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Desire and distance in Kaija Saariaho’s Lonh1

A NN E S I VU OJ A - G UN A R A T N A M
Department of Musicology, Arwidssoninkatu 1, 20014 University of Turku, Finland
E-mail: ansigu@utu.fi

This article explores the relationship of desire and are depicted as a lack or deviation from the norm. Luce
distance in Kaija Saariaho’s Lonh (1996) for soprano and Irigaray (1985: 69) argues that the ‘feminine’ is viewed
electronics. The subject matter of Lonh is desire and ‘as the other side of the sex that alone holds a monopoly
romantic pleasures, anchored to feminine subjectivity, on value: the male sex’. By not addressing the problem
represented on stage by a soprano singer. Electronics
of the feminine as marginalised gender, Lonh steps out
provide the environmental sounds and amplify the
of the spell of stagnant binary oppositions of dominant–
singer’s voice. Through Lonh looms a medieval song in
the Occitan language, ‘Lanquan li jorn son lonc en mai’ dominated; male–female; centre–periphery (cf., for
by Jaufré Rudel, a famous troubadour in twelfth-century example, Cixous and Clément 1993: 63–9). As a result,
Provence. Saariaho reverses the narrative convention of Lonh offers an imaginary space for love and loving that
love stories by presenting the most intimate encounter at is not based on need, domination, possession, appropri-
the very beginning. In their succeeding encounters, the ation or ‘having’. This is in tune with the kind of love
lovers move further away from each other. Similarly, in expounded by Luce Irigaray in many of her writings
the course of Lonh the distance to Jaufré’s song also (particularly 1985 and 1993): a love which respects dif-
increases. Luce Irigaray’s concepts of love are used for an ferences among lovers, with no pressure or need of
analysis of the relationship of the loving pair. By the end becoming the same or even seamlessly united:
of Lonh the borderlines of speaking, singing, electronics,
language and music collapse in Barthesian jouissance Greeting him as other, encountering him with respect for
(bliss). The electronic technology in Lonh enables the what surrounds him – that subtle palpable space that
re-investiture of cultural values, and the construction of envelops each of us like a necessary border, an irradiation
flexible identities, crossing boundaries between the self of our presence that overflows the limits of the body. – This
and the other. caress would begin at a distance. Tact that informs the
sense of touch, attracts, and comes to rest on the threshold
A great musical work is always a model of amorous rela- of the approach. Without paralysis or violence, the lovers
tions, a model of relations with the other, of eternally would beckon on to each other, at first from far away. A
recommenceable exaltation and appeasement, an excep- salutation that means the crossing of a threshold. (Irigaray
tional figure represented and repeated sexual relations. 1993: 207)
(Attali 1996: 143)
The movements of desire are intended to change the dis-
tance, to approach but not to achieve. Irigaray (1993:
1. WOMAN IN THE CENTRE 48) writes: ‘The greater the desire, the greater the tend-
ency to overcome the interval while at the same time
Kaija Saariaho’s Lonh (1996) is a composition for sop-
retaining it’.
rano and electronics. The subject matter of Lonh is
desire and romantic pleasures anchored to feminine sub- The key concept, for this article, is distance, a particu-
lar kind of relationship between two (or more) units
jectivity. Neither the woman nor femininity are con-
which manifest no tendency to fuse or to become the
structed as ‘Other’ or in contrast to masculinity, nor is
femininity seen as something striving to find means of same. In Lonh the tension is geared towards preserving
this difference, or even making it more articulate, more
expression; in Lonh she occupies the centre, unchal-
radical. The starting point for Lonh is a song in the Occi-
lenged. This is rare; most often, women and femininity
tan language, ‘Lanquan li jorn son lonc en mai’, by
Jaufré Rudel, a famous troubadour, poet and musician
1
Earlier versions of the article were read at the following forums: 4th in twelfth-century Provence. The very title of the piece
National Symposium of the Finnish Musicological Society, Turku (lonh = ‘from afar’) already suggests the importance of
(Åbo Akademi) 14–16 April 2000; 8th International Doctoral and
Postdoctoral Seminar on Musical Semiotics, University of Helsinki, distance. The central dramaturgy of Lonh is based on
13–17 October 2000; Critical Musicology Forum, City University of distant love experienced by the female protagonist, rep-
London, 12 January 2001; and International Congress of the Musical resented on stage by the soprano soloist, and the distance
Signification Project, Imatra, 7–10 June 2001. I wish to thank Kaija
Saariaho, John Richardson, Martá Grabócz, Taina Viljanen and Sus- between Jaufré’s and Saariaho’s music.
anna Välimäki for their helpful comments. This article concentrates on exploring the musical
Organised Sound 8(1): 71–84  2003 Cambridge University Press. Printed in the United Kingdom. DOI:10.1017/S1355771803001080
72 Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam

means for articulating women’s pleasure and sustaining OM 24566) allows better access to the electronic com-
multiple distances. Special attention is given to interme- ponent, whereas in concert performances (and on the
diatory fluid spaces and continuous transformations, sound recording, ONDINE ODE 906–2) its audibility is
including spatial passage (Smalley 1997: 124), which heavily conditioned by the choices of the sound techni-
challenge the borderlines of music, language, authority, cian and the room acoustics (particularly reverb, also
space (near/distant), live performance, acousmatics, induced electronically). The score includes a stave for
vocality and identities. Because these processes traverse the electronic part indicating roughly what kinds of
heterogeneous materials (voice, sound, music, text), no sounds are sounded and at what time (see, for instance,
single methodology would suffice. Therefore this article figure 2).
draws methodologically from multiple fields: feminist Thanks to the electronics, there are no pauses in Lonh,
theory (Irigaray 1985 and 1993), studies on electronic spaces without sound. However, pauses between the
music (particularly Emmerson 1994, 1998, 2000, Smal- stanzas may appear, at the singer’s discretion, since it is
ley 1992 and 1997), literature (Genette 1982, Alpers up to the singer to initialise a sound file in the beginning
1982, 1997, Werf 1995), and semiotics (Barthes 1975, of each stanza (Komsi 2000). Without electronics the
1977). continuous flow of sounds would be impossible because
the singer is bound to have breathing breaks. Silence
within a piece has been problematic for Saariaho; she
2. ELECTRONIC STAGING
has sometimes felt that her music would not last from
Lonh belongs to the category of live acousmatic music one side of the silence to the other. In . . . à la fumée
(Smalley 1997: 109). There is a live performer, a sop- (1990), she finally forced herself to ‘write’ a silence.4
rano singer, and an obligatory electronic part. The elec- Subsequently, it has become one of the possible means
tronics is used for real-time amplification of the singer at her disposal (Saariaho 2000a). For Saariaho, silence
(particularly reverb) and for providing previously signifies a disruption or a void in the temporal and spa-
sampled sound files to accompany her. Despite the dif- tial dimension of the musical flow. It can also be heard
ferent genealogy of the musical sources (pre-recorded as sign of death (Poizat 1992: 84–7). In this sense, in
nature sounds, synthesised bells, post-processed voices), Lonh electronics provides a means to transcend symbolic
the electronic part does not represent an alien element, death. By avoiding silences, Saariaho’s musical textures
to be resisted or overcome by the on-stage soprano solo- become more fluid, even ‘mucous’, because pauses are
ist; nor does it form a contradiction to the voice, to fem- powerful means for constructing internal hierarchies and
ininity, nor to the aesthetic. It is precisely the electronic articulating boundaries. From a gendered perspective
technology that allows the re-investiture of many central this is important, since as Irigaray (1993: 110) argues,
cultural values in Lonh, crossing boundaries between the ‘No thinking about sexual difference that would not be
self and the other, and the construction of flexible iden- traditionally hierarchical is possible without thinking
tities. Examples of these elements in Lonh include the through the mucous’. In Irigaray’s conception, the
virtual personae in the electronic part, not present on ‘mucous’ is inevitable in ‘thinking of or about the
stage: an unknown speaking male,2 a girl, and a vocalis- female’, something that cancels the pre-existing, tradi-
ing soprano. The voices of the soprano-soloist and vir- tionally appropriated hierarchical divisions concerning
tual soprano create a semi-acousmatic space where the identity, place and time: ‘The mucous has no perman-
source bonding3 of the soprano voice is no longer cer- ence, even though it is the ‘‘tissue’’ for development of
tain. This questions the enunciatory authority of the live duration’ (Irigaray 1993: 109–10). In Lonh the means
soprano. Furthermore, electronic reverb blurs the bound- for constructing the (feminine) ‘mucous’ kind of texture
ary of the live performer’s voice, room acoustics, and is electronic technology (the electronic part and reverb).5
electronic sounds. The reverb is a central means for cre-
ating an intermediatory soundspace with fluid boundar-
2.1. The machinery
ies without any firm point of origin. This kind of play
is typical in instrumental pieces with (live) electronics The detailed requirements for the electronic equipment
(Emmerson 1998; see Field 2000: 42–50 for the play of are printed in the score; they include Macintosh
different kinds of realities in electronic music). computer(s), a MIDI interface, two digital reverberations
There are no major ruptures in the electronic part of
Lonh; the same elements recur from the beginning to 4
In a public pre-concert talk just before the first performance of . . . à
end. Listening to the rehearsal audio CD (Chester Music, la fumee (Helsinki, 20 March 1991), Saariaho discussed the difficulty
she had experienced regarding silence within her own compositions.
There are some slices of silence in her subsequent pieces, for instance
2
In an interview, Saariaho (2000a) revealed that there are in fact two dramatic ones in NoaNoa for flute and electronics (1992) and the
male voices. One of them belongs to Jacques Roubaud, a French opera L’amour de loin (2000).
5
scholar and poet, whose reciting of the Jaufré poem was included on However, this is not always necessary. For instance, Saariaho’s Du
the rehearsal audio CD. cristal . . . (1990), a continuous flow with hardly any solid hierarchies
3
Smalley (1997: 110; italics his) defines source bonding as ‘the nat- (the ‘mucous’) is produced without electronics, using traditional
ural tendency to relate sounds to supposed sources and causes’. orchestral instruments.
Desire and distance 73

(e.g. Lexicon PCM80 for general reverb and Lexicon that of reverb, the voice is sent away to reverberate in
LXP15 for special long reverb), and a sustain pedal for different corners of the space through a microphone
the singer. These are all commercially available, standing some metres away from the singer. The ampli-
although with the Lexicon LXP15, which generates the fied utterances are carefully notated in the score (see
infinitive reverb, there might nowadays be some prob- markings ‘M’ and ‘long reverb’ in figures 2, 4, 6 and 7).
lems. The CD-ROM with pre-sampled sound files can The two kinds of microphones and amplifications are
be obtained from the publisher. not active simultaneously except at the very end of the
There are nine different electronic sound files in Lonh. piece (see figures 6 and 7), when all the pre-established
Both their order, and the chain of events within sections, codes break down. Artificially altering an opera singer’s
have been set by the composer. The transition from one voice is not a regular procedure within the art music
sound file to the next coincides with the stanza breaks tradition (with the obvious exception of electronic
in Jaufré’s poem.6 The singer must begin a new stanza music), whereas in popular music, electronic amplifica-
and a new sound file by pressing a pedal.7 At her discre- tion is a standard procedure. Altering the voice of an art
tion, there may be pauses between the stanzas, or the music singer is particularly delicate, since it affects the
electronic sound files of two successive sections may singer’s vocal identity, the ‘grain of her voice’ (Barthes
even overlap. Although the electronic part is controlled 1977). John Potter (1998: 170–1) suggests that the styl-
in real time, often by Kaija Saariaho herself, the singer istic implications from the use of a microphone impose
has very little temporal freedom. Once a sound file has a threat to the classical voice authorities. Amplification
been initiated, she needs to proceed at the same tempo is also one way of maintaining the difference between
with the electronic part, which mercilessly runs like a popular and opera singers, since one important quality
tape.8 However, the strictures of the tempo imposed by of the operatic voice is the ability to project loudly.
the electronic part are not apparent to the listener. Occa- Since the advent of electroacoustic music, micro-
sionally, for instance in the second stanza, the voice phones have been an integral part of music-making
sounds as if improvising. within that tradition. Within a more broad tradition of
The electronic equipment functions as a medium con- Western art music, however, microphones, amplification
trolled by human will. During the performance, the amp- and other electronic devices still represent a non-human
lification is regulated by the sound technician and the technology, not readily accepted by audiences or even
initiation of new sound files by the singer. The exact musicians. Even Anu Komsi (2000), at one point of the
content of the sound files has been priorly determined interview, compared the relationship of sound file and
by Saariaho, in the studio. The machinery has no power singer in Lonh to singing a duet with a robot. She con-
to make decisions on its own before or during the per- tinues: ‘The tape is dead for me. If there is a power cut,
formance (see Emmerson 2000 for a discussion of the I can continue singing, also with orchestra but not with
problematic man–machine interface). This is one of the tape. I dislike the dependency on tape, that I need to be
few borders in Lonh that remains unchallenged. the live member of the duo’.

