Spectral Music

La tendenza a incrociare tradizioni “alte” e “basse” e soprattutto l’uso a volte ostentato della techno hanno portato un critico francese a riconoscere in Fausto Romitelli il «prototipo della sottocultura della musica colta contemporanea». Questa definizione gli piaceva, anche se, come ammetteva schernendosi con un po’ d’imbarazzo, ha il difetto di non rendere ragione del meticoloso lavoro di scrittura che rimane al centro del suo lavoro. In realtà il proposito di sporcare il “bel suono” si può ricondurre a una volontà antiretorica e insieme al bisogno di toccare uno dei punti nevralgici dell’attuale civiltà dei consumi. «Oggi — osservava Romitelli in una intervista — il mondo sembra essere una metafora della vanità e della piccolezza di ciascuno: i problemi esistenziali individuali sono amplificati da quelli di un’epoca che non offre alcun punto di riferimento, ma soltanto un’estrema disumanizzazione e denaturalizzazione». Ma che cosa può fare un compositore che si trova a vivere in questo magma, e che avverte del resto la sensazione di trovarsi «all’estrema periferia dell’impero culturale»? Romitelli ci ha suggerito due risposte: guardarsi attorno e guardare avanti. Superando le frontiere fra musica colta e popolare, la sua opera ha perseguito l’utopia di un suono visionario, tellurico, denso di riferimenti, capace di parlare al corpo dell’ascoltatore e di accendere la sua immaginazione.
Avvicinarsi al modo in cui Fausto Romitelli ha percorso questa via è stato il principale obiettivo che ha animato una tavola rotonda organizzata nel novembre 2013 a Gorizia dall’associazione monfalconese «More music» : questo volume ne raccoglie le comunicazioni, integrandole con altri contributi, una bibliografia, una discografia e un catalogo che recensisce le sue composizioni edite e inedite.
Testi di Tullio Angelini, Alessandro Arbo, Enrico Girardi, Pierluca Lanzilotta, Kenka Lekovich, Stefano Lombardi Vallauri, Paolo Pachini, Fausto Romitelli, Marco Maria Tosolini, Isabella Vasilotta, Silvia Vizzardelli.

Presented at the 2nd International Conference on Timbre 2020. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (online), Greece, 2020

In his article ‘Tempus ex Machina…’, composer Gérard Grisey discusses a number of examples in classical music, where the traditional flow of time is interrupted to explore timbre. I present and analyze further examples, including cases which are not characterized by ‘temporal suspensions’, but other parameters relevant for generating timbre. Then, I introduce the notion Musical OOPArt in order to organize evidence that shows a progressive focalization on timbre during the romantic period and its impact in the development of future spectral and timbre-based musical styles. September, 2020. ISBN: 978-960-99845-7-7

Natura morta con fiamme (1991–1992) for amplified string quartet and electronics by Fausto Romitelli was conceived at a kernel moment on composer’s creative path, when he came into contact with spectral music composers and with the scientific research, in particular, in the areas of acoustics and psychoacoustics, sound analysis and computer data processing. The article, based on the study of the preparatory materials, examines some of the new procedures conceived by the composer in order to develop and control of the formal organisation of timbre in Natura morta con fiamme. Moreover, a number of theoretical statements from the composer’s unpublished article ‘Pertinence du timbre’ are discussed.

Cet article porte sur Jour, contre-jour, une œuvre mixte de Gerard Grisey pour un ensemble de quatorze instruments et bande. Créée en 1979 et composée durant la même période que Modulations (1976-77), Tempus ex Machina (1979) et Transitoires (1980-1981), Jour, contre-jour reflète plusieurs aspects déterminants de la pensée compositionnelle de Gérard Grisey. L’analyse formelle de l'œuvre réalisée par Jérôme Baillet (2000) constitue le point de départ de cette recherche, qui a pour but d’en valider les principaux éléments sur le plan perceptuel. Ainsi, ce travail, faisant principalement appel aux outils développés par Denis Smalley (analyse spectromorphologique) et Stéphane Roy (analyse fonctionnelle), vise en premier lieu à montrer que la structure formelle exposée par Baillet est perceptible à l’écoute, et à identifier les principaux points de repère perceptifs qui permettent de l'appréhender auditivement. Enfin, il s’agira de démontrer qu'une analyse perceptive, réalisée à partir d’un enregistrement de référence de l’œuvre, est susceptible de révéler la présence de certains éléments significatifs qui ne figurent pas de manière explicite dans la partition.

