cramer, moment form in twentieth century music

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The Musical Quarterly - 1978

~IO~IENT FORM IN TWENTIETHCENTURY MUSICByJONATHAN D. KRAMER

DISCONTINUITY is a profound musical experience. The un-expected is more striking. more meaningful. than the ex-pected because it contains more information" The high value Iplace on discontinuity is a personal prejudice (surely it is a culture-bound opinion - discontinuity is not. for example. what Indianmusic is about); the musical experiences that are mt\~i.memorableare the magical moments when expectation is subverted. whencomplacency is destroyed. and when a new world opens. The powerof discontinuity is most potent in tonal music. which is the musicpar excellence of motion and continuitv. Harmonically defined goalsand linear priorities for voice-leading provide norms of continuityagainst which discontinuities gain their power. Tonal discontinuities.when pushed to extremes. create new experiences of time - timethat is not linear and not one-dimensional. 2

The dissolution of triadic tonality after about 1910 removed thea priori of continuity. The early posttonal composers were forcedto extreme lengths in order to create contextually a sense of goal-directed motion. since continuity was no longer a given of the system.The solutions of Schoenberg. Berg. and Bartok. for example. areoften powerful and convincing. but they are nonetheless constructs.Pan of the research for this anide _ done at the School of Cridcbrn and Thl'flr~.University of California at Irvine, 1976, ,i'nder a grant from the National Endowmrntfor the Humanities. ThiJ essay is extncted from a book.length Itudy entillnlStrGtliruA, GrIdDtJrmll.d,: Stud, O f Musical Time

Leonard 8. Meyer. "Meaning in ~Iuslc and Information Theory." Mwic. ,Ire,fru, .flef Idea (Chicago. 1967), pp. 521.

2 Jonathan D. Knmer. "Multiple and Non-Unear Time In Beelhoven'. Opus155." Pmpcdivcl 01 N ew Mwic.XII! (Spring-Summer. 1975). 122...5.


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The Musical Quarterly!Once continuity became an option, other composers attempted to:create music that minimized it. Such a composer is Stravinsky (asiwell as Ives): his Symphonies 0 / JVim{ Instruments, composed in 1920,is an extreme expression of discontinuity.

The consequences of the deposing of musical continuity areenormous. The entire edifice of Western music had been built onthe assumption that one event leads to another, that there is impli-cation in music: Western composers have believed for centuries inthe metaphor of musical motion. The decline of tonality containedthe seeds of destruction of this myth: the temporal discontinuitiesof certain early twentieth-century works confirmed that motion is

o not absolute: by the 1950ssome composers were able to write musicI; that in no way assumed continuity or motion. (Many composers, of: course, have continued to create continuous languages for theirpieces, often with considerable effort. The struggle against the: crumbling of continuity lends great strength to the most successful of these pieces. I have in mind such composers as Sessions, Carter,: Gerhard, and Henze.) The crisis for the listener isextreme: it is noi surprise that discontinuous contemporary music is often not under-: stood by its audience. To remove continuity is to question the very! meaning of time in our culture and hence of human existence. ThisI . questioning isgoing on all around us, and its strongest statement isI found in contemporary art. By dealing with the resulting apparenti chaos of this art, we are forced to understand our culture and thus, togrow.3I i I have "Written elsewhere about the correlation between dis-continuous life styles and contemporary art.t Since writing thatI article 1 have found it increasingly difficult to experience musicali continuity comfortably. There is something artificial, somethingj otherworldly, about the idea that one musical event can actuallyprogress t~ another. Even listening to the most innocently linearF tonal music involves some sense of contradiction. The conRict isf . not. in the music; the conflict is between how the music uses timer and how a contemporary listener understands time. Recent musicf that deals with time in new ways has sought to solve this conRh:t,i and in so doing it has struck a nerve center in our culture. I, refer! . to antiteleological music (e.g., some works of John Cage) , whichf o 'r,r o Morse Peckham, MtJn',Roge for ChilO' (New YOIt.1967),pp. 25-40.tKramer, "Multiple and NonLinear Time in BeethoYen'. OpUi ISS,"pp. IS2-41.o;.

