the entire approach to formal and aesthetic considerations may seem strange to the conventionally trained musician (for whom the convention is that he trains only as a musician ...). Yet such an exposition would be entirely natural within the framework of the nouveau roman, from Butor and Robbe-Grillet onwards. One should resist drawing from this the conclusion that Ferneyhough is a "literary" composer (as distinct from a literate one, which is certainly the case). For on the contrary, it is precisely the nouveau romanciers who have acknowl-

edged the analogies between their ideals and those of the post-war Euro-

pean serialists. A particularly striking parallel with aspects, at least, of Ferneyhough's

work is provided by a novel like Robbe-Grillet's Dans le labyrinthe, of which the author has written:

... quand un livre commence, il n'y a rien. Puis quelque chose commence a etre, et puis des choses sont, et puis les choses se defont et, de nouveau, il n'y a plus rien.... Pour le Labyrinthe, c'est une cellule generatrice qu'il y a un depart... (et) qui m'apparait d'autant

plus comme generatrice que j'ai ecrit cette phrase sans avoir aucun

projet de ce viendrait ensuite de point de vue diegetique.3

A similar "generative cell" opens Lemma-Icon-Epigram; Ferneyhough says of it merely: "The piece has to start with some material, but it could have started with others; I simply wrote down a set of notes without thinking about them at all, and said, I will work with these. That's how the piece begins."4 Many other comparisons with Robbe-Grillet spring to mind: the transformation of given material by systematically "wiping it out" (a "coup de chiffon"); the dizzying succession of perspectives on the same material, which Robbe-Grillet callsglissements, and which Ferneyhough accounts for as follows "... whereas in most variation techniques you keep the same basic structure while changing the surface, the variation techniques which interest me are those where you keep the same basic surface, but you change the techniques to produce it. I'm interested in the idea of variation of technique rather than of object."5

A final point of comparison also leads to a parting of ways: in later writings, Robbe-Grillet emphasizes the idea of the ludic novel-the novel as game, as "play"; similarly, Ferneyhough says: "I'm very interested in the idea of ingenio, the idea of intellectual, playful constructivity-homo ludens- confronting head-on, with a massive crash, a great intensity of creative

55


drive."6 It is this head-on confrontation, the reassertion of the transcen- dental aims of art, that leads Ferneyhough back to something more like a surrealist aesthetic, even to Andre Breton's dictum: "La beaute sera convulsive, ou ne sera pas." And indeed, going back a little further, a passage from one of Tristan Tzara's Dada manifestos reads almost like a playdoyer for Ferneyhough (though, arguably, there is scarcely a single important living composer further removed from Dada or neo-Dada):

Every page should explode, either because of its profound gravity, or its vortex, vertigo, newness, eternity, or because of its staggering absurdity, the enthusiasm of its principles, or its typography.7

For me, every page of Lemma-Icon-Epigram does indeed "explode": for what reasons, and by what means, I shall now try to demonstrate.

In looking at the first bars of the work, one should at least try to minimize the role of hindsight. In the event, the opening burst of eleven notes will have an enormous influence on the subsequent course of the piece; but as the sketches show, at the moment they were written down the composer had only a vague idea of their ultimate import. They were simply "material," or even "anti-material":

The first part of the piece is this whirlwind of the not-yet-become, the idea of processes, not material, forming the thematic content of the work. So apart from the quite banal initial material, which we don't even know is "initial material," the whole thing is in a whirlwind of dissolution even before it has been created.8

But what does "banal" mean in this context? Not that one has heard such material already a thousand times, and in so many contexts that its potential is immediately perceived as exhausted. On the contrary, its "banality," such as it is, lies only in the fact that, being a putative "initial material," it is as yet uninterpreted: it has to stand as a proposition in its own right, without the secondary significance of being a transformation of something which existed earlier in the piece. And even this is only selectively true: for arguably, the opening line bears the entire weight of Ferneyhough's previous compositional experience. He says, "I simply wrote down a set of notes without thinking about them at all"; but given the inner logic of the opening sequence (Example 1), that's a little hard to believe. Whether by design or not, the material could scarcely be more concise: it involves only two motivic patterns, the second of which (B) is simply the reduction if the first (A) to scalar form (Example 2). Ferneyhough at least admits to the

56

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

A A' B

i#- h ;- #e ' 1 3 1 2 1 3 1 3 1 2

B A

EXAMPLE 1

." w. 4. 6__- )4 6. l. (A) (B)

EXAMPLE 2

intentional "discursiveness" of this opening flourish: its actual exposition in the first line of the piece is a miniature glossary of the composer's "discursive" processes (see Example 3).

pitch: ---- -/- -/-- (--)

Xe f3 fe X

mak - ------'- (1O (q ): (f ) o-- f 0-

A

If0- O. #& X E~ A_b4' = = -=tr #1-#,===

JcaCL.so

l e J J) kwi2 t -

EXAMPLE 3

Complex as this opening passage is, it sits well under strong fingers. Ferneyhough says, "I don't normally write for keyboard very happily," which is one reason for his "using techniques of gestural definition gener- ally accepted as being pianistic in one sense or another"; another is that, wishing to set in motion a "discursive dynamism of action," he saw the

necessity of "not limiting myself to strict generational procedures." In other words, the complexities of this opening bar are not the result of an a priori system, but of Ferneyhough's systematic instincts flexing their muscles at the first opportunity.

57

re I I - - /b. I

register:--- /-I - /-- T/i-(-) II T -lI/ I - /- t t/(--) - -


So what concrete form do these instincts towards systematization take? In effect, transformation had begun well before the end of the first phrase. A simple transformation table (Example 4) is applied initially only to octave

registers: certain notes are placed visibly and audibly above or below the "reference octave." In the third group of the first bar, it is also used to

modify the pitch structure-initially by a semitone (the first interval of the basic pitch sequence), and soon after by a minor third (the second interval of the series).

~- - - (no alteration)

- I - (1 down)

- t (1 up)

l - _ (1 down)

- T T (2 up)

t l - (2 down)

t - I (1 up, 1 down) etc.

EXAMPLE 4

The rhythmic structure, though "unsystematic," is very characteristic. The opening figure of eleven notes is curtailed to ten in the two subsequent phrases (omission of the last note), with a reduction of 12:11:10 in the subdivision of the basic P units (the additional ) in the 7/16 bar is a sixteenth-note rest after the first phrase). The initial phrase consists of regular 12 s; the two remaining phrases are classic examples of

Ferneyhough's notions of "figural enhancement" and "axiality" (see Example 5).

12 i 11 1 10

-I-3-IJ 5 i---6--- sub.

pp fffef - p -= mp >ppp mpisft bsp

EXAMPLE 5

Figural enhancement is the process by which (in the simplest instance) a periodic figure gains "profile" by breaking up its periodicity-by momen-

58

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

tary accelerations, retardations or pauses. Thus the ten attacks in the second phrase consist of 2 , + 3 , 3 + 1 , + 4 ,. . The related notion of axiality divides the latter two groups into parts: the second phrase consists of five notes which accelerate ( -

,

3 ) and five that decelerate ( , -,+ . ), while the third phrase not only moves from , 5 to

J6 , but marks the midpoint by rests. At the same time, this axiality is broken up by the dynamics and articulation. The first phrase has a single legato articulation and a single dynamic process (crescendo); the second phrase has two legato phrases and two dynamic envelopes, both of which stray across into the third phrase, where the alternation of dynamic level and articulation types (staccato, martellato, legato) becomes faster still.

