Elhott Orato HUASREM ON YB O:@ Edited by Nicholas Hopkins and John F. Link CARL FISCHERSome Words about MY HARMONY BOOK BY ELLIOTT CARTER 1 collection of chords, meant for my own use, began to ake shape around 1960 after I had employed two allinterval 4-note chords, which T came upon by chance at that time and which formed a basis for the Double Concerto and String Quartet No. 2. While planning the Piano Concerto (1965), I tried out more or less at random various combinations and spacings ofall the S-note chords, and this led me to uy and deal with them in an orderly way. The results are the charts on pp. 58-67 of Volume II of the manuscript [pp. 329-50 of this edition]. I remembered Alois Haba’s Neue Harmonielchre, which rather unsystematically listed all sorts of chords, and tried to find a more helpful plan. I started, therefore, bit by bit. ay needed for my compositions (often not as orderly as T would later have wished) to elabo- rate this plan in desultory moments, memorizing the numberings of the chords as they were to be used. Around 1967, I had got around to the Snote chords and their 7-note comple ments, listing their 2-note, S-note and 4-note components, which [then used for my Concerto for Orchestra (1969). ‘Then, ina similar way, explored the Gnote chords, used here and there in my Swing, Quartet No, 3 (1971). Afier that, this book furnished harmonic ideas, which in works of different instrumentations expanded to the use of alhinterval, vertical symmetrical chords, ‘extracted from the list of BauerMengelberg and Ferentz printed in Perspectives of New Music, asin Night Fantasies (1980). Then, John Link produced by computer a list of alhinterval 12- note chords that contained as adjacent intervals G-note chord no. 35, composed of all the 3. note chords. These chords proved to be very useful in large-scale works. From about 1990, | have reduced my vocabutlary of chords more and more to the 6-note chord no. 35 and the 4 note chords nos. 18 and 23, which encompassall the intervals. Alb June 27, 2001 * Suefan RauerMengelbeng and Mebin Fereatz, “On Heveninterl Twelve-Tone Rew” Pinpertie of New Mic 3, 0 2 (1965): 98-108, 5206Editor’s Preface BY NICHOLAS HOPKINS When signing on as Managing Editor of Carl Fischer, one of my first responsibil ties—much to my delight (and trepidation) —was the preparation of Elliott Carter's Her- mony Book for publication. The publisher handed me a huge pile of oversized music pa- per, virtually every page of which was covered with musical notes, graphic symbols and what appeared to be scribbling of various kinds, with the simple directive to *...make sense of this.” But, as I came to realize, the sense, logic and order were already there. My task in the following two and one-half years of work on this book was merely to bring them. to the surface. ‘The autograph manuscript of Carter's Harmony Bookis written on 107 unbound sheets, of ledgersize velum music paper, each of which comprises eighteen staves, This edition was prepared from a photocopy of this manuscript. The original copy of this autograph is now permanently housed in the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, the Swiss institute that provides storage facilities for all of Carter’s music-related materials. A blueprint copy, containing vari- ous autograph revisions and corrections, remains in Carter's possession, and this copy was also consulted for the present edition. ‘The Harmony Book is essentially a massive encyclopedia devoted (0 exploring har- monic relationships. In this sense, it is not wruly a “harmony” book, at least in the way other similarly named books are. Carter has acknowledged that the Harmony Bookwas planned and developed to serve only as a tool for his compositional work, rather than as a resource for public usage.' Given the make-up and organization of the manuscript, it is evident that he never wished or intended that the results of his findings would be used in a pedagogical manner (which is not tosay that they cannot be). For this reason, Carter provided no written notes or instructions of any kind concerning the use of this book: it was self-referential, and he clearly knew how to put it to proper use. Yet these factors contributed to certain problems in the editorial process, one prob- Jem in particular being the overall layout and organization of the manuscript. Carter divided. the Harmony Book into two volumes. the first of which he titled “Synthesis”, and the second “Analysis”. Each of these volumes was clearly distinguished by a title page that also listed the contents. Yet with these two divisions alone, the book was unwieldy to the uninitiated reader: the location of its materials and the logic of its development were both obscured. For this reason, lintroduced another level of organization by subdividing each volume intoa number of chapters, eight for Volume I and five for Volume II.” Chapters 1 and 2 are entitled *Cata- logue”—the title that Carter gave to Chapter I—because they comprise enumerations of specific items with systematic arrangements. The first presents all the 220 intervals and chords. * See “The Combinatorial Art of Ellie Carter's Harmony Book” pp. 7-22, and “Eilat Caner Taiks about His Horney Book” pp. 27-3. + Canter approved of these chapter divisions (Letter to the exitor)2+ Etre available from two to ten notes, which are used as raw materials in all succeeding chapters of the book. Chapter 2 contains the allintervall2-note chords, which have become staple features in virtually all of Carter's works since the early 1970s, Merely one adjustment was made in what would become the remaining six chapters of Volume I (Synthesis I-VI): the entties for 14+2=3, 1+3=4, 144=5 and 145=6 were moved from the conduding position of Volume I to the opening (Chapter 3). The