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THROBBING
by Paul Stanhope for Chamber Orchestra analysis by the composer MUSIC and NUMBERS Throbbing is a piece for a chamber orchestra which incorporates a form of serialism in order to organize pitch material – that is, numbers are used in various ways to devise the choice of musical notes. This is not a new idea. Going way back to medieval Europe, composers realized that music could be organized by numerical patterns. In 1436, Dufay composed ‘Nuper Rosarum Flores’ which incorporated the numbers of the dimensions used in the dome of the Florence cathedral which had just been built. J.S. Bach uses number imagery in his St Matthew Passion as (one of many techniques he uses, while Debussy uses the golden mean in his orchestral work La Mer. There are dozens more examples. This is all before Arnold Schoenberg and the other members of the Second Viennese school started using the serial method of composing, where each of the 12 semitones in the scale was, in a way, assigned a number and could be organized on a 12 by 12 grid. Serialism and later Integral Serialism became the main-­‐stay of music amongst post World War II avante garde composers. The rigidities of an overly systematic approach, however, meant that many aspects of stylistic and intellectual conformity gradually fell out of favour and, by the 1980s, many new styles of contemporary composition had emerged after an explosion of exploration. Despite this lack of fashionability of strict serialism, there are many contemporary composers who still use numbers to help organize and generate material. It is a fun way of composing and a way of generating ideas that you might otherwise not have thought possible! THROBBING – PITCH ORGANISATION INTRODUCTION The title comes from the idea of the nature of sounds being a series of pulses. When slowed right down, any musical note is just a series of throbs! The piece was also inspired by the Throbbing energy of the inner-­‐city of Sydney. You can hear elements of driving, pulsating elements and at one stage a screaming Jimi-­‐Hendrix style solo from a solo violin. So although the organisation of many of the elements of the piece might seem quite academic and thorough, the stylistic effect is (I hope!) quite immediate and accessible. Throbbing is composed for a chamber orchestra of mostly one instrument per part plus a small string section. Its full instrumentation is: Flute (doubling piccolo) Oboe Clarinet in B flat Bass Clarinet Contra Bassoon French Horn in F Trumpet in C Trombone Percussion – playing a mixture of tuned and untuned instruments including an electronic drumkit! Piano Violins Violas Cellos Double Bass Question: What advantages are there for a composer to write for a small rather than a large orchestra? PITCH As mentioned above, a form of serialism is used to organize elements of pitch in Throbbing. This is approached in a variety of ways, some quite strict, some much more free. But first, let us take a USA style telephone number as a way of constructing a set of pitches. To make a call to the US, you first need to type in the country code (01) followed by an area code (456) then the number 213-­‐9678. All up our fictitious phone number looks like: 01-­‐456-­‐213-­‐9678 Let us next construct an unusual 10-­‐note scale (one note for each number on the telephone pad) incorporating some semitones as well as augmented intervals here and there: Next step is to align our telephone number (01-­‐456-­‐213-­‐9678) with the pitches listed above. OK now it’s your turn – see what pattern it makes. NB there are repeated numbers, so there will be repeated pitches! =================
This creates a note row, and it is the row used repeatedly in Throbbing. SCORE EXCERPT 1: Look at the flute/piccolo part in Throbbing from letter A through to bar 33. Questions: – Are all the pitches of the row used?______________________________ – Are some pitches in the row repeated?___________________________ – Are notes outside the row used?________________________________ From this brief excerpt you will note that all the pitches in the row are, at some point used. You will also note that the use of the row is somewhat free, in that pitches are repeated and where necessary, extra notes are used in order to facilitate a transition from the end of the row to where it starts again. (This is different from the strict form of serialism practiced by Schoenberg and others where each note of the row must only be used once in the correct order.) SCORE EXCERPT 2: Examine the bass line from b. 36-­‐41. Note the use of the entire row here. What is different about the order of the last two pitches?_______________ SOME DEFINITIONS Throbbing employs four different approaches to the organisation of pitch: 1) Strictly serial: each note in the row is used in its correct order 2) More ‘free’ serial: the row is used with some repetition of pitches and a more free attitude toward the order of the pitches used (eg order of pitches changed) 3) Modal use of a note row: the notes of the row are used freely in any order and are sometimes segmented into smaller scales or chords 4) Straight Modal: A traditional mode or scale is used. SERIAL TECHNIQUE Let’s examine at each of these techniques of pitch organisation. We already have seen examples of the original note row. We call this the PRIME version of the row and I have numbered the pitches one through to 12. We denote the prime versions of the row with a letter P: We can also use an INVERTED for of the row. This means each interval from one note to the next is upside-­‐down. For example, the first interval is a semitone – F to F# going up. In the INVERSION the first interval is also a semitone, this time going down F to E. You can create a RETROGRADE version of these note rows by writing them out in backwards order, starting at 12, ending at 1. Try writing out the PRIME backwards in this way. =================
