Matthias Hermann, Beat Furrer spur für Klavier und Streichquartett (1998)

"I am interested in speaking time structures that follow a gesture of language, or rather in a struc-
turing of time that represents and expresses itself in repetitive sounds." Beat Furrer 2001
There are several secondary sources of information about spur, which will be briefly presented
first. First, a longer introduction text by Christian Baier on the occasion of the premiere of spur at
Wien Modern 1998 should be mentioned. In addition to the references of the piano quintet spur to
historical models, Baier describes as the starting point of spur "the compositional technique of
Hoquetus in medieval polyphony, which is based on a pausing intertwining of two voices. At the
beginning of the work, this approach becomes clear in the three-layered sound and in the inter-
locking of the voices". In the following Baier speaks of "statics" and "dynamics", which he defines
as "musical 'aggregate states'". He quotes Furrer, among others, with the introductory quotation.
In the booklet of the CD released in 2008, Marie Luise Maintz describes under the title "Spuren-
suche" (search for traces) that spur can be understood as "the image of a movement". She then
also speaks of "aggregate states" of movement, but without naming them in detail. She describes
the characteristic of the formal course of spur as follows: "The oscillation of statics and dynamics
is again and again counteracted by the moment of 'suddenness' which creates tension.
In his new book Metamorphosen des Klangs Daniel Ender refers on the one hand to the fact that
spur is an arrangement of a due (a due for viola and piano, 1997), and on the other hand to the
analysis by Ulrich Mosch from the volume Metamorphosen, edited by Michael Kunkel. Mosch
presents here a detailed analysis of presto for flute and piano, in which he briefly refers to a due
("Auf partly based on the same material is also the a due for viola and piano, which was written a
little later"). Mosch's detailed analysis introduces patterns and post-serial procedures.
Ender quotes Furrer the following on the subject of the arrangement:
"As far as the arrangement of 'still' and 'a due' is concerned, these projections are into another
tonal space, less in the sense of overpainting than adding another resonance space. From 'still' is
'voices - still' and from 'a due' is 'track'." Beat Furrer 2014
The analysis of spur presented here starts directly from the score and initially follows the piano
part, which is clearly in the foreground at the beginning. The first setting of the piano brings fast
repetitions of a main tone, spread over octaves. These repetitions are not only broken up by the
constant change of octave positions, but also experience two further "disturbances": on the one
hand, the main note B flat is joined by C flat as a "secondary note", and on the other hand the
permanent flow of thirty-second notes is interrupted by short pauses. One gets the impression of
a continuity in which individual elements are erased in irregular succession. The sound space of
the first 99-bar section of the piano is spread over five octaves:

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The number of tones within the groups varies between one and five tones, the pauses between
these groups have a length of one to four thirty-seconds. This results in the following "pattern" of
this structure, which will be referred to as cascades in the following (shown here as an example in
the first 30 bars):

The upper row of numbers denotes the number of notes in a group, the lower row the length of
the pauses (in thirty-seconds).
In these arrangements, certain constellations can be recognized which are repeated without being
able to represent a superficial ostinato in this way:

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The nature of the arrangements suggests that there are underlying processes that modify a basic
structure in the sense of similarities. Whether these modifications are based on Lindenmayer sys-
tems or on serial permutations is irrelevant for the morphology of the surface. It seems under-
standable that Furrer, in addition to defining object sizes - minimum and maximum values of the
number of tones within a group as well as minimum and maximum lengths of the durations be-
tween these objects - focuses on the greatest possible variability of the respective shape. In their
permanent continuity, the individual cascades form a formal large-scale structure in the sense of a
matrix to which other structures refer. Through the combination of a limited space for definition on
the one hand and flexible design on the other, he achieves that this cascade matrix can remain
effective unchanged over almost 100 bars, since, despite all the focus on the core tones, the im-
pression of stereotypical movement never arises.

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In this cascade matrix of the piano the strings are embedded in two different layers. The first layer
runs parallel to the piano cascades - this refers to those tones of the strings that call up the same
pitches as the piano (notated as a sharp and b for the strings). This layer is represented in the first
bars as follows:

The strings trace the piano matrix at a different basic speed (quintolic sixteenths instead of the
piano's thirty-second), and the "web" of notes is not as densely set as in the piano. In measure 8
the tones of the strings are combined into a four-part chord. The cascade network is replaced by
a kind of Morse structure.

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The second layer of strings opposes the piano's "repetition machine" with a highly differentiated
structure of selectively defined events, which at first appear as scattered, isolated objects in the
background. This layer again runs at a different basic speed, quaternary sixteenths:

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In detail, Furrer places the following objects, characterized by certain forms of articulation, in this
background network:

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These punctual events are disparate not only because of their specific sound, but also because
they articulate pitches different from those of the piano matrix.
All these events repeat themselves from time to time, usually at great intervals. In some cases,
closer relationships between the individual objects can be represented (col legno - col legno bat-
tuto; tremolo - sforzato tremolo - sforzato; pizzicato flageolett - pizzicato with reverberation), yet
they are probably not to be regarded as closed contexts. Instead, with this network of punctual
objects circling like satellites, Furrer creates a kind of meta-pattern behind the highly kinetic piano
matrix (and its corresponding string tones).

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Some of these objects are shown in excerpt in the first section:
a. Flageolet-Crescendi to fortissimo (also mezzoforte, forte) (here m. 2-99):

Only nine events appear in the first 99 bars, some of which are played simultaneously or in unison
by two instruments.
b. Tremolo-sforzati with decrescendo (here m. 6-58):

This object is similar in frequency to the flageolet crescendi, until measure 99 there are a total of
eight of these sforzati.

