Viewpoints on Orchestration TALKS ABOUT TEXTURE In his siam or Encumbrance (FMQ_ 192) “Tomi Makela investigated Finish com- ticle The Orchestra ~ Enthu- posers atitudes tothe orchestra and or- chestration withthe aid ofa survey car ried out by the Finnish Music Quarterly together with Musik magazine. ‘The older generation of composers adopted a guarded standpoint with re- spect to electronics as an instrument of the fatuteTikely even in part, to take the place of the orchestra, In this issue [Makels looks at the significance which lectronics has forthe (wo Finish com- posers Kaija Saariaho and Magnus Lindberg, both of whom were born in the 1950's. "Tete eter reo cons SS up ae eae ie nae Ste Reeth pee peace Traces ee Peaea cenmnentns ig cas ean Sienna hea mei beter ne siete ace rere Seatac a se se ek actin Ta ta See Spee ce he Soo odes ioe san oe ca ie aera Sonictaaiets et chen ian dn seme a PROBING THE NATURE (OF MUSICAL SOUND From 1979 onwards, Magnus Lindberg thas built up his own working envionment and atte of tools for computer compos ‘ion at IRCAM in Pais. Simiarly for Sao riaho ten years hick, IRCAM's inch lenged supremacy of resources opened up a whole new compositional world which this composer with her special interest in the very ature of musical sound itself — had been seeking. A synthestheticsensitiv- ity give way to a serous creative endea- ‘our in the area of new sounds and sound analysis ‘One might be be forgiven for rushing to the conchaion that electronics would fer its best potential for expansion of timbaland exeurl expression in the field ‘of chamber music ~ 50 jst what role docs it playin the area af orchestral music? Can it realy be so thatthe mased resources of the modern orchestra, with the diverse in- ‘sramental technology developed over 200, {years of ts history, aot enough in ie? Saariaho admits a once that it very much depends on the composer: "With fun> ded players going ati fll ti, the re- sponsibility mus fll on me to make some- ting of i and tak care of how I channel my powers of expression into the orches tral medium. In theory then, almost any- thing and everything should’ be possible. And besides, the combined human inter- pretational energy unleashed by orchestra fand condactor tether is something ‘which electronics ‘can never” replace "When you work inthe studio, che total esponsiiliy for the final product es with you, and you have ro manage without the valuable contribution made by the players.” ‘Staraho takes the view chat the we of tape as a sole medium (nowadays for ape’ read “computer storage medium") need to be propery justified before it be comes acceptable: there is no pont in do- ing anything with electronics which musibeter Rhythmic and gimbal complexities which would otherwise unplayable are in themselves justification for sing even the mos rigidly predefin tape" part in a work. Live electronics the manipulation of che musicians soun in realtime ~ indeed all flexible uses of lectonic techniques ate, in Saariaho em often more interesting than theta tional ‘sf and starchy" employent of ape techniques. DELVING INTO THE MICROWORLD OF TIMBRE Lindberg reveals that he has learnt mo about orchestration thro jh analysing tim bral spect in the studio envionment this being the element which allows th feat to diferenite one instrament from nother, Tadional orchestraional stud ies and al the academic exercises revoy ing around them, didnot make any ig cant contrihition to Lindberg compo ional skills 8 far ashe himself can rec Paavo Heininen, the composition teach who opened up Sariah's channels of mu ways did not teach orchestration as sch, bat iste ‘ced to norte the naira, ents which Seataho already had, one of the most important being a consciousness and appreciation of sound, Neither con poser would go 30 far ato deny the in portance of knowing the basis of inst ments and orchestration, not to metic many other practical details, cons they are of the importance of orchestra he compositional act so mic thac iis vitally imponsble ro separate it off asa subject of sty i its own right it comes as no surprise that Sai ald not even contemplate sketching an ontline for a work in which only a sand timbres. From her point of view ¢ only type of sketch which is compat with working in the studio is one in which which form the basi fom which to la fut the fire draft of the work in score form and help to establish the musical po rameters from which to work, and there Tavonships between them. Lindberg, on he other hand, admits to being very Hex ible with regard to sketching and making ‘outline scores, adopting a varied approach fand sometimes even writing a eadiional i In site of thi interes in electronics, tionship with traditional instrament. Lindberg who isan excellent pianist, co fesses to composi frequently atthe pia no, Stariaho for whom the fie has had a tance for her of special significance in her work for al Wing te ting lata ih mehr fn "No een the eee, nted by the ides of replacing less ual ated instrument, can be replaced in that war’. Each and every instrument has its ‘own characteristic atack or onset, a8 wel as its own way of producing continsons sound and areas of transition between pre “dean” sounc and noise, Saaiaho ix "eptial ofthe dea that computer ors thesised sound wil ever come t0_com pletely encompas che Fall gamut of tim bral the onset ofthe send ort “performabil iy" Bu nits supplementary role it has a ready undeniably established a place fori policton of technology in a ‘creative and suffidentysophisical attic fashion has at lat made the technocentic experimentation which characterised the fly years of electronic musica thing of hepa. Snaraho returasnevertheles over and again