This kind of detailed description may seem excessive, but it's simply a chronicle of the way the composer thinks about his material: even before a system as such exists, material is shaped in an enormously conscious manner, and in the idealistic hope that a listener will follow, overtly or subliminally, every nuance: "I did indeed begin rather platitudinously here, with this deliberate octave redisposition of material to make very clear to the listener the sort of thing I'm trying to do, and to establish a spectral field, which gives a certain plausibility to the concept of coherence which will later be destroyed."9

The opening bar introduces three types of transformation: the octave

displacement of notes, the displacement of those displacements (in the second phrase), and the displacement of pitches. The following bars (Exam- ple 6) bring more transformations: minor-third displacements formed into chords, and a kind of "filtering" effected by means which will be described below.

.,,) I

tn) z=

#i- e sAs ~ P

N5 2 \?

1t6 8 T C-f-+ f- sf # w m' ff s==- ffI-f .,

1. I J I LW' ^E?T , ^*J inf rr

X e

EC. ora* bra . ' ,

ffl

EXAMPLE 6

In bar 2, the T I pitch alteration system is now applied to the second interval of the initial series: the minor third. The process begins with the fourth line of the table, with the results shown in Example 7. Note that in

59

60 Perspectives of New Music

the actual score, the top note at the beginning of bar 2 is not an Al (as prescribed by the system, and written in the sketches) but a CO; this is

presumably not a misprint, but a correction to ensure that every transformation starts on Ct, just as in the next set of transformations each will start on C4.

I - -/- T T/T I -/?

i t / ' ' #^ , - t?

(the pitches at the end of bar 1)

(bar 2)

EXAMPLE 7

The third bar, despite its relative simplicity, is achieved by more obscure means. In the sketches, Ferneyhough refers to it as "transposing all pitches by the intervals of the original series in retrograde," and the process involved appears to be this: The interval sequence of the opening figure (Example 8) is modified by the interval sequence 1-2-1-2-1 semitones, from the end of the fourteen-note sequence. (Although the opening pitch sequence is of only eleven notes, Ferneyhough works from the start with an interval series of fourteen notes, which is the same as the eleven-note one but with 1-2-1 added.) There is a complicating factor: each new step is taken not in terms of the original pitch sequence, but in terms of whatever pitch has been reached at the end of the previous step. This is shown schematically in Example 9.

1 ? WE -4 " (1-3-1-2-1)

EXAMPLE 8

14

3cJ

e 1

Q,i.i. . I 0 ' *' tt*-

^ * t h. #*

modified by 1T yields

modified by 2T yields

modified by It yields etc.

EXAMPLE 9

modified by:

produce:

& 1T ' T

i t 1- h Q i. i. b -4

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

A simpler application of the original series in retrograde occurs at the

beginning of bar 5, where the entire interval sequence is run backwards

starting on C (see Example 10). Here, clearly, we have returned to both the

figuration and the procedures of the opening. In fact, the first phrase of the

piece is, in a sense, completed at the end of bar 3, when the initial five transformation types have been introduced. It is at this stage that the first real formal decision is made. Ferneyhough decides to keep five types in play at a time, continually permutating their order. At the same time, he needs a

pretext to introduce new transformation types (the early sketches soon reach a total of eight or nine). The means by which this is achieved relates back, once again, to the opening pitch sequence.

intervals: (12)12131 3 12131 pi sf fff

(?^ .). ^ C -x-l (ITIT3~) ~~_ ^ ,, ^~ AAA Sf ~C|

^ m

^ ^w f g, ,?.' _ ,

IL . * _ - > -P 4> * v

!lt I - J m.

r~nt ?n~C~rc~~P f I m ?Pnf 6

I 1z

EXAMPLE 10

Given five basic types 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, one takes each interval (in semitones) from the series, and applies it as places moving backwards (Example 11). When, as inevitably happens after a couple of lines, the same number recurs in the same line (e.g. 5 41 3 4), the element associated with that number is

replaced by a new element; by the end of the Lemma section, twelve different types of material-transformation have been brought into play.

Types: 1 [2 [3 4 [] I] 2 3 [] 5

t(p Interval sequence 13 121 etc.

tI ( applied right to left

to t o t?

Result: 41 5 3 2

EXAMPLE 11

61


A broader formal strategy for Lemma is provided by what Ferneyhough calls "a bar period variational scheme"; in previous works he had usually worked with conscious bar lengths, but Lemma-Icon-Epigram is his first work to use what is, in effect, a sequence of systematically varied metric cycles. In this case, there is a basic "period" or "cycle" of sixteen bars, subjected in each new cycle to retrograding and augmentation. The structure of these cycles is shown in Example 12.

Since, by the fourth cycle, the distinction between bar lengths has been somewhat ironed out by the augmentation process, Ferneyhough decides to subdivide most of the bars (always in unequal proportions), as in

Example 13 (the final score adds two "echo bars" and makes various other modifications at the end). A fifth cycle begins halfway through page 12 of the printed score, broken into after a few bars by a "Tower of Babel" section, in which all twelve types of transformation used in the piece thus far tumble over one another in a furious quasi-cadenza.

But what, let's ask for a moment, is the function of these cycles, since as Ferneyhough says, they are "over and beyond any variation of the material, or relation of sections to one another"? It's a question that goes to the very heart of his compositional method. Refuting the widespread notion that he is an "ultra-systematic composer," he says:

I think the use of any structure is ... to enable one to have a framework within which one can meaningfully work at any given moment ... it is a state of affairs at any given moment, and if you have worked the systems properly, then you have left yourself enough freedom to be able to react in a totally individual, and spontaneously significant fashion. Structures for me are not there to produce material; they're there to restrict the situation in which I have to compose. 0

This in itself does not go much beyond a conventional view (Stravinsky's, for example) of the interdependence of freedom and restriction in the creation of art. But Ferneyhough extends such notions to transcendentalist extremes, and does so as the logical outcome of his whole view of the creative act:

I believe very much that one has an unformed mass of creative volition. On the other hand, in order to realise the creative potential of this volition one needs to have something for it to react against. And therefore I try to set up one or more (usually many more) grids, or sieves, a system of continually moving sieves.... This fundamental, undifferentiated mass of volition, of creativity, is necessarily forced to subdivide itself in order to pass.11

62

lst cycle 7 5 2 3 9 3 5 4 3 2 7 3 3 7 2 5 (2 5* 16 16 8 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 16 8 16 8 16

reversed lus 15 4 2 4 5 2 9 3 7 5 7 5 3 4

Pl1 C 8 16 8 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 16 8 8 2nd Cycle

reversed p I 9 7 3 4 11 4 7 5 5 3 9 4 5 9 4 7 . plus = 16 16 8 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 16 8 16 (i.e. 1st cycle + J)

