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PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal
Reference:
Lavrova S.V.
Philosophical and composing understanding of the time issue in New music
// PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal.
2015. ¹ 3.
P. 64-81.
DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.3.40197 URL: https://aurora-journals.com/library_read_article.php?id=40197
Philosophical and composing understanding of the time issue in New music
Lavrova Svetlana Vital'evna
PhD in Art History
Prorector of Scientific Research and Development, The Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet
191023, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Zodchego Rossii Street 2
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slavrusha@gmail.com
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DOI: 10.7256/2453-613X.2015.3.40197
Received:
Published:
23-12-2015
Abstract:
The subject of this research is the issue of musical time within music of the XX century. Within the creative practice of this period, this issue is especially pressing. Organization of the sound events in the time continuum, comparable by level of density, comprises the reflection of the author’s inner world. Various philosophical space-time concepts are compared by the author with the examples of their understanding in the modern composing practice. The author mentions various concepts of musical time: “spherical time” of Bernd Alois Zimmermann, the concept of single unity of sound organization through the guidance by time parameter of Karlheinz Stockhausen (theory of “single unified time field”). Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino did not theorize his time position. But in his oeuvres, this problem is constantly at the forefront, and gets various commentaries. The scientific novelty is defined by the reference to the work of Sciarrino, which has not been thoroughly studied within Russian musicology. Despite this fact, we can assert that he is a living classic of the new music. For the first time the author refers to the descriptions of the individual compositional method with the time-space aspects. The author's creative search in the process of the research enters into a resonance with the modern concepts Gilles Deleuze.
Keywords:
New Music, Sciarrino, Musical time, Bergson, Deleuze, Musical Composition, Philosophy of Music, Contemporary composer creativity, Musical concept of time, Chronos and Aeon
Music as an art of time is
confronting the composer with a problem of individual understanding within the
categories of space and time. This problem becomes extremely crucial in the
20th century when the concept of musical time and the organization of sound
patterns through a time continuum (related to the degree of density) are a
composer’s reflection of his internal world.
As the art
of time, music was first introduced by Ancient Greeks. The consideration with
this issue could be found in Poetica and Metaphysics by Aristotle, in Elements
of Harmonica by Aristoksen and then in the works About Music and Confessions by
Augustin. Regarding German classical esthetics one could mention Hegel and his
interest in the connections of one’s “subjective internal life with time
itself” to the time of sound, which also operates as “the Subject’s
time”[II, p.294].
One
of the most fundamental research works in the sphere of musical time in the
20th century is the study by Olivier Messiaen, that is his Treatise about
Rhythm, Colour and Ornithology (1949-1992) based on different sources including
chapters from Holy Scripture, works on theology, philosophy, mythology, physics
and astronomy. The main concepts outlined included two notions: Eternity and Time [1]. Eternity of
Messiaån is the
unity and simultaneity of the past, the present and the future which spring
from one point. Human time is also comprised of two notions, duration and internal time that could be measured. The phenomenon of net
duration is opposed to the idea of structured time which is divided into the
present, the past and the future. This type of time has its beginning and end.
The stars, atoms, organisms, everything that comprise the worldview has its
time, the Superimposed Time,
therefore the world is poly- rhythmic by definition. Messiaen takes this
concept to define the notion of rhythm which, according to his words, is the
main basis of composition, the one that organizes the other parameters
subordinate to it.
Modification
of internal human time projected upon the composer’s conception which was
formed in the music of the 20th century has changed its path of development in
different ways by transforming the time continuum and the cause effect
connections of events.
According
to the numerous assertions by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze two forms
of time, Chronos and Aion, are in opposition: “Only the present exists in time.
The past, the present and the future are not the three dimensions of time. Only
the present fills time, whereas the past and the future are two dimensions
related to the present» [2, p.216]. “Chronos is the vessel of stream-like presents,
the definite cycle with its external layer manifesting itself as God”. Regarding Chronos, the present is in some
ways Body like. “The present is the time of mixtures and combinations: these
are the processes of mixing. The present is the measure of actions and causes,
whereas the future and the past are related to the suffering of the body” [2,
p.218]. The impression one gets is that when writing about the body-like nature
of the present, the time of mixtures, combinations and temporality, Gilles
Deleuze is describing musical time, “We can predict the power of music to
create, change and bend the time vector and even to destroy it… The events, not
the time are part of its stream. Music is a series of events which not only
exist in absolute time but also have its own subjective time modeling it. Time
could be considered as a notion regulating the beginning of experience… Musical
time stands aside even though music has existed and has been heard in absolute
time… Music could be perceived as a
moment-after-moment sequence and yet it has its own musical time. Musical time
exists as related to the audience and at the same time as physical time it
exists as a relationship between people and their experience [2, p. 219].