You can then transpose these rows another 11 times to create a total of 48 possibilities! (See the Appendix at the end of this analysis). MORE ‘FREE’ SERIALISM This uses essentially the same materials as spelt out above, but without the rigidity of always having to ‘stick to the rules’. You might only use part of the row, for example, or slightly change the order of notes, or repeat sections. MODAL MATERIAL Throbbing segments the tone row in order to create a hexachord (six note chord) formed of two semitones, a major third then another two semitones. The main ‘riff’ or motive (e.g. Rehearsal Letter B in the score) for the piece is based on this motive. See below. Can you find examples of this repeated motive in the score? Modes are also found in an extended section from Rehearsal Letter I. Here the Hexachord found above is fleshed out and transformed into a Locrian mode based around B# (enharmonic equivalent is C) then a Lydian mode based in Cb. Here are those two modes written out: Question: What is the order of tones and semitones in these modes? Write them below each of the scales above in the previous page. How are these scales different from standard major and minor scales?_______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ THROBBING – STYLISTIC INFLUENCES Although Throbbing uses pitch organisation techniques adapted from Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, the piece draws influences from various sources including Minimalism and Popular Music and early modernism. Minimalism and Postminimalism Features: -­‐ a strong steady pulse, usually continuing throughout a work or movement; -­‐ frequent use of repetition -­‐ some use of a diatonic pitch language, tonal in effect but avoiding traditional functional tonality Popular Music -­‐ use of electronic percussion -­‐ Jimi-­‐Hendrix style solo for solo violin -­‐ high energy sections with great rhythmic intensity -­‐ ‘big band’ style sections, and off-­‐beat ‘James Brown’ style riffs Modernism -­‐ Tightly controlled pitch organisation drawn from Second Viennese School onwards. ANALYSIS SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION bb. 1-­‐7 Slow tempo ‘grinding’ idea with low, pulsating figures in the bass clarinet, trombone and low strings. Image of a machine reluctant to start, and needs a couple of kicks to get it going! Pitch material all based around the 1st four notes of the row P0: F, F#, B & C. bb. 8-­‐41 Unison textures which sets up a funky, off-­‐beat rhythm with pitches derived from the note row P0. Syncopated, pulsing bass line introduced at Letter A. SECTION 2: Riffs Letter B – Letter D This section sets up the main repeated ‘riff’ over a bass line which is based upon note row P0. Note bb. 53-­‐47 and bb 67-­‐73: These are statements of an altered or “B” form of the main riff loosely based around an inverted for of the original. It uses B flat and A as important notes – the only 2 pitches left out in the note row! SECTION 3: Developing the riffs Letter D – Letter F Development of the main riff through rhythmic alteration but this time with more of the note row used in the bass line. Letter E: free ‘variation’ of inverted form of main riff, leading into the “B” form of the riff. Section ends with a ‘James Brown’ – like series of syncopated chords. SECTION 4: EPIDOSE 1 Letter F – Letter H Episode sections are based more literally on serial techniques discussed earlier in this analysis. This section relates to the opening unison texture, and further develops this idea. Letter F: Transposed section of the note row used here – P7 (see appendix for all the working out of the rows!). Only 1st 5 pitches used. Letter G: ‘Orchestrated unison’ passage. Marimba articulate lines in pulsating semiquavers, punctuated with unison ‘stabs’ from other instruments. Bars 110-­‐119 are based around the note row P9. bb 120-­‐129 based around pitches from R3 (ie the 3rd transposition of the Retrograde form). bb 130-­‐133 based around freely derived material. SECTION 5 – Riffs into MODAL EPISODE Letter H – Letter J This section begins with a return to the riffs from section 1 although with significant rhythmic alterations grouped into complex, additive time signatures. Here the original hexachord is altered to become more modal: Letter I onwards transforms into more scalic passages based around C flat Lydian. Note that the low register drops out entirely in this section and the texture becomes more ‘light’. SECTION 6 – Transition and altered riffs Letter J – Letter L Transformation of the ‘B’ or inverted form of the riff in the piano with pizz strings and marimba. Sparse texture. At Letter K, texture thickens as a transition into the following Episode. SECTION 7 – EPISODE 