Published in Les Cahiers de la Guitare n° 12 / 1984

1 984 

"TELLUR", an analysis

By Rafael Andia

A NEW WAY OF WRITING

FOR THE GUITAR?
WHO IS TRISTAN MURAIL?
FORM

TECHNIQUES USED IN
PERFORMANCE

CONCLUSION

OPINION IN THE PRESS

A NEW WAY OF WRITING FOR THE GUITAR?

Rare, very rare even, are the works intended for the guitar which one can say are really part
of the evolution of the musical writing of their time. It is necessary to go back to the ancient
times of John DOWLAND and of A. M. BARTOLOTTI to find examples in our literature of
participation in the investigations and concerns distinctive to their epoque whereas these
abound in the domain of other instruments. More recently, Manuel de FALLA, with his
 Homage, similarly showed the path to following generations.

In general,
trying the acomposers
to find of thebetween
compromise 20th century
their have written
musical for the
ideas andguitar with the of
the arsenal intention of
possible
techniques that the performer could put at their disposal. This ensemble of means was
evidently limited by the routine and playing habits of guitarists and a direct function of the
classical or modern repertoire they practised. In the best case, the composer pushed this
technique to the limits, but it was not generally a question of a change of nature or radical
renewal. In TELLUR, the development of the composition, the language and the entirely new
musical focus ends up such that it could qualify as a revolution in writing for the guitar.

Who is TRISTAN MURAIL?

Born in 1947 in Havre, he completed several university studies: (degrees in Sciences

Economiques, Diplômes d'Arabe Maghrébin de l'Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales,
Diplôme de l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques); he obtained the first prize in the composition class
of Olivier MESSIAEN at the Conservatoire de Paris (1971); then was artist in residence at
 

Académie de France in Rome (Villa Médicis 1971-1973); he is one of the founders and
directors of the compemporary music ensemble ITINERAIRE (created in 1973); he plays
different types of electronic keyboards (Ondes Martenot, electronic organs, synthesisers) as a
soloist and in L'Ensemble d'Instruments Electroniques de L'ITINERAIRE". His principal
works are:: Couleur de Mer (1969), for 15 instruments; Territoires de l'Oubli, for piano;
Tellur (1977) for guitar; 13 Couleurs du Soleil Couchant, for 5 instruments; Sables, for
orchestra; Gondwana for orchestra; Les Courants de l'Espace, for Ondes Martenot, synthesiser
s ynthesiser
and small orchestra; Mémoire-Erosion, for horn and ensemble; Ethers (1978) for flute and 5
instruments (Discs SAPPHO).

To try and delimit the musical and aesthetic conception of Tristan MURAIL we quote the
composer :

"The sudden widening of our horizon of sound opened by non-European music, the
appearance of electronics has drastically changed the givens presented to composers,
throwing into question the very foundations of our music.

Impossible today to take pleasure in the systems of writing inherited from the past, and resting
above all on a combination of note symbols
s ymbols making a screen in front of the sound phenomena.
On the other hand, from new propositions inspired by acoustic observations and methods of
synthesising sound, a systematic reconstruction of the world of sound seems possible.

Acoustic observation
interactions whichphenomena,
between sound has revealedpermits
the internal
us to composition of sound
capture sounds and depth,
in all their the nature
and of
in
this way to work sounds directly with their components, instead of being content with
combining the SYMBOLS of sounds (the notes and the signs of a score).
Electroacoustic practice, mixes, echoes, re-injections, filters, synthesis of new complex
sounds, proposed new forms to instrumental music. The influence of electronic techniques
will be felt on musical writing and also on the way of playing required of musicians (sounds
without attack, continuous transformation of sounds, from "pure" sound to sounds charged
with harmonics, sounds carrying controlled noise). But the sheet of paper offers the
advantage, contrary to the studio, of posing no practical limit to the imagination. One can by
writing strive to extend, deform, exceed electroacoustic techniques conside
considered
red then as models
serving the organisation of new forms."