The possibility of horizontal as well
and the vertical interpretation of time was described by B.A.Zimmerman in his
famous essay Interval and Time:
«Interval is viewed as vertical as well as horizontal. From this point of view
the concept of the unity of time as the unity of the present, the past and the
future (in a sense that it was described by Augustine as the nature of the
human soul which by means of its spiritual self-extension overcomes the quick
moment connecting the past and the future into the unified “constant present”),
is very contemporary, and at the same time this established idea is given a new
perspective in music, “the art of time”, the art of time order inside the
“constant time” of the overwhelming musical structure which we have to
set as an ordering principle of all relations in the musical work”. From his
point of view, music is defined to a larger extent through the ordering of the
time continuum in which it manifests
itself and which it is incorporated
into. At the same time this is a major antinomy as due to its highly
ordered nature, time is in its own way overcome and put into order, which
creates the visibility of timelessness [3].
K.
Stockhauzen comes to his conception of unity of sound organization through the
time parameter framework in which the relations of fundamental notions of
pitch-rhythm-form were united by means of one link: the number of pulsations in
the time unit. His articles As Time Passes… (first published in 1957 in the journal «die
Reihe») and Unity of Musical Time (published in 1962) (Stockhauzen, 1962) put
forward the idea that the time parameter is a meaningful core [4]. While
co-existing in different dimensions, fundamental musical parameters are united
by different theories of proportional numbers in which pitch, rhythm and form
are represented as a definite number of pulses in the time unit. From the point
of view of this German composer music is comprised of properties ordered in
time which is very close to the idea of organized time. In this system timbre
is characterized by overtones, frequent fluctuations as well as pulsation,
which leads to definite pitch sounds. Pitches in its own right are created by
fluctuations of different velocity, the less the velocity the lower the sound,
and vice versa. When the rhythm is obvious, the relation of velocities as
sound lengths create rhythm of a higher order, which in its own right is the
form. The unified space ranges from micro-time including timbers and pitches to
macro-time, including rhythm and form. According to K.Stochhauzen, the easiest
way of measuring space is the ratio of the octave 1:2. The time structured in
this way is similar to “spatial time” introduced by Bergson.
The same notion of internal and
real time was described by B.Tzimermann: “As opposed to mechanical and
rational understanding of time as the externally measured value, starting from
Bergson the notion of internal and real time, the time of net motion, flow
and duration, is introduced, the idea which the European thought has studied
since the era of Heraclitus”[3].
The interest of K.Stockhauzen in space
and time quailities is not limited by the «theory of unifying time field»,
which was described in the above mentioned articles written in 1957 and 1962.
His interest in an eternal and quickly passing present which is the “vertical
section of time” is reflected in the concept of Moment-Form in which the depth of the present is the vertical
section. This concept is very close to the idea of Chronos introduced
by J.Deleuze as a “regulated movement of extended and deeply rooted presents”.
In relation to form formation, the question posed by J.Deleuze is relevant:
“Are the bodies that fill Chronos unified and are the mixtures perfect to allow
the present to attain internal measure?” Stockhauzen finishes his article
titled Moment-Form quoting Beckett: “The silence that was once broken
can’t be restored” [4, p.86].
Developing his
idea about the reflection of space and time categories in music, Husserl came
to the idea of internal experiencing
consciousness (dasinnere
Erlebnisbewusstsein), a unifying form of all experiences (and sufferings) which
are different from measured space time. The idea of internally experienced time is used in the concept of “time clot”
and sphere like time by B.Zimerman.
Husserl
considers the depth of internally experienced time as the horizon of
consciousness which separates the line of chronological time. Time horizons and
horizons of perceptual time are given the status of initial. The perception is
carried out in the external and in the internal horizons. Beside the internal
horizon, the external horizon of properties is placed, which is created by
their co-presence. All the horizons meet in one unified total horizon which is
called the “external world”. Husserl suggests the future potential
of this new synthesis [7, p.84].
