ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH WESTERN STYLISTIC ELEMENTS. John Seymour, B.M. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC

Transcription

1 SYNCRETISMS FOR WIND QUINTET AND PERCUSSION: A STUDY IN COMBINING ORGANIZATIONAL PRINCIPLES FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH WESTERN STYLISTIC ELEMENTS John Seymour, B.M. Thesis Preared or the Degree o MASTER OF MUSIC UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2008 APPROVED: Joseh Klein, Major Proessor and Chair o the Division o Coosition Studies David Schwarz, Minor Proessor David Bithell, Committee Member James C. Scott, Dean o the College o Music Sandra L. Terrell, Dean o the Robert B. Toulouse School o Graduate Studies

2 Seymour, John, Syncretisms or wind quintet and ercussion: A study in combining organizational rinciles rom Southeast Asian music with western stylistic elements. Master o Music (Coosition), May 2008, 95., igures, 16 exales, reerences, 9 titles. Syncretisms is an original coosition scored or lute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, and marimba (2-mallet minimum, 4 recommended) with an otional ercussion art requiring glockensiel and chimes, and has an aroximate duration o 6 min. 45. sec. The coosition combines modern western tuning, timbre, and harmonic language with organizational rinciles identiied in music rom Southeast Asia (including music rom cultures ound in Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Indonesia). The accoanying aer describes each o these organizational rinciles, drawing on the work o scholars who have erormed ieldwork, and describes the way in which each rincile was eloyed in Syncretisms. The conclusion seculates on a method or coaring musical organizational systems cross-culturally.

3 Coyright 2008 by John Seymour ii

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES... iv LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES...v Page PART I: CRITICAL ESSAY Chaters 1. Introduction...1 Intent and Goals or the Project Ehasis on Organization Scoe o the Reertory o Study 2. Organizational Techniques...8 Relationshis within Any One Musician's Part Relationshis between the Various Musicians' Parts Relationshis between Sections o Music. Conclusion...46 As Part o a History o Southeast Asian Insired Music in the West As a Method o Cross-Cultural Coarative Music Analysis Summary and Concluding Remarks Aendix...59 Reerence List...61 Methodology East and Southeast Asian Music Western Coosers Inluenced by Southeast Asian Music PART II: ORIGINAL COMPOSITION Perormance Notes...69 Musical Score...71 iii

5 LIST OF FIGURES Page 1. Generic Diagram o a sixteen-beat colotomic unit, showing one ossible arrangement o colotomic markers Generic Diagram o a sixteen-beat colotomic unit with irregular subdivision Coarison o the oboe art rom the "B" marker to the ollowing "C" marker in three levels o coression... 9 iv

6 LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES Page 1. Idiomatic Gesture or the Flute Idiomatic Gesture or the Flute Idiomatic Gestures or the Oboe Idiomatic Gestures or the Oboe Idiomatic Gestures or the Oboe Idiomatic Gesture or the Clarinet Idiomatic Gesture or the Bassoon Idiomatic Gesture or the Marimba Idiomatic Gesture or the Marimba Idiomatic Gesture or the Marimba Idiomatic Gesture or the Marimba Idiomatic Gesture or the Marimba Colotomic Marker Motive "A" Colotomic Marker Motive "B" Colotomic Marker Motive "C"... 2 v

7 PART I CRITICAL ESSAY 1

8 Chater 1 Introduction Intent and Goals or the Project It has always seemed to me that a large art o learning the art o coosition involves develoing one's aesthetic instincts. As we listen to more and more music, we learn what we ind to be aesthetically successul and what we ind to be uninteresting. Exactly how this takes lace consciously, subconsciously, or somewhere in between is a colicated issue best let to another roject. In any case, this rocess is esecially relevant to a roject involving cross-cultural coarisons because it is one source o acculturation: we will develo dierent aesthetic instincts deending on the models we have to learn rom. Even when we create something that is sel-consciously new in some way, the resulting new style is still usually heavily built uon the norms o our cultural history. This rocess is one way o "accounting or" the sometimes very large dierences between the musics o dierent cultures. In the 20th century, coosers (generally rom the Western world, with some excetions) made an eort to become aware o every aesthetic reerence handed down to them through their musical history, and in many cases exerimented with (i not insisted uon) working against these reerences in a sort o aesthetic cous-d'êtat. Regardless o how successul this may have been, it roduced several generations o coosers trained to be esecially cognizant o their own aesthetic instincts, where these instincts came rom, and how they are eloyed in music. It is my goal in this roject to use this cultivated aesthetic awareness in an attet to understand the aesthetic values o another culture actually a grou o cultures, rom all over Southeast 2