This study seeks to determine the extent to which selected works by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Pierre Boulez (1925-2016), and Tristan Murail (b. 1947) support or contradict the notion of “rupture” in the Parisian musical establishment during the twentieth century. Aesthetic and political considerations of the historical narrative frame comparative analyses of Murail’s Territoires de l’oubli (1977) to the ethos of Messiaen’s Sept haïkaï (1962) and Couleurs de la cité celeste (1963), and to the technique of Boulez’s Structures II for two pianos (1956-61). It is concluded that Messiaen’s influence on Murail was largely one of ethos and not technique. It is determined that Boulez and Murail share similarities in their approaches to form and the manipulation of piano sonority and resonance. It is thus considered that their aesthetic divide is of little substance to the content of their music.

This text is a translation of the introduction to the thesis presented at the University of São Paulo in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Music. The work was advised by Adriana Lopes da Cunha Moreira, PhD, and may soon have the other parts translated to English.

Il pensiero polifonico, inteso non solo come presenza di più voci contemporaneamente, e quindi in opposizione con l’espressione monodica, ma anche e soprattutto come rete di livelli correlati, e senza subordinazione, è profondamente radicato nella cultura musicale occidentale. Il Novecento, in modo particolare, ha visto un rinnovato interesse verso la polifonia, scaturito dalle pratiche compositive dodecafoniche, che ha trovato un terreno fertile nei linguaggi del secondo dopoguerra. L’interesse persistente per il concetto di polifonia e le sue molteplici letture viene testimoniato dalle modalità secondo cui i compositori ne studiano e sperimentano le potenzialità, e di cui abbiamo traccia nei materiali preparatori. Da questa prospettiva, gli schizzi – considerati non più solo come fonti per lo studio della genesi, della tecnica, del processo compositivo – possono suggerire letture più trasversali stimolate dai più recenti studi sulla creatività. Un quadro introduttivo sullo stato dell’arte dello studio degli schizzi, alla luce dei cambiamenti recenti, delinea il contesto per il successivo esame dei tre specifici casi di studio di Ligeti, Lachenmann e Grisey. [Polyphonic thought, defined not merely as the simultaneous presence of multiple voices in contrast to monodic expression, but rather – and primarily – as a net of correlated layers without subordination, is deeply rooted in western musical culture. The 20th century, in particular, saw a renewed interest in polyphony. This was generated by dodecaphonic compositional practices and found a fertile terrain in the musical languages that flourished after the second world war. Testimony to the persistent interest in the concept of polyphony and its multiple readings is to be found in the ways in which composers studied and experimented with its various possibilities, evidence of which may be found in their preparatory materials. From this perspective, the sketches – when these are no longer considered merely as sources for the study of the genesis and technique of their compositional pro- cesses – can suggest more transversal readings, especially in the light of recent studies in creativity. An introduction to the current state of sketch studies illustrates the context for the subsequent examination of the three specific case studies of Ligeti, Lachenmann and Grisey.]

Georg Friedrich Haas, a composer known for his use of microtonality, is often associated with spectralism, but he is also heavily influenced by other microtonal traditions, as well as 12-tone atonal styles. In whatever style he is writing, Haas regularly uses equal divisions of the traditional semitone, such as quarter-and sixth-tones, to approximate overtone spectra. The title for his work, limited approximations, is an expression of the necessity to temper even very finely tuned systems of pitch. This 30-minute work from 2010 is subtitled "concerto for six pianos in twelfth-tones and orchestra." By retuning five of the pianos, a complete scale with seventy-two equal divisions of the octave (72EDO) is accessible. This paper elaborates on non-spectralist influences on this work's harmonic language, analyzes the effectiveness of the tensions created within and between two main harmonic systems employed in the work (chromatic 12EDO and 72EDO used to closely approximate the overtone spectrum), and explores the various ways in which Haas exploits microtonality to amalgamate and dichotomize the harmonic systems at play.