Moment Form 179presents static, endless Nows: to process pieces (e.g., some worksof Steve Reich). that move. inexorably through well-defined gradualchanges [Is this a desperate attempt to recapture continuity?); andto moment-fcrm pieces (e.g., some works of Karlheinz Stockhausen).in which the music consists of a succession of self-contained sectionsthat do not relate to each other in any functionally implicative mall-nero However, compn~ers of moment forms have not given up con-tinuity entirely: that would he a fiction. because implication is stil lpossible, and the discomfort of continuity can be used positively. Butimplication isnow localized because it has become but one possihilitywithin a large universe; continuity is no longer part of musicalsyntax, but rather it is an optional procedure. It must be createdor denied anew in each piece, and thus it is the material and notthe language of the music.. The concept of moment form was first articulated by Stockhausenin his 1960 article "Momentform."! This article is an explication of. com~itional procedures in Kontakte, composed in 1959-60,Stock-hausen's first self-conscious moment form. His ideas were expandednd slightly modified a year later in "Erfindung und Entdeckung.:"

!)'!" The procedures that are crystallized in these two articles can be4~ traced back through several earlier articles and compositions; butthey derive ultimately from the practices of Debussy, Stravinsky,Webem (particularly in his variation movements), Varese, and,above all, Messiaen. The philosophical basis of Stockhausen's thoughtreRects aesthetic ideas implicit in twentieth-century visual, literary,... and filmic arts aswell. Stockhausen writes:

~'.~;' :~~.\Every present moment counu, as well as no moment at all: a given moment isnot merely regarded as the consequence of the previous one and the prelude tothe coming one. but a:, something individual, independent and centered in itself,capable of existing on its own. An instant does not need to be just a panicleof measured duration. This concentration on the present moment - on every. : b . . , " ' ; , , praent moment - can make a venical eat, as i t were, aaoss horizontal t imepercePltiOIIl.extending out to a timelessnessIcall e terni ty . This isnot an etern itybegins at the end of time, but an eternity that is present in every moment..am speaking about musical (onus in which apparently no less is being under-t:aien than the explosion - yes - even more, the overcoming of the concept.duration. ,

Texle lur eleltlron;Khm unci ;lUlrummllflen Mwilt, S Bde. (Cologne, I96S71),:;'.r.'':i\Ufllt:a: 19521962 lur Theorie de s KomponlemlS (hereafter Texte I), pp. 189210. 'Inventlon and Disoovery," Texle I,pp. 22258, but espedally pp. 250 If.

. 'Texfc I, p. 199. tran.. Seppo Helltinhelmo In his book The Electronic Mwic of6" ' 11111 : 1111& SIlthtJlUtfI (Hellinti, 1972).pp. 120-21.


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u s u 1he Mustcal QuarterlySince moment forms verticalize time. render every moment a

Now. avoid functional implications between moments, and avoidclimaxes . they are not beginning-middle-end forms. Although thepiece must start for simple practical reasons, it may nut hegin; itmust stop, but it may not end.I have msde a strict dilferencebetween the concepts of ..tx..ginning" and "starting:'"ending" and "StoPI,ing." Whcn 5:1)'ing"beginning," Iimply a proc:c\.,. some-thing that rises and mergl'S:when s,1ying"ending" I am thinking about liomcthillgthat ends, ceases to 5Ound,elt tingui\hcs. The mntrary is true with the wonls"S13rt"and "stop," whichIcombine with the conccpt of C3l'Sur..c which delincatca dur..t ion, 35a 'l' tt ion, out of a continuum. Thus "bl'J;inning" and "cnding" areappropriate to closeddevelopment (omls whichIhave also referred to as dram:aticrorms. and "staning" and "stopping" are \uitable (or opcn moment (omls. Thisis why Ican speak about an infinite (onn even though a performance is limitedin itsduration because of practical reasons.A proper moment form will give the impression of starting in themidst of previously unheard music, and it will break off withoutreaching any structural cadence, as if the music ~~C :S on, inaudibly,in some other space or time after the close of the performance. Theseideals are difficult to realize compositionally. especially the start thatdoes not sound like a beginning. Several compositions that for otherreasons deserve to be considered moment forms do not achieve thisideal of an endless eternity.

The compositional idea of endlessness is richly suggestive. Stock-hawen writes:For me, every attempt to bring a work 10 a close 3f1er :a certain lime becomesmore and more forced and ridiculous. Iam looking ror W3YSo( renouncing thecomposition of singleworksand - i f pouible - o( working only forwards. andor working so "openly" that everything ca n now be included in the tasle. in hand.at once transfonning and being transformed by it: and the questing of othenfor autonomous works j us t s ee m s to me so much clamour and vapour.'In his recent book on Stockhausen, Robin P.faconie writes in a moreaaft~riented vein about the implications of closing' off endlessforms:Ending a permutational form is ne:trly always a matter or ~~. not design.While the listener may be satisfied with a sensation o r compledon,'the composer

Texte I, p. 2 f T 1 , trans. Heiltinhdmo, pp. 12122. Hclldnhdmo retains Ih~ ,original..tn/an" Be&inn,Enlle. and khluu lor which I hue substltulcd rnpccti\"ely ;'bcgin-nin,," "ltanlng." "ending,"and "stopping." . Quoted in Karl H. Womer, StoclthtJuun: Life GP" Worlt, tnnL Bill Hopldnt(Berkeley. 1973),pp. 11011. ' .