3rd cycle

reversed _ plus 1 4 7 5 3 9 5 7 3 11 4 9 6 9 9 (i.e. 2nd cycle + ) 8 16 8 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 16 4th cycle

*(Echo bars) o EXAMPLE 12

4 7 5 3 9 5 7 3 11 4 9 6 9 9 8 16 8 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16 16

becomes becomes A A A A A A A A A / 323251 , 32 3 5 3 5 3 3 3 425 25 25 161616 168 16 1616 8 88 6 1 168 1 168 8 8 16 8 16

EXAMPLE 13


In earlier works, the surface structure of the work more or less coincided with the compositional structures that had generated them. But starting with the Second String Quartet, written immediately before Lemma-Icon- Epigram, the generating processes start to move underground:

In the works I have been writing recently ... the main object of the music has [been] ... to get into the real interstices of linguistic for-

mulability. What is the space in which the work really exists? There is a vacuum that exists between the surface presentation ... and the sub- surface generative structures. Now the extent to which these two

things are separated allows the surface material to take on different

degrees of auratic presence.12

In the case of Lemma-Icon-Epigram, there is a particular motivation for the separation of surface and substructure: it is basic to the conception of the Lemma section, in particular, that the constantly changing quasi- motivic discourse should have an illusory quality: "it has a pseudo- developmental character, whilst being in fact, non-developmental." It is

precisely the accumulation of different ways of reformulating the same material, a sort of piling-up of sublime tautologies, that necessitates the final Tower of Babel section, in which, as Ferneyhough notes in his sketches:

The unity of the whole edifice collapses under the weight of the DIVERSIFICATION of grammars. At the same time, the vocabulary remains based upon the original "language," even if several steps removed. The gestures moreover remain constant, as does the con- tinuity of surface material. "Die Furie des Verschwindens": the form

explodes into over-definition....

Since the material of Lemma is constantly diversifying, constantly splitting itself up and regrouping into formations whose origins are often inde- cipherable, any summary of its procedures is bound to be arbitrary. In the following pages, I shall consider just a few of the more rudimentary pitch procedures found in the first three bar-cycles, and then look in slightly more detail at the fourth, which in some respects is the most obviously "structured."

As far as pitch is concerned, some of the principal techniques-pitch displacements by 1 to 3 semitones, transposition of an interval sequence by its retrograde, and chord formation-have already been touched upon in relation to the first page of the piece. By the beginning of the second bar- cycle (the 3/8 bar in the third line of page 3), the initial interval sequence has already given rise to any number of new figures. Along with simple

64

Lemma-Icon-Epigram

transformations like the inversion which opens the second cycle (Example 14) come new figures obtained by scalar arrangement of pitches, and wholesale use of interval expansion (Example 15, from the third bar of the second bar-cycle).

13121

EXAMPLE 14

3 2 3 2 4 2 (i.e. 212131, with ladded to each)

moren=do 7I 7

pOCO poco ":PA ................-.-- J

EXAMPLE 15

By the end of the second bar-cycle (end of page 5 of the printed score), some of the methods of pitch derivation have become very complex. The

reasonably innocent-looking passage in Example 16 is fairly typical. The

(()o r';-8-" (.)

( - --'.

__ ____ 5>"

. tbentoI . _,

(jn )Sflj r

EX^AMPLE 16

opening interval sequence, 1 3 1 2 1 3 1 and so forth, is irregularly modified by the sequence itself, as shown in Example 17. The complete resulting sequence is given in Example 18. The numbers of the interval sequence (2 3

65


t

-IIr

< t - .

- - -K -4

" v <^ - -^ ^ < s ?- <^b~

Lemma-Icon-Epigram

4 3 1 1 2 and so on) are then used to define irregular transpositions of the above sequence, according to a pitch sequence from yet another source (see Example 19). The result is shown in Example 20.

t # b ' #. r-i

EXAMPLE 19

I 1 4 I3 I 4 1 3 T ri F 2T < 7

^ , ., 1. , b ;^ 4',, -

phrased: 2 + 3 + 4

EXAMPLE 20

Another characteristic procedure is the interlocking of two or more forms of a series. In some respects this is simply a resumption of the procedure used by Schonberg in all but the very first twelve-tone works; it varies from Schonberg's procedure in that (a) Ferneyhough's pitch sequences are not "rows" in the dodecaphonic sense, and (b) instead of being used to articulate a polyphonic structure, they are often welded together. An example is provided by the return of the "tremolo" structure discussed above, in the third bar-cycle (page 6, bottom line); it is typical of Ferneyhough's method that the same kind of "surface" is generated by completely different technical means (Example 21: the interlocking of a pitch sequence with its transposed and inverted retrograde, which gener- ates these pitches, is shown beside the score extract).

A further important element that should be touched on here (and will be considered in more detail in relation to Icon) is the formation of chord structures. Although the essential conception of Lemma is a linear one, chord groups come to play an increasingly prominent role as it proceeds. At first (as on the first page) they simply take the form of ad hoc "verticali- zations" of whatever pitch sequences are currently in use. Progressively, though, a stage is reached where they have to be formalized-where there has to be a "little harmonic theory."

The precepts of this theory are simple and practical. Let's take as a starting point the rather limited harmonic groupings that can be extracted from the initial pitch sequence shown in Example 22. Chords c and d are internally symmetrical (i.e. noninvertible), but a and b invert to produce the chords in Example 23.

67


0. l0

* D

* ?fi .f 1 Li

s_ 8,

S 3 4

/E ?' ' s

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

Inversion in the sense of harmony textbooks is also a basic consideration (see Example 24). Further basic considerations include the layout of pitches over the chosen root and, above all, the formulation of potentially systematic transposition procedures. For instance, given a progression consisting of chords a b a, transposition could be effected in relation to any note of a, or any note of b (assuming that some common pitch or pitches are

required).

L -- 1 I L -I II I I ?b a b c d

EXAMPLE 24

In Example 25 (top of page 7 of the score) the note F serves alternately as

top and bottom note of each chord in the left hand. Here, in fact, even the bass-clef chord may originally have been part of the scheme: in the sketches, the bass clef is marked in very lightly, as if it were an afterthought, and read in treble clef, its bottom note would, of course, be another F. And if the final chord is included, the six chords almost create a mirror form in which the components of each pair are inversionally related (Example 26). In

passing, the sketch for this passage has the four three-note chords undergo- ing a systematic change of inversion, in the textbook sense (Example 27).

J) (b) iY ? 7 a

Ail. f [,. 7 , ._._ . _ be;-{b,

EXAMPLE 25

</ o ?E M '-2

EXAMPLE 26

69


(sic!

3 1 2 3 2 3 1 2 (sic) 1 2 3 1

EXAMPLE 27

Before considering some details of the fourth bar-cycle (page 9, second line), one should give some thought to what has happened in the first three. As implied earlier, the bar-cycles don't necessarily define the audible structure of the piece-they simply provide a given situation within which to operate. Thus, for example, the first decisive change in the piece-the introduction of polyphonic treatment-comes not at the beginning of the second cycle, but at the twelfth bar of the first (bottom line of page 2). The most notable formal feature of the second bar-cycle is the introduction of

contrasting secondary material at a slower tempo (meno mosso-second line of page 4); other significant features are the occasional expansion to three-

part polyphony, and the increasing prominence of chordal structures (the last two bars of the cycle-third line of page 5-introduce most of the chords that will form the basis of the Icon section).