9 Asia. Seciically, I identiy a set o organizational techniques ound in reertories rom Southeast Asia and eloy them in an original coosition. I address each o these techniques one at a time in Chater 2, starting the discussion o each with a descrition o it as it occurs in music rom Southeast Asia. These descritions are based on the work o scholars who have had extensive irst-hand exerience with the music o these cultures. I draw on their work to summarize the academic community's current understanding o each organizational technique. The language I use in these summaries is intentionally general so that they can accurately describe each henomenon as it might aear in a variety o Southeast Asian reertories, and in my own coosition. For exale, I don't describe the seciic, named colotomic atterns o Central Javanese music, but I do describe colotomic organization in a way general enough so that it can aly to reertories rom Java, Malaysia, Thailand, and even Korea. Ater the general descrition o each organizational technique, I describe the way in which I utilized it in my own coosition, Syncretisms. This oten includes discussion o how I wrestled with the challenge o resenting each technique to a Western audience, the solutions ound and the coromises made in resonse to this challenge, and critical writing about the dierences between Western and Southeast Asian music in general. Ehasis on Organization The idea that organization is a key source o music's communicative ower has been a mainstay o Western theoretical discourse or centuries. Some even argue that it's the only essential asect o music, but I disagree. I music is "humanly organized sound" as Blacking amously stated, then a colete analysis o music rom any culture would include an

10 examination o all three o those elements: the sounds, their organization, and the humans who chose and organized them (i not the seciic individuals then at least the cultural context). 1 Still, this roject ocuses mostly on the second o these, the organization. It's not diicult or western audiences to be made aware o oreign sounds; in act, when resented with music rom a oreign culture, western audiences are oten dazzled by what might be called 'surace elements,' such as the timbres o the instruments, the melodic intervals, rhythmic atterns, harmonic language, melodic hrasing, or tuning system. I thought it would be interesting and ruitul, then, to look beyond these surace elements and ocus on the techniques that go into organizing these sounds, and to create a iece o music that showcases those techniques in a western concert setting. With this in mind, I tried as much as ossible to eloy amiliar "sounds" in order to lace ehasis on oreign organizational techniques. To begin with, the coosition is or classical Western instruments with no "extended techniques" such that the timbres and tuning will already be amiliar to a Western audience. Other more seciic strategies will be discussed as they come u in the main body o the aer. That said, the division between "sound" and "organization" is not exactly clear and even somewhat artiicial. In identiying each organizational technique, care was taken such that none relies on techniques rom the "sound" category; the techniques as I describe them here create relationshis that could be eloyed, theoretically, to organize sounds o any tuning system, any timbre, and any rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic language, giving the iression that "sound" and "organization" are concetually indeendent. While this is not universally acceted, this 1 John Blacking, How Musical is Man? (Seattle: University o Washington Press, 197), 5. 4

11 concetual model is a useul one to adot or this roject as it acilitates the method o general rather than seciic descrition; that method, in turn, is central to achieving the goal o resenting oreign organizational aroaches because it allows me to coose using new organizational techniques while reeing me rom having to mimic Southeast Asian elements rom the "sound" category. Divorcing these organizational techniques rom the instruments, tunings, melodies, and rhythms with which they were created was not always easy, as it involved synthesizing many scholarly accounts o music rom a wide variety o Southeast Asian reertories. Alying the techniques in my own coosition was just as challenging. However, this roject rovided me with the oortunity to learn new schemes by which sound can be organized in coelling and engaging ways that I might use in my own coositional work, techniques I may not have devised without this study. Scoe o the Reertory o Study It was convenient to grou the organizational techniques into three categories according to what kind o relationshis they governed. From most local to most global those categories are: relationshis within any one musician's art, relationshis between the various musicians' arts, and relationshis between sections o music. These categories are briely introduced in this aragrah, but are discussed in detail in Chater 2. The material in any one musician's art is related through the use o motives unique to that instrument. All o the musicians laying a melodic role lay the same melody, at the same time, but interreted in a way that deends heavily on each instrument's idiomatic character. These variations on the same melody converge at certain regular oints o harmonic coordination, and diverge between these oints, leaving 5