Moment Form lSIknows thai thnugh a ~'ricl of pcnnut;uionl nl;IYc\'enumUy be cxhausted. it dex..snot autmn;ltic;dly rc:'iI,h'c.The cllclillgsl').'iClIllal3Jhitrarillc:lShas to be di-gui\Cd.IO

!This description applies to Stockhausen's earlier, nonmoment per-mutational forms (in this .case the reference is to KOlllra-Punkle);the advent of moment form came about through the celebration.rather than the disguise, of the arbitrariness of dosing a permutation-al form. 8y abruptly stopping rather than artificially ending, Stock-hansen makes overt his reference to eternities. Maconie's descriptionalso applies aptly to Stravinsky's Sympltonies 0 / Wind I ns tr um e n ts :the Cmajor chorale that tonally closes this otherwise nontonal workis the means by which Stravinsky disguises the arbitrariness of endinga piece that has dealt with neither tonality nor foreground mution,but rather with permutation. :

Moments are defined as self -contained entities, capable of stand-ing on their own yet in some sense belonging to the context of thecomposition. They may comprise a static entity. such as a harmony,that lasts throughout the moment, or they may contain a processthat completes itself within the moment. If a static state or processdefines the self-containment of the moment, the order of moments ..should not matter. That the order actually he arbitrary is an extreme. I uu II (requirement: in many moment-formpieces comp ere mo IIty oreven any partial mobility) of form is avoided. Nonetheless, the orderof moments must nppl!tlr arbitrary f~r the work to conform to thespirit of moment form. This apparent arbitrariness even applies tothe return of previous moments. Sto;ckhausen forbids return in hisarticles, but it is to be found in Kontaktelt and more overtly in hisother works. There should he no rhsotl why a previous momentcannot return, provided such it return is not prepared by a structuralupbeat (this would render the return a rccapitulatory goal of theprevious moment, thereby destroying its self-containment), For. i fno moment ever returned, the re~uircment of constant n~wnesswould in itself imply a kind of prpgression, because the listenercould predict that the next moment would always differ from allprevious moments. And progression 1 5 impossible in a pure momentIform. ,If moments are defined by intedtal consistency, it follows thatt,

I 10 The 'Vork' 01 {(Grlheinz StoclthGwm (Undon. 1976). pp. 145-.II In a mobile rona there are leVenl po"ble onfen of succasion of the IIlon

lrom which to ch_ for a given perfonnanCle. ~'IIHdkinhclmo, p. 208. 1i: .


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1H Z The Music.a' Quarterlytheycan be of any lengthl:l(practically speaking, from a few secondsto several minutes). Thus proportions are indeed important inmoment-form pieces. Global coherence cannot come from progres-sionnor even. in most cases,from order of succession. Nor call thestatistical totality of moments necessarily he highly meaningful inthose pieces that really do suggest themselves as fragments (rum anongoing eternity. But the nature of moment form suggests propor-t ional lengths of moments as the one remaining prin~iple of formalcoherence. It is no surprise, therefore, that Stockhausen at times laidout his proportional schemesprior to deciding with what music to fillthese empty forms. (Interestingly, his proportional layouts often de-pend on the Fibonacci series. which approximates both a goldenratio and a 3:2 ratio." Consider, fur example, Adieu,l : ' . Telemusiky"KlavieTsliick IX," Mikrophonie /I," or Hinab-Hina.uf.ID Whetheror not a moment-form composition is formally satisfying depends toa large degree on the proportional lengths of moments.Two questions thus arise:(I) Can durational proportions be perceived? It is safe to saythat, when there is no large internal activity within sections, the

objectively measurable durations correspond to the perceived pro-portions. However. I am reluctant to discuss relative proportionalweight in two sections of a tonal piece. because those sections wiltundoubtedly be filled with various kinds of motion - middle-ground motion of voices, rates of harmonic change, varying degreesof harmonic stability, dissonance resolutions, the whole network ofstructural upbeats and downbeats. This complex of kineticism in-ftuences (one might say distorts, though surely in a positive way)our perception of time units. Furthermore, as I have shown,to tonalmotion is not necessari ly temporally linear at all . The whole ques-

"

II Heikinheimo, p. 192Kramer, "The Flbonacd Ser le . In Twent ie th Century MIISlc ,' ,Journal 01 Music

Theory, XVIlII (Spring, 1973), 11418. ' ,IIIbid.. pp. 125 .26 ..1Mamnie, p.207.IfKramer. "The Fibonacd Series." pp. 121.25. '.IIJonathan Harvey, The Mwic 01 SIocTchawm: ..4n IntrodUClion (Berkeley, 1975),, . 9 6 . '18MII~nie, p. 265.10Kramer, "Mult iple and NonUnea rTime in Beethoven' . Opu. ISS,"#JaIl"'.