Fluctuating tempi predominate in the second half of the third bar-cycle, which also introduces four-part writing. Thus, most of the basic materials of Lemma are in place by the beginning of the fourth bar-cycle (second line of page 9).

Let's look now in some detail at the construction and execution of the fourth cycle. The "givens" at this moment are the bar structure, and the

particular stage that has been reached in the evolution of the pitch materials and transformation types. An initial sketch (shown in Example 28 in a modified form that brings it closer to what actually happens) splits the cycle into three main sections, and posits three main kinds of material.

Broadly speaking, Material A is the current state of the various gestures that have been building up since the beginning of Lemma, Material B being the "secondary material" first introduced halfway through the second cycle (bar 24): sequences of wide-flung melodies. The "meno mosso" material, initially at least, consists of quasi-scalar and tightly motivic passages. The five transformation types are listed in the sketch as:

1. simple T I -type transposition of individual pitches

2. selective transposition of pitches

3. filtering of pitches

70

4

Jl

7 5

A A

3

A / \ / \ / \

3 23 25 1

4 1 1 4 I . I

4 bars

Material A mc

Tempo 1 me mc

9 5

p . i

3

eno )SSO

sno )SSO

3

7 3 11 4

A A A 32: 5353

5 3 4 3 J^ -h ^^;^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

7 bars

Material B A: 5-groups B

ancora meno meno accel........... mosso

9

A 3

J)

m e n o

m o

s s

o

6

A

9

A

7

/n

4

A 34252 2 35

2 3 2: 4 3 I I

A B

T21

5 bars

rail ............

EXAMPLE 28

Length:

Trans. type: (1-5) Section Length:

Material:

Tempo:

5

233

3 cD 9 9 9 0

rr1

-oItr o;-

molto meno mosso

I I I


4. interval filtering (with chords)

5. row subdivision and imitation

The division of the cycle into 4 + 7 + 5 bars is derived from the bar

sequence 4/8 7/8 5/8 at the beginning of the cycle, and originally the distribution of A, B, and meno mosso was going to be a good deal more schematic than actually turns out to be the case. One complicating factor is that, from the start, left and right hand tend to operate separately, as one can see in the opening four bars (Example 29). The pitches for the chord

sequence in the right hand are the result of a "pitch filter": given a

preexisting sequence of notes, only the notes of a filter are "allowed

through." This means that the actual pitch content is entirely defined by the filter itself: all the preexistent sequence determines is the order in which the notes occur. For Chord Sequence 1, the filter is a five-note sequence (the six opening pitches minus the C) in two transpositions (C# and Bb). (See Example 30.)

Chord sequence 1 Sequence 2 3 Basic .....tempo o1 (J pitches

t^ut 74 la - -S,*a6 > >

(basic phs) itches

) r _ s._.__.A 3 .-_

.... C. - q - , J) f,i _ U,s ir 7!

W 0-0 10 f .. S ff1 5

(J9 'F\ r

EXAMPLE 29

- ' - #- *. ' - #-

tI 'A A. (basic piStc e ; ; r' ' St . .___

EXAMPLE 29

J) ~,, .1...

a 4~~~~~~~~~F~~~~~

EXAMPLE 30

72

Lemma-Icon-Epigram

In the following sequences, the same chords are recycled in basic or inverted form. The same kind of filter is used in the left hand for the three- note "motives" circled in Example 29. In passing, it's worth noting that the seven pitches "let through" by the right-hand filter virtually amount to an octotonic scale. Although one should scarcely expect echoes of Debussy, Messiaen, and Stravinsky in Lemma-Icon-Epigram, the octotonic scale casts fairly long shadows, especially in the Lemma section, simply because of the nature of the opening pitch sequence, whose six pitches are given in

Example 31. As the right-hand phrases beginning at the end of the 3/16 bar shows, this opening sequence is still very much in use as a reference point in the fourth bar-cycle.

G Thv-k _ ' ., . 1 2 - 1 -2- 1-

-

EXAMPLE 31

The B Material (second line of page 10) is based on the original appearance of the secondary material (second line of page 4), but with substantial pitch modification, and with similar transformations of an augmented fourth transposition of the same material in the left hand.

The return of the A material on the bottom line of page 10 is of particular interest in terms of its clear use of five-element groups. The tendency to organize in groups of five had already surfaced at various points in Lemma; the broad rhythmic structure of the opening of the fourth bar- cycle is conceived in fives (Example 32). Here, it is a matter of complex subdivisions of five innately simple basic values. The passage at the bottom of page 10 is an anticipation of the more complex procedure used in Icon, to the extent that the calculation of attack points is largely independent of any notion of "beat." There are four groups (five in the initial scheme) of five

mT1 ([ m(S)m r ---: 5 ---

5:4 r--3---1 r-3-

L 3 -

r-3-1 -- 1-- r-3-n

] 7:4 ' ' :4 ' 1 S-

El (. : (,) 1 5:3 , r3-i r-5-i- , 7:4

7 | .l.ll1.1 7 16

r-- 3

EXAMPLE 32

4 8

73


attacks each. Each group is of a different length, and so is each note within a group. The ordering of durations from long to short is different in each

group, and so are the ratios between each element of a five-note group. "Calculated," in this context, is to be taken literally-a pocket calculator

was used, and the notation of the rhythms is an attempt to reproduce the calculated ratios as accurately as possible. In terms of overall length, the first group represents a "norm," a central value, with the individual durations arranged simply from small to large (1 2 3 4 5). The remaining groups are alternately longer and shorter than this model, and the individual parts are permutated:

12345

21453

35124

43512

54231

The austerity of this scheme is broken by arpeggios in front of or around certain impulses, by the holding over of certain notes, and by the placement of rests after (on the whole) every fourth impulse. This is shown in

Example 33. What should have been a fifth group is broken into a pseudo- two-part form (second line of page 11), and followed by a block of four

four-impulse groups. When the B Material returns in the right hand at the end of page 11, the

pitch material has been split formally into two hexachords, which are interlocked as indicated in Example 34. The essential character of this B Material is that whenever a pitch recurs, it is displaced to a different octave. Some qualification of this is necessary, since at this point the B melodies are restricted to the upper part of the keyboard. Accordingly, certain notes are repeated at the octave in which they previously occurred, or that of the last- but-one occurrence. The long-held notes in the bass are, of course, a transposition to Ft of the opening four pitches; each pitch serves as a "control" pitch to modify a given interval sequence. The pitch sequence for modification is given in Example 35. The process then runs something like this: The first interval (G to GO) is a semitone up, but the interval from G to the control pitch is a semitone down, so the note stays the same (G). The next interval is a tritone; coming after G, this would give a Cb, but again, G to Fb is a semitone down, so the interval is reduced to a perfect fourth (C). Similarly, the next specified interval is a rising minor third, but the tritone from C to the control pitch converts this into a falling minor third, to A (see Example 36). These are the pitches that occur in the middle stave (bass clef).