“Los bosques de cemento” es una composición musical para orquesta sinfónica de unos 6 minutos de duración compuesta a finales de 2013. Esta obra resultó ganadora en el I Concurso de Composición para Orquesta Sinfónica “Emilio Lehmberg” organizado por el Conservatorio Superior de Música de Málaga. La obra fue estrenada el 7 de febrero de 2014 en la Sala Falla del Conservatorio Superior de Música de Málaga por la orquesta sinfónica del Conservatorio Superior de Música de Málaga, compuesta por alumnos del centro, bajo la batuta del profesor de dirección de orquesta, David García Carmona. A continuación, se incluye la videograbación del estreno.

This article presents a critique of the commonplace trope that holds genre to have declined in relevance under modernism. Contrary to the widespread notion that composers’ repudiation of received tradition rendered the very idea of genre categories obsolete, this article argues that such categories have never ceased playing a decisive role in the production, circulation, and reception of post-1945 art music. In interrogating the assumptions that underpin the “decline-of-genre” thesis, this article underlines the utility that renewed attention to genre and its framing effects may have for the analysis of this repertoire. To this end, an alternative to standard theories of genre is advanced, one that draws on actor-network theory to destabilize categories too often conceived as fixed, solid, and binding. This revised theory of genre is applied to Gérard Grisey’s six-part cycle, Les Espaces acoustiques (1974-1985). Habitually regarded as an exemplar of spectral music, Grisey’s cycle may be understood as participating in a number of additional generic contexts at the same time. Taking such generic overdetermination into account not only sheds light on the range of conflicting interpretations that Les Espaces acoustiques affords, but also suggests how music analysis might better address the heterogeneous contexts and multiple listener competences that this and other musics engage.

In many of his texts and interviews Gérard Grisey emphasized that spectral music draws its properties out of the nature of sound itself. This implies a tendency towards purism and a rigorous criticism of any reference to levels of signification and meaning. A closer scrutiny of Grisey’s music shows, however, that this apparent opposition can be questioned in several ways. Grisey’s musical thinking can be localized on the threshold between sound and meaning – it is a »liminal« music (musique liminale). Analytical comments on Grisey’s L’icône paradoxale for two female voices and orchestra (1992–94) exemplify this.

"Harmony," writes Saariaho, "provides the impetus for movement, whilst timbre constitutes the matter which follows this movement. On the other hand, when timbre is used to create musical form it is precisely the timbre which takes the place of harmony as the progressive element in music." This statement implies that timbre and harmony are conceptually separate domains—a useful guideline for composers who explore the possibilities of timbre as a form- bearing element in their music. From an analytical perspective, however, the notion that timbre may "take the place of" harmony glosses over the flexibility with which listeners cognitively process incoming auditory information according to musical context.
In this paper, I begin by detailing how the physical and cognitive challenges facing the performer inform compositional design in the first two pieces from Saariaho's Sept Papillons. I then discuss how the structures revealed through this analytical perspective reflect Saariaho's aesthetic preoccupation with timbre and harmony and suggest the appropriateness of "holistic" versus "atomistic" listening in these works. My analytical approach to these pieces reflects what I imagine to be an important aspect of Saariaho's compositional process—a careful consideration of how practical concerns of instrumental technique might align with her aesthetic priorities. Said another way, the prestidigitation that performers use to access the timbral diversity of their instrument may be a lens through which Saariaho is able to focus her musical imagination towards an exploration of what Gérard Grisey refers to as the "liminal" zone between timbre and harmony.

