Cocks Crow, Dogs Bark: New Compositional Intentions Larry Polansky acs evne Digs bark hic all men ons. Even the:wisest cannot tel, Whence these woices come Orespain Wey corks ern Digs bark When they da, Thomas Merion, he Wi af Chuang Tea NEW INTENTIONS Composers and musicians everywhere andl always hae sought to mose music out of themselves, Across history and geoxtat ty has been transdiced! by compositional 1, spirit, inspirations ays and performance procedures—Fo phito made att that is collaborative: communal; ch ophical and mathematical, “Composers” have led from above; derived from nature, speech, or scientific principles: or spontancously received from some unknowable source: in short, music they understood as coming from some other higher place than ou ov, From the isos thunic hermeticism music the B ta kite Medics: id fugal and foque’s satura contrapiintal complexity—and even to the use of dhe triad as 1 found melodic abject in the symphonic work of Beethoven, Brahms and Mozirt—things outside the inspired, intuitive next choice ave been proven useful in omusical expression, Much of twenticth-c rerized ‘emotion, spiritual ied by the musie on this CD eiliatoty steps towards the dis uty music can be generally charac iy ane intelleet, Many of the idless embod: wd econ tions beeen these domains. Some recent trenels in the ereation of new intentional com: positional ideas have invalved the use of mathematical tech chance (or indetermi niques: computer-aided compositio nhacy); strategie anel improvisational structures; open musical forms and notations; formal procedures derived trom acous: tical and/or cagn Irom sonic mievostr ive precepts; macrastructures derived ure: processoriented music: environ: mental anel participatory musical stractures; quotation andl recontextsalization; and even the rigorous application of s rial and atonal set theory techniques, Some of the (great many) composers who have pioneered these ideas include Ames, Barlo, Braston, Briin, Brown, Cage, Coleman, Hiller Koenig, Lucier, Oliveros, Oswald, Sehocaberg and the sec 0} (and its international descendants) sinimalists” (Re cond Viennese sch Tenney, the American h, Comer, Goodle Riley, Mafield, Glass and others), Wolff, Nenakis anid Zorn The list, of course, is nearly endless, as i the list of varieties ‘of compositional and performance intentions represented by even this sinall group of composers Cage's Music of Changes (1951) is often idlemtified as a com ginning for the radical reint In this primary and early work, Cage began to explore chance operations to reorient his relationship with ves, such as Schwitters's merken Cage's sth andl tone for the score. Similar proc (garbage art). had been aro musical and personal eloquence vision of his ideas, established his muse as a 60 id For some time. Bi this °s exploration of compositional intent. Not sa co incidemally, around the same time, American jazz wnisicians such as Lennie Tristano were working with “free improvisi- tion” in a kind of parallel attempt at liberation from preva ing creative paradigms. Many musicians and artis from die verse genres sought liberation from standard ¢ narrative, creative and intentional techniques dealt with thy Twenticth-century composers have ofte immense and exponen rowing historieal legacy by ree ‘ognizing its existence while shunning its burden, Coneen ing compositional inten sical ides, they happily igh of thinking, if melody is all that should be in the pi ‘i, far example (or even Chopin's) catld be sti to intentionally ‘aon sonnd in its adherence to an explicitly imited timbral vocabulary, even as it exhaustively explores that vocabulary re others, Accondi clody, then perhaps -e. Nanea By omitting the possibilty of certain choices—or seeking new ways of mi vay to sok and develop extraordinary new musical worlds, Nor writing for an orchestra is ass ing for not allowing oneself the luxury of finding the “perfect chor is often more difficult than searching tor it ing them —composers have fo Conventional composing techniques have become, to dit ferent degrees andl in different ways, unsatisfactory to many composers to stich a degree dhat composers whw use more neoaintentional methods have been knossn to jokingly refer we composition as “Tittle black dot” or “smoking jacker” music 10 next right note” and inseribing von the page has become. in some ofits postmodern man fextualization, fraud, homage, ¢ of ils more extreme parody, folly, selEindulgence of, in o forms, selfreflexive commentary