74

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 1 4 5 3 1 3 5 1 2 414 3 5 1215

_? (... )---- ---- -0

CD [-

0 o

'1

EXAMPLE 33

-1 U-l

I

First Hexachord

o .* a . o *

?j

Second Hexachord

A .1 *, , I -4 r repeat octave of previous occurence

O repeat octave of last but one occurence

(T) 00 ? ) 0 m ?

(9 (1+3+2) ( ) (D 6 6Jj J a a 6 6 j 6J a JJ jT j 6 JJ TJJ

rail ..---.........(rail) '(J) 74 c (n.) v finpa (.) S.- cD

-D

_

(A

z (D

Z^

5 + 1 3 1 5 1 2 1 4 42 2 2 2 4

EXAMPLE 34

() (5 + 1)

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

I1 6 3 4 5

9 ' ?* '. ~' | ] 1 etc.

EXAMPLE 35

A 'a

EXAMPLE 36

Early sketches for Lemma indicate that a coda is to be added after the fourth cycle, but the drastic nature of this "Tower of Babel" coda only emerges once the fourth cycle is well under way. In effect, this coda is a resume of all the gestures and techniques of Lemma, crammed together in a mere six furious bars. Ferneyhough lists the twelve extant transformation

types as:

a. transformation of individual notes according to the t I system;

b. transposition by individual notes according to reference verticality;

c. chordal inversion and transposition (expansion of b), also presented in horizontal form;

d. interlocking of various-length inversions and subsequent transposition;

e. the same, but treating the transposed groups as arrays for free internal ordering;

f. the same, but with fixed ordering (transpos. b);

g. interlocking procedures (relate back to d) (Interlock basis form of

retrograde and 1st transp. form);

h. interval modification by other intervals;

i. transpose according to "organ-points" valid for a group of pitches;

j. reorder in ascending/descending form intervals of given material (i.e. not pitches);

k. filter techniques;

1. direct imitation (in inversion).

77


A certain degree of cohesion is imposed by interrelating brief sections in terms of the material on which they are based. In the diagram in Example 37, the linking lines indicate the use of common basic material. The

gestural surface, however, is nominally independent of these procedures, though it too relates back to earlier gestures, and contains a less systematic set of relationships within the Babel section. Thus, for the section beginning halfway through the 2/8 bar, Ferneyhough's instructions to himself are:

i. finish off r.h. gestures with trill and flourish which passes then between both hands;

ii. version of "fanfare" type material passed between both hands with

overlappings and more chords than hitherto;

iii. rapid running figures leaping from register to reg. and turning back in on themselves: close chromatic;

(These are carried out in the excerpt shown in Example 38.)

After the transcendentalist quasi-improvisation of Lemma, the rigid block structures of Icon come as a sudden shock. The structural principles underlying Icon are perhaps the most mechanistic in the whole of Ferneyhough's work, and for this reason it is doubly startling to discover from the sketches that it was not until working on the final stages of Lemm--the fourth cycle and the Tower of Babel-that he arrived at any clear conception of these principles. But in a way, that's a matter of principle for Ferneyhough; an early sketch including largely unused ideas for Icon concludes with the melancholy observation: "To write a pre-commentary to an experience is to confess to a form of well-annotated innocence." Clearly, it was not until Lemma had almost run its course that the composer was able to assess what kind of music was necessary as its continuation and negation. And as befits the title Icon, the sketches which announce a clear policy for the new section are the most overtly "pictorial" of the whole work:

Perhaps construct 'ICON' from disparate symbolic elements disposed in a FIELD? The field consists of a continuous "VALEDICTION" whose flow will be broken by isolated OBJECTS. Each object will throw one or more SHADOWS (the creation of perspective??) whose size and direction remains to be determined (shadows' dimensions result of "time of day" for each element?!).

The Valediction-material will be non-repetitive and processual (but static!) whilst the "Objects" whilst being distorted in their

78

Lemma-Icon-Epigram

a b c d e f h 4I

+ I

* . k i i k 1

I

EXAMPLE 37

(i) (ii) I I r

EXAMPLE 38

"shadow"-versions, remain essentially repetitive in internal structure. The objects to be kept functionally and morphologically separate: their interaction is reserved for the concluding Epigram.

Subsequently, Ferneyhough has described the Icon section as follows:

I

-r I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

79


The idea here was a temporal sun moving across an irregular but fixed

landscape, with objects placed in it. The landscape is of course the bar structure; the temporal sun is the ticking (if I want to be over-literal for a moment) of these groups that gradually emerge, and the objects are the chords, which are scrunched up and expanded both in length (growing and getting shorter) and in density (register).... All these things together produce the feeling of an intensely but mysteriously temporal phenomenon.13

The bar-structure for Icon differs from that for Lemma in several respects. Firstly, it is much more passive in character; it doesn't always define the

points at which events begin or end (though this can also be the case) but

simply provides a neutral field of operations. Secondly, its structure incor-

porates, for the first time in Ferneyhough's work, "irrational" bar lengths such as 4/12, 2/10, and 1/12. These time signatures are, in effect, a form of metric modulation: 2/10 n , for example, has a duration equivalent to

(,i in a 2/8 bar. The basic bar scheme is of only nine bars, but uses

longer durations than the scheme for Lemma, and is far more consciously structured (Example 39).

8 4 3 7 2 5 4 6 1 8 12 8 8 10 8 8 8 12 I J I I I I

EXAMPLE 39

This basic period has three sub-periods, of two, three, and four bars

respectively, each ending with an "irrational" bar length. The latter decrease in length (4:2:1), while the "rational" bars use each value from 3 to 8 in a sequence that goes roughly from extreme to average values: 8 3 7 5 46.

The transformation process for subsequent periods involves both the

retrograding and addition of units familiar from Lemma, and the inter- change of rational and irrational values. Thus, for instance, Example 40.

8 141 3 7 2 5 4 6 1 8 12 8 8 10 8 8 8 12

becomes, in the second cycle:

7 r41 5 6 3 8 4 9 1 10 l8 10 12 8 12 12 12 8

EXAMPLE 40

80

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

The transformations are already more involved than in Lemma; in fact it is not until the last couple of cycles (page 20) that the original patterning clearly re-emerges (Example 41).

8 3 7 2 5 4 r31 6 1 12 12 12 8 10 10 L 10 24

5 3 4 1 6 2 7 10 10 10 32 10 8 10

EXAMPLE 41

The penultimate cycle is essentially the opening cycle of Icon, with each x/8 of the original becoming x/12, each x/10 becoming x/8, and the 1/12

becoming 1/24. The last line is a retrograde of this, with one unit subtracted from the "numerator" line. Note that in all the cycles shown here, repeated numbers (bracketed) are filtered out of the retrograding process.

The bar-scheme is, of course, a "silent" backdrop. The placement of

objects within this landscape is determined initially by four groups of five

"impulses" each, the impulses taking the form of chords, whose structure will be described below. The groups are introduced essentially in pairs, with the first two ending together near the beginning of the eighth (6/8), and the last two overlapping with them, entering at the seventh bar. As

may be imagined, the rhythmic proportions within each group are not

simple arithmetical ratios; once, again, the sketches show the composer's pocket calculator being put to work. The resulting structure for the first two bar-periods is shown in Example 42.