contents of Volume II (Analysis I-V) are arranged as they are in the manuscript. The absence of guidelines and instructions posed an additional problem, which ‘was remedied by compiling a number of written essays to explain the mechanisms of the book. John Link produced an introduction that charts the development of the Harmony Book and cites some examples of how Carter has applied this research to his compositions, also illustrating how the Harnony Book lras evolved in conjunction with Carter's music. Dr, Link additionally conducted an interview with the composer, which contains invaluable, firsthand information on Carter's use of these materials. I assembled an essay for each of the thirteen chapters to acquaint the reader with the procedures of the chapter. These essays are intentionally brief, serving as points of departure from which much additional information can be derived. Also included were a glossary of terms for specific theoretical topics in the book and three appendices, one to supplement the information in Chapter 1, the other (© supplement the information in Chapter 2, The third appendix repro- duces Carter’s diagram of the number of subsets for each chord from three to twelve notes, what was originally the opening page of the Harmony Book Lastly, | added an expla- nation of the siga forms that Carter developed to identify the intenals and chords in the catalogue, and the “Consensus of Forte and Carter’, a listing that compares the systems of Forte and Carter. An additional editorial task concerned sections of the book that were left incomplete. Given that Carter produced this book for his own reference, with no intent of publication, it would be expected that he felt no special urgency to “fillin the notes” in all instances through- out the book. The absences in the music become especially apparent with invertible chords, in which two levels of information were required: one for prime forms, the other for in- verted forms. Often, the latter was not completed, and itis probable that Carter could readily calculate the one on the basis of the other, for which reason its physical commitment to Paper was not always necessary. However, omissions of any kind should not constitute a published edition. For this reason, I completed these parts by following the course that Carter had already provided, and J take responsibility for any mistakes that may be found in such ‘The final stage of editorial work on this manuscript—in many ways the most daunt- ing one—involved the notation of chords, or of pitch in general. Carter assembled the con- tents of this book overa period of more than twenty years, and, inevitably, certain discrepan- cies arose in the way in which chords were notated. A means of standardization was thus necessary in the interests of consistency, without resulting in changes to the content of the book. The following conventions were part of this standardization: saea ions Pfr ®3 the notation of all chords in prime form, the written form that represents a specific arrangement of its components based on the most compact ordering, or the “normal order”? The criteria for determining prime form are those estab- lished by Allen Forte in The Structure of Atonal Music, the notation of chords as simultaneous (i.e., stacked) or successive, In this edition, all chords of three and four notes are notated as simultaneities; all 5- note chords are notated as simultaneities whenever possible, and; all chords of six or more notes are always notated successively. The one important ex- ception to this is Chapter 1, in which all chords are notated successively for ease of legibility; the notation of enharmonics according to traditional practice, The choice of ‘enharmonics for simultaneous chords is generally that which allows the most legible rendition, oftentimes founded on a mixture of sharps and flats. The notation for successive chords follows the traditional approach by using sharps for ascending forms and flats for descending. This greatly reduces the need for natural signs, and allows for more legible renditions. One general exception to this axiom is made in the interest of avoiding augmented and diminished inter- vals. Thus: == a However, augmented and diminished intervals are permissible if they predude the need fora natural sign. Thus: SSS 0 SS Carter did not hesitate to use double sharps and double flats if they allowed for a stacked notation of a chord that could otherwise not be. These have been introduced in certain instances for 3-note and 4-note chords, which are almost invariably stacked. Thus: Natural signs are not used at any point in this edition, They occur in the manu- script, albeit infrequently, generally to cancel a sharp or flat that appears earlier in the “measure”, Consequently, all accidentals in the Harmony Book affect only the notes they immediately precede, despite the fact that Carter never adopted this convention in his own music; » See Allen Forte, The Structure of Aotal Muse, 3-8. 