Moment rorm US)tion of proportions in tonal music as perceioed is too complex to bedealt with hy objective measurement. But, if there is no motion.the problem evaporates. The measurable length of one static sectionrelates to that of another.(2) Is musical staticism an experiential' possibility? The arche-typal static moment - a prolonged unchanged sound - is almostnever really encountered. (La Monte Young's C om po sitio n 1 96 0Number i,which prolongs 8 and F# "Ior a long time," is a some-what special --. though not unique - reductio atl tllwtnium.) Butwould even this sound be experienced as static? Huw lung must itgo on before the listener gives up expectation of change and enters. a static mode of perception? The answer seems to depend on thei richness of the unchanging sound: experiments with students have, suggested a threshold of static perception at somewhere between twoand three minutes. nut this is a trivial case. More common are non-differentiated yet subtly changing sound worlds: lannis Xenakis'Bohor r is a prime example. \Ve soon understand the very narrowlimitations of il~sound world and we stop expecting change beyondthose limits. There is motion, hut it somehow does not mailer - it, is not perceived as change. ( am nut saying just that changes arenondirectional - there are pieces that involve directional changesthat do not really matter, so that the experience is static [ Le s M ou -

! tons tie Pa,wrge by Frederic Rzewski is a good example). A largepart of the answer has to do with the absence of phrases, of altera-

I t ions of density, nr or rhythmic events that might appear cadential,But ( am also saying that it is a question of degree. The thresholdof staticism depends on context: if there are large contrasts betweensections, a higher degree of internal motion will not disturb theperceived staticism as it would in situations where the contrastsbetween sections are small. This threshold ultimately depends on therate of Howof information. In a given context a certain amount ofnew information per unit time creates a static sensation, while moreinformation produces motion."My assertion that staticism is relative to context is supported bystylistically eclectic music, such as William Bolcom's Frescoes, someof the music of Peter Maxwell Davies, George Rochherg's ThirdQuartet, or, to go hack to the source, several works of Ives,such as

C II For a very inlemt lng and rathe r d iffe rent discuss ion of musical sullolm. teeThoma Cli fton . 'Some Comparison . be tween Jntul tlve and Scien ti fic Desc ript ion. of" Music." lou""" 01Mwic Theo". XIX/I (Spring. 1975).96.105.~.-. _ ..


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IS 4 The Music~ll Quarterly Moment Form 18:;the two piano sonatas, I'"IIII.",'s C t , , , . P , or parts of the FourthSymphullY. In all uf these pieces, there arc tonal sections alongsidenontonal passages. Tonality is heard as a possibility of the particularcomposition, hut surely not as its universe of discourse. The resultis that the tunal sections are rendered static hy contrast with thevarious nontoual surroundings. Tonality is robbed II f its inherentkineticism, hut it retains its associations, 511 thilt we experience amoment of history Irozen ill the midst of a contemporary soundworld. It is impossible tn enter the world of tonality when it IICCU"in such a context; it is also impossible to experience tonality ,IS asystem, because we encounter it ill a world that has different laws.Tonality becomes a foreign objecr, and thus nne tonal passage inan eclectic work relates to another simply because the two are tonal,which can hardly he cl a imed of a truly tonal composition."

If we grant that relative staticism can he experienced and th ..tthe proportional lengths of static sections in a moment-form com-position can be a perceptual force governing the global form, thenit is meaningful to calculate actual durarional proportions. To findconsistent proportions in the music of Stockhausen or in that of someof his Darmstadt colleagues and disciples would hardly he surprising,given their predilection for establishing the lengths IIf sections as alint act of precomposition. However. there are interesting proportions in earlier moment-form constructions. most notably in what isprobably the first moment-form piece ever composed. Stravinsky'sSymphonies of Wind Instruments. In Symphonies the music is notreally static, of course, but the major progressions take place betweenrather than within moments, and motivic consistency and tempoconsistency support this self-containment of the moments,' guarantee-