on the act itself. Perhaps because of simply how much history now exists, the musical,matic and Fiteraty atc of the tury has Focused on work that describes itselt—its oven methods, ‘motivations and intentions In this way, rather than inseride (oF pethaps rauenbe), some of de composers fon this CD prefer to % al, socal or natural processes in a prongrannatical Thelieve that music is 00 to be relegated 10 “expressivity” in any way that this has pres life, love, daily experience mon narrative are reinterpreted in some extreme forms of twentieth-century bee isly understood. Emotion, 1d the cons ‘composition (exemplified by the much ‘of the work on this CD) 10 exelude the possibility of their sonie expression. Some composers have mptedl to lib- conventional drama ivity by basing it ont the mu: composi ¢ of noise” ally and in terms of chance ‘operations, silence and the incorpor tion of the sonic ordinary led Xenakis (whose musical ideas are importantly continued by composers such as Ames and Feldman} to make the comment that follows in this excerpt ofa conversi- tion with Bernard Teyssédre anel Olivier Rev D’Allones Teyssédre Teynstdre: These preliminary choices Tistener's cough ora flying [sie] buz2- ing around the hall into the Fea of vnds and thereby integral fing the Fy ax part othe misc, Cage would. This brings up ane ‘musical principle, dlferent Irom yours, enahis: Fine and 1 cell you why: Very Iv becinse we all Lave Fartitons fonts in tr daly life, They ae com peels aval and hosing. Pow na ier ested in reproducing banalities, Silence is banal (1 Both Cage sand Xenakis, however, seem to agree about the impor he compositional process ise Like religions mystics or a carpenter the inclinations of the wood itself pe the pedestrian by seek- ing musical sources for which they are ‘only partially responsible. Performers of ten describe themselves as “channeling” susie an! many improvisers seck a kind ‘of spontaneously exstatc state free from, licks, cliches and precompositional de sign, Some composer, suc as Stravinsky have seen themselves as vehicles through which music flows from an ineffable ore deliberately alter the souce. O prevailing modes of intention. ‘THE PIECES AND ‘THE COMPOSERS Nick Didkovsky’s work embodies the themes of this CD. prolific com: wie performer, he has incorporsied advanced notions of poser, programmer computer-aided composition with the cevolutionarystrategy music of Christian Woltt nples of the way hee uses these ideas are his Lottery Proce (2), his deconstruction pieces for ‘onductor and ensemble (stich as his Mel! series or his version (of The Rite of Spring for vock band and string quartet) and his computer-com: posed music for his band Dr. Nesve Diddkovsky’s music, like WolIf's, lets every body in-on the game, with new intentions aand new performers medi ing the con positional process. Didkowsky's muse is ‘challenging and en Tightening to play. Ie miata, in is ow pevuliar way; a firm {if odd) relationship to those “litte black dos.” Metamusie/ Metaext (on this CD) illustrates how Didkorsky works, incorporating the ew semble i idewedriven, but fu 10 the compositional process, To several of the composers on this ©, sound, natu not clearly distinet. Gordon Monro, a athematician and computer-music sand mmisical form are ‘composer from Syaney, Australia, is one of the more exciting new composers ‘whose work Lhave heard, Having begun composing only recently after a career ‘a mathematician, Monro ereates nu is uncompromising and fre wach the from compesitional artifice in way that Joseph Gonrad’s prose is free Irom the busden of “writers” constructs wy from his cian to his work, Monto brings.a certain seven ctrty as math discovering music from sound and mathematics. Listening to fron his music makes me imagine what it would e Tike to “listen” directly toa mi- crophone wansducer. Unlike David Feldman, Charles Ames, Tom Johnson and Warren Burt, whose mathematical processes.are corporealized on the page by notes Monro’s pieces have no intermediary al ated the audi between the concept tory, but flow diteetly from concept to digital sample James Tenney's Septet for Six Klectrie Guitars and Bletrc Bass [3], ke many of Tenmey’s works, uses the harmonic se= ries as a perceptual found ol formal archetype, For Tenney, the har ‘monic series isa physical, psyeho-physi- al univer cal, cognitive and philosey sal of sound, much like the critical band (on which he has also constructed sn Important work, Gritieal Band). In the spirit of