12 harmonies to chance. Time is divided into a hierarchy o lengths, with distinct audible events marking the assage o each length. Sectioning is achieved through changes o teo and instrumentation, and in some cultures, these two devices create sections that alternate between a sarse and a dense texture. Other sectioning devices include changes o melody, o mode, and o time-markers, the resence or absence o a eriodic beat, and o the requency o the oints o harmonic coordination. Throughout, much o the music's interest srings rom an interlay between coordinated and discoordinated material. The organizational techniques I listed above were described (by scholars with irst-hand exerience) in music rom Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and arts o Indonesia, and to a lesser extent also in music rom Jaan, Korea, and Vietnam. The set o techniques above do not describe all the music in any o these countries but each o the countries listed is home to at least one reertory that dislays at least some o the above techniques. It should be noted that olitical boundaries in Southeast Asia do not necessarily match cultural ones, and that the number o distinct cultures whose music exhibits some o these roerties is ar greater than the number o countries listed. Not all o the reertories are current; in Indonesia the various gamelan ensembles remain oular and new coositions are still being coosed or them, but in Thailand, Cambodia, and other laces, traditional music is now mostly the domain o reservationists. Music that eatures some o the organizational techniques I deal with in this roject is seculated to have existed as ar back as the early 19th century and may well be much older. Because o this, the geograhic and chronological boundaries o the music I'm studying can't be exressed easily with an existing label. "Southeast Asian music" is much too broad and includes lenty o reertories that have noticeably dierent roerties than the ones I describe 6

13 here. The term "Southeast Asian Court music" is sometimes used to generalize about music o this tye, and while it is (or was, in most cases) oten a luxury o the various courts and aristocrats, there are lenty o reertories erormed by (or exale) ieldworkers or other nonroyalty which exhibit the same roerties that the term seems a gross misnomer. In the lack o a satisying existing term, rather than coin one I sily use the term "reertory o study" to reer in general to the music relevant to this roject. Far rom a universal language, music turns out to be a very culture-seciic henomenon, and as I ound out in this roject it takes a lot o atient study and careul listening to become sensitive to the exressive devices o a oreign culture's music. However, as Alan Lomax ut it, once I got the hang o the music, once I began to hear the nuances o eeling and humanity amid the blare o strange sounds, there began an interest that turned into liking 2 I have ound similarly leasing results rom my study o Southeast Asian music, and I want to resent what I've learned not only in an analytical aer but also as a coosition or Western audiences. This coosition is Syncretisms, an original work or wind quintet with marimba and other ercussion. The iece combines coositional techniques I learned rom studying Southeast Asian music with elements o my own, largely Western-inluenced style. 2 Alan Lomax, Selected Writings, ed. Ronald D. Cohen (New York: Routledge, 200),

14 Chater 2 Organizational Techniques This chater examines each o the organizational techniques identiied, rom those o the smallest scoe (within a single musician's art) to those o the largest scale (the overall orm). Ehasis is laced on how each technique is eloyed in my own music. The work is in eight sections and is scored or chamber wind quintet (lute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon) with marimba, and an otional second ercussion art consisting o glockensiel and orchestral chimes. The irst (measures 1-27) is characterized by rimarily aeriodic rhythms, while the remaining sections are mostly eriodic. The second through ith sections (measures 28-59, 60-91, 92-12, and ) each resent a statement o the same 2- bar melody. The last three sections each resent versions o that same melody that are condensed in length according to rocedures which will be discussed later in conjunction with one o the organizational techniques. The irst o these three sections (measures ) resents the melody at roughly hal its original length, and both o the inal two sections ( and ) resent it in roughly hal that length again (see Aendix). 8