2.2. Sonic environment and amplification 2.3. ‘Noises’ and ‘pure sounds’
Saariaho (2000a) states that the electronic part has two The electronic sound files contain bell sounds, birdsong,
main purposes: on the one hand it functions as an whistles and singing voices, which according to Kaija
accompaniment to the singer (sound files), but on the Saariaho’s personal classification are ‘pure sounds’, and
other hand it also amplifies her spoken and whispered on the other hand, whispers, spoken text, hisses, rain
segments and produces a loud reverb. In the first case, drops, wind and sea, which for Saariaho are ‘noisy
amplifying the singer’s speech and whisper, the voice sounds’. Of course, this dichotomy was not invented by
is brought forward into close focus with the help of a Saariaho; the noise/pure sound axis has been around
microphone placed near her mouth. In the latter case, since the very beginning of electronic music. Neverthe-
less, it has not lost its appeal for her. In her early article
6
There are only eight stanzas (or seven stanzas and a ‘Tornado’) in she writes:
Jaufré’s poem, but nine electronic sound files, because the first stanza
is at first recited and then sung, both of them having separate sound Initially I began to use the sound/noise axis to develop both
files. musical phrases and larger forms, and thus to create inner
7
Similarly, in Saariaho’s NoaNoa the pedal is used to initiate the
sound files. But in NoaNoa there are sixty-three files to be switched tensions in the music. In an abstract and atonal sense the
on, which requires a reliable foot technique from the flautist (Viljanen sound/noise axis may be substituted for the notion of con-
2000). In Lonh the pedal needs to be applied at a much slower rate, sonance/dissonance. A rough, noisy texture would thus be
and at least in one performance the initiating of the files was taken parallel to dissonance, whilst a smooth, clear texture would
care of by the sound technician (16 March 2001, Turku, Pia Freund,
soprano, and Antti Murto, electrical sound).
correspond to consonance. (Saariaho 1987: 94)
8
I wish to thank the singer Anu Komsi for providing me a musician’s
point of view on Lonh (Komsi 2000). She has performed Lonh sev- Although this classification is Saariaho’s own, it can
eral times, in Zürich, Ghent and Helsinki. readily be heard and understood by listeners, without
74 Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam

the confirmation offered by spectral analysis. It must be Truax (1992: 375) a balanced ecosystem which has been
emphasised that while in tonal music consonance stands lost. (During Jaufré’s times, it probably still existed.)
for stability, norm and balance, and dissonance indicates In music, too, pastoral is a well-known musical topic
deviation and imbalance requiring resolution into con- (Grabócz 1986: 39–41).10 Paradise-like pastoral is
sonance, no such power hierarchy exists in Saariaho’s devoid of heroic manifestations, rumours of warfare,
conceptions of noise/pure sound or rough/smooth tex- vulgarity or violence (see Monelle 2000: 79–80, 191–2).
ture. Noise is not a ‘special effect’; it has equally import- In Saariaho’s adaptation there is no decay, no ruptures,
ant status. As sounding phenomena, they articulate not even a thunderstorm to shake the balance. In Truax’
extreme and equal polarities (Kankaanpää 1995: 226–7, terms, in Lonh there is no noise. By ‘noise’, Truax
Sivuoja-Gunaratnam 1998: 538–9). This is contrary to understands a destabilising force: ‘noise is anything that
the aesthetics of traditional Western art music education, upsets the balance of the system or its constraining
where the pureness of sound production is tended with forces’. Confronted with noise, a listener loses the desire
care (Smalley 1997: 120; see also Riikonen 2002 for the to listen, since it weakens the listener’s relationship with
role of ‘noise’ in Saariaho’s flute music from the the acoustic environment and the sense of self (Truax
player’s point of view). In the electronic part of Lonh, 1992: 378). For Attali (1996: 26–8), noise is a ‘weapon
layers of pure sounds and noisy sounds create a fluid of death’.
texture with a myriad of subtle differences but without By choosing to hear pastoral in the sounds of Lonh, I
definitive centre(s). This is one musical articulation of wish to distance myself from the tradition of ‘reduced
intermediatory space (the ‘mucous’) proclaimed by Iri- listening’ (Schaeffer 1966: 261–78, Chion 1995: 31–5),
garay. where sounds are appreciated as sounds, as ‘objets son-
It is important to acknowledge the semantic and cul- ores’ without an analytical concern as to what their sig-
tural nexus enhanced by different kinds of sounds, nification (‘sens’) might be. I rather embrace the mode
whether they are ‘pure’ or ‘noisy’, and whether they ori- of listening which allows us to explore in detail the sonic
ginate from the singer or from the electronic sound files. differences, and at the same time pay attention to their
The kinds of sounds Saariaho has chosen for Lonh cultural nexus (see also Field 2000 for a critique of the
exclude many cultural topics; for instance there are no Schaefferian mode of analysis). For a semiotician, these
urban, industrial sounds, nor vehicles (as for instance, in modes are not either/or; they are simultaneous (cf. also
her Stilleben; see Kankaanpää 1996). Most of the sounds Smalley 1992: 515–22).11 Therefore, the cultural nexus
in the electronic files seem to originate from nature; imbedded in sounds and their combinations is a diagonal
birds, wind, rain, water and echo, all of these being that traverses the argumentation in this article.
sounds beyond the reach of human control. They are
also sounds which an audience can easily identify (with).
3. PALIMPSESTS
This potently increases their integration into the piece.
In addition, there are also sounds that suggest human The text for Lonh originates from Jaufré Rudel’s poem
agency; bells, soft male and female voices, and whis- ‘Lanquan li jorn son lonc en mai’. Jaufré is recognised
pers. Although surrogates can be easily imagined for as the author of both the music and the poem. The sub-
these sounds, it is obvious that after recording they have ject matter of the poem is distant love, love from afar.
been electronically post-processed in a manner that does There are three extant manuscripts of the song with
not negate their concrete origin.9 musical notation (see, for instance, Werf 1995: 137,
The electronic part creates an atmosphere of pastoral 150–3). None of the manuscripts was written by Jaufré
similar to Saariaho’s La dame à la licorne (1993). A himself, who belonged to an oral culture where the cre-
pastoral is a genre in literature (including drama and ation and transmission of music was carried out without
poetry), visual arts and music, which depicts tranquillity, written aid (Werf 1995: 131–9). In an interview, Saari-
the pleasures of love, and a delicate balance between aho (2000b) recounts how she had the opportunity to
human and nature and among humans, all this in an hold in her hand the manuscript preserved in Paris, at
idyllic landscape (Alpers 1982, Gifford 1999). One fre- the Bibliothèque National, and the impression made on
quent theme in pastorals is the lament: singers pour their her by the feel of the manuscript, its weight and its age.
hearts into music in order to commemorate the loss of
their beloved (Alpers 1997: 81–93). Pastorals also typic-
ally include motifs relating to music, not only music- 10
According to Grabócz (1986: 39), certain pastoral themes by Liszt
making by humans, but also the music of nature (Alpers already anticipate impressionist writing, since instead of harmonic
1982: 450–2). This kind of acoustic environment, prior tension and release, the focus lies in their sonority and colour ele-
ments.
to industrialisation and electricity, represents for Barry 11
Although Smalley acknowledges the existence of several overlapping
modes of listening, he seems to prefer a mode of interactive listening
which expands Schaeffer’s reduced listening by incorporating aes-
9
There are several composers, for instance François-Bernard Mâche thetic attitudes and structural hearing. In his powerful theory on spec-
and Luc Ferrari, for whom sounds of nature occupy a seminal role tromorphology (Smalley 1997), he refuses to relate to sounds from
in their composition. an extrinsic perspective.
Desire and distance 75