The four main lines show the four groups of five impulses each (these impulses are numbered from 1 to 5); the top line shows the combined result of as many layers as are in play at the time. The numbers at the

beginning of each group give the order of the durations (1 being the

longest, 5 the shortest). The orders permutate in pairs, as shown in

Example 43. The harmonic structure is based on a sequence of seven chords taken

from pages 5 and 6 of Lemma. Ferneyhough says that they were simply

the seven most ugly, or resonant-shall we say aggressively resonant?- vertical entities taken arbitrarily from the first part of the work, which had already been composed. I simply ordered these "things"; it wasn't the chords themselves that were important, apart from their aggressive quality, but they contain certain numbers of notes-that was important-they lay within certain registral dispositions, and they had

81

Overall result:

Group 1 (12354)

Group 2 (13245)

Chord:

Result:

1

2

3

4

Chord:

Result:


r-- 5:4-- - -- 5 ---3-- 5:3---- r3- -5 I I I I k I I I I I I I I

go?-J Ju<,u J J AJ

5 r-3-- r--- 5:3--

o JJ51~~~ ;~~~3~ 2 ~-;~r 5-3-

[o? J ] ? ^J ^J JJ ?^J% J J '-- 5 ," I 5

(53421) 0)?J

Group 4 (54312)

I II III IV V VI VII Ii III IIIl

3:2 -7--, r 7:6 5:4 - --3:2-- r- 7:6-7

---- 3:2 r-7

S?J"_J dSJ 1__ ~ h J G r 7:6 5:4 -3-

( Line I

(inv.) II(i) VII(i) IVi Vi VI VII

-- -- 3 r--- 7:5--

i"5-j t-3-j

3 _ d\ J

4 - ._J - (J) J^J J Jr ~ Line 1

5

Line 2 Line 3

Line 4

Chord: 12 112 III2

*this duration simply shows the delay before the proper entry of the group.

(adapted from composer's sketches)

EXAMPLE 42

82

I I -1,

Lemma-Icon-Epigram

1 2 3 5 4

1 3><2 4X 5

5 3 S 4 2 1

5 4/43 1i 2

EXAMPLE 43

certain notes in common-that was also very important-so that different types of transpositions, for instance, brought different notes in common from the basic forms.'4

The seven chords are given in Example 44. These chords are each modified

by the addition of one note (shown in brackets). Set against these are a set of derived chords (Example 45), these having been arrived at by taking the

(4) I II III IV V VI VII

EXAMPLE 44

EXAMPLE 45

83


"first inversions" of each original chord, and transposing them to the pitch of the bottom note but one of another chord, in the symmetrical arrangement shown in Example 46. This produces the sequence given in Example 47.

II III IV 1 ,I 14

V VI VII Il I l

transp. to bottom note but one of: VII VI V IV III II I

i.e. Bb F Ct Ft F Dl D

(cf. Example 45 above)

EXAMPLE 46

A 66

7

co p5 4& OSP 0t -&

I c eA 1e- 1 , l

EXAMPLE 47

To this is added the sequence of notes from the start of the work

(Example 48), after which the register positions of the original chords are

radically compressed or expanded, producing the chords shown as I1, II1,

$ ^ ( etc.

C^ I^ * (X) .- k---

EXAMPLE 48

and so forth, above (compare Example 49). As can be seen from the rhythmic scheme for the first two bar-periods, the different chord layers interpenetrate schematically (Example 50).

first inv. of: I I

II _. .. L -, -- W-- UDC I

=LI I I_ - i U - 1II,.

7 V? tA o R & - R O Rffe - p 0

84

c

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

Chord: I II sub molto meno mosso (

iusto .

5:4---- s

(J.) I---si--

85

III

(J4.) 7-15

f8 fw.,f , 8 8

I0 (-~ 8w,,,u ..12 . im. 3 .,:' -tuta la torz12 -

f-- . .10

'Y, .3 I I' ?--- 1 "3 l

IIII (J) IV V I AVI

i B~n ? 1 2' - .i I; 4_ _4

6 I '

~-- 1 -;". * * A L---- a f oia,

,* 1 '1 cJ+I | tk3 1 l

flb l (h) -

l

I(i) I V II(i

^^^". L'

--^^ 1^

v^3 XP

%'&3 1A3 I'ZL 3.

EXAMPLE 49

1 2 3 4

EXAMPLE 50


Clearly, the "counter-layer" assumes ever-greater prominence. Two more kinds of chord derivation are involved here: I(i), II(i), and so on, are exact inversions of the original chords at the original pitch, as illustrated in

Example 51 (it's not clear why there is a G in the second chord; the sketch has an A).

(I) becomes I(i)

) ,,.(o) : # '*

(I) I(i)

*In the score, the natural sign before this note is placed as for an A, not for the G that actually occurs.

EXAMPLE 51

The chords labelled I2 and so on are second-inversion transpositions, created on much the same basis as the first-inversion chords; chords I, II, and III are transposed to the bottom note but two of chords IV, V, and VI (Ct, DO, and G), with notes added (C, A, and Bb, respectively) and subtracted (Fe, FO, and D).

By the beginning of the second bar-period, the rhythmic structure is already in a state of "decay," to the extent that the impulses/chords are

becoming considerably less frequent. This is compensated, in a way which is very characteristic of the whole of Icon, by the superimposition of a secondary layer. In fact, the whole of Icon could be regarded as the progressive decay of a fixed structure, and its obliteration by ever more

extravagant overgrowths. Here, however, the "overgrowth" is extremely sparse. In effect, it is a

negative image of the basic impulse structure, whose dense, sustained, and predominantly loud chords are replaced by isolated, staccato, and predominantly soft single notes. Once again there are four groups of five impulses each, varying systematically in terms of the number of pitches used, the number of dynamic levels, and the ordering of durations from long to short (see Example 52).

These four groups are, of course, the "Lines 1-4" shown towards the end of the sketch of the first two bar-periods. Note that the same "repeti- tion schemes" are used for both pitches and dynamics (e.g. the distribution

86

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

I pitch #- #- #- #- #-

4 pitches 0 #

r I I

2pitches #. . . yF ,

3 pitches 17, #I - I 3pitches - . - - #. ~~~~~~~. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~* ~~~~~~~~~~ i.

l 4 dynamics ppp I'p ff sfz pp

3 dynamics pp mp pppp mp pp

I I I

2 dynamics p Ifft p p wft

1 dynamic p p p p p

*in the score, the actual marking is p.

EXAMPLE 52

of the three pitches in Group 4 is the same as that of the three dynamics in

Group 2). The pitches themselves refer back once again to the opening of the work, using a procedure familiar from the middle part Lemma: the interval sequence of the opening (1 3 1 2 1 3 1 and so forth) is broken up, with each segment transposed to one of the first four pitches of the work

(Example 53).

Group 2 I J-

Group 3 Group 4

intervals: 2 1 intervals: 2 1 3 3 1 (starting at fourth interval of basic series)

EXAMPLE 53

Why does the interval sequence begin at the fourth unit? Because the first three (1 3 1) have been used to define the starting notes of each group! Within each group, each pitch is given a different octave register. As for the

sequence of durations in each group, this is based on the same kind of

permutation procedure as that used for the main layer (Example 54).