3 Letter L – Letter N Similar to Episode 1 in the relatively strict use of tone rows. The notes of the rows are sustained and doubled up in various wind/brass/string combinations. The rows used are: P0, I3, P1, R0, P3 and P2. The register rises to the highest point in the piece before plunging headlong into the following “Jimi Hendrix section”. Letter M is transition material. SECTION 8 – EPISODE 4: “Jimi Hendrix” Letter N Heavy-­‐rock influenced section with a Jimi Hendrix-­‐flavoured virtuosic violin solo. Jimi Hendrix was a virtuosic guitarist and song-­‐writer who became famous in the 1960s. This influence gives this section a great flamboyance and gives a twist to the meaning of “Throbbing” – suggesting the throbbing noise of music you might hear blaring out of a car tearing down an inner city street on a Saturday night! The bass line (bass clarinet, cello and bass) uses rhythmic diminutions of the driving, pulsating bass line heard since the beginning of the piece. Here it divides the rhythms in half (ie they are twice as fast!) to contribute to the ‘fully hectic’ feel of the section! The amplified violin solo is based around the interval of a tritone (found in the main riff). An electronic drum-­‐kit accentuates the rhythmic energy of this episode which ends with all the upper string players playing spiky tritone chords in their own time to create a feeling of crazed excitement. SECTION 9 – Recapitulation Letter O – Letter Q The main riffs heard in Section 2 and 3 are returned here, but with interjections from the previous ‘Jimi-­‐Hendrix’ material. The addition of the ride cymbal in the percussion part adds to the more hard-­‐edged rock’n’roll feel of this section. It is also orchestrated more fully with winds and strings in octaves playing the main riff. SECTION 10 – Coda Letter Q – End This begins with the unison texture found in in the introduction and also Episodes 1 and 3, however it soon changes by going into a Canon with the material one quaver apart in bar 293 moving to more ‘James Brown’ chords. The opening low ‘pulsating’ idea is brought back at the very end with the instruction “like a machine conking out”. The Coda works as a truncated and retrograde form of the opening. STRUCTURE As you can see from the above, there is no traditional or set form, such as ternary or sonata form. Rather, the piece is in a series of linked sections with thematic material which is transformed in different ways. Rather than there being distinct ‘A’ and ‘B’ sections with different material in each, all the material is in some way derived from the same source. The note rows contain all the pitch material needed to construct the different devices such as hexachords, serial, bi-­‐
tonal and modal sorts of harmony. More traditional methods of motivic development and transformation are used to add to the unfolding of the music so that each bar is in some way germane to the main musical argument. The “Episodes” create contrasting sections so that the more ‘riff-­‐based’ material can be returned in different ways throughout the piece and not seem too predictable. Each of the sections have smooth transitions so that all the music flows easily into a complete whole. APPENDIX ABOUT THE COMPOSER Paul Stanhope (b. 1969) is recognised as a leading composer of his generation not only in
Australia but also internationally, with performances of his works in the UK, Europe, Japan and
the United States. After studies with Andrew Ford, Andrew Schultz and Peter Sculthorpe in
Australia, Paul was awarded the Charles Mackerras Scholarship which enabled him to study for a
time at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
In May 2004 Paul’s international standing was confirmed when he was awarded first place in the
prestigious Toru Takemitsu Composition Prize. In 2011 he was awarded two APRA/Australian
Music Centre Awards for Instrumental Work of the Year (String Quartet No. 2) and Vocal/Choral
Piece of the Year (Deserts of Exile).
In 2009 Paul was featured composer Vale of Glamorgan Festival in the Wales, where his music
was performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In 2010 he was Musica Viva’s featured
composer: Paul’s String Quartet no. 2 received nation-wide performances by the Pavel Hass
Quartet as part of this season as did his Agnus Dei (After the Fire) for violin and piano, performed
by the stellar duo Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien. Other choral and chamber works
received national tours by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge and the Atos Piano Trio from
Berlin.
Some of Paul’s newest compositions have focused on vocal and chamber music forms. His
choral work Exile Lamentations (2007-2008), which was initially co-commissioned and performed
by the Elysian Singers of London and the Melbourne Symphony Chorus, was recently extended
into a cantata-length work in a collaborative project with oud player Joseph Tawadros and
performed in its entirety by the Sydney Chamber Choir which he also directs. Recent works
include Qinoth for string orchestra composed for ACO2 and Aftertraces for oboe trio for the
Sydney Symphony oboes, both premiered in 2011. Paul Stanhope teaches composition part-time
at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and at MLC School in Sydney where he is Director of
Composition.