She studied copies of the manuscript in modern nota- their others (the hypotexts), the distance and differences
tion,12 and subsequently also learnt to read the medieval are retained. Moreover, in both pieces the subject matter
notation. The frequent minor thirds and the use of modal is love.
scales in the manuscript have also found their way into In the beginning (particularly the first stanza; cf. fig-
her melodic writing (Saariaho 2000a). ures 1(a) and (b)), the relationship of Lonh to Jaufré’s
Very little is known about the performance praxis of song is one of trans-stylisation (Genette 1982: 315–21).
Jaufré’s songs. They are all solo songs, probably per- The stylistic rewriting is so mild – and without irony –
formed by their author as well as by other singers. Their that it could also be considered as imitation (cf. ibid.:
popularity is suggested by the existence of several differ- 96–106), which since Adorno has had a questionable
ent notated versions. In two recent recordings of musical reputation in the aesthetic market of modern music.15
interpretations of ‘Lanquan li jorn son lonc en mai’, one By choosing Jaufré’s song as a recognisable hypotext,
is with an accompanying instrument (Martin Best, Saariaho writes against the tradition that requires artistic
Nimbus NI 5445) and the other one is without (Paul originality and authenticity. Occasionally, Saariaho has
Hillier, Harmonia Mundi 907203). However, Saariaho trans-stylised herself, for instance Nymphea (1987) >
(2000c) said that she had not listened to these or any Petals (1988) or Amers (1992) > Près (1992), but the
other recordings of the song, in order to create her music appropriation of another composer’s music is quite
without any explicit sonorous models. In both record- exceptional for her. Having Jaufré’s piece looming
ings, the performer is a man, as was Jaufré. But while through Lonh challenges Saariaho as the sole author of
the protagonist in Lonh obviously is a woman, she also Lonh.16 It is of course Saariaho’s piece, but she has
embodies a masculine layer, traces of Jaufré, which chosen to leave manifest traces to her work from another
however towards the end of Lonh begins to fade. author, who lived 900 years ago (and who was a man).
The intertextual connection between Jaufré’s song and Their cultural and temporal distance is enormous, but
Lonh is the most obvious at the beginning (cf. figures not too distant to exclude the possibility of approach.
1a & b): similar melodic formulae are used, even in the The audience is enabled to access the semantic con-
same mode and the same registral space (d1–d2). At this tent of the poem, since prior to the first sung stanza (in
point Saariaho makes no deviations to the text; she uses Occitan) the singer recites its text either in English or
all Jaufré’s verses in the first stanza.13 French (sound example 2; see also figure 2). The reciting
The relationship of the two songs is that of a palimp- is surrounded by an electronically mediated soundscape
sest: the original Jaufré manuscript is covered by consisting of sounds of non-pitched percussion, such as
another, newer manuscript, but can nevertheless still be a distant echo, wind, birds and whispers, the semantic
deciphered (heard). This is a typical feature in pastoral. content of which remain unclear. The directional micro-
Paul Alpers (1997: 81) writes: ‘The pastoral poet phone placed very close to the singer’s mouth (marked
depends on prior usages and texts, either accommodating ‘M’ in the score) amplifies the speaking voice. The
their grander modes to bucolic modesty, or imitating, singer and the electronic part, although sounding simul-
echoing, and adapting [. . .]’. In his book, Palimpsestes, taneously, retain their separateness except for a few
Gérard Genette (1982) studies the relationships between instances (cf. figure 2, b. 18–22). In a concert situation,
literary texts in order to differentiate subtle differences it will be obvious which sounds originate from the singer
in a more common practice of intertextuality. According or from the electronics; however, this distinction cannot
to his terminology, Jaufré’s poem is a hypotext and Saar- be made when listening to the audio CD, which is acous-
iaho’s Lonh a hypertext residing on top of the more matic by nature. Nevertheless, the sound recording (for
ancient text.14 Luce Irigaray’s book An Ethics of Sexual instance ONDINE ODE 906–2) is also monitored in
Difference (1993) is based on a similar strategy. Her such a way that the singer (Dawn Upshaw in this
hypotexts are, for instance, Plato’s Symposium, recording) stands for presence, and the electronically
Descartes’ The Passions of the Soul, and Merleau- produced sounds belong somewhere else far away in
Ponty’s The Visible and the Invisible, which she
approaches from the perspective of love, but eventually
draws away from them. A central theme in her book is 15
See particularly the chapter ‘Music about Music’ in his Philosophy of
loving, which retains a space between oneself and the Modern Music (Adorno 1987: 181–4). Obviously pastiches, different
other. In this sense, both Irigaray’s and Saariaho’s tex- kinds of rewritings and stylistic adaptations had existed before and
after Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, but in the spirit of Adorno their aes-
tual strategies are ‘loving’, since in their relationship to thetic value from the point of view of the avant-garde has been
belittled. During Saariaho’s musical education at the Sibelius Acad-
emy (in Finland), the aesthetic climate favoured modernism, and
12
There are several editions in manuscript; for instance Jeanroy (1915), post-serialism represented an acceptable if not favoured musical style
Gennrich (1960) and Werf (1972) – all of them with musical nota- (Heiniö 1995: 377–477; cf. also Iitti 2001: 17–18). A return to the
tion. musical past within a new piece was not acceptable. It is obvious
13
The text version used by Saariaho is the same as in Pickens (1978: that postmodern philosophy and textual practices of intertextuality,
164–9). allusions and quotations have displaced this modernist discourse.
14 16
Jaufré’s poem has been printed in Saariaho’s score in three lan- If Jaufré and his production came under copyright law, Saariaho
guages: the original Occitan, French and English. would presumably have had to pay royalties for this appropriation.
76 Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam

‘Electronic Rights for this image are not available,


please refer to the printed journal issue’

Figure 1. (a) The first sung stanza of Lonh, b. 42–59, trans-stylising Jaufré’s song. Sound example 1.  1996 Chester Music
Limited, London. (b) Several notations of Jaufré’s song (Werf 1972: 86–7).
Desire and distance 77

‘Electronic Rights for this image are not available,


please refer to the printed journal issue’

Figure 2. Saariaho, Lonh, b. 1–21. Also included in sound example 2. The content of the electronic part is roughly indicated in
the score. The on-stage soprano recites the first stanza without rhythmic restrictions. From b. 18 on there is pre-recorded singing
in the electronic part. The soprano soloist later joins the same pitch, and for a moment their voices are inseparable.  1996
Chester Music Limited, London.

time and place, a heterotopic space (Greimas & Courtés vocality takes over: the soprano soloist’s voice is pro-
1979: 172). jected with a loud reverb, her registral space reaches for
As mentioned before, in the successive stanzas Lonh’s highs, and the musical phrases become irregular.
relationship to Jaufré’s song grows more distant, as the Although fragmentation, splitting and non-coherence
original text and music are gradually excised (on textual may generally be taken to carry negative semantic value,
amputations, see Genette 1982: 323–5). Unlike Jaufré, here such an interpretation is not valid. The musical
Saariaho does not use the same melody for all seven expression in Lonh never becomes violent or agonising.
stanzas. For melodic writing, she applies a formulaic Despite erasing the traces of Jaufré, the pastoral created
technique similar to Jaufré’s, but already from the end by the electronic sound files prevails.
of the first stanza she begins to introduce her own formu-
las (one of which is the last vocal pattern in figure 1a),
4. LOVING DISTANTLY
which keep on returning in modified guises. Saariaho
uses all of Jaufré’s text from the first two stanzas, but ‘Amor de loing’ (distant love) is a phrase frequently
only a few lines each from the following stanzas, and repeated in Jaufré’s poem; it occurs nine times. It is
less and less from Jaufré’s poem is taken over into Lonh structurally important, because the rhyming system is
as the piece progresses. The verses become fragmented – partly based on it. There is no rhyming in Saariaho’s
even words are split – and the fragments are recombined. Lonh, not even in the musical setting of the first stanza.
As a result, the linearity and semantic meaning of the ‘Amor de loing’ appears there seven times, in different
verses dissolve. As the textual dimension disperses, melodic settings, but disappears after the fourth stanza.
78 Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam

‘Amor de Lonh’ is not a casual expression; it is an part. In their short dialogue, her sung and his spoken
important theme in medieval love songs or cansos (see (whispered) verse fragments complement each other in
Lazar 1964 and 1995; cf. Ghil 1995: 457–61), which is such a way that they form the full text for Jaufré’s
a subclass of the larger, more vague code of Courtly second stanza. Their meeting is accompanied by sounds
Love (or rather, ‘fin’amor’; on defining the genres, see of forest, birds and soft metallic percussion. The set-up
Lazar 1995: 64–97). A central theme in ‘Amor de Lonh’ seems to be perfect for a lover’s exchange in the hetero-
is that for the one in love the object of love is unattain- sexual matrix of desire. Also the text deals with love
able. In this sense, ‘Amor de Lonh’ is an ideal realisation and bliss (jouissance):
of an Irigarayan desire devoid of possession and Never will I enjoy her love / If I do not enjoy this distant
achievement. True ‘Amor de Lonh’ is mystical and reli- love
gious, and in one version, its ultimate object is the For a nobler or better one I do not know / Anywhere, nei-
Blessed Virgin Mary. But Moshe Lazar (1995: 73) ther near or far
points out that in Jaufré’s cansos, ‘the ‘‘distant lady’’ is ...
more a metaphoric embodiment of ‘‘unfulfilled love’’
than the incarnation of a ‘‘heavenly Mary’’ ’. In this par- In fact, it remains unclear if there are two males encoun-
ticular Jaufré song, ‘Lanquan li jorn son lonc en mai’, tered, one speaking and the other one whispering, or
whether they are the same. From a textual point of view
the poet loves someone who is far away and with whom
he cannot enjoy physical pleasure.17 From Jaufré’s liter- the voices, or rather what they articulate, intertwine and
ary ‘Vida’ or ‘Life’ (Pickens 1978: 53–9), we learn that together produce the ‘Amor de Loing’, both literally, and
symbolically (Figure 3, b. 116–19, and sound example
Jaufré was in love with a noble lady in Tripoli whom he
eventually journeyed to meet. Most probably, however, 3).19
the ‘Vida’ does not tell about the real Jaufré, but is a But their distant love is at the same time ambiguous,
because it is preceded by the word ‘jamais’ spoken in
fictive story (Pickens 1978: 1–5, Rosenstein 1988).18 In
Lonh, the identity of the loved one remains a secret; it French, resulting in the phrase ‘jamais d’amour de
loing’. Such a phrase cannot be found in Jaufré’s text at
could be a man, another woman, or the feeling of being
all; the words yes, but not in this combination. (Also the
in love.
Saariaho (2000a, b) discloses that there are two male word ‘jamais’ is written in the French way as a single
word; in Occitan it should be two words.) By recombin-
voices used in Lonh. Both of them recite Jaufré’s poem,
ing the words, Saariaho introduces a meaning not in the
Jacques Roubaud in Occitan and a second man in
French. But is he (or they) the distantly loved one(s)? original. But what does this phrase mean? The words do
not carry any unequivocal meaning: ‘never distant love’,
Saariaho (2000a) denies this: she had no such poetic
‘never distant’ and even ‘never love’ are all possible
interpretation, not at least on a conscious level. Never-
theless, I cannot resist exploring this possibility, since in interpretations. Similarly, the electronic environment,
with birds, bells and metallic sounds does not favour any
their few virtual encounters the soprano soloist and the
male voice are immersed in amorous discourse. The sop- of these alternative readings.
rano and the male voices meet for the first time in the Although from a textual point of view the voices are
close, their vocal qualities remain separate, as she mostly
first recited stanza, where they are engaged in an intim-
ate discourse on love, whispering or softly speaking sings and he (they) only speak(s)/whisper(s). She can
Jaufré’s poem. This takes place in the electronic part, touch his (their) voice(s) only by adopting a low
speaking register or whisper, for which she has to aban-
played simultaneously with the soprano soloist, who
recites the first stanza of the poem. The perception of don her vocal brilliance (figure 4). This means at the
this tender exchange is conditioned by the mixer oper- same time a transition from ‘pure sound’, represented by
bel canto singing, to ‘noisy sound’ (as defined by
ator’s choices and the performance room acoustics
(sound example 2; the whispers are most audible just Saariaho). ‘Noisy qualities’ are produced by speech,
whispers, inhaling sounds or hisses. A voice is easily
after the reciting and during its last words). The space
capable of uttering ‘noisy’ and ‘pure qualities’, but in
between the lovers is the closest possible; only a whisper
is enough to mediate the amorous caresses. Lonh this option is curiously granted only to the female
voice, for the male voices whisper and speak, but never
In their next encounter (second stanza, see figure 3),
sing.20 The female and male voices, even in love, retain
their distance has grown. ‘She’ is represented by the sop-
rano soloist on stage, while ‘he’ remains in the electronic their differences and distance by occupying separate
vocal spaces.
17
Some authors (most notably Lazar 1964: 93–5) have suggested that
19
there is a carnal current in ‘Amor de Lonh’. In Act II of Saariaho’s L’amour de loin, Lonh is sung not by Jaufré
18
Jaufré’s ‘Vida’ serves as the main storyline in Saariaho’s opera, but by the Pilgrim (three stanzas), and by Clémence (fourth stanza).
L’amour de loin (Salzburg, 2000), where the three characters are See Iitti (2002: 10).
20
Jaufré, the poet, troubadour and Prince of Blaya (baritone), Clém- In Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo virtutum the only male role is a
ence, the countess of Tripoli (soprano), and the Pilgrim speaking one: he represents the devil, who had lost his voice for his
(mezzo-soprano), who functions as a messenger between the lovers. malice!
Desire and distance 79