Henry Cowell's ilimicana aid ‘other pieces that equate simple integer durational ratios with harmonic ones, ‘Tenney’s works (such as the Chromatic Canons, Chorals for Onhestea ane Spectral CANON jor CONLON Nanearroa) have hecome their own precedents. Tenney is post: (or pre:) Romantic exaftsperson ofthe acoustical, cognitive and phenom- ‘onological, erafing the harmonic series as Ames etafis prototypical probability disuibutions. Both of these composers ‘work with musie rach, with the gr is the discoyerer—some new synthesis of poet, sonic carpenter not the The Septet emanates monic series. The open strings of the _guitars and electrie bass are ined to the First 11 harmonics of A and E, a perfeet Fifn apart. In the frst seetion, the low A centers in all of the guitars in harmonic rhythmic ratins, Gradually, this note ex luthier works inl scientist—ane here. fom the har- pands upward, becoming the first 11 ha nonics of itself in rhythmic ratios alogouts to i The sixth page of the scor shows the sisth guitar I, the fifth and wenth i the elever third in guitar IV, the second, fourth and eighth ip guitar IV and the seventh VI. The bass steadily ascencls (Fig. 1) ‘and twellth harmonic in guitar I, hin guitar IL, the ninth and through the series and the fundamental ( in the bass clef (which has been present until this point in the bass). Once the series is complete, the notes drop out quickly until only the twelfth harmonic nodla- rst harmonie) is implied as the Tow A remains in guitar L Ina metic tion solo (produced by switching meer and acces 1 0¢ tave (eighth harmonic) of the funda: mental on the E, perfect Fifth from the original A. Finally, 2 kind of reversal of the original process occurs: the F har. monic series is constructed from the top down, again in harmonic series-asedd rhythis, simplifying to the unison low E Vd For Tenney ), this becomes the th the detour of composi: tional intentions is via the cognitive oF the acoustical, In the Sele, the har ionic sevies sructutes his aesthetic de- sigh much as the sinusoid functions for Gordon Monro. As do the pieces on this CD by Warren Burt, David Feldman and Charles Ames, Tenney’s work uses the ive ways, Othe> tes secs ees tt, v3 ae ee ae °@) Oo Fig 1. James Tenney, sath page of the score for Septet. From Nese Music for PMucked Strings (Lebanon, NH: Prog Peak Music, 1986) Pandy. Coes Crone Digs tank G3Fig. 2. Tom Johnson, score or Rational Melodies, passage from the frst melody. © Tom Johnson 1982, Published by'Two Fighteen Press, New York p Corks Cs, Dogs takartists, including» il the banel Sonic Youth, have made extraordinary uses of the tuning possibilities of this instrument and, like Tenney, exploited these uses formally ‘The potential andl flexibility of this in strument, which has now been explored by several gener sill and open-minded performers, have ce tralized ils vole as an important vehicle Tor new compositional exploration, Tom Johnson's composi nphonist Glen Branca a ions of yo consistently and me vorlieally explored the use of completely explicable—in his word, “rational"—compositional pro- hemati- calor more typically, counting —algo- rithm to use, then lets the music express that as simply andl transparently 8 pose sible. More or less everything is nego: tiable but the grafted (or “translated”) mathe Articulate both as composer and a writer, Johnson pro: vides explanations that entich the d mensionaliy of the music for both pe former and listener, but are necessary to hear the music well, Even if the listener is unable to guess the spe- cific process used, he or she can sense the coherence of a process at work and follow it in some personal cognitive or formal translation (which, Johnson ae- knowledges, may be just as valid as the composer's) Johnson's notes on the fa tonal Mrlodss also describe, in part, the music of David Feldman and Christian Wolff on this GD, in that only tha which is specified (usually, the nates themselves and some form of shythm) is the 's the rest is up to the pei compose Former, Johnson's introduction the Rational Melodies state Ww his The Rational Melis may be pl onion. 