0530645 Bier Pfice 6 ‘This Carter notated all examplesin the Harmony Book in treble clef, although a clef is never given in the manuscript. This convention has been retained in this edition, with the exception of the alFinterval 12-note chords in Chapter 2, whose vertical notation required both a treble and a bass clef: With the exception of Chapter 2, all pitches are notated within a twooctave range, from C4 to BS: limited range positioned the majority of the pitches within the staff. Any other editorial modifications are mentioned in the essays that introduce the chapters,Sigla ‘The term ition refers to the symbols that Carter developed to identify the 220 intervals and chords throughout all of the Harmony Book. Carter introduces each of these symbols in the diagram on the title page of the Harmony Book (see Appendix 3). How- ever, at no point in the book does he provide an explanation of their significance, although soon be inferred from analyzing this diagram or virtwally any page of the manu- iditionally, itis evident that Carter became quite comfortable with the designations of these symbols, 10 the extent of employing them in sketches for his music." ‘The sigla that indicate chords of three to six notes are designed as polygons, in the center of which is placed their numerical position in the catalogue. The number of sides of the polygon corresponds to the number of notes in the chord: thus, a triangle represents 3- note chord, a squire a 4note chord, a pentagon a note chord, and a hexagon a G-note chord. For chords of seven or more notes, the sigla are circles with superscripted numbers that signify the number of notes in the chord, again with their numerical position in the center of the circle. Carter most likely adopted this approach because polygons composed of more than six sides might be difficult to distinguish and draw in the manuscript.‘ In two instances, Carter devised letters, rather than shapes, as sigla: an uppercase “N’ to indicate a single note (which is only used in the table of contents to each volume and section head- ings), and a lowerease “i” to ind i - interval ° : A + Snotechord = Of = Snote chore OL ~ tnote chord yo © Oo note chord Q = Saoiectord — Oe sonore ont O = 6 note chord In this edition, sigla are distinguished on three levels as primary, secondary tary, although these levels are treated somewhat differently in the synthesis and analy processes. In synthesis, the primary sigla indicate the note, interval or chord that is added to another note, interval or chord, represented by the secondary sigla, to produce additive chords, represented by the tertiary sigla. Thus: * Sce,for example aceproducion of Carer 'shandwritien charor Sting Quartet No Si Das Schill, The Muse Eli Carter 180-81 Imcrewing, Carter notrat the batons of the vero page hat "Numberingot Chords asconting wa penonal onder” that being the ordce in the Harmony Book Alo sce Carter's prefice “Some Werds sbout My Hlarnony Bish”. ix of this tition, m which he acknowledges bs effort a commiting these nbs to menor. two inancesin the manuscript Carer wed ste iste of circles inghe sua fr chords utseven or more notes Forexample 804 (Chapter 18), he notated an x" inthe ection heading (ie +) arash ant in the diagram reprechced im Apperstin ("Total Number of Chords Contained ins Each Total Agr), eae! A Chen EHEC tk he tedion, te cicle hasbeen used in allinsances inc it she ym that gerry far the marty the time6+ Sigte ve AS A A A ESO O-a-@ ® 8 “ L In this example, note chord no. 1 iscombined with various tanspositions of the secondary Snote chords nos. 1, 2, 3,and 4 to produce the tertiary 6-note chords nos. 1. 2, 21, 3and 23. In analysis, the primary sigla indicate the chord that is broken down into notes, intervals or chords, represented by the secondary sigla. Tertiary sigla are not used in analysis. Thus: mer ATA AA 2 t ‘sont In this example, 4-note chord no, 2 is broken down into the secondary $note chords no. 7 (four times) and the interval classes il, i5 and i6, All sigla in the Harmony Book are reproduced in the “Consensus of Forte and Carter” (pp. 23-26), Chapter | (Catalogue of Intervalsand Chords, pp. 44-53), and Appendix 1 (List of Intervals, Chores and Sigla, pp. 352-57). 08306The Combinatorial Art OF ELLIOTT CARTER’S HARMONY BOOK BY JOHN F. LINK ‘The publication of Elliott Carter's Harmony Book makes widely available for the first time the composer's own handbook of harmonic materialsand relationships, compiled overa period of more than twenty years, and used in the composition of nearly all of his works from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s and beyond. For years, in articles and interviews, tantalizing, glimpses of the Harmony Book held out the possibility of a skeleton key to Carter's complex, harmonic language.' Enthusiasts imagined a collection of almost mystical documents—like Prospero'’s books—with the power to unravel Carter's harmonic magic. The reality is, of course, less sensational. In fact, the Harmony Book has served Carter primarily as.a time-saving, reference—an encyclopedia of possibilities designed to provide quick and clear answers to questions about harmonic relationships that arise during the process of composing. ‘The Harmony Book begins with a list of chords, enumerating all the collections of two to ten notes possible given the twelve chromatic pitch classes of the Western tradition, and. counting as equivalent those that are transpositions and/or inversions of one another. Music theorists call these collections “set classes,” but Carter prefers the more familiar term “chord.”* The chords at the beginning of the Harmony Book are the basic building blocks of Carter's harmonic language. They are arranged, for easier reference, according to their structural properties. The first five S-note chords, sixteen 4-note chords (except no. 7), and ten 5-note chords are non-invertible; the rest are not” All ofthe Snote chords except no. 2, and any of 4mote chords 1-7 may be combined with transpositions and/or inversions of themselves to exhaust the twelhe notes. Among the 6-note chords, nos. 1-20 have transpositions and/or " Overthe yearsa number of witershave made use of Cart'sautograph materials including the Harmen Book See, For example, Jonathan W. Bersard,"Elict Carter: Concert fr Orch (1055-61), inthe catalog ofthe exbition Sting Nav Sows Asie ‘Manascript from the Pl Sacer Foundation, a the Perpont Morgan Library, 18 May-30 August 1998 ed. Felix Meyer (Mainz Scho, 1998), 115-18 Jobin Lith, “The Compoxtion of Eliot Gate's Nigh Fanta” Somus 14 ne. 2 (Spring 194): 67-89, David