The
idea of Husserl’s horizon of consciousness is incorporated into the name of the
musical work by an Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino Murî d’orizzonte (1997).
Preliminary sketches that I include in my editions could be called
“sound maps”. «Muro d' orizzonte» is the title of this musical work almost
in the form of oxymoron… An image, an enigma, something that creates special
illusions in one’s imagination. In our consciousness the illusion of space and
the space of illusions create certain images. Sound maps create schemes around the
archipelago of composition, which makes it possible to use their creative capacity.
These are maps that are meant to disorientate us to show the right
direction [9, p.214].
The composer uses images, forms,
co-sounding memory and consciousness operations as well as fragmentation. This
time with a more adequate form of the principle of information perception. The
composer uses visual images which are fixed preliminary in sound maps («carte da suono»), for which he
introduces the principle of sound space and the idea of the necessity of spatial
thinking, a fundamental principle in music, from his point of view. By the feeling of space he doesn’t mean the physical
sense but the metaphysical one. The main idea of the composition organization
is the «carte da suono» that he uses to exercise “guidance of musical
perception”. In diagrams of the «carte da suono» melody movements and the
dynamics of figure development are not related to precise positioning of pitch,
and in the case of necessity they are transcribed in the notes below the
diagram. Midway between the acoustic
fixation and music transcription, the diagram allows the composer to pinpoint
the relationship between the micro- and the macro - structured elements within
musical work, as well as the relationship between sound images and musical
images organizing these figures in time. The diagram becomes simultaneously the
means of composition and the form of control over sound graphics. This reminds
one of a multilingual approach which allows to transform one element into
another by means of interpolational linguistic elements. Special attention in
his creative conception, S.Sciarrino pays to intuition, which is based on
archetypes, universal and inborn psychological structures that comprise the
content of collective sub-consciousness manifested in different eras,
cultures and types of art through the notion of “figures”. L.G. Gurevitch
asserts that “intuition seems fragmented only in relation to logical
structure.” In reality “it is overwhelming and pervasive” [10]. The same
qualities could be attributed to contemporary consciousness: fragmentation in
reality reflects multifunctional and super informative qualities. Regarding the multidimensional quality, E.M. Spirov in his
article Universal language of Globalism, refers to historical and
philosophical opinions of MacLeeuween which are “based on the idea of cycles revisiting
past states of the human manuscript. Starting from tribal culture, humanity was
plunged into it again while listening, because the visual and
multidimensional perception of the world in a human being was reborn” [11,
p.36].
Apart from Husserl’s notion of the
“horizon of consciousness” and the idea of «Muro d’orizzonte» which exists for S.Sciarrino in the
metaphysical sense, a relevant position is Bergson’s understanding of time as
well as the interpretation of Aion and Chronos given by J.Deleuze which is no
less abstract and image like: “While Chronos can’t be separated from bodies
which place it in the form of original matter, Aion is full of verve and is
never filling. While Chronos is restricted and eternal, Aion has no bounds
similar to the future and the past, but is finite as a moment. While Chronos
has cycles and is always related to events such as accelerations, bursts and
settings, Aion is stretching, along a straight line, extending in both
meaningful directions, always as having past, and, constantly, almost
beginning. Aion is a true meaning of time: a pure empty form of time” [2, p.216].
The
composition of S.Sciarrino «Vanitas» is rotating around Aion's emptiness [6]:
the empty form of time is a gigantic paraphrase of the canzone Stardust (1927, text by Mitchell Parish,
music by Hoagy Carmichael). Famous attributes of the genre Vanitas in visual
art are the symbols that you find in painting that are meant to remind one of
the lightness of one’s life and of the passing nature of one’s pleasures and
achievements. For instance a skull, a symbol of death, rotten fruit, the symbol
of aging as well as fading flowers that are becoming the symbol of Sciarrino’s Vanitas.
Extending and deforming to the impossible state the canzone Stardust, with its
simple harmonic structure, is subject to transformations. S.Sciarrino is
intentionally extending the loop of time giving it a breath of emptiness.