1 not necessary to play the ‘whole set, and performers ate weleome to group selected melodies into suites however they ike. The pieces are in tended primatily for soloists, though they may alwo he performed by groups of fartruments, playing in unison or termating in simple antiphonal patterns, Since this musie is primarily com: cerned with logical miclaie propre Sone in a rather abutract seme, father than with specific sounds, 4 seemed preferable to rotate them i a rather Abstract way thot specifying dena: Jes, phrasings, and tempos. Performers wil Fine these own ways to present the sequences effectively, and ince stations will worm he more appropriate to the particular shan any generalized te i make heve (4). On this recording, three of Johnson's rational melodies are played by an in. usually experienced and sympathe performer, New York clarinetist and camposer Daniel Goode, whose own unique contiibution to minimalist anc process music is extraordinary. Goode has been performing these pieces as part of his “Interesting Melodies” project, which also includes pieces by Howard Skempton and Magdalena Beyer Ic is worth quoting in full Johnson's explanations for the three pieces in- ‘ludled heve (Ratiowal Meties J, Ham XVID (Figs 2-4): Johanna rhyun (dhe Thar pattern id a note meted Sx wwe shilt to a new starting ste cach Time around, This the medics prin: ‘ple af horhythm, though compuners. Tike Guise de Machaut wold gen erally wark with a rather long thythin (Gala) ana rather complicate! melody (olor), repeating each only a Few times. For them ivorhythine on tion seems to have been i sort of secret lr sacred element, to be vaguely sensed rather than to be directly perceived, as hore u The “dragon” patter, ay explained in visual terms in several of Martin Gardner's Seentic American co in T967, provides the basic sequence here, The "dragon pattern was de Heed by folding a pivee nf paper in hall oer and over, says the sine ilreeton, and analyzing the sequetices fof right and ete folds that resale ‘se begin with right fold (viding the paper in hall), thet foe gain Cora Ting thre exeases that divide the payer int four sections) andl continue ty this vn, the sequence gow cone old R tolls RRL cetokls RRL ROR LL Fourfolds) RRERRLERRRUELRLL The new flare always a simple ternation of vig and Tel but ie pa been studying paving, drawing. nd iy usual method of ranaating the folds into. musle Is simply to seed In aup and “Te” an"donn” an ave ecleuicbex-yp an dew scaleaccordings tn thiv cove Lint by foing the paper thre pat, ead oftn hale ap that die melody two downe preceding the ap and towns pried ty the fos Valveady Ia gg the mle of S81 2 Qe 2 as de mons, eis writin ‘outon the sale of alan tshiole tones, with cadences inserted Uuhenever the melody descents back to the keynote A. Teck xvi Another isorhythaie structre, as in No.l Heve the music moves aroun cycle of 16 pitches with a rhythm 13 fates Tong. By the time the pitches hhave gone around 18 tines, the ty gone around 16 times and we ate Tatek where we tated [31 Wher ods tend t be n evieal and ensimers tive, those of Charles Ames and David Feldman are mote purely mathens For the past 20 years, Ames has been ling thinker in the use of probabils tic and statistical methods in composi: tion and in computer-composed music in general. He has contributed a series ‘of important articles to Leonardo Masic Jonenat anc co Leonarto, bat his music has seldom been performed or heard ost completely unre corded. Because of his complex compo: ising aesthetic (which, as in the musie of and remains al Sitional approach and uncompron Johnson and Feldman, involves an an: ‘mediated translation of ide tion), Ames's music is often thought 10 be wo difficult wo perform, Yet Artifacts shows. [helieve, that Ames's quires a special performer (here vit tose guitarist Doug Hensley, who has made a career of performing challeng. ing contemporsuy music) with ili ness to address the seore on its own terms, Hensley’s attention to the int cate, introspective details of Ariifacts brings new insight into Ames's music This is a guitar piece above all, in which Ames explores the ability to sus. tain certain notes thro I fingering po- sition changes to create a degree of in- rospection reminiscent of the great classical guitar studies of Fernando Sor Unlike the Feldman or Burt guitar pieces. this piece i idioma for the i ne sighavure (2 4) ereates a comples rhythmie notation in which double d ts and a lot of lags But as a kind of ch, itm are the Stravinski kes a great and per Ames may be characterized perhaps asa “neo-algorithmic-baroque poser in his use of homogenous poly- phonic textures, terraced dynamics and ce to the working out of eal orms. It difficult to understanel Ames's compos striet adhere nay nat be any morell > aS z == ate qq CS Sea 4 tt SE sya = \ SSS St Pt Sy ee Bopper be =e eee SSS j —_ = - ta es f te So i St eS