Contemporary Composition SeminarFall 2012

Instructor: Prof. SIGMANThursday 14:00-16:00

Lecture II

0. Assignments

• Submission?• [3 favourite pieces, `1900-1950]

Stockhausen: Points/Groups/Moments

0. Messiaen’s Influence

Mode de valeurs et d’intensités (1949-50)

Pitch, rhythmic, dynamic, and articulation organisation: •3 pitch modes (not series!), fixed in register and overlapping•3 overlapping additive rhythmic series•12 attacks•7 dynamics (ppp-fff) •Full range of piano used •Parallel, disjunct layers (leaps)

I. Kreuzspiel (1951)

• First post-student piece by Stockhausen• For oboe, bass clarinet, piano, and 3

percussion

Kreuzspiel: Pitch and Rhythmic Organisation

• 1 pitch series• Multiple additive rhythmic series

Kreuzspiel: Form and Process

• Title: literally, “cross-play” • Introduction (mm. 1- 13): statement of series in

trichords; redistribution across 7 octaves• Phase I: (mm. 14-91): extreme registers-> equal

distribution -> extreme registers• Phase II (mm. 92-140): middle register -> equal

distribution -> middle register• Phase III (mm. 141-end): Phase I and Phase II

processes, juxtaposed

Kreuzspiel: Sign-Posts

• 1) Changes in tempo• 2) Changes in percussion (toms/tumba

impulses to cymbals) = decreasing importance of durational series; noise dislocated from piano to percussion

• 3) percussion attacks on each pitched in new register

Related Piece: Boulez, Polyphonie X (1950-51) for 18 soloists

Polyphonie X Parallels

• Overlapping, disjunct pitch series • Controlled by independent rhythmic series• Klangfarbenmelodie• Vertical and horizontal density control

II. The WDR and Information Theory

A. Werner Meyer-Eppler (1913-1960)

Meyer-Eppler and Information Theory

• Phonetician, physicist, acoustician • Inventor of electronic instruments• Stockhausen, König, and Eimert attended his

classes • Influential articles:• 1) “Statistic and Psychological Problems of

Sound” • 2) “Musical Communication as a Problem of

Information Theory”

Information Theory Principles

• 1. Noise-Tone Continuum: statistical properties of sound should be embraced, not avoided in music (e.g., via filtered noise)

• 2. Information Entropy: behaviour of local events in a larger, closed system; sound-events do not exist in isolation!

• 3. Markov-Chain Models: predictive, weighted models at all levels of scale

Markov Chain Example

Information Theory Applications

• Voice synthesis• Electronic music • Speech perception• Digital Signal Processing (DSP) • Computer Science

B. Stockhausen, Elektronische Studie II (1954)

• Introduction of noise/impurities to sound material

• Amplitude and frequency controlled via global envelopes/shapes, rather than individually

• = statistical approach to structuring sound• Noise-tone scale• Amplitude scale• Rhythmic density scale

Voice Synthesis in Studie II

1) source-filter model2) study of transients (noise components) in

speech 3) Speech resemblance gradient

Studie II Score Example

C. Gruppen (1955-57)

• For 3 orchestras (3 conductors) •

Meyer-Eppler Influence

• Noise-tone continuum: orchestra divided into: 1) sound-groups (winds, strings, brass); 2) noise-groups (percussion); 3) transitional groups (piano, celeste, bells)

• “Formants”: divisive, NOT additive rhythm • Contours/Shapes: applied to pitch/rhythmic

events, and position in space • Material organised into groups/events, NOT as

points!

4 Types of Envelopes

• 1) acceleration -> upper formants-> slow pulsation (ex) reh. 1 + 2, orch. 1)

• 2) statistical, dense attack -> periodic reverberation (ex) reh. 113-115, orch. 2)

• 3) swell/accumulation/crescendo -> fusion across orchestras (ex) 117-119)

• 4) periodic or aperiodic iterative internal structure (like a drum-roll)

Extension of Serialism

Control Parameters

• Proportions (section durations) • Position in space • Pitch –events• Rhythmic density (formants)

III. Kontakte: From Groups to Moments

A. Kontakte (1958-60)

• For 4-channel electronics and (optional) piano and percussion

• Percussion: point of “contact” between abstract (electronic) and familiar (instrumental) sound

• Realised at Westdeutcher Rundfunk (West German Radio) Cologne

Experiment

• Listen to these 2 sections, played in 2 different orders. Which section is longer?

Moment-Form

• Higher-level, coherent, and unchangeable structured units

• Diverse durations (from ca. 10 seconds to 2+ minutes)

• Order of moments may be shifted/permuted (as for a pitch series) in a piece

• Kontakte, Mikrophonie I, Carré, Momente

Control Parameters

• Continuum: Pulse-> Rhythm-> Pitch (pulse-train synthesis

• 7-octave scale• Duration scale • Structural proportion scale• Amplitude envelopes• Position in space • “it’s about ‘6’” • “it’s about pitch”

Equipment

• Potentiometers• Band-pass filters• Reverberator• Pulse/square-wave generators• Sine-tone generators• Tape recorders (for looping and delay) • Ring modulator• Rotation table (for spatialisation)

Score Excerpt

IV. Gottfried Michael König (b. 1926)

A. König vs. Stockhausen

• Colleagues @ WDR Köln studio in the 1950s• Compared to Stockhausen, König took a more

“purist” approach to the use of electronics• Compositional process and techniques generally

more important for König than musical surface• Radical and rigorous approach to analog

technology • Continued to use studio several years longer than

Stockhausen

B. Terminus I (1962)

• One of 2 final pieces realised in WDR studio by König

• Source material: bank of sine waves • Applies serial principles to electronics

derivation chain • “family tree” structure • Order of events in piece does not reflect order

of their production

For Next Week:

• Listen to Gruppen with the score• I will post the score and recording to:

www.lxsigman.com/courses/cmsfall2012/index.htm