liThe Romberg quartet, by the way. plays on the dual nature of tonality -syucm So material - in a way that emphuizn my a~nmenl. The middle movementis :i fift~nminule set of va riation. in ,\ majuro We almnst fUfRet. we' try In forgel.tha t the quane l l ive s in the expanded world of a tona li ly.plusotunal ity: the movementtries 10 lu~ u . into the world uf lona li ty.as -sys tem, bu t the a lmforlable a ssoc ia tion,of tonality - continuily, progression. goal.dirc:ctlon, rnolutlon -. are never quiteu comfortable u they would be In a real tonal quartet. bause lh~languaRC! of IheYarlat lon movement can neve r completely e ra se tha i of the lWo carl ie r'movemenls ( alanauaae that I. to return in the final two movements). There i. therefore a eemra-cUalon between movements I. II, IV, and V, in which triadic tonality I~''''sed asmusleal mate rial, a nd movement III. In which it is the . )'S tem, the bounded world.of the music . This pro,ooaliYe and haunting pa radoll lends lhe qua rtel iI. lpecialappeal : the p iece rea lly probes the conSJucnca of s ty ll sdea lly eclec tic music. It seck!to reatablilh tonality as Ihc music of ldnelidsm despite It. tende ncy to be havesta tically In an atonal conlnt.

ing their relative staticism. The elegance of the temporal form iscreated by a system of proportions that functions only because themoments are self-contained, This system is not exact, and henceprobably was not consciously derived. hut within the limits of percept ion it docs operate." The system has to do mainly with the ratio3:2. This proportion pertains to many important relationships. Todemonstrate this. ( have tabulated the durations of the momentsand submoments of the first half o( the piece." (The bracketed num-ben refer to rehearsal numbers in the printed score.)

Moments:[0] - [6] 19.58[6] - [8] 12.22[8] - [9] 7.78[9] - [II] 14.17[11]-[26] 80.00[26] - [29] 22.50[29Jo- [37] 35.28[37] - [38] 9.58[3S] - [39] 7.50[39J - [40J 10.83[40J - [42] 16.10

231 know of no psychologica l da la lha t _uuld dc1e rmine _ha l degree of :appf"CIxi .ma tion of a given dura liun proportion of moments is tolerable. There Is. howl'nr. aperhaps not irrelevant I ludy by C. DouRlas Creelman lhat demonstra les e"perlmenlallythat a 10 perunt or less deviation of dura tion In two compaml lOund. i. 1I0t I)('rczived. Creelman uses durations only tip II )2 scconcls: the shortes t mument in o " P " 'ilhon;es is 3061 seconds. Possibly the 10 percent limit allO applies 10 grc:ater dur;ninns:I have kept my appro" lmat ions a ll we ll wi th in Ih is l imi t. See C.D. Cree lman , "HumanDiscrimination of Auditory Duration," Journal of 'he "cow,ital Soder, of Amt'r;clI.XXXIV (1962).582.93.

ItDura tions. shown In sccond a re calmlaled from the fint a llaclt of a sc nionto Ihe fint allack of Ihe next !tiono Slra"lmky', metronome marklnp are Iht" basisof Ihe calmladonlo The fermata va lue I I a \' en~ from severa l recordings. The c1isionabout wha l constilutes a moment. or Its subdivision, a submoment, In thl. music wa.tmade on the basi. of degree of chan~ In tempo, harmony, and melodic matmal.with supporting dala from limbre and te"ture. Only the lint half 0' the pleee i.

I ana lyzed here ; Ihe second hal f use s a d ll fe rent proponlona l sys tem. tess eamf lmica land lea e lepnt . bu t none the lea appropriate to moment fOnD.

l~..- i5ttm : -


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186 ' The Musical Quarterly.-SubmomentS: [0]-[1]1 7.92[1] - [2] I 12.92[2] - [3]' S.21[3]-[4] 3.S4[4] - [6] . 20.00[11] - [IS] 26.1I[15] - [ 2 6 J 53.89[40] - [41J 8.61[41] - [42] 7.49

IA useful proportion with which to start this discussion is thatbetween [15] - [26] and [29] - [37]. since the latter moment is acondensation of the former (both go through the same material.except for certain key omissions in [29] - [37]): this condensationis in an interestingrelationship, since the ratio of the durations ofthese two sections approximates 3:2 = 1.50.

Moment Form 187These proportions include all instances of the opening fanfare mo-ment except its filial appearance in [:1 9] - [40], which is in it :1:2ratio with its surrounding moments.

[40] - [42] : [39] - [40] = 1.49 (adjacent moments)[39] - [40J : [38] - [39J = 1.44 (adjacent moments)

The only moments in the first half of the piece not yet included ina 3:2 proportion are [6] - [8J and [8] - [9].