‘Electronic Rights for this image are not available,


please refer to the printed journal issue’

Figure 3. Saariaho, Lonh, b. 114–19; a virtual love duet. Also in sound example 3.

‘Electronic Rights for this image are not available,


please refer to the printed journal issue’

Figure 4. Saariaho, Lonh, b. 174–8; a vocal touch. Also in sound example 4.  1996 Chester Music Limited, London.

Special notation is used by Saariaho to regulate the virtually erased, and even the vocal presence of the sop-
amount of air in the voice and the change of mode from rano soloist is questionable. As the song approaches its
singing to speaking and whispering. The first tone in end, it reaches for jouissance. In jouissance, signifying
figure 4 is sung with vibrato. In the next utterance, the codes come to a crisis and the subject is, at least for
speaking gradually changes to a whisper (the arrow from a moment, led beyond language. Jouissance (bliss) is
a black dot to an open circle indicates the shift in trans-sensual experience, and therefore language can
expression). Due to amplification (marked with ‘M’), capture it only dimly, if at all (Barthes 1975: 21; see
even minute alterations can be perceived.21 This allows also Poizat 1992 for elaboration of jouissance in opera
the auditory perception of saliva and the singer’s articu- research). Jouissance is not be mixed with ‘pleasure’,
latory muscles, the tongue, palate, throat, the grain of which as a textual practice obeys cultural codes, such as
her voice (Barthes 1977), or to be more precise, what literary or stylistic conventions. Jouissance orients
Barthes calls ‘writing aloud’: towards the unknown, bypassing established modes of
signification, often seasoned by erotic desire (Barthes
what it searches for – are the pulsional incidents, the lan-
guage lined with flesh, a text where we can hear the grain 1975: 14, 39–40). Roland Barthes (1975: 51) posits that
of the throat, the patina of consonants, the voluptuousness jouissance is far more radical than pleasure: ‘Pleasure
of vowels, a whole carnal stereophony: the articulation of in pieces, language in pieces, culture in pieces’. Hence,
the body, of the tongue, not that of meaning, of language. jouissance is characterised by disruption and loss. These
(Barthes 1975: 66–7) kinds of disruptive processes are at work in Lonh on
different levels, most obviously in the last stanza.
Due to ‘writing aloud’, the singer with the near-focusing
Whereas in the first stanza Saariaho uses all of
microphone is much more personally present; it is not
Jaufré’s text, in the end she is satisfied with a single line:
only her trained singing voice we hear, but also her more
‘For no joy gives me pleasure’. The original text is fur-
intimate side.
ther distorted by repetition: ‘nuills autre jois’, ‘no-m
plai’ and ‘tant’ appear several times. The vocal part is
5. TOWARDS JOUISSANCE split into four figures in terms of text, vocal register and
gesture (see figure 5, v, x, y, z).
In the last stanza and the concluding Tornado section,
The vocal part in the last stanza is combined from
the distance to Jaufré grows to the point of rupture. Sim-
these figures. It is based on an aiolic mode (centred on
ilarly, the borderlines between the soprano soloist and
/a/), without its fourth degree, /d/. However, /d/ – or
the electronic part, between music and language become
rather its shadow – is present, as the pitch level for the
spoken parts (see figures 5 and 6). After the first phrase,
21
Similarly, in her flute writing, Saariaho notates in detail the amount the vocal gestures, text fragments and melodic cells
of air to be heard and the quality of vibrato. The flautist often needs
to speak or whisper while playing. The flautist Camilla Hoitenga is begin to move around; they are fragmented and re-
a true virtuoso in these techniques (Viljanen 2000, Riikonen 2002). grouped. The fragmentation process is attuned by the
80 Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam

‘Electronic Rights for this image are not available,


please refer to the printed journal issue’