Group 1: 3 1

Group 2:1 3

Group 3: 4 3

Group 4: 34

5

5

1

1

4 2

2 4

2 5

5 2

EXAMPLE 54

Group I: (31542)

Group 2: (13542)

Group 3: (43125)

Group 4: (34152)

Group 1 A

'Y

4;. i@a dp

: - ?

87

1


From this point on, a number of superimposed structures threaten to

swamp the underlying chord-sequences. Yet the broad formal structure of Icon, as exemplified by the bar-periods, remains very clear, and the whole can reasonably be summarized as follows:

1st bar-period (mm. 89-97): exposition of impulse layers

2nd bar-period (mm. 98-106): superimposition of four "point" layers

3rd bar-period (mm. 109-19): addition of grace-note and sfz layers

4/5th bar-periods (mm. 120-34): dense polyphony alternating with

"empty" bars

6th bar-period (mm. 135-43): "Bb" passage: polyphonic "point" layers

7th bar-period (bars 144-50): continuation of above, with superimposed start of Epigram section.

The first and second bar-periods have already been discussed; rather than try to cover the remainder in equal detail, and thereby risk encyclopaedic length, I shall consider the main features of the third, sixth, and seventh periods, and refer only briefly to the fourth and fifth.

The third bar-period comprises an underlay of chords based on the five-

impulse system, and an overlay of sfz chords and subsequent grace-note groups. The "foundation" chords begin fff and become progressively softer-another typical facet of the "decay" factor in the impulse groups. The rhythmic structure of the first three five-groups is given in Example 55.

r--3 r5-i

o JJ n

r51

J nnj

EXAMPLE 55

The chords of the third bar-period look rather strange at first sight, not least because of their frequent octave doubling. What has happened here is that the original seven chords have been separated into their left- and right- hand components, and each part systematically transposed to each degree

88

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

of the original chord. Thus shown in Example 56.

A -

0 s^^0

( _i o ii

I (i) (ii) (iii)

for instance Chord I gives rise to the series

etc.

etc.

0) (iv) (v) (vi)

EXAMPLE 56

Of course, there are complications. ... The chords are used in reverse

sequence, notes are added, and individual pitches are inflected up and down a semitone. Thus the actual chord sequence at the beginning of the

period is that shown in Example 57.

A L. L .

M): U ,, t

Chord I Added notes:

(vi) G

(v) Ab

(iv) (iii) E F

(ii) (i) Ab

EXAMPLE 57

The sfz layer begins at the second bar of bar-period, with a single chord, then two chords in the next bars, three in the one after that, and so forth. More correctly, perhaps, one should say that the sequence is 0-1-2-3 etcetera (up to 7). In contrast to the irregular rhythms of the impulse layer, the sfz chords are always periodically structured; thus, for example, they divide the 2/12 bar into three equal parts:

2 b ,

the 4/8 bar into four eighth notes, and so forth. Since the bar lengths are

-9: Cx - 9 `O #

6- 0 - Flo e2

tT 0, 1 d7l,

f ,, MG ,Y u /. i rI Ill __ r_ I'%

ru 1 n _

z - . . ,, ', , .

. -' _ Ji

89

6t2t


continually fluctuating, the result is not a regular accelerando but a con- tinual violent shifting of gear. At the same time, there is a clear and drastic overall gain in density, aided by the swarms of grace-notes that follow each sfz attack. The pitches of the sfz chords are taken initially from Chord VI (i)-(v), derived by the means shown above for Chord I. As the number of sfz chords per bar increases, so their range of nuances diversifies (Example 58).

ffza sfz sffz

sfz piusfz sffz

mfr sfz sfz sffz

sfz s sf sz sfz sffz

sffz mfI Sfz menosfz : )=- mfz

mpz wtf sfz Sffz menosfz sfz s jf

mpz sfz sffz sfgf ( ifffff

EXAMPLE 58

As for the grace-note groups, these are placed after each sfz chord; the number of attacks is continually varied, with an overall rising tendency e.g. 4 8 5 7 3 2 9 1 6 and so forth. The pitches begin with Chord II (vi), (v), and so on. An overall summary of the opening is shown in Example 59.

In the joint fourth/fifth cycles, the five-impulse idea has sunk almost

completely: it exists only in the form of a sequence of five resonance chords (two of them depressed silently) which span the whole section, while the surface is constituted by a sequence of five brief, explosive bars of enormous complexity, each followed by a longer "resonance" bar, with a quasi coda at the end of four bars, in which the roles are to some degree reversed.

In the sixth and seventh cycles, which also form a pair, the "deep structure" form of the five-impulse idea and its attendant chords have disappeared totally (apart from the token residue of a thirty-second-note chord held over from the previous section). In their place comes a dense surface of five- and six-note staccato groups, which the composer describes as "the ultimate distillation of the time-clock pulses ... the vertical and experiential result, in much more dense form, of the type of interlocking time-pulse procedures I had had at the beginning of the section." (See Example 60.)

90

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

)

kg Cn

C14

_" r O

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EXAMPLE 60

The pitches for these groups come from the derivatives of Chords I-VII described above. Curiously, the pitches at the opening of the section have a

strong "Bb major" feel, and the composer himself refers to it as the "Bb

passage." The number of groups derived from each chord varies:

4 from Chord I (22 notes)

4 from Chord II (21 notes)

2 from Chord III (13 notes)

2 from Chord IV (13 notes)

4 from Chord V (20 notes)

3 from Chord VI (16 notes)

4 from Chord VII (21 notes)

92

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

The notes are assigned to particular octave registers: those from III are crammed into a middle register of one-and-a-half octaves, those for V into two octaves, while IV, VI, and VII occupy about three octaves, and I and II are much more widely spread. Although the available octave registers can be used in any order, some of the broader spaced "reservoirs" of pitches are allied to particular registral tendencies. Thus groups from the Chord I reservoir tend to move from middle-high to very low, those from Chord II from both extremes to middle-low, those of V from the middle to extremes, those from VII from low to high, while the others use a more or less statistical distribution.

The total of twenty-three groups are arranged in five strands (A-E); that is, there can be up to five layers superimposed simultaneously, with a systematic alternation between passages in which the beginnings of groups are synchronized and those in which they are relatively independent. The lengths of the groups are related to bar lengths in five ways: a group can last

a. 1 bar length

b. 2 bars length

c. 1 bar length plus its exact retrograde length

d. 3 bars length

e. 2 bars plus the duration of the second.

The overall structure of this section is summarized in Example 61. As far as exact durations are concerned, the pocket calculator has been

brought into play once again. The dynamics, as in previous sections, make an overall decrescendo, but with a great deal of systematic inflection of the general tendency. The opening groups all maintain a level of sffz/ff; then after a further sustained ff group (7) and a decrescendo one (6), all the groups of the first (sixth) bar-period alternate crescendi and decrescendi (Example 62).