“Flowers in this work are real, they are beautiful but euphoric. Songs that
represent the image of flowers that were picked up, won’t become universal
images, or show adequately the idea of death. With
careful stylization that faces the resistance of eternity, the song exhibits
moments that reveal the fragile essence of a human being. From very remote and
hidden memories, every one of us has held in memory such a song which is
related to a certain period of the past, and is in some way a concentrated
point of nostalgia [9, p.238]. Extending each chord to an unrecognizable
degree, repeating sounds, transforming them into a hollow echo of echoing
emptiness, the composer dematerializes the canzone, it becomes just a train of
empty memories on the surface. The simple rendering allows to produce a bigger
effect from transformations which is the characteristic of his anamorphic
concept.
Empty Vanitas is a hollow
resonance of eternity, a mirror, broken into a myriad of pieces, that has lost
its ability to reflect things adequately. The empty form of Aion which
corresponds to the concept of Vanitas is opposed to Chronos.
For S.Sciarrino with his interest in
musical forms and adequate processes of consciousness and memory, Bergson’s
theory of duration is very relevant, as it is related to his theory of memory:
what we remember continues to exist in memory and therefore is transformed into
the present. The past and the present are not external, they are mixed in the
unity of cognition. The whole conception of duration and time by Bergson is
based on the elementary mix of current chronologies, recollections of past
events. The mixture of the present and the recollections of the past are likely
to be the basis of time, and are an example of the mix between the act of
cognition and its object. This is a combination
of the act of cognition and the object of cognition as described in the book
called Matter and Memory. Bergson
writes, “I call the matter a combination of images, the perception of the
matter involves the images and their further relation to a possible action
of the definite image, my body” [7, p.135].
One part of the cycle «Opera per
flauto» ñarries
the name “Bergson’s clock” («L’oroligio di Bergson»). In an abstract to the
musical work, S.Sciarrno, in a metaphoric
manner describes his understanding of the play’s content and its special plot:
“À.Bergson
would take a glass and mix sugar with a spoon, saying to the audience, 'one
should wait till the sugar is dissolved' ” [11]. It is important to remember that during his lectures Bergson
made sure that everyone in the audience would taste the subjectivity of time.
One such experiment is very obvious: A certain amount of sugar was put into a
certain amount of water, a certain amount of time is necessary to allow the
sugar to dissolve. People perceive this time in different ways, some people
would think that eternity has passed. It is natural to imagine that A.Bergson
would have a clock and his knowledge would be boiled down to a precise estimate.
«Bergson’s clock» is advancing with every tick and almost likely, in the
same way time. When the ticking stopped we could continue to imagine this
concept and the flow of time. In the middle of these moments (the striking of
the clock) a number of similar events with the same or opposite variable of
time development take place. This piece of music mostly includes elementary articulations, remote and
repeating sounds, and in a very special way similar to the contrasts or
juxtapositions in painting, periodically or discreetly (with intervals).
Stability, the focus of the image comes into play as well as the interruption
of space and time which leads to the multitude of spaces.
“The feeling of sounds gives us various degrees
of intensity. It was already mentioned that one has to take into account the
affecting character of these feelings, the shock that the whole body
experiences. It has been shown that very intense sounds grab our complete
attention, and don’t allow other feelings to interfere. If one tries to forget about the impetus, vividly manifested vibration
that you sometimes feel in your head or in your body. If one distracts themselves
from the competition between simultaneous sounds, what will remain from sound
apart from its undefinable quality which only consists of its property to be
heard? One would soon turn this quality into quantity as one often hears
this sound when for instance striking a certain object with a certain amount of
effort. One also knows to what extent one has to intensify one's voice to
produce the same kind of sound, when one turns the intensity of sound into a
factor, one gets the idea of the effort in one's mind. Wundt paid special attention
to a certain connection in the human mind of voice and hearing nerves. One
often says that to hear is the same as to talk with oneself. Some neurotics
can’t help when thinking to stop moving their lips, they are only showing in a
more obvious way what happens in every one of us. How one would understand a
powerful and hypnotic quality of music unless we presume that we repeat the
sounds heard, or plunge into the psychological state of the performer. It is
true that this state is quite unusual, you can’t fully understand it, yet it
takes control of you making your body move” [13].
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This hypnotic effect is, on one hand,
the basis of the Sciarrino’s effect of stability and the shaping of the image,
and, on the other hand, “the disconnection of space and time where the
multitude of spaces start” [13]. Quoting
J.Deleuze, “it is not the present of destruction or realization, this is the
present of counter-realization, which doesn’t allow the former to destroy the
latter, and the latter to dissolve in the former. The present counter-realization doubles the double” [2, p.225].
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