Figure 5. Saariaho, Lonh, b. 360–71. The last verse before fragmentation: (v) a three-note upward oriented figure, usually bound
with the text ‘nuills autre’ (‘nothing else’); (x) long and high notes, bound with the words ‘jois’ or ‘tant’ (‘joy’ or ‘like’); (y) a
registral gap between figures with a rapid change of vocal mode from full voice to speaking/whisper; (z) low speaking voice or
whisper (on pitch level /d/ usually bound with the text ‘no-m plai’ (‘doesn’t please’). Notice also the singer’s vocal timbre
expressing the opposite of pleasure (sound example 5).  1996 Chester Music Limited, London.

electronic part, which creates continuity with its con- ‘natural’ voice of the soprano and the electronically pro-
stantly moving bell sounds. The electronic part also duced reverb tend to blend in such a way that the origin
functions as a medium separating the figures from each of the sound cannot be identified, which from the audi-
other (figure 6, b. 392–3 and 402). ence’s perspective leads to a dissolution of the vocal
Eventually, what is left by the end of the seventh identity of the singer.
stanza is a huge registral gap (y) in the soprano part Towards the end of Lonh, the registral gap (including
between the highest peak of the whole piece, with elec- a rapid articulatory change from voice to whisper)
tronic amplification for the long reverb, and the lowest reappears and remains forever unresolved (figure 7, b.
spoken and eventually whispered utterances on pitch 448–54). The word spun over the gap is ‘amatz’, mean-
level /d/ (figure 6, b. 399–407). The vocal and articulat- ing ‘loved’. The soprano never sings a complete ‘amatz’.
ory distance is created within the voice, which moves She makes several attempts, with promising long
from ‘pure sound’ to whisper with much air, and finally a-vowels, but never succeeds in singing the whole word.
to ‘normal’ whisper (= ‘noisy sounds’). With the help of The singing voice and language become torn apart. She
electronics, a vocal paradox becomes possible: the voice only manages to speak it once (figure 7, b. 436–7).
is at the same time producing ‘pure’ and ‘noisy’ sounds, ‘Amatz’ is also uttered by the unknown male voice in
because the electronic long reverb still carries on when the electronic part, at the same time as the soprano is
the voice begins whispering (figure 6, b. 403–7). For the singing her high /a/s (figure 7, b. 438–45). While she
first time in Lonh, the two kinds of electronic amplifica- steps out of strictures of language and text, he retains
tion occur simultaneously: that of sending the voice far his text boundness. The female and male voices do not
away with a long reverb, and of near-focusing the form a unified whole, but instead create a distance, a
spoken/whispered voice (marked with ‘M’). gap: he clearly pronouncing in low echoless voice
The gradual annihilation of text and language, and the ‘amatz’ somewhere far away, invisible to us; but she is
gain in vocal brilliance, are here simultaneous processes present, singing high /a/s, not recognisable words, with
(cf. Poizat 1992: 40–5). The higher pitches shine particu- a strong reverb, perhaps trying to reach the other some-
larly fully, because of the electronic amplification. The where far away. The desire and distance remain: love
Desire and distance 81

‘Electronic Rights for this image are not available,


please refer to the printed journal issue’

Figure 6. Saariaho, Lonh, b. 390–407. The singer’s voice is temporally dislocated, due to the long reverb. As a result, the
high-pitch voice (from b. 395–401) continues to sound, even though the singer has proceeded to amplified airy whispers, indicated
by a double circle on top of the stave (b. 403–7). Cf. also sound example 6.  1996 Chester Music Limited, London.

from afar, which forms a contrast to their first intimate which would be the traditional narrative strategy).22 Due
encounter (figure 2). But as love from afar, it remains a to their distance, she is able to explore various vocal
source of jouissance, even without the immediate pres- identities, and change her position vis-à-vis language
ence of its object. and sound spaces. The ending of Lonh is like the begin-
Saariaho’s song narrates love in reverse order from ning of love in the Irigarayan sense: ‘This caress would
traditional love stories: in her narrative, the intimate begin at a distance – the lovers would beckon on to each
encounter is not the endpoint and motivation. It has other, at first from far away’ (Irigaray 1993: 207).
already taken place, almost imperceptibly, at the very
22
beginning of the song (the end of sound example 2). In This is not a unique instance for Saariaho to reverse a narrative con-
vention. In Verblendungen (1984) for orchestra and tape, she places
the course of the song, the lovers move further and fur- the climax at the very beginning of the piece. See Saariaho (1987:
ther away from each other (not towards each other, 106–9).
82 Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam

‘Electronic Rights for this image are not available,


please refer to the printed journal issue’

Figure 7. The end of Lonh, b. 432–54, loss of Jaufré’s text, language, enunciatory subjectivity in pastoral setting. Cf. sound
example 7.  1996 Chester Music Limited, London.

In the very final bars (figure 7, b. 448–54), the split- this reverb. This is the second place in Lonh where the
ting of text, music, language, presence, absence, near, two types of electronic amplification are simultaneous,
far and the origin of voice are pushed to the extreme. that of bringing close the spoken part and sending the
The soprano’s high /a/ is picked up by electronic reverb, singing voice far away with the Lexicon reverb (cf. also
which continues the voice after the singer in fact has figure 6). With the fragmented ‘amatz’, the two main
closed her mouth. At this point the visual cue (mouth polarities of sound quality are simultaneously present,
closed) and aural perception (strong vocal sound) contra- that of ‘noisy sound’ represented by the uttered ‘matz’
dict each other. But is this vocal sound truly ‘live’, or and that of ‘pure sound’ with the sung vowel ‘a’ ampli-
only reclaiming it? (For the problematising of ‘live’, see fied by long reverb. And there is no way that the gap
Emmerson 1994.) There is no answer to this question. could be overcome. Producing verbal language by the
That such a question can be raised challenges the vocal singing voice is no longer possible, since ‘a’ without
presence of the singer. She utters her final ‘matz’ during the whispered ‘matz’ would be a vocal sound beyond
Desire and distance 83

language. Curiously, this last enigmatic ‘a’ is sung at depicts love that allows various kinds of encounters and
the pitch-level /a/.23 In the last bars, even the uttering spaces between the lovers; loving is not singular, it is
subjectivity becomes split between the live singer and plural and fragmented. Lonh also celebrates the cultural
electronics, when the ultimate peak of jouissance is power of a woman artist to voice love, woman and the
reached and all the pre-existing codes and borderlines feminine.
are lost.

