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PEDERECKI: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

composed 1960; originally titled 837

from Danuta Mirka: Texture in Pendreckis Sonoristic Style

ABSTRACT: In his so-called sonoristic period of the early 1960srepresented by pieces such
as Threnody, Fluorescences, Polymorphia, and othersPenderecki employed a compositional
system whose axiomatic concept was not a single sound, but the sound matter in its totality.
Distinct states of this sound matter were governed by two relatively independent systems: (1) a
basic system which ruled the texture of sound masses and (2) a timbre system governing their
sound color. Categories of the basic system are a few binary oppositions concerning pitch, time,
and loudness: spatial mobility vs. immobility, temporal mobility vs. immobility, spatial
continuity vs. discontinuity, temporal continuity vs. discontinuity, high vs. low register, loud vs.
soft dynamics. These categories account for the morphology of the basic system because a
combination of terms chosen from individual categories generates an inventory of units in
Penderecki's sonoristic style. The same set of categories also determines syntax, as the temporal
order of units in the course of musical narration is ruled by the internal logic of individual binary
oppositions. Categories of the timbre system are in turn metal, wood, and leathermaterials of
which the sound sources of traditional musical instruments are most often madeforming a
ternary opposition. The timbre system underlies the wealth of new musical tools as well as
eccentric playing techniques on traditional instruments called for by the composer.


An excerpt from the score is shown on the next few pages (from Ralph Turek, Analytical
Anthology of Music, 2
nd
ed., McGraw-Hill, 1992).




















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STOCKHAUSEN: Gesang der Junglinge
composed 1955-1956

1) one of the first pieces to use spatialization as a compositional element (recall Bartoks
specifications regarding the deployment of the orchestras in Music for Strings Percussion
and Celesta)
2) original performance broadcast on five loudspeakers (manually synchronized!)
3) in it, Stockhausen is concerned with integrating electronic and vocal sounds (all of the
sung parts were performed by a single boy); he does this, in part, through the electronic
production of phonemes (in language: a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can
distinguish words; i.e., by changing a single phoneme one can change the meaning of a
given word)
4) concrete (as in musique concrete) sounds are manipulated by recording the sounds at
various speeds (for example, a sound could be speeded up, and its pitch consequently
raised, by recording the sound with a recorder set to a slower speed; when the new
recording of the sound is played at normal speed, the sound will have been altered, and
could then be speeded up, etc. Stockhausen is said to have repeated this procedure at
some points in Gesang as many as 1000 times)
5) in order to achieve the spatial element in Gesang, Stockhausen created a rotation table
(basically a lazy susan); the sound source was placed on the table, which was rotated by
hand to a maximum velocity of six rotations per second. Four microphones were placed
around the table to record (on four separate channels) the sounds that each of them
heard. Four of the five loudspeakers used in the first performance of Gesang broadcast
what these four microphones recorded; the fifth used a mix of the four, and was intended
to hang from the ceiling (not feasible, as it turned out).
6) the text of Gesang is the song of the three young Hebrew men, Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, who are thrown into a fiery furnace by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar
for refusing to bow down to an image of himself. The song itself does not appear in the
Bible.
7) other related works/events: tape recorder invented in 1935 (Germany); the birth of
musique concrete in 1948 (France); Poeme Electronique (Varese) premiered at the
Brussels World Fair in the Phillips Pavilion (designed by Xenakis, if you take his word
for it) in 1958
8) Stockhausen achieved a unique fame in the 60s, evidenced by his appearance on the
cover of the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album in 1967 (his photo is
top row, fifth from the left).

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Text for Gesang der Jnglinge (Karlheinze Stockhausen1955-1956)
-from the apocryphal Book of Daniel



Preiset (Jubelt) den(m) Herrn, ihr Werke alles des Herrn O all ye works of the Lord
lobt ihn und ber alles erhebt ihn in Ewigkeit. praise (exalt) ye the Lord above all for ever.

Preiset den Herrn, ihr Engel des Herrn O ye angels of the Lord, praise ye the
Lord
preiset den Herrn, ihr Himmel droben. O ye heavens, praise ye the Lord.

Preiset den Herrn, ihr Wasser alle, die ber den Himmeln sind O all ye waters that be above the heaven,
praise ye
the Lord
preiset den Herrn, ihr Scharen alle des Herrn. O all ye hosts of the Lord, praise ye the
Lord.