eee tee otros zh QS 8S iS eS =e Bi ress, New York, tional uses of statistical Feedback and heterogeneity than it is to chase down the fugal and canonie intricacies of Bach's The Art of Fugue—Ames’s id ane just newer David Feldman, like Gordon Monro, /eomposer. Unlike Monro, Feldman his severed bis own re la by radically deemphasizing the sonic re- alization of his works. His earlier works is a mathematic nship to sound almost completely were usually realized with pulse waves, which are simple and inexper ate) synthetic sounds, His music is ly not ive (but abonat what it is about andl is cl about what itis not, Feldman’s work ‘questions the relationships of music and asking what "sounds good” and is nd what we (could poss biy) mean by these common phrases ‘good sound, 66 etenty Cocks Crom Des Bark 3. Tom Johnson, score For Rational Melodies, passage from the second melody. © Tom Jo In % still plenty of good music Feldanan is interested in new ways of ere- ing rhythmic phenomena, He con- founds the natural rhythm of the performer/interpreter by his use inclinations, of space. Composing the piece and “dumping” the score directly wo musical ‘computer graphies lan- guage (Postscript), he possibility of conventional shytiamie in tentionaliy, In Feldiman's sofiate, time is equal to horizontal space, and his pro- grim knows nothing about standard eal noration—it just places the next rathematically determined position, The perfo rect his or her own rhyth What fits om the guitar mi be expressed on this wondrously uncar- net's task is to vedi nic reflexes. ing page, creating a tense, happy an won 1982, Published by Two Fightoen tagonism between the playet's licks ane the computer's picks. In New Musical ke- sources, Henty Gowell points out that ‘composers who innovate rhythms often pass unnoticed; and their music, par- ticularly it contains consonant harmo. alist style—"may he branded as imitative” [6]. Feldman produces raw scores, of in Laurie Spiegel’s terms, “pure informa tion.” The seore for ~ still plenty of ond music. .."is alist of notes without dlymamties, phrasings, any indication of how the notes should sound or even tempo (Fig. 6), My goal as a performer thas been to play it fast, at a tempo of ahout 5 seconds per line of music, T score requires the performer to inter pret the piece (as do all scores), butActifacts For Michael Zak, cre Fig. 5. Charles Ames, page from the score for Artifacts (Lebanon, New Hampshire: Frog Peak Music, 1984) © Charles Ames 1984. 68 Adamdy, Cok Coo: Dogs Bark= Sp te tet pe et lie HDS Hie He te = ie Ue iis} I 4 » I ui b ls i. i yy Bee I it i uD & 7 = tt —s o ¥ °. fa = te = fe __# fe = _= £ = =e = = = —S i =f wip A ws z 5 1 =. ai plenty of goad muse." © Davie Feldman 1994, Published by Material Press, Frankfurt: 69,Fig. 7. David Feldman, excerpt from the score for"... sil plemy of good music. ..show: Ing the 120-note repeating pattern that dominates the score (passage shoven here begins a sp of page 4). Phrase beamings added by Larry Polansky. © Dayid Feldman 1994. Pubs ished by Material Press, FrankfurtamMain, Ger Fig. 8. Warren But, fest page of seore for My Monedies 11 for 24-40ne gui $ sonmrwnacen 70 Panty, Con Coo, Dog Bark eaves much to the guitarist's sonic imagi pose his or her ova work from the int structions (notes in space). After the first few measures, the piece beco 120.not Of just a few transposable intervallic licks” (Fig. 7) [7]. For this recording. 1 have reinvented the repeating note pat ns with different fingerings and at= ticulations (such as bends, slides and staccato). \ simple guitaristie ap- proach would be to finger the patterns ‘orthogonally, transposing them up and down the neck, [ have spread the fin gerings over the neck and strings to exe ate imbral groupings that are out of phase with the intervallic patterns sul plenty of good music {frst glance, about the gaitar. But ul imately it becames recomposed an the in- mately than composition conventionally for the gu seen composed to begin with. The musician's freedom results from the composer's intentions ‘and non-intentions, By omitting some: thing, something (and someone) else is The performer must com repeating pattern consisting strument, pethaps more i included. Composers such as Didkovsh, Wolff and Feldman leave breathing space for the intentions of others, For several of the composers on this text is the vehicle for new inten= tions. They follow at tradition that in eludes Schwitters, Jackson MacLow, Cage and the rich history of sound