REFERENCES
6. CONCLUSIONS
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Kaija Saariaho has crossed many thresholds on her way London: Sheen & Ward.
to becoming one of the most famous contemporary com- Alpers, P. 1982. What is pastoral? Critical Enquiry 8: 437–60.
posers. As many commentators have pointed out, one of Alpers, P. 1997. What is Pastoral?. Chicago, IL: University of
these thresholds is gender (cf. Moisala 2000, Iitti 2001: Chicago Press.
17). In her music, she frequently voices women; most Attali, J. 1996[1977]. Noise. The Political Economy of Music.
of her songs, for instance, are written for female voice, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
particularly soprano, and her songs deal with women’s Barthes, R. 1975[1972]. The Pleasure of the Text. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell.
experiences. Lonh forms no exception to this pattern.
Barthes, R. 1977[1972]. The grain of the voice. In S. Heath
In this context Château de l’âme (1995) should also be
(ed.) Image, Music, Text, pp. 179–89. New York: Hill and
mentioned, which describes many kinds of loves, one of Wang.
them being love for a child, a rare topic in the Western Chion, M. 1995. Guide des objets sonores. Pierre Schaeffer et
art music tradition. One important thread in her orches- la recherche musicale. Paris: Buchet/Chastel.
tral piece Du cristal . . . (1990) is formed by rhythmic Cixous, H., and Clément, C. 1993[1975]. The Newly Born
patterns imitating the superimposed pulses of a pregnant Woman. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
women and her yet-unborn baby. While composing this Emmerson, S. 1994. ‘Live’ versus ‘real-time’. Contemporary
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Woman-centredness does not mean the annihilation or with instruments. Journal of New Music Research 27(1,2):
146–64.
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Emmerson, S. 2000. ‘Losing touch?’: the human performer
She has found interesting texts for her music not only and electronics. In S. Emmerson (ed.) Music, Electronic
from women writers, for instance Sylvia Plath, but also Media and Culture, pp. 194–216. Aldershot: Ashgate.
from male writers (for instance Jaufré, Paul Klee, Franz Field, A. 2000. Simulation and reality: the new sonic objects.
Kafka, Vassily Kandinsky, and William Shakespeare). In S. Emmerson (ed.) Music, Electronic Media and Culture,
This often results in a change of gender for the central pp. 36–55. Aldershot: Ashgate.
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becomes a woman, or is voiced by a woman. As in Lonh, degré. Paris: Seuil.
where the male protagonist of Jaufré’s poem becomes Ghil, E. M. 1995. Imagery and vocabulary. In F. R. P. Ake-
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California Press.
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of these, but not the fundamental one. The dichotomies Greimas, A. J., and Courtés, J. 1979. Sémiotique. Dictionnaire
never form a solid and permanent grid, but are in con- raisonné de la théorie du langage. Paris: Hachette.
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This results in a rich multi-layered texture, saturated 4. Porvoo: WSOY.
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23
Irigaray, L. 1985[1977]. This Sex which is not One. Ithaca,
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stand for the Lacanian ‘objet petit a’, which is something that can
NY: Cornell University Press.
never be reached. I find this remark titillating, since this last sung 1993[1984]. An Ethics of Sexual Difference. London: The
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84 Anne Sivuoja-Gunaratnam

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INTERVIEWS
Press.
Monelle, R. 2000. The Sense of Music. Semiotic Essays. Prin- Komsi, A., 2000. Interview with the author, 27 March 2000.
ceton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Teacher’s reading room, University of Helsinki.
Pickens, R. T. (ed.) 1978. The Songs of Jaufré Rudel. Toronto: Saariaho, K., 2000a. Interview with the author, 10 March
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 2000. YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Company), Helsinki. A
Poizat, M. 1992[1986]. The Angel’s Cry. Beyond the Pleasure major part of the interview was broadcast by YLE, 18
Principle in Opera. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. March 2000.
Potter, J. 1998. A Vocal Authority. Singing Style and Ideology. Saariaho, K., 2000b. Public interview with the author, 7 March
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2000. Main Hall, University of Helsinki.
Riikonen, T. 2002. Ansatsista toiseen: kohti narratiivista huili- Saariaho, K., 2000c. E-mail message to the author, 6 June
sti-identiteettiä. Musiikki 2: 28–44. 2000.
Rosenstein, R. 1988. Les années d’apprentissage du trouba-
dour Jaufre Rudel: De L’Escola n’Ebloá la Segura Escola.
RECORDINGS
Annales du Midi 100(171, janvier–mars): 7–15.
Saariaho, K. 1987. Timbre and harmony: interpolations of tim- Rudel, Jaufré. Lancan li jorn son lanc en mai. CD recording
bral structures. Contemporary Music Review 2(1): 93–133. by Martin Best. In The Forgotten Provence. NIMBUS, NI
Schaeffer, P. 1966. Traité des objets musicaux. Essai interdis- 5445.
ciplines. Paris: Seuil. Rudel, Jaufré. Lanquan li jorn son lanc en mai. CD recording
Sivuoja-Gunaratnam, A. 1998. Rhetoric of transition in Kaija by Paul Hillier. In Distant Love. Harmonia Mundi USA,
Saariaho’s music. In G. Stefani, E. Tarasti and L. Marconi 907203.
(eds.) Musical Signification: Between Rhetoric and Prag- Saariaho, Kaija. Lonh. Score and Rehearsal CD. London:
matics. Proc. of the 5th Int. Congr. on Musical Significa- Chester Music, 1996.
tion, pp. 537–42. Bologna: CLUEB 1998. Saariaho, Kaija. Lonh. CD recording by Dawn Upshaw
Smalley, D. 1992. The listening imagination: listening in the (soprano). In Private Gardens, Helsinki: Online Records,
electroacoustic era. In J. Paytner, T. Howell, R. Orton and ODE 906–2, 1997.

Copyright Permission
Figures 1–7 (except for Figure 1(b)) are reproduced with  1996 Chester Music Limited, London. All rights
copyright permission from Chester Music. All the reserved. International copyright secured. Reprinted by
musical examples (except for figure 1b) are by the com- permission.
poser Kaija Saariaho. The text she has used for the com-
position is by Jaufré Rudel, but is so modified that it can Sound tracks on the Organised Sound CD compilation
be considered to be adapted from the poetry by Jauffré are reproduced with permission of Ordine Records.
Rudel. The images of the music examples are available for
online reproduction, as no rights have been secured.

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