[6] - [8J : [8] - [9] = 1.57 (adjacent moments)

t[15] - [26] : [29] - [37) =1.53

Therefore every moment in the first half of the piece is involvedin a meaningful 3:2 approximation (meaningful because of adja-cency or because of similarity of moment type), and almost everymoment containing submoments is partitioned according to 3:2. Ifind the pe rva s iveness of this ratio impressive. It accounts for theformal balance of the first half of the piece. I do not of course claimthat we listen and say, "Aha I A 3:2 piece." But we surely do hearsomething consistent and elegant in the way the proportions relate.and the persis tence of 3:2 explains such an impression.

Stravinsky clearly discovered something important and it receivedits purest statement in Symphonies. The techniques of this piece areboth a culmination of Stravinsky's ear lier methods and an anticipa-tion of the radically nonlinear procedures of a younger generation.in whose music moments are truly independent both of each otherand of an underlying progressive logic. Stravinsky subsequently didnot abandon his explorations of proportioned staticism, any morethan he abandoned radicalism after Satre, as is often charged. Thetechniques achieved in Symphonies suggest the procedures , thoughnot the mater ials. of neoclassicism. StTavinsky was now ready to em-brace the music most deeply involved with kineticism. He was ableto strip tonal sounds of their kinetic implications and to freeze them~ motionless nonprogressions.u Still there is a background motion

Similarly the subdivision at [15] of the moment [11] - [261 ap-proximates 3:2. sinceI,

[11] - [26] : [1&] - [26] =1.48Consider also the internal subdivisions of the first moment. up to[6):I[4]-[6]" [1]-[2] = I.S5{similarsubmoments)

[1] - [2] I [0] - [1] = 1.63 (adjacent submoments)[0] - [I] [2] - [3] = 1.52 (similarsubmoments)[~] - [3] [3] - [4] = 1.47 (adjacent submoments)A still more impr~iye utilization of the 3:2 proportion is betweenrather th~n within .moments. Consider. first. the two "" types of mo-ments first heard at the beginning and at [II]:r ;[11] - [26] : [0] - (6] =1.61

[0] - [6] j' [29] - [37] =1.41[29] - [37] : [26] - [29] = 1.57 (adjacent moments), .[26] - [2~) :' [9] - [11] = 1.59 (similar moments)[9] - [H] : [37] - [38] = 1.48 (similar moments). '.

. .,"" ... .-~ .. For lm obvious demon.ration of the proc as of ncodas1ic Ita dcism, compare.::,i\.:. Srnvllllk,.. 1936 "orches tr at ion" of Rach. Vom Himmel hoe" variations with the".:'!.\~" mpnal , Bach' s ven ion I.c.lntrapllnla lly dense, yet the goal. directed harmonic motion":~~:~.~,: ,. .. . unmbtalcable. Scravln"'!, considering triadic tonalit), as a violable possibility rather,.,.!~.~" thaD the entire uniye ne of musical dl tcoune , wu able (0add new melodic l ine s.: ' :' U ' ~ t ; t . _ ' ! r ~ b d c : a n ,CIOIlsl.ent in themselves yet obscuring the tri adic orientat ion of c he vc r.. _ .iiWia:itL The 1111:'" IinCi. i t would seem. Mould inc rease the 'po lyphonic dc lUf ty and. .. .. 0 :, :


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18 8 The Musical Quarterly Moment Form 18 9at work- the neoclassicpieces have beginnings, middles, and ends,although these gesturesare created by other than tonal-triadic means.The music of neoclassicismis like that of Sym/}hoflies with an addedcomplexity: the material implies a motion that never (or at leastrarely) occurs on its own level. There is irony in this music: thetonal materials suggest movement, hut they do not move: in thebackground the piecesdo move. but by nontonal means.Therefore Stravinsky'smove into neoclassicism was in no way aretreat from his temporal explorations. He may have adopted theoutlines tJf forms that originally dealt with klneticism, hut he oftenused them as assemblagesof static or at least self-contained sections.In his use of sonata form, for example, he transformed the traditionalkinetic sections into moments. Because of the reference to classical-style. the resulting music is less aggressively discontinuous on thesurface than Symphonies. But the sections do tend to be defined bybounded processesor bystatic harmonies. To take one of many possible examples, consider the first movement of the Sonata for TwoPianos. an unjustly neglected work dating (rom 19/1:1.44.Here wefind Stravinsky's typical verticalizing of tonal functions (the open-ing, for example. superimposes lines simultaneously outlining I andVIchords), with the result that the harmony isa st.ttic complex (suchwriting used to be called pandiatonic). The texture remains as COilstant as the harmony, until the bridge section begins abruptly. Thissection isa new static harmonic area, arriving with minimal prepara-tion; its texture is also new and unprepared. Just as suddenly, thesecond theme arrives, which is static by virtue of ostinato figures.The exposition section, then, is really a series of three apparentlyunrelated and unconnected moments (there are really half-hiddenrelationships. as there are in Symphonies). The development sectionis also a series of moments (of lesser duration so that the increasedrate of succession of static moments functions analogously to theincreased harmonic rhythm of the classical sonata's development), asis the recapitulation. The gentle nature of this movement precludesextreme discontinuities like those of Symphonies. but it is nonethe-lessa product of the same time consciousness. - .