Schl, Thr Music of Eliot Carter (New York: Da Capo Press, 1983), revised second edition (London: Faber; Ithaca, NY: {Cornet Unversity Fress, 1998); Dorte Schmidt, “Emannipaton des musikalschen Disks: Die Sklzzen 24 Hot Carters -ectem Steichquartett und seine theoretichen Arbeten in den spiten 50er Jahren" (Emancipation of muscal discourse: ‘The etchssforEllion Carers Sing Quai Na. 2nd his theoretical works in De late 1950s), in Jib des Statice Pastis {fir Musitfoscherg Prafische Kulbabes ed. Gintber Wegner (Setar |B. Metal, 195), 208-18: nd Anne Sheffer, “Ge {the Music Room "Eliott Carters View ofthe Capitol rom the Library of Congres ais A Miron Wich Du” (hn German), in Quilestudin ed. Relis Meyer (Winterthur: Amadeus Verlag, 1998), 235-88, * Carter has used the word “chor in diferent ways in diferent contexts. The notes ofthe “dlarnet chord” in his Carnet Concerta, fr example, arefixedin register whilethe “hreenote chords” in the Harmom Bookare cuenta se clas. (Sce Stephen Heinemann, “Melodie Practie in Eliot Carter's Clarinet Concerts” Mitalungen der Poul Sacer Sung 1 (Ape 2001): 19.) Although “chord” ually refer to a collection of notes sounding simultaneous; Carter uses {to mean Say temporal arrangement of such a collection. See Jonathaa Bernard, An Interview wih Et Cater” Pape of New Musi? ‘no. 2 (Summer 1900): 203 » A chor i nomnvertibieifome transposition of inversion the chord itself For amore detaled dscusson ofthisand many cotheraypectsof muicaset tory ce Allen Forte, The Suc of Amal Mae (New Haven Yale Universit Pres 1973); George Perle. Smal Composition and tonality (Berkeley: University of California Pres, 1952) John Rahn Bas tonal Thay (Neve York: 980); andjoseptN. Straus, An Intron » Post Tonal Thor (Englewood Cis}: Premice Hall, 1990)B+ TheCombnatnn At invensions of themselves as complements* and nos. 21-50 have different set classes as their complements. 6-note chords nos, 21-4 are non-invertible, and nos. 35-50 are not The remainder of the Harmony Book, divided into two volumes, is largely a compen- c information about the chords listed at the beginning. In Volume |, “Synthesis,” cach chord in turn serves asa kernel, to which progressively larger collections of notes are added. The result is a taxonomy of supersets of each chord, arranged from smallest to largest. It begins with a listing of the 3-note chords formed by adding a single note to an interval and continues with intervals plus intervals, intervals plus S:note chords and so on up to intervals plus 5 note chords. Carter builds 4-note to 7-note chords from the 3-note chords, 5-note and 6note chords from the 4-note chords, 6-note and 7-note chords from the 5-note chords, and note chords from the Gnote chords, In a section added later (Chapter 3 of this edition) Carter doubles back, adding three, four, five, and six notes to single notes to form 4 Gnote and 7-note chords. Volume IL of the Hannony Book, entitled “Analysis,” lists the subsets of all of the chords from three (o eight notes: the intervals in each Snote chord, intervals and 3-note chords in each 4-note chord, and so on. With its hundreds of pages of chord charts the Harmony Book seems at first to be nothing more than a statistical table of combinatorial possibilities, the product of an actuary rather than an artist, Each of the tvehe S-note chords, twenty-nine 4-note chords, etcetera, is systematically dissected—its supersets synthesized and subset analyzed—but there is noth- ing to suggest how this voluminous statistical stilhlife relates to the mercurial flow that so strongly characterizes almost every piece by Carter, But a closer look reveals deep connec- tions; the acurary and the artist tum. out 0 be two oppositely charged clements of a single musical imagination, and their collisions provide the energy that drives Carter began compiling the materials that later became the Harmony Booksometime in the late 1950s or early 1960s. By mid-November 1961 he was at work on his Piano Con- certo, and his sketches show he had already compiled and numbered a list of the ewelve S- note chords and was investigating their intervallic contemt. At that time he had no intention of making an exhaustive siudy of harmony. Ashe explained to Jonathan Bernard in 1990, the Harmony Book"...crept up on me bit by bitas [found I was writing out over and over on scraps of paper the same little problem-sketches.”* Carter began to widen the scope of his harmonic research when he returned to the US. from Berlin in 1965. He compiled a study of the combinatorial properties of the 4¢note chords, then worked out the analysis and synthesis of the Snote chordsand the analysis of their 7-note complements. A similar study of the Gnote chords completed the materials Carter assembled in carly 1974, under the rubric “Harmony Book.” A second edition, largely filling in the gaps left in the first, was added in late 1977, The nearly twenty-year span during which the Hannony Book took shape coincides with the great works of what might be called Carter’s “middle period.” These include the Piano Concerto, Concerto for Orchestra, and A Symphony of Three Orchestras, the String Quar- tet No, 3, Brass Quintet, and Duo for Violin and Piano; and the first of the large-scale vocal onda. a tranapeiton, the complement of ot 8-20 are imeniona and nos. L.2.4.5.6.and Tare nomdnvertbles thee complennents may be considered ether tanspostionsor inversions * Rernardl,“Interew.