15 Relationshis Within Any One Musician's Part: Idiomatic Style It has been observed that within the reertory o study, many instruments lay the same melody at once, each in its own idiomatic style. One consequence o an adherence to idiomatic styles is that all the material within any one musician's art is related. In some way or another, each instrument (or grou i arts are doubled) has its own identity in the texture. A variety o devices are used to create these identities and to dierentiate them, such as register, density o material, timbre, and most o all gesture. In my coosition, I exaggerated this roerty by creating an artiicial "idiomatic style" or each o my instruments. This section will describe the identiying devices ound in the reertory o study, and discusses the ways I used each in my own music, or exlains why I chose not to use a given technique. These stylistic identities are dierent rom the roles we seak o in Western music, such as "melody" or "accoaniment." In act, the two are dierent arameters: as will be discussed later, "roles" like melody and accoaniment are ound in Southeast Asian music as well. 4 It is among the instruments laying the melodic "role" that dierent "identities" emerge. Register and Density In the various Indonesian gamelans, there is usually a system o stratiication via register and density together: the higher-itched instruments lay a more dense art and the lowest itched instruments lay a very sarse art, with several unique strata in between. 5 Each instrument lays only at its characteristic density level, and most instruments have a narrow David Morton, The Traditional Music o Thailand (Berkeley: University o Caliornia Press, 1976), 21; also Michael Tenzer, Balinese Music (Berkeley: Perilus Editions, 1991), Patricia Matusky and Tan Sooi Beng, The Music o Malaysia: The Classical, Folk, and Syncretic Traditions, (Hashire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004), Michael Tenzer, Balinese Music (Berkeley: Perilus Editions, 1991),

16 range (1-2 octaves) which o course means they lay at a very seciic register; thus, each instrument has its own density and register which characterize its idiomatic laying style and deine its identity. This system was not imitated in my own iece. At times, the bassoon and horn have arts slightly less dense than the melody (just a ew quarter notes er bar) and in the same section the woodwinds might have many more notes than the melody, with their sixteenth notes and trills, but all o these instruments oten lay at other densities as well. Moreover, the marimba's material ranges rom very sarse to very dense. Overall, then, density as a mechanism or giving each instrument an idiomatic identity is not as rominent in my coosition as it is in the music o the gamelans. There are two reasons I chose not to eloy this system. First, other models seemed more intriguing, or exale, the textures ound in cultures such as the Thai and Khmer in which more than one version o the melody is heard at roughly the same density level and register at the same time. These seemed more oreign and thus reresented a more interesting technique to exlore. The other reason has to do with timbre and is described immediately below: Timbre In the timbrally heterohonic, all-metallohone gamelans, timbre does not deine a unique identity or any o the instruments. The ensemble called or in Syncretisms has a wide variety o timbres and is thereore much closer in makeu to some o the Thai, Khmer, or Burmese ensembles that have a mix o wooden and metal ercussion, lutes and reed winds, and bowed strings (and in the case o the Burmese, itched drums). Accordingly, I elt no need to eloy the strict density stratiication described above. Also, some o my instruments were 10

17 given similar stylistic identities because their timbres would kee them searate to the listener; or exale, the lute and clarinet eature somewhat similar "synthetic idioms." Gesture David Morton, in his book on the music o Thai cultures, describes each instrument's idiomatic style mostly by describing a set o characteristic gestures each instrument tends to lay. A certain xylohone-like instrument tends to ornament the melody with grace-note gestures and a rolling technique; another, a itched metallohone, lays in octaves or "broken octaves" (the uer note a quarter-beat ater the lower); the various wind instruments have their own turns and ornaments with which they vary the melody, and so on. 6 Though I have not ound such a thorough descrition o idiomatic style or the reertories o other Southeast Asian cultures, rom my own listening exerience it would seem that this kind o identiying device can be heard in other cultures as well, dierent though their instruments, ensembles, and reertoire may be. In any case, the artiicial idiomatic styles I created or my instruments are also achieved mostly through limiting each to certain gestures. For me, this was a conscious coositional technique that I undertook just or this iece in other words, should I ever write another iece in this style I could choose coletely dierent gestures or the same instruments. I ound that the iosition o these restraints allowed me to consider amiliar instruments in new ways. However, I should oint out that this alication o gestural limitations is not art o the coositional rocess in Southeast Asia, at least not on a iece-by-iece basis. While laying styles in Southeast Asia do change over the years and some are newer or less traditional than others, it does not seem to be the case that the 6 David Morton, The Traditional Music o Thailand (Berkeley: University o Caliornia Press, 1976),