po: ‘etry and text-sound composition. In her elegant and romantic Ewlogy, Mary moni uises computeraided composi tional ideas to accompany a more con- ventional and direct foreground. A. young researcher, teache poser of computer music, Simoni isa good example of how composers today are free to combine aesthetic workds—in of Eulogy, the algorithmic musie and a Iyvical environenent Daniel Goode, «protean minimalist, works with the disembodied and explic- illy artificial computer voice in much the same way that Burt, Feldman and Johnson work with notes.as distinct from ‘music, Chopping and decontextualizing the words of Mark Fubrman—just as he the ca istere world of manipulated quotes from Gatherine Macki exploits the inaceutacies of MIDI, pitel and the jon it an earlier wark—Goode tacking and computer spece incredible absurdities of culture in the United States (which is more odd— Fuhrman’s reference to beer, oF the synthesizer's misapprehension of the voice melody?) to eraft works that pre:‘ude too much analysis, too much pon- dering. Direct, “low-tech” and transpar- cently ¢ ed, Goorle’s works are good natured reminde inherited inten Laurie Speigel, one of the major pio neers of compnter-composed music and computer music in general. is repre- sented on this CD by a characteristically delicate and thoughtful piano work, The Cnquestinned Anser. One of the fers re cordings of her music available, itis also nwolvement with the 1 computeraided per rent with whieh she a document of her GROOVE syster formance has long been associated. Spei compromising music and contribution to the Field (sia software composition and philosophical com mentary) is only beginning to be docu mented in the way that i¢ should be Hopefully, more and more high quality recordings of her work are forthcoming, Warren lurt, an enormously prolific and inventive Australian composer, Has continually redefined his eves cess, Working with virtwally every perfor mance medium and conceivable techs nology, his w Df his stated fundame 8 tellects one al principles Burt not only accepts wha comes out of his computer, mechanical, ‘oF compositional processes, he accepts a “No taste. lt of what comes out. His recent set of piano etucles show that to Burt, eratt is rocess is product [8). To choose fone note over another or one sound over another once the basic set of proce: dures has heen initiated would be as method of worke ing as the use of an Amexstyle distribu alien to Burt's recent tion function would be to a neo-tonal ath of these situations, how nagine). Burt's umental music (like Feldman’s) is paraloxical: hove should a hiaman per all of his or her own inten nposer ( fe wondlerTul to pret these works? In the two guitar pieces My Monodies 1 ‘and H, Burt's (non}inte gs sou wit ference, These 1 igs rese scales—collections of notes more th With a relatively unweighted! set of relic tionships. As with Feldman's ~. . sill lent of good musi works, the performer's responsibilty i to cide what to do with all these nates. By ny of Uhe passages so that sare used on the neck and in plucking the strings, pl sith huge registra leaps (Burts progea “knows” very little about guitar finger ings) may be sustained (Fig. 8). Technol ogy engenders technique, Over the ceonise of a year of performing and re- coving these two pieces, my owt expres a sive intentionality naturally emer ‘and Linade no effort to inbibit it The works by the eleven composers on this CD representa diverse but small ice tion of some of this century's innovative musical intentions. Composers and musi cians will continue to question, explore and revolutionize the way that music is made, The old argu mans and computers, process versus p* ul the dit duct, sound and meanin npositional inte sand listener experience—will continue. From Machaur’s isorhthumie structures to Ames's probabilistic procedures, the his: ory of on tory of compesiion isthe posers redefining themselves in relation ship to their world and deciding how to sonify that world, Because composition questions and not answers o single technique, idea or new incention will keep mote than a Few af us busy for very long, For all our passionate arguments, this CD shows that, most importantly even the most radical neodntentioned must agree with Nenakis when hhe asks “Isn't the best way to dive into it ‘compose precisely by making msi [9] References and Notes mh Niet AK aren sl mht he repeating Inn fet he eu of bg ite Pte paral hs roe Maacip seed Jay ACopyright © 2003 EBSCO Publishing