ANALYSIS OF "TELLUR"

FORM

TELLUR rests on a play on the phenomenon of "entropy" and of reconstruction of sound:

disaggregation and incorporation of "atmospherics" which give birth to new layers of sounds.
Entropy is an important basic idea taken from thermodynamics and describes the
degradation of energy in a system. MURAIL himself gives us a definition of it in another of
his works, "Mémoire-Erosion": "Entropy tends to return the music to a state of noise as the
breath and the atmospherics accumulate on a track recopied several times."
TELLUR plays therefore on the fundamental ambiguity of instrumental sound (whatever that
might be): in effect, this is never acoustically "pure"; it is always accompanied by a certain
proportion of "atmospherics", of noise. It's a matter therefore for the composer to master this
parameter, to integrate the sound with a vocabulary and finally to make it an element in the

construction of the
order, the piece work, the
is crossed by aother element being
quasi-regular the always
pulse but rhythm.unstable
"Equally,
in in the ryhthmical
tempo which can
 

also be disaggregated by acceleration, by deceleration, infinitely. It is necessary to study

carefully all the phenomena of progression in the timbres, the intensities, the accelerations and
the slowings, which spread sometimes over quite long
l ong periods", the author advises. 1 
advises.1

"The score plays equally strongly on the effects of continuity and ambiguity: the
aggregations evolve slowly, the techniques of performance substitute themselves one to
another in an indiscernable manner." he clarifies.

The timbres, the dynamic and the tempo are then models such that: "these permit obtainment
of a smooth form, constituted of a series of "climbs"(letters ACEG) and "descents" (BDP)".

Understood by smooth form a conception uneventful of the time in which all musical
parameters (timbre, pulse, dynamic) are interwoven in a process of evolution (or involution)
continuous and predetermined, and no more subject to the caprice (inspiration) of the
composer or simply to chance! It lives its own parallel life throughout the score: It breaks
down by rarefaction or escape towards the infinitely small; it is reborn and grows in the
reverse manner.

As an example, the following graphic gives a visual account of this notion of smooth form
by the internal organisation of the sound/noise relationship throughout TELLUR: Fig.1

Figure 1

TELLUR therefore deals with the continuous phenomena which emerge logically from the
problem of maintenance of sound on the guitar, on the problem of the mastery of timbre and
especially on the sound/noise duality.

TECHNIQUES USED IN PERFORMANCE

The flamenco reasgueado, in its continuous form e,a,m,i permits simultaneous resolution of
the problems of maintenance of sound and the sound/noise balance. In effect, the impact of
the nails on the strings determines the segments of string between the impact and the bridge.
The tone of the vibration is
i s very high (a strong component of noise) which gives rasgueado its
rattle.
These notes generally superimpose themselves on the principal note whose pitch is given by
the position of the left hand on the fretboard. If one muffles these notes one obtains, alone, the
very rapid rattle of atmospherics whose pitch is uniquely determined by the distance between
is , the way TELLUR commences: 2 
the fingers of the right hand and the bridge. This is,
 

 
Figure 2

Here the rasgueado is realised on a single string, the 6th, betwee the rosette and the bridge,
about 9.5 cms from it. One can there superimpose a natural or even an harmonic sound
producing in this way two distinct voices on the same string.(the 6th)

Figure 3

The rasgueado on one string can be executed on any string on the condition that
neighbouring strings are damped by the left hand. By shifting the right hand towards the
bridge, one obtains at the same time a lighter roll of percussions on the bridge (page2, 6th
system). Later, the rasgueado is extended to the 6 strings, creating a breathtaking deluge of
sounds of uncertain pitch and difficult to perceive.

Figure 4

The rasgueado
symmetrical strumming
from the point"across
of viewand
ofback" as and
timbre executed bybe
cannot jazz guitarists
rendered bywith
the aindex
plectrum is
finger
because of the nail/flesh dissymetry. One will obtain it if one unites the nails of the index
finger and the thumb at their tip to form an obtuse angle. To this sort of very metallic tremolo
of three sounds it adds a percussion effect of the left hand which violently slaps the strings on
the fretboard accelerating it, during which the right hand continues its rasgueado strumming.

Figure 5
 

 
One introduces in this way a "layer of sounds" completely independent of the first,
particularly on the rhythmic plan. In the same spirit, one finds an effect known in the folk
music of Latin America: the muffled percussion, realised by the shock of the palm on the
strings superimposed on rasgueados.
rasgueados.

Figure 6

These same effects of superimposition on rasgueados are equally applicable in TELLUR to

the trills. It is the right hand which comes to the aid of the left which already executes two
simltaneous trills.