to compute: sound analysis, which fas turned outro be fr he the most nat ral way to make contact with musical rd. At the time of writing, he is work ing on Ames ~ kind of chamber concer: SeABOUT TETURE “4 In Amers, a with ll her works during the lase en years os, she seeking 4 cohe sive and comprehensive solution, and in this pce takes the analyse of cello youd played by Ansi Kartnen as her pont of departure, The compositional material and its organisational principles are derived from the spectrum of the cell sound: the concertos tla instrument thus provides the nucleus ofthe material, From the same body of material she is ‘abo veriting a work, Pris for cello and live electronics. ‘She hopes tobe able to inject more flies into the electronics in the absence of the live instrumental group. Ie goes without saying that his wil bea completly differ ent work. Saaraho admits to enjoying the idea of trying to achieve a rel with lee tronics which will ear comparison with that obvained with eleven players. In working on the commision for Pes, she is athe same time seadying the feasibly of ‘rafting a work for on the one hand solo and ensemble, and ~ on the other — computer sounds, out ofthe same germ nal ideas ‘THE COMPOSER AS ARCHITECT ln Lindber’s view the fascination ofthe ‘orchestra as an instrument owes ie, par adoxcall, precisely tothe limitations of the medi “iis lke if you are an archi tect. You design the building and then you have your engineers tell you what the pos sibilities fr easing it are" Even the sear tity of rehearsal time acts as stil, in that i forces the composer towards a clr ity of writing. "When you are writing chamber music you can afford to be an idealist and write just as complex a texture as you like” Too much tine spent in wring for the orchestra can, from Lindber’s point of view, be disadvantageous, since it leads to 8 overpragiatic approach to compos ‘on. Jonas Kokkonen always sid tha is much easier to wite for an orchestra than for chamber ensembles” Writing for string quartet provides the greatest chal lenge of ll, because i becomes imposible torhide behind colourful imbral surface. "T think that if a composer works lot in the orchestral domain, itis healthy now and again to write trio, oF a piece for two of foue instruments, because in these kind of works che auical materi plays a seater role in controlling the flow of Nevertheless, Lindberg is curreniy working once again on a new orchestral work in which he ims to eturn to a purer fimbral world, taking a ste back from the timbal richness of works such as Joy ‘which is alos "Eollywoodian” in extent ~ and returning isead to a pereusive ‘imbral texture modified with electronic. TEXTURE AS A FORMATIVE ELEMENT According to Saariho, iis plating dyna ism and direction or pll towards certain goals which makes sound interesting and provides the bass fr sytacie progression, This applies equal to less dramatic sical vents Lindberg takes thie sractrally ela fe idea even farther, 0 the point of form lacing hypothesis of “texture sa replace rent for tonal mosation in twentieth cen ‘uy musi. Sarah, too, kes out from her timbrally oremed stating. point to wards the eration of ever more expresve musical language and "textural syne’ "The problem with which Saaraho is constantly bating fone of finding the in bral contin’ casi thd dimemson, which might serve :0 describe sonic depth, The spatial aspect his een consis part lof hee work frm Jn Secret 2985, har Pischord and four chanel ape) onwards, Tut the question of what the “presence” of Sound means in precise terms, and what Promise it holds, something which has not oe finally solve In and Secret 2, Saat aho was incrsted in enlarging the musical ‘esate to concer also the spatial dimen Sion, for instance by using spatial el aa riaho now shuns eects ike che sail el if only because ofthe face that concert halls where ches ideas can be succes crsed off donor yet offen exis outside places ke IRCAM. In consequence, harpsichord perfoum Jain Secret 2 most often today us ing a stereo DAT tape, thas neglecting he spatial aspect ofthis piece Texture san important structural factor in the bulding of form, both tthe imines ae syntactical level and also that of large- scale formal building blocks. Seariaho and Lindberg shar the view that connetions do xine between texte and eradiional fue ‘ional concepts familiar from the realm of tonal music, In Sariaho's music one does ‘come actos lyerings and parallelism the textural level comparable (0 late uses of polyonality~ some kind of bi- oF pol taraisn Layering has cera tached tot the divi violins in desta, for example, form an unbroken Sarah rwenty musicians is the upper lin ‘efor the achievement of any slo icen ‘ios, In dct one can ind three ext ral harmonies which perform formal Sractural roe. In theory, the texture di vided up berween the strings, the keyboard tnd perinsionsnsraments andthe wind withthe bras occasionally supporting the percussion. For Saaraho, texture is one ofthe pr mary means of making frm apparent. Lind her too, says that he sar out ist and foremost om a harmonic ase, bt sill be Teves in the textare’s modulatory capabi ities He regards Schoenberg’ mutica pi tomisng the opposite of his orchestration idea, and ses the einbral-textral world of Debussy as mich closer to his own, "Har tmoay, timbre end erebesation canaot be separated. You modale your timbral qual ies with che harmony and you orchestate ‘out of harrony” Lindberg sees orchestral misc and electronic music as being closer in origin compared with orchestral music and chamber musi. "The tansion fom lesttonic means to orchestral misc is an ‘ier one than the transition fom chamber misc to orchestral thought 4s