18 gestural styles are assigned anew with each coosition. Fruitul as it was, creating new gestural styles was necessary because I was not working in a culture in which they reexist. Ilementation Below, I describe the idiomatic style I created or each o the instruments in the ensemble, with exales o the gestures associated with each. My harmonic language will be described in more detail later, but or now, I should oint out that it oten includes melodic intervals o major seconds and erect ourths, and less oten, minor thirds. Flute The lute tends to utilize its middle register and only arts o its lower and uer registers. It has three characteristic gestures: the irst is a trill, always a whole ste, usually o one or two beats. The second gesture is seen below, but sometimes shited agogically rom what is shown. The irst note o each o the slurred grous is almost always the melody note, so the lower neighbor always a whole ste can be seen as an ornament. Exale 1 The third is an uward whole-tone scale, usually in sixteenth notes, starting on an obeat and culminating on a downbeat. This oten leads directly to either o the reviously described gestures, as in the exale below. 12

19 Exale 2 Oboe The oboe is one o the two instruments called uon to lay the melody in one o the slow sections (the sectioning o the iece will be discussed later). In the irst slow section, it resents an unornamented version o the melody. I there is a slight stylistic dierence between the oboe's version o this melody and how the melody aears during the ast sections, it is that the oboe more oten avoids moving rom one note to another on main beats, esecially on downbeats. In the ast sections, the oboe has three main gestures. The irst is a decaying series o staccato eighth notes, usually all on the same itch, as illustrated below: Exale The second is an ascending air o notes in which the irst note is tenuto, and the second note is shorter and lighter, as illustrated below. The melody note is oten the second note, meaning that the irst tone can be thought o as an ornament to it. Exale 4 The third is a whole-ste gesture similar to the lute's, but rhythmically distinct, as shown below. 1

20 Exale 5 Clarinet The clarinet has similar gestures to the lute, but most oten lays these in its lower octaves. The ascending whole-tone scale gesture is the same, and like the lute's, oten culminates in a trill. In general, the clarinet tends to hold its trills longer than the lute, oten or three or our beats. The clarinet's unique gesture is a series o eighth notes, melodically made u o only major seconds and erect ourths, and generally alling and rising all within the sta, as shown in the below exale. Sometimes airs o sixteenth notes are inserted. Exale 6 Horn The horn tends to lay long, sustained tones lasting two to six beats. The structure o my coosition in terms o roles (such as melody and accoaniment) will be discussed later, but the horn usually has either a very direct version o the melody, or a line built rom elements o the accoaniment art. 14

21 Bassoon When not laying the melody or accoanying the marimba in a slow section, the bassoon lays an abstraction o the melody with very ew notes (usually 2- er bar) or a similar art based on material rom the accoaniment, or a art based on both sources, all in a unchy staccato style. A ew tyical bars o this character o the bassoon art are shown below: Exale 7 Marimba The marimba has several signature gestures. The irst is rolled dyads (usually in octaves) or triads, which oten start slowly and reach ull roll seed ater one or two beats. Changes in roll seed such as this were used so requently that new symbols were created to notate them: one indicating that the roll's seed starts slowly and increases over the length o the note to which it is alied, and another indicating that the roll starts ast and becomes slower. These are described in more detail in the score to the iece. An exale is shown below: Exale 8 Second, the marimba makes good use o its ability to lay wide grace-note gestures with ease, and alies such igures to a variety o rhythms: 15

22 Exale 9 The third is a series o sixteenth notes alternating between two itches, leading to a heavily accented note in a dierent register, as below: Exale 10 The ourth gesture is a series o sixteenth note atterns eaturing grous o major seconds intersersed with minor thirds or erect ourths, such as the ollowing; Exale 11 Lastly, when it lays the role o melody in the second slow section, the marimba anticiates a melody note with an eighth note o the same itch. When chained together, this creates a series o eighth note anticiations. An exale rom the slow section is shown below: Exale 12 More oten than the other instruments, the marimba has material not made rom its idiomatic gestures, generally made o eighth notes or eighth-note trilets in some melodic coniguration. Desite calling or a our-mallet technique, there are very ew gestures with more than two simultaneous notes. The our-mallet technique is used instead to give the marimbist more agility and the ability to lay wide melodic leas very quickly. 16

