WORKING WITH

TIMBRE
What is timbre?

■ How an instrument sounds…

■ Earlier music had a very laissez-faire attitude towards timbre – e.g. Handel sonatas
for violin or oboe or flute, Brahms sonatas for clarinet or viola…
■ But the 20th century sees composers treating timbre as an integral part of the
composition.
Tone colour

■ Opening of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – bassoon in its highest register…

■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1q6u3mLSM
■ There is a relationship between register and timbre – all instruments change timbre
in different registers
Playing techniques…

■ Make a list of playing techniques and timbres for each family of instruments: strings,
woodwind, brass.
Approaches to timbre

■ We can think of timbre as the ‘surface’ of the music (like in painting); it could be
smooth and consistent or dynamic and fluctuating or unstable…
String Timbres

■ Bach: Chaconne from Partita in D minor

■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HSJufg7I1I
■ Xenakis: Nomos Alpha
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN5qpvAG0_I
Wind timbres…

■ Berio: Sequenza 7
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL0rQ62s7po
■ Evan Ziporyn: Tsmindao Ghmerto
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL0rQ62s7po
■ Brian Ferneyhough: Unity Capsule
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4SNrIjxt9c
■ David Lang: Press Release
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CyJmVLkr8k
Brass Timbres….

■ Berio: Sequenza 5
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnfApTtzJmk
Timbral transformation through
electronics
■ Michael Gordon: Industry
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf2FcKlgQH4
Exercise…

■ Write a short study for a single instrument, using two elements:

■ Limit yourself to a single pitch in the middle of the instrument’s register
■ Limit yourself to the highest and lowest registers
■ The elements don’t have to occur in that order, and they may be alternated…