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c. Ascending pizzicato chains (m. 13-99):

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These chains are set very densely from bar 84 onwards and thus become more and more an
equal, if not superficial level. From measure 88 onwards these chains "seize up" in a fivefold, un-
interrupted repetition of the last four elements (measures 88.2-m. 99.3).
Individual chains reproduce constant sequences of tones, but no superordinate interval structure
can be traced:

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There is a preference for combinations of the intervals 4/4+/5 or spread seconds (as 7-/7+ or 9-),
also in connection with thirds (3+, 3-):

The piano matrix established in the described 99 measures is shifted upwards, as described by
Marie Luise Maintz. It is worth taking a differentiated look at these shifts.
Correct upward shifts can be found in the following sections:

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Here, in measures 133-138 and 144-179 respectively, two secondary notes come into play in ad-
dition to the main note c (b and d flat). There are three secondary tones (b, c, d) to the root note c-
sharp (measures 139-143 and 180-197). The sections of the core notes b to e (m. 296-318) are to
be described as the actual, chromatic upward movement.
After measure 319, this focus increasingly dissolves - in measure 319 ff. five tones appear, none of
which, however, fulfils the definition of a major tone (actually, f would be expected), in measure
378 ff. the cascade fields consist of all twelve chromatic semitones. The same applies to the
short, two-bar fields at the end of the piece in m. 451/452 and m. 457/458:

It can be seen that the focusing energy decreases in the course of the piece in favour of free
scattering.
The length of the sections dominated by the cascades decreases in the course of the piece:

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In section m. 401-419, Furrer employs a higher ordering energy in the piano's quasi improvisation-
al cascade structure: here, precisely calculated sequences of fast passages always run upwards.
The remaining sections of the composition are divided - again primarily from the perspective of
the piano - into four basic situations.
In measures 133ff. and 144ff. the cascades are combined into synchronous chords that articulate
a kind of Morse structure:

These passages focus the core note c. The cascades of the beginning are, so to speak, captured
in a kind of synchronicity; the free play of octave positions and directions of movement is reserved
for the strings. A morse structure bound in this way appears for the first time in the strings in m.
8ff.
In bars 229 et seq. and 286 et seq. the Morse-like signal is transferred to a low piano string (bars
229 and 286 C2) on which the pianist performs a glissando - a core note appears here as well,
with its overtones as sub-notes:

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In m. 336, this morse code occurs on the deep H2, which is no longer articulated here as a
flageolet.
In m. 265, the morphology of the piece, characterized by fast rhythms, dissolves for the first time
into a punctual structure - the machine-like structure of the cascades is faded out, the meta-net-
work of the background of the opening bars remains and is, so to speak, exposed:

All forms of articulation that appear here refer to the punctual "families" of the first section of spur.
Similar punctual meta-matrices are found in the sections T. 419-436 and from T. 469 up to the
end. The last independent element in the piano is represented by ascending "scales", which are
played in parallel (at intervals of octaves - fifths - octaves - sevenths - fifths or sevenths - fourths -
ninths) at defined intervals (mts. 354-378 and mts. 443-451 as well as mts. 466-469). Scales" in
this context means regular upward movements, which include occasional downward intervals (re-
gressions) and thus selective deviations from the basic upward movement:

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Formally speaking, the first section (parts 1 to 99.3) proves to be the longest continuous section
of the piece.
Towards the end, spur becomes more and more fragmented, the last section from measure 469
onwards seems like a kind of epilogue in which the piano's cascade machine is shut down. At the
same time, this last section acts as a kind of reprise of the beginning, since almost all elements of
the "satellite structure" of the beginning are present again:

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This last section is possibly the actual, originally hidden,
here now exposed "trace" of the piece.
Furrer's spur has various formal aspects:
+ a continuity of successive chromatic shifting (from B to E), + discontinuous strategies in the
form of:
a. recourse or double nesting (measures 113 & 139 and 144 & 180 respectively)
b. Multi-layer editing techniques, which generate a patchwork-like meta-structure through their
references,
+ a kind of symmetrical correspondence between the first (m.1 - m. 99.3) and the last section
(m.469 - m. 516), the last section being a quasi unmasked repetition of the beginning

Regarding the embedding of the "satellite" objects in the first 99 bars, it can be assumed that Fur-
rer is working with a kind of serial time network9 here. This network determines the points in time
at which certain objects, which can be connected in Lachenmann's sense to form "families "10
are placed. Such network structures are known from Lachenmann's music, among others, but
were also already proved in the 4th theorem of Nonos Il Canto sospeso.11
spur is - like many of Furrer's compositions - a highly virtuoso piece, whose virtuosity is not an
end in itself, but rather a plausible formal consequence. Furrer's music is one of the rare examples
of contemporary music in which a dominant, high kinetic energy leads to a compelling linguistic
quality. Whether in spur the "trace" of the beginning (cascades of the piano with correspondences
in the strings) gradually disappears, or towards the end - in the punctual landscape of the epi-
logue - only really becomes visible, is a question of perspective. Either way, the processual stands
in the background in favour of surprising moments.
"I have always been attracted to the constructive. Of course there is the spontaneous, the playful,
but a game also needs rules and concepts. To develop constructive concepts again and again,
starting from the sound, in order to be able to go one step further and reach the limits: that fas-
cinates me. [...] Composing always means: starting from sounds, creating and destroying orders,
letting transformations arise. Models of thought are always present; language always plays its part
in the creative process [...] For example, I work with ideas of movement. I understand them as
building blocks, but not in the sense of reductionist thinking, which aimed to see the complex as a
development from a simple thing. It is rather the idea of abstracting models for movements from
gestures, which in turn can serve as foils for other sonic events. [...] Models of movement, filters,
superimpositions, transformations - all these metaphors can be immensely fruitful if they are not
seen as fetishes." Beat Furrer 2000

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