23 Percussion The remaining ercussion instruments do not lay a melodic role, and their material will be discussed later. Motivic Coosition I have always enjoyed coosing motivically, and esecially develoing a iece's motives in coelling ways. However, the gestures I describe above do not lay that role; they remain constant and act as identiying devices or each instrument. Instead, develoment is erormed on the iece's long, slow melody: while the motives themselves do not change, they are recombined to create new melodic variations every time the melody is reeated. This technique is new to me; it rovides me with another strategy or coosing motivically in addition to those gleaned rom studying the works o Western coosers. Relationshis Between the Various Musicians' Parts: Rhythmic Pulse, Colotomic Technique, Skeletal Pitches and Coordination vs. Discoordination Rhythmic Pulse While the idea is not at all oreign to Western listeners, the resence o a rhythmic ulse should be recognized here as one way in which various musicians' simultaneous arts are related. Sometimes these beats are audibly marked with a time-keeing instrument as in many Indonesian ensembles, but other times they are inerred rom the eriodic nature o the melodic 17

24 or drum arts. 7 O course, it is not diicult to ind exales o Southeast Asian musicians laying "outside" a beat structure that the rest o their ensemble is observing, and many ieces contain sections o music that have a rhythmic ulse greatly modiied by teo luctuations, or no ulse at all. There are also some cases in which the time between these beats is very long, u to ive seconds in some Korean ieces (twelve beats er minute!), which admittedly stretches our concet o "beat." 8 Thus, while it is not always in eect, there is no iece in the reertory o study that does not have a rhythmic ulse o some teo or another or at least art o its duration. I mention this organizational technique irst because it is useul or describing the next asect o cross-art relation, the colotomic technique. 9 Colotomic Technique Famed ethnomusicologist Jaa Kunst coined the term "Colotomic" to describe a technique o marking the assage o time in music with a hierarchy o audible markers. Although Kunst was working with the Indonesian gamelans, techniques similar to the one he observed are ound all over Southeast Asia. This is also the only musical concet or which I can include Jaanese and Korean ensembles in the reertory o study: while their concets o organization o arts in an ensemble and o overall orm are dierent rom those in Southeast Asia, their music does eature colotomic devices or marking time. 7 Michael Tenzer, Balinese Music, (Berkeley: Perilus Editions, 1991), 4. 8 These ieces generally all into the a-ak genre and its oshoots. See Sheen Dae-Cheol, "Musical Stasis and Dynamism in Two Living Korean Court Rites," in A Search in Asia or a New Theory o Music, ed. José S. Buenconsejo (Quezon City: University o the Philiines, 200), While nothing about the colotomic technique I am about to describe necessitates a rhythmic ulse, I have never heard or mysel nor read accounts o any colotomic Southeast Asian music that did not also have a ulse, at least in its colotomic sections. 18

25 A General Descrition The colotomic technique is based on grouing beats into a "colotomic unit" and audibly marking the assage o that unit in time. In other words, in a iece or which the colotomic unit is n beats long, a certain event is heard on every nth beat. For the sake o exlanation, I'll call that event "A." Another event, "B" usually divides the colotomic unit in hal, or sometimes into our. Further subdivisions occur, dividing each hal into its own halves or quarters with event "C," and so on. Each o these audible events is distinct and each marks subdivisions only at its seciic level. In this way, a hierarchy is ormed in which event A marks the whole colotomic unit, event B marks the irst subdivision, event C marks the second level, and so on. Figure 1 is an illustration o a generic colotomy that haens to have sixteen beats. a. One ossible colotomic unit, each level o subdivision shown on a dierent line: A B C C D D D D b. The same, all on one line: D C D B D C D A Figure 1 Generic Diagram o a sixteen-beat colotomic unit, showing one ossible arrangement o colotomic markers. Note that the A event is considered to occur on the last beat o the colotomic unit (in this case on the 16 th beat). This is not only traditional, but justiiable in that, in most cases, the 19