™ 401, Also ee the interiow inthe esiten, pe 27-15 08996TeComtanasiatArt99 works of the 1970s, A Mirror on Which to Dwell. Carter has described the harmony of many of these works in terms of chords of a given size, and the increasing size and complexity the chords he was investigating (and recording in the Harmony Book) corresponds roughly to the chronology of his compositions. He used Snote chords for the Piano Concerto {completed 1965), added 4mote and 5.note chords for the Concerto for Orchestra (com- pleted 1969), then used Snote and 4note chords for the String Quartet No. 3 (com pleted 1971), 2note tw Snote chords for the Duo for Violin and Piano (completed 1974), and 3-note and 6-note chords for A Symphony of Three Orchestras (completed 1976). Carter has said his investigation of S-note and 7-note chords was motivated, in part, by the desire to write orchestral music for the Concerto for Orchestra that did not rely on the octave doublings of traditional orchestral writing.* And the harmonic organization of the String Quartet No. 3, in which Duo II plays largely tetrachordal harmonies, while Duo I plays the eight notes left over, mirrors that of Chapter 13 of the Harmony Book, in which 4-note chords are analyzed in terms of their 8-note complements.’ The Harmony Book andl Carter's compositions thus developed in a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship: the pieces motivated harmonic research into the chords of various sizes, and the renults of that re- search fed back into the compositional process. This approach, with its opposition of systematic compilation and imaginative deploy- ment, isindicative of Carter's handling of harmony and musical craft in a non-tonal universe, In addition to being based on chords of particular sizes, most of the works composed during the period in which the Harmony Book was compiled share an aesthetic of dramatic oppos- tion—of instruments or instrumental groups enacting human conflicts and collaborations like the characters on a stage. In order for the drama to be intelligible, the instru characters must have audibly recognizable identities. Carter ensures that they do by di the total universe of musical materials assembled for the piece among them so that each has its own repertoire of harmonies and rhythmic, textural, and dynamic patterns. Harmor this world, is either genetic—part of the unique sound world that constitutes a character's, musical identity—or arises with apparent spontaneity as the product of group inter There are no normative progressions to guide the overall harmonic development. Stability is ephemeral or uneasy, and the musical argument constantly surges in new and unexpected directions. Although it would be possible to constitute each group’s repertoire uniquely using a subset of all posible combinations, Carter generally prefers a complete partition. This pract tice ensures maximum variety, but itis also motivated byan 2esthetic of combinatorial comple- tion, in which the realization of all combinations possible within a given field provides a degree of formal balance to a work. Certain pieces by Bach in which the voices in a triple counterpoint occur in all possible registral orderings, or the use of all twenty-four major and minor keys in the Well-Tempered Clavier or the Chopin Preludes are examples from earlier « Scethe interew inthis edition, ep. ci. » See Andiew Mead, "Pie Stricture in Eliot Cates String Quartet No.3" Pmpectnes of New Musi 22, vo, 1 (1988); 1-00.10+ TeCmbenatoral vt periods. Combinatorial completion is also a guiding principle in the music of several of Carter’s contemporaries, most notably Milton Babbitt, whose 1948 Composition for Four In- struments is a panticularly striking example.” Combinatorial completion occurs throughout Carter's music of the 1960s and 70s, The exposition of the Double Concerto is in part an exposition of the materials associated with each instrumental group; it is not formally complete until the last interval/speed pair (the major third at MM 35) enters in m. 36, prompting the climax that occurs nine measures later, which in turn articulates the end of the first large section of the piece. Similarly, in the Brass Quintet the calm of the concluding slow chorale is shattered by the duo of trumpet and trombone, the final com- binatorially possible duet not yet heard, which brings the piece to a raucous end. And the String Quartet No. 3 traverses a single cycle through all the possible combinations of the two duos! s, andl again the final pairing is the catalyst that ignites the coda. While the combinatorial logic of the Harnony Book broadly reflects Carter's interests and aesthetic outlook, its main purpose is practical, Both the “Synthesis” and “Analysis” sec- tions provide useful information to assist the composer in the realization of specific harmonic ideas, Five measures into the coda of Carter's Changes for solo guitar (m. 135), a graceful arc of single notes introduces a succession of harmonies all based on G-note chord no. 35 7,8], which continues unbroken to the end of the piece. (0.12 p Propenies u Tiple Counterpoint and Their Taghuence on Companions by JS: Back” m8): 23-49. sections of Babbits pee consanute al powibe roe, and four For the Done Concert see Eiltt Carter, “The Orchestra Composer sPoint of Vw." in The Orchetral Comps int of View ‘Bayon Teenith- Contry Musicby Th Who VraeT ed, Robert xephan Hives (Norman, OK: University of Ouahorna Pres, 1970), 99.61. Reprinved in The Writing of Biot Cate, ed. Ese Stone and Kurt tone (Bloomington and Landon: Indana, Cnet Pres, 1077, 282-900, and in Eliot Caster, Called Fay and Lert, 1997-1993, e, Jonathan Bernard (Rochester: Universite of Rechesor Pex, 1007), 285-50, Foe the Braue Quintet ace Elliot Cate, “rw Quine,” in Writing 899.25, Reprinted is Colle Ezy. 256-58. For the Sting Quartet No. 3ace Ellot Cater, Notesfor snd recording of Eliot Crier, Shing Quartet Ne ¥ (Coleniia M8278) prin in Wringy 32-2The Combinatna eV v—> eins Example no. 1, Coda to Changes for solo guitar, mm. 131-150 Copyright © 1982 by Hendon Music, Ine. 8 Roowey & Hawkes compary: Reprinted by permission12+ TheCombinatonat rt 7 AAAA A