The composers working in Darmstadt in the late 1950sdid notrealize that Stravinsky's neoclassic music continued the strikinz..,temporal achievements of his Russian period. The misguided scornthat they heaped upon Stravinsky fortunately had no impact oneither his nr their music. The Darmstadt musicians did not evenrealize the importance (I f the overtly experimental Sympllotlies totheir aesthetic. Their writings praise Sucre as the source of permuta-tional and cellular rhythms, yet they turn to Debussy's[eux, writtenin 1912, as the source of moment form. This work, in contrast toSymphonies, was seminal to the Darmstadt composers. Stockhausenpays homage to it in "Von Wehem III Debussy (Bemerkungen zurstatistischen Form),":!tI Herbert Eimert analyzes it in "Debussy'sJeux , "27 Boulezconducts it, and references to it are scattered through.out the Darmstadt literature.The often fragmentary nature of the material, the frequentchanges of tempo, the nondevelopmental form, the transformationof material, the. discontinuities -:- these were the appealing featuresof [eux. But it is really not a moment-form piece. It is highly sec-tionalized, to be sure, but the sections are asoften in motion towardsother sections as they are static, Since motion is usually to or homsome place not immediately heard, the piece works as a nonlinearprogression. The sections are n?t self-contained, because they pointtoward goals (or come hom sources) not within their boundaries:that these goals (or origins) do rot appear in adjacent sections, andmay not appear at all in the piece. renders the temporal world of[eux complex and fascinating. But to move into the realm of momentforms was another huge step, one that Debussy never took. This de-velopment was taken up by Stravinsky and later by Messiaen.Olivier Messiaen began his compositional maturity under theinfluence of Stravinsky and De~ussy, and he eventually wrote musicof a sufficiently arresting originality to become the father figure ofthe Darmstadt school. His music, then, is a link. perhaps an all tooconvenient link, between early S~ravinskyand the Stockhausen circle.In his early years Messiaen toyed with the sonata, but, like theneoclassic Stravinsky, he approached the form asa static object ratherthan as a self-motivating process. As Robert Sherlaw Johnson saysin his comprehensive book on,_Messiaen, "He is thinking of thethuacomplicate the music,but in fact they almost f~ze the hannonies and therebysimplify the aituation. With harmonic direction no longer a prime factor, there I.actually less information. Similar additions are made to the originals (thought to beby Pergolesl) in Puld_lIa, Stravinsky'. lint neoclassic effort, composed jutt prior to3,mplumie,. 18 Texte I. pp. 75.85.F _. 2TDi~ R~ihe.V (1959). tran!. by Leo.B!3d (1961),5-20.


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19 0 The Musical Quarterlysonata sectionally rather than organically, and, as a result. the formshe derives from it have very little tn do with its real spirit.":!8 Lateron, his sectionalized forms became more org;mically coherent.In his later wurks the musical th.,ught ulten " , ' ' ' I I " " t S ;1 sectional treatment. Thestark juxtlpositioll ur ideas ill earlier wnrk eventually he('oll1cs sU(Jhistkaled illthe ' , lOs with sUi)crilllpositioll :IS well OI


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19 2 The Musical Quarterlyto a moment form, although on the background level there are amplereasons to conclude with this moment - reasons having to In withpacing of moment returns and placement uf moment durations with-in the sp.1nof the piece.

The power of moment forms such 3S Mes.'iiaens Chronocromieor Stockhausen's Mixtur (1964) comes from the power of disconrinu-ity. which is discussed at the beginning (I F this article. Extreme dis.continuities became readily available with the advent of the taperecorder. A simple splice can transport the listener instantaneously(rom one sound world to another. Discuntinuity is heightened hy theunpredictability of precisely when a splice might occur or into whatnew world it might send the listener. Not all tape music. of course,avails itself of the potency of extreme discontinuity, but the possi-bility is there to be used or not used. Stockhausen must surely haverealized the implications for musical furm of the new technologywhen he was working in the musique concrete studio in Paris in Ifl52and in the electronic studio in Cologne in 19!i356.~ A composer'sinvolvement with electronics tends to influence any subsequent reoturn to purely instrumental media. Although Stockhausen's earlytape pieces (EtUde, Sludie I, Sludie 11, and Cesnng der Jiinglinge)are not cast in moment fonn, Kontdte (for tape with or withoutinstruments) was the work that opened the door for such furtherexplorations in moment form as Cnrre (written simultaneously withKontakte), Mornente, Mikrophonie I (1964), and Mixtur- none ofwhich use tape.