We present a fully embedded implementation of a full-field crystal plasticity model in an implicit finite element (FE) framework, a combination which realizes a multiscale approach for the simulation of large strain plastic deformation. At each integration point of the macroscopic FE model a spectral solver, based on Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs), feeds-in the homogenized response from an underlying full-field polycrystalline representative volume element (RVE) model which is solved by using a crystal plasticity constitutive formulation. Both, a phenome-nological hardening law and a dislocation density based hardening model, implemented in the open source software DAMASK, have been employed to provide the constitutive response at the mesoscale. The accuracy of the FE-FFT model has been benchmarked by one-element tests of several loading scenarios for an FCC polycrystal including simple tension, simple compression, and simple shear. The multiscale model is applied to simulate four application cases, i.e., plane strain deformation of an FCC plate, compression of an FCC cylinder, four-point bending of HCP bars, and beam bending of a dual-phase steel. The excellent capabilities of the model to predict the microstructure evolution at the mesoscale and the mechanical responses at both macroscale and mesoscale are demonstrated.

In thinking about Denis Smalley’s piece Wind Chimes a question is posed to its continuative integrity as well as the ability to engage the audience within the proposed atmosphere of the piece.  The question posed:  Is there continuity throughout Wind Chimes, becomes the essential process by which one should be engaged.  If there is continuity, by what method is the artist conveying this while pulling us along through the piece?  Since the piece is referencing the particular material of the sound source, it would be obvious at first to assume that the referential material would be the first source for continuity.  Moreover, it would also be wise to assume that the position and attention held by specific transients and articulated within the duration of the piece should carry along this assumption.
Through a thorough investigation of specific points and references within the duration of the piece is it possible to find some deliberate continuity with these specific placements of individual sounds, that is, has the artist appeared to have been intentional with sound/object placement?  It would be appropriate in this case to first speak about what cues we should listen for and then once an understanding is reached of these cues, try and decipher the code of the piece.

What is the relationship between the existence of a common practice and the definition of a composer’s personal style? Within the contemporary compositional scene, post–spectral thought manifests as one of today’s practices that permeate several compositional approaches, transcending aesthetics and ideologies. The aim of this paper is to discuss some ideas related to ‘common practice’; the later term understood as a notion applicable to current composition and styles, by discussing a piece written by Georg Friedrich Haas. Specifically, I will examine how his String Quartet No. 3 illustrates the consolidation of his style and how this work escapes the conventional category of a piece of music to become an invitation to disseminate a musical universe, projecting his musical thought and poetics past the boundaries of a particular score, which overall reinforces the notion of a common practice at the individual level.

The premises of early spectral music can be differentiated from integral serialism through its inherent characteristics. Composers such as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luigi Nono operated with discrete elements which they integrated into structural forms. In contrast, the sound continua of Gérard Grisey, in works such as Espaces Acoustiques, were inspired by theoretical and artistic approaches, such as Henri Bergson’s philosophy of duration and Jean-Claude Risset’s exploration of timbre. In this essay, Hugues Dufourt asserts that the paradigm of sound continua should not be conceived as an inevitable accomplishment of the dialectic movement of music history, but as a new approach informed by computer science. As a result, he identifies Grisey as one of the great innovators of musical time.

To present the music of Fausto Romitelli this article makes use of some key concepts taken for the most part from the lexicon with which the composer himself represented it: sound, modernity, high and low, degeneration, paroxysm, and profundity.

Analisi del brano "Anubis et Nuit" di Gerard Grisey del 1990, visione scientifica della musica spettrale, raccolta dati e proposta d'interpretazione.

Analysis of the piece "Anubis et Nuit" by Gerard Grisey from 1990, scientific vision of spectral music, data collection and interpretation proposal.

This article sheds new light on Georg Friedrich Haas’s borrowing methods through an analysis of Tria ex Uno, which paraphrases a piece published half a millennium earlier: the Agnus Dei II  from Josquin des Prez’s Missa “L’homme armé” super voces musicales, which employs borrowing techniques itself. I demonstrate the transformation from the Agnus Dei II to Tria ex Uno by revealing Haas’s specific spectral paradigms and techniques within a framework of Peter Burkholder’s and Richard Beaudoin’s work on musical borrowing. My study thus provides a means to understand the spectral treatment of existing music within the discourse on musical borrowing.