ba ae =F a, GB, Bun Ban Baw 5 * A AA AA ba Bs Qa 8, Bu Om = —= = " @ 4 6 44 ta = = = Geer re os — Qo Be Ban Bu te = = = i open notesindicate common tones. Example no. 2. Coda to Changes, mm. 135-150: Harmonic Analysis 05396The Conbinatril At 013 ‘The first three statements of this 6-note chord share the notes E*, G, and B, all sounding in the octave below middle C (the score sounds an octave lower than written), and in fact all the harmonies in the coda are linked by two or more common tones (shown as open notes in the example). This kind of harmonic motion, in which some notes of a chord remain fixed while others move, is a central strategy in Western music, tonal as well as non- tonal. As the new notes sound they provide a new context for the old ones, changing their color and function (sometimes dramatically) and giving them important dual references ‘The tensions between these often contradictory frames of reference generate momentum that can shape even the large-scale form ofa composition. The coda of Gkanges is an especially clear and affecting example of common-tone progression on a more modest scale. Here, Carter's decision to use only instances of note chord 35 imposed special constraints on his choice of harmonies. These constraints, moti- vated by the particular sound and feeling he wanted the coda to have, also raised technical questions. For the Changes coda, for example, Carter might have wondered how many differ- ent transpositions and/or inversions of Gnote chord 35 could be produced by adding three notes tothe chord Eb-GB, itself an instance of 3snote chord no. 1 [04,8]. The Harmony Beok has the answer. Looking up S-note chord no. 1 in the “Synthesis’ volume, Carter would have found that it can combine with six other Snote chords (three inverted and three transposed forms of 3-note chord no. 7 [0,1,6)) to produce 6-note chord no. 35. AA 8 © b a Example no. 3, Harmony Book entry, p. 124 (transposed down a whole step) In mm. 135-37 of Changes Canter used the note chords generated by the sixth, third, and first of these added $-note chords (labeled a. b, and c in the examples). transposed down a whole step from their transpositions in the Harmony Book. The “Analysis” volume of the Harmony Book, in turn, contains helpful information about the subset content of G-note chord 35. This chord has played a special role in Carter's music since the mic+1970s mainly because it isthe only 6-note chord that contains all pwelve note chordsas subsets. Like the twoallinterval note chords nos. 18 {0,1,4,6] and 23 [0.1.3.7], the alltrichord 6-note chord contains at least one instance of each chord type of a smaller size in an easily identifiable and compact package. The largely trichordal texture of the Changescoda explicitly evokes this property, as does the frequent repetition of a6-note chord. with different 3note chord pairings. There are ten combinatorial possibilities for dividing a Gnote chord into pairs of 3note chords and these are listed in Volume II of the Harmony Book, "The chords are labeled inthe example tsing Carter's catalog numbers enclosed in polygonsio indicate the sie of each chor twianglesfor Snote chord, wquaresfor Anote chon and nen. See the enty for “Sig, pp Sbaf hielo, save14 The Combinatorial Art 3+3 o AA|AA|AALAA|A AAA AA|AA|AA| AA 1) tl " ([*] = pairings used in Ganges coda, Example no. 4, Analysis of 3:note chord subsets of 6-note chord no. 35 For the Changes coda Caner used seven of the ten pairings that produce Gnote chord 35, sounding ten of the twelve possible Snote chords. Of course, there is still a vast leap from the abstract pitch classes of the Harmony Book to the finished music of Changes. In addition to carefully choosing the order of the note chords and 6-note chords, Carter had to consider the rhythm, register, texture, dynamics, and articulation of the passage, as well as the special technical demands of voicing the chords for the guitar. And, of course, there is the broader question of how the coda contributes to the overall musical effect of the piece as a whole. Nevertheless, the Harmony Book is a helpful tool, quickly answering important questionsabout harmonic structure that would be tedious to calculate, and freeing up time and imaginative energy for the more important and musi- cally rewarding issues of how those materials may best be woven into the fabric of a compost Carter has made two substantial additions to the Harmony Book since the “Synthesis” and “Analysis” volumes were completed. Around 1980 he added two types of allinterval 12- note chords—chords consisting of all twelve pitch classes arranged so that between consect- tive notes each of the eleven intervals from minor second to major seventh occurs exactly once. These chords are essentially 12-tone rows arrayed vertically in registral space rather than horizontally in time. Nicolas Slonimsky published several chords of this type in his Thesaurus of Scales and Meodic Patterns (1947), but Carter became interested in them after reading an article by Stefan Bauer-Mengelberg and Melvin Ferentz which describesan algo- © Nicolas Slonimhy, Thessuro clr and Mai Patoms (Neve York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 147), 242-43. 