Of course, the splice did not originate with the invention of thetape recorder. The technology of the film is intimately linked withnew time conceptions. According to art historian Arnold Hauser.the agreement between the technical methods of the film and the characteristiaof the ?e~ concept of time is so complete that one has the feeling that the timecategones of modem an have arisen from the spirit of c inematic Conn.and oneis inclined to consider the film itself as th e stylistically most representative .genre of contemporary an. . . . In the temporal medium of \. film we move ina way that is otherwise peculiar to space. completely fn:e to c h o O s e our direction,proceeding from one phase of t ime into another. just as one goes from one roomto another. disconnecting the individual stagesin the development of ~enlS andregro~pln~ them. generally speaking. according to the principles of spatial order.In bnef. l ime here loses, on the one hand. i lS irrevenibJe cfirect ion. It C a n bebrought to a standstill: in close.ups: reversed: in flashbaw: repe: 'l ted: in recol.

~ Maconie . pp. SO-40.

,I

Moment Form I ! J : lt cc tions; a li I! , li l.pc ,t . t(n lO;S: in , 'himl" of thc future , Cll llcurTCnt. , imulunl .'Ol IsC\'CIII' ("all hc ,hll\\'11 \lIul. ...,in-ty. ;lflll tcmJ'IIr.t1ly disjullct events simultancolI,ly- hy IllIubtc 'ClCl""IIIC ami ..l tc r nO l ti nn : t he earlier C :I II a pp ea r la te r. the laterbefnre it, timc. Thi, t.im:mOltic wllccplion II f t ime h.u it thonlughly ,uhjccti\'c ;11111a.,.,ilrellll)' irrq;ul.tr Iharal'tcr wlllp.lrctl ,,,ith the cmpirica] and the dranuuieCllII lc luinll of the ~III1Cml.'ttiUlII.:J1The language and conventions of the film depend Oil the splice, justas the discontinuities of tape music are creations of the razor blade.The profound temporal experience caused by the simple act of splic-ing deeply altered the consciousness of all composers, not only thosewho work with tape, And the power of the film splice - juxtaposingstandstills, flashbacks. flashforwards, successive simultaneities. doubleexposures - scrambles the hitherto orderly and inviolable successionof time. Time is thus redefined as a malleable Now, as an arbitrarysuccession of moments. This new concept. born of technology. rever-berated in all art forms e1uring this century. Thus Stravinsky's 1920masterpiece is not an isolated experiment; he was responding to newconcepts of time, that were deeply affecting the meaning of humanexistence. at least in 'Western Europe. To what extent other corn-posers who carne to cmnpose moment forms were influenced by Stra-vinsky's radical statement hardly matters. They. too. were reactingto increasingly potent new currents in Western thought. New con-cepts of musical time were well enough assimilated to have beenarticulated verbally by 19(iO, the year of Stockhausen's first article onmoment form. His polemical stance may sound as if he is propusingan original musical form. but he is in fact providing a rational frame-work within which to deal with a species of musical time that hadbeen practiced for some forty years. Stockhausen makes clear, as dothe most successful moment-form compositions, that that species oftime deals with the isolated moment as an eternal Now. As ArnoldHauser has aptly said:Tile time experience of the present age consists above all in an awareness of themoment in which we find ourselves: in an awareness of the present. Everythingtopical. contemporary. hound toRether in the present moment is of special signi.cance and value to the man of today. and. filled with this idea. the mere fact ofsimultaneity acquires new meaning in his eyes. Is one not in ev e ry momentof one 's li fe the same chi ld or the same inval id or the same lonely stranger wi ththe ..ame wakeful. sensitive. unappeased nerves? Is one not in every situation of

, at The Social History 01 A.rt . Vol. IV , t rane . Stanley Codman' (New York . 1958) .~ _.~,241.


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194 The Musial Quarterlylife the penon capable o r eltperiencing this and that, who possesses, in the reeur.ring features of his experience. the one protection against the pa~"'ge of time?Do not all our experiences t. ,ke place a' it were at the same time? And is thissimultaneity not R:allr the negation of time? .\nd this negation. is it not 3 strugglefor the R:COvcryo( that inwanlnm o( whidl ph}-,;ic:llsl ,ace :lllli time deprive usPS

,

sa Hau~. IV. ~45.~4!;.

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...., ~

cramer, moment form in twentieth century music

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