Figure 7

Here, it is the index finger of the right hand which introduces the third trill by hitting the fret
board at the fourth fret. Or alternatively, the index finger of the right hand presses on a note
(the B of the 2nd string) and it is the thumb which realises a tremolo (E,F) above the fret
board.

Figure 8

The "scordatura" employed permits some harmonic trills in unusual tones (the F is on the 6th
string, case IV). As a result one can there superimpose self-accelerating layers of chords of
four sounds.
 

 
Figure 9

The combination of rasgueado and double trills allows harmonic aggregations of eight
sounds to be obtained.

Figure 10

A simple means of progressing from sound to noise is to relax the pressure of the fingers on
the strings. This is "play above the frets" which "dematerialises" the sound. In reality this
noise is composed of harmonics of very high pitch (2nd string, case XVII).
To partially "re-materialise" this noise, it suffices to slide, little by little along the string
towards a harmonic of lower pitch (case XVI - D sharp).

Figure 11

Finally, on isolated notes, one finds in TELLUR subtle differences in some of the attacks;
for example some slurs of the left hand effectuated in reverse, that is to say by pushing the
string towards the outside of the hand (instead of pulling) which gives a softer timbre than the
ordinary slur (page 6, letter E): also the play of the thumb "rest-stroke" can use the back of the
thumb nail, an effect which approaches the classical "pizz. à la Bartok" (page 6). etc.

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion to this brief analysis, one can note that the

t he problem of maintenance of sound
and investigation of timbres is not new in the history of the guitar. In the 17th century,
ornaments and "batteries" (a French name for a type of rasgueado) are some of the original
solutions for the baroque guitar. The guitarists of the 19th century, with their imitations of
instruments and the process of tremolo also bear witness to the preoccupation. With TURINA
 

and other composers of the 20th century, the rasgueados is employed especially for these
connotations. But what one can consider as new that TELLUR brings to the guitar is the
assimilation of these techniques in the construction of a rigorous form without precedent in
our literature.

1 To effectively render these effects to the ear, the durations have been calculated to the
average curves of acceleration, in general of logarithmic type ( the instinctive accelerations of
musicians are always of this type).
2 The tuning of the guitar is, from bass to treble: F, A, E flat, G, B, E; and later it becomes: C
sharp, A, E flat, G, B, E.

SEEN IN THE PRESS:

Tristan Murail's Tellur   (1978) contains some of the most elaborate and extended uses of
rasgueado techniques of any contemporary piece (see Ex. 8.9). The composer has written that
the instrument should sound more like a flamenco guitar than a classical one. Another
substantial addition to the modern repertoire, which the advanced player should become
familiar with, is Michael Tippett's The Blue Guitar   (1984), an impressionistic work full of
subtle images and an echo-like resonance, for this is music about a poem about a painting.

Reading the poem, The Man with the Blue Guitar  by

 by Wallace Stevens.
 Michael Stimpson, The Guitar, a guide for students and teachers , 1988,Oxford University
Press

Il brano chitarristico più straordinariamente efficace della nuova musica francese è senza
dubbio Tellur   (1977) di Tristan Murail (1947). Costruito sull'alternanza conflittuale tra
opposte tendenze timbricodinamiche,
t imbricodinamiche, Tellur  si
 si modella sul progetto di un suono "raclé", duro
e scavato nel "forte", che deriva dal gioco dei chitarristi di "flamenco" più che da quello
levigato dei chitarristi "classici"; la forma della composizione è quella di un continuo
articolato, nel quale il compositore introduce, in corrispondenza ai cambi di tensione dinamica
(contrassegnati dalle lettere dell'alfabeto), sempre nuovi modelli di suono, derivanti da
tecniche originali, con effetti timbrici altrettanto originali; i passaggi modulari non danno
tuttavia luogo ad una strutturazione episodica, ma a mutazioni d'ambiente sonoro e a cambi di
"direzione", che il compositore suggerisce con le metafore della "salita" e della "discesa".
Tellur   ha
ha indubbiamente le carte in regola per rappresentare con forza emblematica la nuova
musica francese (e segnatamente il gruppo Itinéraire, di cui Murail è stato cofondatore) in
campo chitarristico.

Angelo Gilardino, Manuale di Storia della Chitarra (ad uso dei conservatori e delle scuole di
musica), 1988, Berben