5206‘TheCombinatiat An 1S rithm by which all possible alLinterval 12one rows may be generated. Using a com- puter, BauerMengelberg and Ferentz found 1,928 allinterval rows and offered to send a printout of them to interested readers. Carter, who knew BauerMengelberg, obtained copy and began to write out the rows as chords, perhaps influenced by the article’s first example in which a sample row is written out as a series of ascending notes. but also following his ovn practice (in the Double Concerto and Piano Concerto, for example) of using large chords, spread out over the entire registral space of a composition, to serve as referential sonoritics. Carter used an allinterval 12-note chord for that purpose for the first time in the String Quartet No. 3 (1971), and since Night Fantasies (composed 1978 1980) these chords have played a central role in the harmonic organization of most of his compositions. Carter eventually found two types of allinterval 12-note chords that especially inter ‘ested him, In the first, which he first used in Night Fantasies, inversionally related intervals fan ‘out on opposite sides of a central tritone; in the second, used in Penthode and many later ‘works, inversionally related intervals occupy parallel positions in each half of the chord, and again the tritone is in the middle."* Carter began using a third family of alhinterval chords in 1992, facilitated by a listing the author gave him of those that contain Gnote chord 35.as a contiguous subset, These are the “Link” chords mentioned by David Schiff in connection ‘with Symphonia and several other works of the 1990s." The “Link” chords are reproduced in Appendix 2 of this volume. In most of Carter's music of the 1980s and 90s, all-interval twelvenote chords guide both the registral space and harmony of a composition. Because they contain all twelve pitch classes, any harmonic combination is possible within their span, while their unique spatial arrangement, covering five and one-half octaves, gives each one a unique sound. ‘Their succession, in which some notes remain in fixed registers and others jump by one or more octaves, can guide harmonic motion on a larger scale. Measures 110-123 of Night Fantasies are typical of Carter’s use of these chords. Stefan BanerMengelberg and Meln Ferentz,"On Eleven totervalTehe-Tone Rows” Peper f New Mus 3, no. 2 (1963): 93-103, For moreon the struc of allintenval 12. note chordssee Bauer Mengelberg and Ferent, op. it, and Robert Mortis and Daniel Stare “The Simserare of AlLinervl Series urn of Music Thor 8, no 2 (Fall 1974): 384-80, See David Shi, The Muse of ia Cart, second edition (Ithaca: Cornel Unnersiy Press, Londo Faber, 198): 40-41, 16- $2, aed psi 0539616s THO osase Combinatorial AN Example no. 5 Copyright © 1982 Intemational eopyright secured. All igh feserved. Reprinted by permbsion,The Combinatorial rt 017 Here, in a single dramatically extended phrase, intervals and Snote chords leap from one register to another, transforming a mood of bold declaration into one of quiet reflection. ‘The extravagant leaps weave a counterpoint of two voices. The first is articulated by quintu- plet beat divisions and the second by eighths and sixteenths, in accordance with the two streams of along-range polyrhythm that runs the length of the piece."* The two voices are also distinguished harmonically. In this passage the first voice sounds a succession of harmonies based on major thirds and minor sixths (labeled “if” in Example 6); the second plays perfect fourths and fifths (labeled “i5"). SceJohnF. Link, "Long-Range Polyhythns in Ho Carter's Recent Susie" PL.D. di, City University of New Yor, 1994, 101~ 109,1Be TheCombinatol Art = Hey fa if & mE U.P lay yp sal ° @| (1,2 : ne fle “ite le sate andl ll le 4 wis J | nae 4 2 gle °) J isi (lle K@)}——= anal al = 4 cal 2 lib) Je lhl << lp ny aid iim “ls call dle We 4 By |. soil) = wy “att. le? ln = 2 ile = aye" 4g Example No. 6, Night Fantasies, mm, 111-123: Harmonie AnalysisTie Cominatorial Ate 19 Asin the Changes coda, harmonie succession operates on multiple levels: the surface counter- point of major thirds and minor sixths against perfect fourths and fifths is deftly woven to produce a limited repertoire of Snote to ¬e chords. The deployment of smaller chords in this passage is guided by the slower succession of alhinterval 12-note chords—themselves connected by common tones—which are shown on the bottom staves of the example. Elliott Carter’s Harmony Book is one of many efforts made by composers and theo rists in the twentieth century to come to grips with post-tonal harmony. Like Schénberg’s 12tone method, it grew out of the practical needs of an active and established composer seeking to consolidate the successes of a recent period of bold innovation. And, like Henry Cowell's New Musical Resources and Joseph Schillinger's The Schllinger System of Musical Com- postion, itis rooted in the avant-garde spirit of the first decades of the qwentieth century, which resurfaced after the Second World War. Its strongest affinities, however, are to a line of works that attempt to tabulate the complete range of harmonic possibilities in the world of 12-note equal temperament. As early as 1917 Ernst Bacon had compiled an accurate list of classes of harmonies (assuming transpositional but not inversional equiva- lence), and many others—including Josef Matthias Hauer, Fritz Heinrich Klein, Alois Haba, and Schillinger-—made similar enumerations, with varying degrees of completeness and. clarity, in the following decades.” By 1964, when Carter was in Berlin writing his Piano Concerto, George Perle, Howard Hanson, Donald Martino, and Allen Forte all had pub- lished either the total number of set classes (in the moder sense) of each size, or an explicit list of them." ‘There is no question that Carter was influenced by at least some of these authors. In an undated typescript, now in the Elliou Carter collection of the Paul Sacher Foundation, Carter describes how the Harmony Book wasdeveloped after studies ofthe Alois Haba Neue Hanmonielohre (see my copy pp. 95-119) J. M. Hauer's Vom Melos zur Pauke (see my copy p. 12) and of the I2-tone technique by Schoenberg, Richard Hill, Leibowiee, Babbitt, Martino, Allen Forte and George Perle. Actually the matter hhad been on my mind ever since I read the Hauer and Haba books in the carly 30s and. sporadically