L’émergence des qualités esthétiques de la musique de Fausto Romitelli — une musique qui se plaît au paroxysme et à l’exploration des seuils perceptifs, qui ambitionne de tordre l’espace « en mille anamorphoses » — dépend dans une large mesure du formidable répertoire de gestes instrumentaux et de références symboliques qu’elle met en œuvre. Pour comprendre ses créations, pour expliquer l’impact émotionnel qu’elles peuvent avoir sur l’auditeur, il convient alors de se concentrer sur leur fonctionnement effectif, en prenant en compte la finesse d’une écriture qui a su intégrer de surprenants matériaux hétéroclites, ainsi que des modes de jeu particuliers, bouleversant nos habitudes d’écoute. C’est ce qu’ont cherché à faire les auteurs des textes réunis dans ce volume, qui entend jeter une lumière nouvelle sur la manière dont ce compositeur de talent a greffé sur les techniques spectrales de puissantes stratégies de saturation, déformation et dégradation de la matière sonore, au sein d’une création musicale qui semble définitivement brouiller les limites entre culture « savante » et « populaire ».
Textes d’Alessandro Arbo, Simone Beneventi, Jacopo Conti, Florent Jedrzejewski, Martin Kaltenecker, Pierluca Lanzilotta, Stefano Lombardi Vallauri, Eric Maestri, Luigi Manfrin, Pierre Michel, Vincenzo Santarcangelo, Isabella Vasilotta, Giovanni Verrando, Massimiliano Viel.

My presentation focuses on the relationship between transtextuality and spectral manipulation in the cases of Audiodrome (2002) and An Index of Metals, Hellucination I-Drowningirl (2003) by Fausto Romitelli. References to pre-existent musical materials in the musical language of the Italian composer, assume a various degree of integration in his compositional techniques and define them simply as "quotations" deprive them of their semantic value. Refusing the integration of the stereotypes and hybridization of the musical languages those surround him, Romitelli works in order to metabolize the technomorphic qualities of the external musical stimuli. For him, the "true nature" is the sound that is reproduced, filtered, transformed, synthesized, not the acoustic one, which belongs to history. He needs to integrate the "power of electric and electronic sounds" (Romitelli/Denut, 2000 in Arbo, 2003) and to transform every sonic material in an electronic flow, in order to return to a natural comprehensibility of the musical language. The five transtextuality categories (Genette, 1982) help to contextualize the use of quotations and their transformations in Romitelli's compositional techniques. The case study of Audiodrome and An Index of Metals, Hellucination I-Drowningirl (based on the study of the sketches, preserved by Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice) evidence different approaches with the models: intertextuality, hypertextuality and architextuality. The first twenty-nine bars of Audiodrome represent a case of transformation of a pre-existent model: the Nacht-motive from Johann Strauss' Eine Alpensinfonie. The spectral manipulation within the repetition of the Nacht-motive highlights the metabolization of the sonic quality of the model by the composer in his musical language, presenting it first as an intertextual quotation and then becoming hypertextual allusion. An Index of Metals, Hellucination I-Drowningirl exemplifies a case of architextuality. The model evoked by the title is a homonymous song by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp: a twenty-eight-minute-long piece composed by the manipulation of guitar-drone models. The idea of manipulation of a single tone is the formal principle of both Romitelli and Eno/Fripp pieces. The study and the analysis of the sketches permitted me to clarify the musical and synthesis techniques whose evoke the sensation of drowning-explicit by the text by Kenka Lekovich-and connects the compositional process of this section with the composer's interest for the frequency modulation synthesis, that enables him to create a complex word of sounds.

I attempt to locate the "stutter of form" as described in Craig Dworkin's essay of that title in the realm of contemporary classical music. Lachenmann's piece Pression serves as a starting point which leads me toward Sept Papillons, a piece for solo cello by Kaija Saariaho.

Zur 'Liminalität' der Musik Debussys und Griseys, in: Michael Kunkel (Hg.), Les espaces sonores. Stimmungen - Klanganalysen - spektrale Musiken, Saarbrücken: Pfau 2016, S. 99-112.

Der Begriff »Liminalität« (lat. limen = Grenze, Schwelle) wurde in den letzten Jahrzehnten in so unterschiedlichen Fachbereichen wie der Ethnologie oder der Literatur-und Medienwissenschaft diskutiert. Auch im Zusammenhang mit Neuer, insbesondere mikrotonaler Musik ist dieser Terminus relevant, geht das mikrotonale Komponieren doch häufig mit Grenz-und Schwellenphänomenen einher.