26 very irst colotomic unit o a colotomic section o music does not begin with the A maker, and the last colotomic unit ends with one. 10 Seciic Exales rom Southeast Asia Colotomic Unit Length The length o the colotomic unit could be anywhere rom eight beats in some o the shorter Khmer or Malaysian orms to 256 beats in the longest o Balinese orms. In the colotomic sections o my coosition, I use a colotomic unit o 128 beats, divided or the convenience o the layers into 2 measures o our beats each. Instrumentation Any tye o audible event could be used to mark the assage o the whole unit or its subdivisions, but the concet o hierarchy is essential. Event A marks the largest time san (the colotomic unit itsel) and should be more audibly rominent than event B, B more rominent than C, and so on. In Indonesia and in many Malaysian ensembles the entire colotomy is created with gongs o various sizes; the A event is a single stroke o the largest, lowest-itched gong, B a slightly smaller but still quite large gong, and C a signiicantly smaller gong. Thai, Khmer, and Jaanese ensembles use a variety o drums in addition to gongs, and some Korean ensembles use drums lus a wide range o other ercussive noisemakers such as 10 In their book The Music o Malaysia, Matusky and Beng suggest that it is hilosohically iortant that the A event is equally the end o one unit and the beginning o the next, but even the colotomic sections o the Malaysian music they analyze do not begin with the A marker. Maceda oers a dierent hilosohical aroach, in which it is necessary to conceive o the A marker as occurring on the last beat o the colotomic unit. See Patricia Matusky and Tan Sooi Beng, The Music o Malaysia: The Classical, Folk, and Syncretic Traditions, (Hashire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004), and José Maceda, "The Structure o Princial Court Musics o East and Southeast Asia," Asian Music Vol. 2, No. 2 (Sring/Summer 2001):

27 woodblocks, claers, scraers, and rattles. 11 While gongs are usually struck once to mark their beat, the cultures using drums oten eature a distinct rhythm that can last several beats. In these cases it can oten be shown that the beats are groued into measures, such that the drums' rhythms each mark an entire measure. In any case, the rincile o hierarchy still stands; the A marker is a certain distinct rhythm, ossibly accoanied by several noisemakers, the B marker is a rhythm that is less dense, less colicated, shorter, accoanied by less noisemakers, or so on. The audible markers in my coosition are o both tyes; the A, B, and C markers are distinct rhythmic igures, but rather than being given to drums, they are worked into the melodic arts o any or all o the instruments already laying. I the otional ercussion art is layed, then single strikes o orchestral bells and chimes are also heard, or smaller subdivisions or sometimes to accent the main beat o the longer rhythmic marker. Subdividing the Colotomic Unit While the generic exale above had our levels o subdivision o the colotomic unit, and each a division by hal, the number o levels and the tye o subdivision varies between ieces, ensembles, and cultures. There are also exales, mostly rom Malaysian ensembles, in which the division o the colotomic unit is not regular. For exale, assuming the same 16-beat unit mentioned above, one o the smaller gongs might lay on the eighth, twelth, ourteenth and iteenth beats, as 11 Terry E. Miller and Sam-Ang Sam, "The Classical Musics o Cambodia and Thailand: a Study o Distinctions," Ethnomusicology, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Sring-Summer, 1995): 25-26; José Maceda, "The Structure o Princial Court Musics o East and Southeast Asia," Asian Music Vol. 2, No. 2 (Sring/Summer 2001): ; and John Levy, Korean Court Music (Coact Disc Liner Notes), (Lyrichord LYRCD 7206),