wied wo work on their ideas. However, after using the alhinterval [tetra}chord idea in the Ist Quartet in 1950 and in a different way in the Double Concetoand the 2nd Quartet decided to expand thechord vocabulary and started developing the charts which tookshape as this growing ‘harmony book’. [renewed my suidy of Hiba and inserted my own numbering system of chords or tropes built on the basis of different starting points, but containing similar paverns! ° Thete orks are dius in some detail by Jonathan Bernard in his valuable wudy ofthe early history oft theory. “Chord, Coliecion. and Setin TwentiedyCertury Theory” in Music Thaory in Cony ad Prac, ed. Janes M. Raker, David W Beach, Jonathan W. Bernard (Rochester: Usiversiy of Rochester Press 1997), 11-51. Carter reviewed Th Scbllnge Sine of Masia! ‘Compotion (New York: Cat Fischer, 1946) for the periedical Madera Muscin 1946, noting ts"many interesting conibutions” la the course ofan otherwise seating review See Elio Carte, Fallacy ofthe Mechanistic Approach,” Mademt Muie 28, 90, 3 (Summer 1916): 228-90. Reprinted in Wriing, 118-21, andin Caled Buays ond Late, 13-16. George Pete, "The Pomibe Chords in Twehe-Tone Musk,” Te Soeand LMA. Mapein® (1954) 5A-B8, Prt, Sal Compton Howard Hanson, Harmonic Metriah of Malan Musk: Resour of te Tempered Sale (New York: Appleton Century Cros, tne. 1960). Donald Marino, ‘The Source Setand its Aggregate Formations,” furualf Muse They (1901):224-78. Allen Fore." “Theory of Se-Complexesfor Music” Jounal of Muse ery8,n0.2 (1964): T86-88, Forte, The Strate of Amal Mui Quoted in Dorte Scmict, “Dae ‘bemerkerswert' Interesse an Als Haba, Anmerkng’2a Eliot Carers Harmeny Book,” _Minoengen der Pan Sache Site ng (March 1903): 39. 05396206 The Combet nt Carter has always kept in close contact with musical developments in America and abroad, so it comes as no surprise that his own harmonic project would be informed by the work of his predecessors and contemporaries. In 1960-61 Carter was visiting professor at Yale University, where Donald Martino was preparing his article “The Source Set and its Aggregate Formations,” and Allen Forte was developing his own approach to musical set theory: Forte’s The Structure of Atonal Music was published in 1973, the year before Carter first brought his harmonic researches together as the Harmony Book. Carter’s work also shares some important assumptions with its predecessors. It defines set-class membership in terms of transpositional and/or inversional equivalence and so its contents match the catalogs of Hanson, Martino, and Forte chord for chord.” But Carter may not have known about some of the work being done in musical set theory: In an interview published in 1990 he said he had never seen Howard Hanson's Har monic Materials of Modem Music, and downplayed the influence of Forte on his own work" And while Carter may have benefited from the works he did consul, he clearly found them inadequate, otherwise he never would have undertaken the laborious task of compiling the Harmony Book. An iconoclastic desire to go his own way may have been one motivating factor, particularly given hisattempts to distance himself from the 12-4one practice of Babbitt, Martino, and others in the 1960sand 70s. But Carter had other reasons as well. One has to do with his, working methods. Carter sketches incessantly, often making a thousand or more pages of sketches for a single twenty-minute composition. Frequently he will re-copy a passage several times as it takes shape, preferring to put on paper changes that he could easily keep track of in his head. Looking through Carter's manuscripts one gets the feeling thatthe actof puting, musical ideas on paper—of moving the pencil across the page—is his preferred method of getting to know his materials, and an important stimulus for bis imagination, Writing outthe chords of the Harmony Book himself may have served a similar purpose, giving Carter the opportunity to become thoroughly familiar with each chord uhrough the process of writing outits subsetsand supersets Carter also may have found the presentation and organization of earlier harmonic catalogs impractical. His own Harmony Bookis written entirely in music notation rather than the integer notation favored by Martino and Fé imegers neatly avoids the uities of indicating a pitch class with a note on the staff, but for Carter this consider. ation must have been outweighed by the benefits of using the more familiar and purely musical notational system. Carter also needed a catalog that was arranged to facilitate com- position rather than analysis. Forte’s set classes are sorted in an order that roughly follows their prime forms (the $note chords, for example, begin [0,1,2], [0,1,3], [0,14], ete.). This arrangement makes it easy to look up the prime form of a set class occurring in a piece of, music to be analyzed. Carter needed a listing that was designed to be used synthetically rather than analytically. The chords in the Harnony Book are grouped by type, so that chords with similar properties may be identified quickly, regardless of their prime form: Of course Carter was not alone in searching for compositional applications for his harmonic research. Joseph Schillinger explicitly called his book a “system of musical composi- tion,” and Howard Hanson, while acknowledging with false modesty the potential analytical applications of his work, asserted nevertheless that “this text was written primarily for the compose Butthe pedagogical intent of both of these books comes with a good deal of Ina few cases Caner and Forte chose diferent rine forms for aset els For exarple Forte's [0.14.69] is Carter's (0.479) {mall eases, homeve, the ferent prise forms teer Ww equivalent st Clases © Reman "An Intervie” 204 © Hanson, Herwona Mati x ossie