Preiset den Herrn, Sonne und Mond O ye sun and moon, praise ye the Lord
preiset den Herrn, des Himmels Sterne. O ye stars of heaven, praise ye the Lord.

Preiset den Herrn, aller Regen und Tau O every shower and dew, praise ye the
Lord
preiset den Herrn, alle Winde. O all ye winds, praise ye the Lord.

Preiset den Herrn, Feuer und Sommersglut O ye fire and heat, praise ye the Lord
preiset den Herrn, Klte und starrer Winter. O ye cold and hard winter, praise ye the
Lord.

Preiset den Herrn, Tau und des Regens Fall O ye dew and fall of rain, praise ye the
Lord
preiset den Herrn, Eis und Frost. O ye ice and frost, praise ye the Lord.

Preiset den Herrn, Reif und Schnee O ye hoar frost and snow, praise ye the
Lord
preiset den Herrn, Nchte und Tage. O ye nights and days, praise ye the Lord.

Preiset den Herrn, Licht und Dunkel O ye light and darkness, praise ye the
Lord
preiset den Herrn, Blitze und Wolken. O ye lightning and clouds, praise ye the
Lord.


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Legeti. Lux Aeterna (1966)

The following is paragraph is from Reginald Smith Brindle, The New Music (Oxford University
Press, 1975), in the chapter on Vocal MusicThe New Choralism (p. 167, following a
discussion of Ligitis Aventures (1962)):

Fortunately, the extreme complications of such voice parts are less evident in choral music,
though the general tendency is towards a complex sound produced by much subdivision of parts.
As we shall see later with Berios Passaggio, the individuality of parts can be so extreme that
only a total sound can be heard, without any single part being clearly audible. This characteristic
haze of sound may be created in what could otherwise be quite simple muical situations,
transforming them into apparently dense sound-masses. For example, Ligetis Lux Aeterna
(1966), for sixteen-part mixed choir, is built on an essentially very sparse musical skeleton. The
music begins as on page 168 [following], with a unison F above middle C. Other sounds are
gradually introduced to form clusters, and the note-span spreads almost imperceptibly upwards
to cover an octave on the A above middle C. From this point the music then spreads downwards
until it ends an octave lower than the first F. The whole of this movement occupies eight-and-a-
half minutesa considerable period for such an apparently elementary musical idea. But, of
course, the music does not sound elementary at all. It seems to be suspended in time, fluctuating
tenuously within small areas, the clusters gradually expanding and contracting almost
imperceptibly. Note the metrical suspension, created by avoidance of the beat, and the
subdivision of crochets into three, four, and five parts.

The text Lux Aeterna (Eternal Light) is the communion from the Latin mass for the dead:

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,
cum Sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Let eternal light shine upon them, O Lord,
with Thy saints forever, for Thou art merciful.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.

The beginning of the composition (womens voices) utilizes a 29-note series of pitches with
much chromaticism. Each voice uses the same series, but the voices enter and change pitches at
different times, to create chromatic clusters of pitches.


The first page of the score is shown on the following page.
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Gyrgy Ligeti: Atmosphres (1961)

Atmospheres is scored for the following instruments:

4 flutes (1-5 also piccolo)
4 oboes
4 clarinets (4
th
also clarinet Eb)
3 bassoons
contrabassoon
6 horns
4 trumpets
4 trombones
tuba
piano (2 players if possible percussionists)
14 first violins
14 second violins
10 violas
10 violoncellos
8 contrabasses (1
st
, 2
nd
, and 3
rd
with fifth string)

In contrast to Threnody, which used a great deal of graphic notation, Atmospheres is completely
notated, almost entirely in traditional musical notation (the exception is the piano which is
played with various brushes on the strings, by percussionists). Every instrument in the orchestra
has its own parteven separate parts for each string instrumentand some pages of the score
have as many as 88 staves. However, the overall effect is of a continuously evolving sound mass.
It could almost be mistaken for an electronically produced composition. A reproduction of a
page of the score is shown on the next page. We will bring the score to class for inspection.

There will not be time to listen to all of these pieces all the way through. They will be available
on the class web site as streaming file, and we urge you to listen to them.
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