In effect, p acts as the focal dynamic level: the first two groups make crescendi from, and decrescendi to it, while the next pair (10 and 11) make crescendi and decrescendi from it. Groups 13-16 repeat this model, with slightly softer terminal dynamics.

From Group 17 (the beginning of the seventh bar-period) onwards, the groups become dramatically softer, allowing the Epigram section to emerge gradually in the bottom register. The bar lengths of Epigram, superimposed polymetrically on those of Icon, are those of the very opening of the work, minus the initial 7/16 bar of Lemma (Example 63).

93


Group Duration Order of durations Chord Strand Type

1 '2x 123456 VI E a 2 4 3 2 1 5 6 IV1 D b 3 J16 65 4 1 2 3 III1 c >4 .x 3 514 2 V1 B e 5 x 6 5 4 3 2 1 VII A d

6 >6 12 3 4 5 V2 E c 3 7 x,-.x I D b (

2 8 x 3 2 5 4 1 VI2 C a 819 '4x 4 5 2 1 3 I2 B c

t

10 o" 5 1 2 3 4 V3 D c 11l 9 + 3 2 4 5 1 6 3 III2 C d Ot( 12 59 5 2 1 4 3 6 II1 A b

,413 ,12 5 4 3 2 1 IV2 B c '14 4 5 1 2 3 II2 A c

8 15 34512 VII3 E d 16 2 3 4 5 VI D c

ogether

D independent

ogether

ogether

4 independent

17 .x + .x 1 2 3 4 5 VI2 A d 18 . +' 5 3 1 5 2 4 V4 B e 19 5 4 3 2 1 II C d 20 1 2 3 4 5 II4 D d

21 654321 I3 E c 22 5 4 +. 5 4 3 2 1 V3 B b 23 > .9+ 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 14 A c

Epigwam overlap

O together

O independent

EXAMPLE 61

1, 24

4

10

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

94

Lemma-lcon-Epigram

fff ff f f p

p MP mf NA f ff.......................-----------------------

ff f "fk mp p p 'MP ,f f if,

pp p mp mIf f pp ppp -==-piuppp pppp

EXAMPLE 62

5 3 4 Icon: 10 10 10

Lemma: :15 :7 : 16 '16 ' 8

1 6 2 7 32 10 8 10

.9 :3 :5 ...

.16 :8 :16

EXAMPLE 63

It turns out that the entire bar-structure of Epigram is essentially that of the first two-bar period cycles of Lemma; the only substantial modification is the permutation of the original order of the bars in the passage following the overlap shown above (Example 64: page 22 of the score).

Lemma:| 4 3 2 7 33 2 5 (end of first period) 8 16 8 16 8 16 8 16

Epigram: 4 3 2 3 7 2 5... 16 8 8 8 16 16 8 16

EXAMPLE 64

The 7/16 after the heavy line in the diagram is not only the only major departure from the bar-scheme of Lemma: it also marks a point of crisis in the composition of Epigram. Ferneyhough's original intention was that Epigram should be an extended section in which the mercurial discourse of Lemma would be reconciled in some manner with the monolithic struc- turalism of Icon. A part of this program was that the pseudo-development and pseudo-imitations of the first part of the work would now become

Group 8: 9:

10:

11:

12:

13:

14:

15:

16:

95


"real" development, and real imitations. But this situation could not be suddenly produced as a deus ex machina at the outset of Epigram: it had to be progressively "discovered." So Ferneyhough felt that "it was incumbent on me to adopt a procedure which would not allow me to find an easy answer via systems, and therefore I was working totally unsystematically here-I thought it was necessary."15 After two weeks of intensive work that yielded only about six bars of music, he came to the conclusion that:

my compositional desires simply didn't interlock with what I was theoretically setting out to do. After all this research I had carried out over the space of about eight months in producing the piece, I felt that this sort of motivic writing was really not a desirable thing. And one reason why the Epigram turned out so short was that at a certain point the material itselfdemanded to be redisposed in schematically block-like entities. There is a convulsive 7/16 bar at the end of page 22, where so many lines of material are crossing that I decided I simply wasn't going to carry out the scheme I had set for myself, that it was pointless to take this sort of material any further. Because in a way it was a personal confirmation for me of my distrust of the motivic-cellular diversification principle.16

So from the "convulsive 7/16 bar" onwards, the actual program of Epigram is the progressive dissolution of its materials. Accidentally or otherwise, there are five principal materials that articulate this dissolution:

a. the Icon chords (disposed VII/VI-V/IV-III-II)

b. "fantasies" on the chords

c. dislocations of the chords between left and right hands

d. silences/resonances

e. linear/hexachordal materials

The deployment of these materials is allied to the bar structure as illustrated in Example 65.

So from that point on, I start bringing back my chords as a sort of prison-bar structure, and between the manifestations of the chords themselves I bring in little fantasies which present the chords in more linear fashion. Then at a certain point I begin breaking up the chords into two hands, so that the two parts of the chord move asynchronously, right in the middle of the keyboard. And this, I

96

2 5 2 5 13 8 16 8 15611 8 1

4 I

(1)

16 8 1I I 3 I

(2)

4 5 8 16 *

(3)

12 1 81 3 8

7 5 7 5 3 4 16 8 16 16 8 8

* * (* *

Icon chords

" Fantasies "

Dislocations Silences Linear/hexachordal

EXAMPLE 65

Cs

0


think, builds up a tremendous power, because the hands are trying to

disengage themselves from one another, and never quite make it, because they are pulled back in again.17

EXAMPLE 66

For me, this last part of the piece demonstrates quite well both the ultimate creative absurdity of the thematic-motivic foundations I was

trying to investigate. ... And in fact at the end of the piece, we find that the very last three bars of the piece bring together the two

complementary hexachords of what would have been basic twelve- tone material in a quite absurd manner: it reduces the whole thematic

thing down to a basis.18

Second Hexachord a # & J 0 #0 * *f

Wyhlen, June 1981

First Hexachord #. #. - #o o * #. #o

#'

EXAMPLE 67

98

I

Lemma-lcon-Epigram 99

It's a failure; I have to say this ... a failure in the sense that it does not find this via media of exegesis in the Epigram part. But that for me was also a very important learning experience, which put me onto quite different tracks of speculation that I think are bearing fruit now in this

large-scale cycle [Carceri d'invenzione], where I have, right at the beginning, with a great deal of care, laid out the space within which it is

meaningful to look for musical problems.19

Music needs more such failures....


NOTES

1. Edition Peters No. 7233 (London: Hinrichsen Edition, Peters Edition, 1982).

2. Quoted from a draft in the composer's sketches.

3. Jean Ricardou, Colloque Robbe-Grillet (Paris, 1976), vol. 2:77-78.

4. Richard Toop, "Brian Ferneyhough in Interview," Contact no. 29

(Spring 1985): 9.

5. Conversation with the author.

6. Toop, 7.

7. Tristan Tzara, Seven Dada Manifestos and Lampisteries, translated by Barbara Wright (London: Calder, 1977), 7.

8. Toop, 7.


10. Toop, 5.

11. Toop,5.

12. Toop, 13.




16. Toop, 10.

17. Toop, 10.

18. Toop, 10.

19. Toop, 10.

100

brian ferneyhough's lemma icon epigram

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