There is evidence to suggest that Grisey’s music of the 1970s and early 80s can be described by the paradigm of progressive metamorphosis. In the late 1980s, however – after Espaces Acoustiques – Grisey sustained a crisis which he tried to surmount through studies in psychology, ecology and linguistics. This lead to a gradual transformation of his musical language and a new approach which could be called the »archaeology of sense«. By trying to define Grisey’s late style, Dufourt refers to G. W. Leibniz who associated the beauty of nature with fissures and unexpected intervals, with a delight intermingling the species.

Analisi di "Terre d'Ombre" di Tristan Murail, con un'introduzione storica alla musica spettrale. Tesina realizzata per l'esame del corso di Storia e analisi del repertorio elettroacustico, tenuto da Marco Ligabue, presso il Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini di Firenze.

In genere suono e rumore, così come armonia e rumore, sono termini a esclusione reciproca. Nella sua polemica con Rameau, Rousseau mette in discussione questa opposizione di principio e suggerisce che suono, rumore e armonia sono più apparentati di quanto si possa immaginare. Non si tratta solo di rilevare che l’armonia si presta all’imitazione dei rumori naturali e che, in un senso lato, non è altro che rumore, in quanto incapace d’imitare gli accenti della voce umana; in termini più essenziali, Rousseau mostra che nel suono prodotto dalla vibrazione di un corpo vibrante — cioè proprio nel fenomeno sul quale Rameau aveva inteso fondare la teoria armonica — c’è già del rumore. Questa intuizione viene a trovarsi in linea con il progetto di esplorazione della materia sonora perseguito dagli spettralisti; ma al contempo non può essere considerata come una vera e propria anticipazione, fondandosi su una concezione più statica (e tipicamente settecentesca) dell’oggetto musicale.

This article is an attempt to further develop the theory of divergence of musical systems of east and west of Eurasia by defining characteristics of a special type of musical cognition prevalent in traditional musical cultures of the indigenous population of Siberia and Russian Far East. Its underlying trait is orientation on timbre (spectral content of musical sound) rather than pitch (frequency relations between musical sounds). Accordingly, western Eurasian musical cultures are characterized by the evolution of frequency-based modes towards Western tonality – in contrast to the northeastern Eurasian cultures’ special “timbral modes” and “spectral textures.” Unlike “tonality” of frequency-based forms of music, timbral “tonal organization” relies on personal use of music. Most known forms of musicking in timbre-based musical cultures of northern Eurasia are based on making music “for oneself” or for close circle of relatives and friends. Collective music-making here is exceedingly rare. Timbre-based music most likely has vocal roots and originates in the institution of “personal song” – a system of personal identification by means of individualized patterns of changes in rhythm, timbre and pitch contour following the model of personalization of the speaking voice. “Personal song” allows for recognizing a person similar to the way in which we recognize a person by his voice. The Jew’s harp musical tradition constitutes the instrumental counterpart to personalized singing. Evolution of tonal organization of Jew's harp music, largely determined by its unique acoustic features, comprises the backbone of the historic development of timbre-based music systems.

Статья развивает теорию дивергенции музыкальных систем Запада и Востока Евразии и представляет особый тип музыкального мышления, господствующий в традиционных культурах Сибири и Дальнего Востока. Если западно-евразийские культуры характеризуются развитием звуковысотных ладов, направленных к формированию тональности, то северо-восточные базируются на тембровых ладах и спектральных фактурах. Тембровая «тоновая организация» отличается от частотной «тональной организации» принципиальной установкой на личное употребление: «тембровое» музицирование осуществляется преимущественно «для себя» и / или для близких людей. Коллективное создание музыки здесь редко. По-видимому, основа подобной музыки имеет вокальные корни и зиждется на институте «личной песни». Варганное музицирование может рассматриваться в качестве инструментального партнера персонализированного пения. Эволюция тембрового музыкального искусства в значительной степени определяется уникальными чертами варганной акустики.