harry crowl estudos em principios logicos aplicados

8/10/2019 Harry Crowl Estudos Em Principios Logicos Aplicados

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UFPr Arts Department

Electronic Musicological Review

Vol. 1.1/September 1996Home English

STUDY ON LOGIC PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO MUSICAL COMPOSITION

Harry L. Crowl

I. Introduction

In the present study, it is our intention to establish a coherent basis for the composition of one or morepieces of music from the same material.

The starting point for our proposition is the aim of creating an individual musical language as acomposer of serious music.

Our attempt to develop such a language has been based in both Mediterranean and American musicalculture, as well as the twelve-tone development by both Schnberg and Krenek, as it was introduced inLatin America by the Argentinean composer Juan Carlos Paz, through hisAgrupacin Musica Nueva,founded in Buenos Aires in 1937, as well as by the German composer H. J. Koellreuter, whoimmigrated to Brazil in 1939 and started hisMovimento Msica Vivain Rio de Janeiro in 1940. Both L.C. Paz and H. J. Koellreuter learned the twelve- tone technique from the musicologist and conductorHermann Scherchen. These two musicians started working with such system even before thedodecaphonic method was known outside Vienna's musical circle. In fact, we find some few composersusing that technique even before the formal treatise on serialism was published, which was Krenek'sStudies in Counterpoint, edited in 1940, in New York. Some other attempts were made also byAmerican composers to break with tonality before that was widely known in Europe. Such composerswere Ives, Ruggles, Cowell and Copland.

At the present moment, almost 50 years later, many things have changed in the world of musicalcreation, such as the alleged denial of serialism, or of any formal system of atonality, or the returntonalism, or even to modalism. There is also, an infinite amount of information about musical systemsfrom all civilizations and times from all over the world. So, it has become even more difficult for acomposer to be original these days. In our case, we decided some time ago to choose a musicallanguage that be coherent with a personal taste as well as with our historical background. With such anaim, we shall try to establish an organized system for the materials used in our compositions. Otherelements used shall be taken from procedures observed in the religious musical tradition from Braziland Portugal during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth Centuries as well as elements fromAfrican and middle eastern cultures. All these elements shall be always quite diluted in the new musicalidiom.

II. Organizing the Musical Material

Let's take an unusual interval from the tonal system, an augmented 4th (C - F#) and then, all notedcomprised by that interval.

exemplo 1

In order to keep the interest on the melodic line, we will set these seven notes as follows:


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exemplo 2

So, the sequence of intervals produced by that first set of notes shall be:

1/2 - augmented (ascending) 2/3 - Major 2nd (descending) 3/4 - Aug. 2nd (desc.) 4/5 - Maj. 3rd (asc.) 5/6 - Minor 3rd (desc.) 6/7 - Min. 2nd (asc.)

From the 7th to the 8th row's degree, we shall add the same augmented 4th to obtain 8th degree. Now,we have a sequence of eight notes where there are four missing ones to complete a twelve tone row.

Let's now apply the same intervals in a retrograde order, so we can find more different notes. Byapplying the same intervals in contrary motion, we find:

exemplo 3

Which means: Maj2nd (asc.), Aug2nd (asc.), Maj3rd (desc.), min3rd (asc.) and min2nd (desc.).

In this case, we find a high degree of repetitions which are not desired as it impoverishes the musicaldiscourse. So, we shall now use another type of transposition. That is transposing the entire row oneAug. 4th up after the note A.

exemplo 4

In II. 4, we added the Aug. 4th to note A, and then, we repeated the same original sequence of intervals.That proved to be more satisfactory than transposing the retrograde row, as this one proved to bear verylarge degree of repetition.

In all transpositions, we end up with almost the same notes repeated and obtained no more than twoones, which coincidentally were A#and Bplus a G. As one of the restrictions imposed here is theminimum of repetitions possible, we shall now organize the definite row as follows:

exemplo 5

The eleventh note was obtained through inverting the note's order of appearance in the series. That wasdone to keep more interest in the musical flow by avoiding a tonal sounding ascending minor 2nd.

As we now have an eleven-note row, let's call it "Original" (O). We shall now create the "inverted" row(I), as follows:


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exemplo 6

From those two series, we will transpose them vertically, eleven times in a chromatic sequence:

exemplo 7

So, as we have now established all the horizontal references (we believe that this is a more appropriateway of defining it as the system in question is not a tonal or modal one), we could start any

composition from this material without any risk of having that restriction of not having any intervalwider than Aug. 4th not observed, regardless of what position either in the rows or in the transpositionswe start and use throughout the piece. That is, of course, if we use strictly the sequence or notescomprised in those sets of rows.

The next step now is to establish the harmonic system that shall be used. In order to have an openselection of chords to be used, we shall draw them from the same series. But those chords must also beconceived under certain restrictions. We have determined them as follows:

Most chords must be dissonant; Some chords may not be dissonant; Dissonant chords will be classified as "closed" and "open", as well as bearing "sharp" or "mild" dissonances; Consonant chords may be either modal or tonal, that is also valid for chords with a 7th degree;

Chords may be connected either through parallel motion, like Debussy's "absolute chords", or throughtraditional tonal connection, evidently avoiding direct fifths and octaves, and so on, or still through alternating"closed" with "open" chords.


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All these possibilities may be used according to the expressive needs of any piece written from that material.To clarify what we mean by those definitions mentioned above, we shall give the following example:

1. Dissonant chords:

exemplo 8

2. Opened/Closed

exemplo 9

3. Sharp/Mild Dissonances

exemplo 10

The present paper could be considered the starting point for the composition of our next three compositionsscheduled, those are: a Concerto for Cello and Six Instruments, a Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, and aQuartet for Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello, commissioned respectively by the Ensemble Nord and OdenseEnsemble, both from Denmark, and The George Crumb Trio, from Austria.

Bibliographic References

STOICA, Luana Irina. Generative Grammars and Musical Harmony.R.R.L. - C.L.T.A.,XXIV, 1.Bucharest: 1987. p.169- 179.

TURCU, Venera. Gramaticile generative Ale Melodicii Palestriniese.St. Cerc. Mat., Tom 30, Nr. 2.Bucharest: 1978. p.217-225.

CROWL, Harry Lamott. The Lamentations of the "Officium" Structure for an Extended Composition.Contemporary Music Review, 1995, Vol. 2, part 2. Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers. pp.93-108

KRENEK. Ernst. Studies in Counterpoint.New York: G. Schirmer Inc. 1940.

Harry Lamott Crowl


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