28 shown in Figure In other words, the level o subdivision gets deeer toward the end o the unit. B B BBA Figure 2 exale o a sixteen-beat colotomic unit with irregular subdivisions. Irregularities even arise in the music o the Indonesian gamelans. The Javanese seem ond o occasionally leaving out one marker, usually at or during the irst quarter o the colotomic unit. 1 I exerimented with irregular subdivisions in my coosition but ultimately decided that regular subdivisions, each a division by hal, were the most aesthetically successul. Reeating the Unit Southeast Asian ensembles make many reetitions o a colotomic unit during the course o a erormance. The melody can be longer than the colotomic unit that suorts it (in which case the colotomic unit is reeated until the melody is colete) or equal to it (in which case the melody and colotomic unit are reeated together). 14 Some Jaanese and esecially Korean coositions state only one, very slow colotomic unit. The number o beats is actually very low considering how long the coositions are, as each beat can last several seconds. Syncretisms has seven colotomic units, each one exactly as long as the melody. 12 Patricia Matusky and Tan Sooi Beng, The Music o Malaysia: The Classical, Folk, and Syncretic Traditions, (Hashire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004), Figure 2 is modeled ater, but does not exactly reroduce, a transcrition ound here. 1 Jaa Kunst, Music in Java, rd ed. vol. 1, ed. E. L. Heins (The Hague: Nijho, 1979), I am not aware o any exales o the theoretical third case, in which a short melody is reeated until the end o a longer colotomic unit is inally reached. 22

29 Colotomic Hierarchies in my Coosition The audible markers in Syncretisms are a little dierent in each section, but all are motivically related. The "A" marker, which sans the 1 st and 2 nd measures o each colotomic unit, is a single motive slit between two grous o instruments. Exale 14 - Colotomic Marker "A" The instrumentation changes each time, but in general, Grou One is the grou o instruments already laying and Grou Two is made u o the instruments that are otherwise sitting out, and only enter to lay this motive. The "B" marker is almost the same as the "A" marker, but is missing the inal two notes. It sans the 15 th and 16 th measures o each colotomic unit. Exale 15 - Colotomic Marker "B" The "C" marker, ound in the 7 th and again in 2 rd bar o each colotomic unit, is the Grou 1 motive o the above exales, with no Grou 2. Exale 16 - Colotomic Marker "C" 2

30 A ull descrition o each section in Syncretisms will come a little later in the aer, but or now it suices to mention that there are slower, more sarse sections intersersed with aster, more dense sections. The sarse sections have audible markers only down to the "C" level, as described above. I the otional ercussion art is layed, then the dense sections have "D" markers, a single note on a glockensiel, on beat one o measures 4, 12, 20, and 28 o the colotomic unit. The downbeats in between these those o measures 8, 16, 24 and 2, or the "A," "B," and "C" markers are accented with a single stroke o the orchestral chimes, in addition to the motivic markers described above. The itches on which all o these motives, and the single chime or glockensiel strokes, are layed deends on the harmony o the measure in which each one occurs, which is the subject o the next section o this aer. Skeletal Pitches The colotomic technique extends beyond marking the assage o time to have an aect on itch as well. It is diicult to sum u this technique briely, as it is currently the subject o some debate among musicologists. For now, I will begin with a descrition that has been shown to have at least some validity. When varying a melody, there are certain itches that are considered 'essential' to that melody and cannot be changed, while the material between these itches can be varied in both itch and rhythm. In other words, when creating a variation on a given melody, a musician can lay anything at all so long as the essential itches are not changed (and, according to some sources, as long as the general mood and character o the melody is also resected.) David Morton, The Traditional Music o Thailand (Berkeley: University o Caliornia Press, 1976),

31 This is related to the colotomic technique because these itches, like the colotomic markers, occur on beats numbered with owers o 2. Whether or not they also orm a hierarchy, like the colotomic markers do, is one issue currently debated. 16 Another deals with recedence, both historical and coositional: are the essential (or, oten, 'skeletal') itches reduced rom existing melodies or are melodies built u rom existing skeletal itches? 17 Excetions to this system o skeletal itches that is, moments when musicians choose not to lay the skeletal itch at the right time but in which the melody is not said to have lost its identity as a result are rather common and orm a third roblem in the analysis o these melodies. I decided to take a stance on these issues based mostly on a combination o my aesthetic instincts and the aesthetic instincts I was beginning to develo as the result o immersive listening to recorded exales o Southeast Asian music. In my own work, the skeletal itches do not orm any kind o hierarchy. I decided uon them irst and built my melody around them. There are eight er colotmic unit, and the ones that aear at the end o every quarter (in measures 8, 16, 24 and 2) are adhered to strictly while the ones between them (in measures 4, 12, 20 and 28) are requently dislaced in time, not coordinated between arts, or skied altogether. Brinner's analysis o interaction between musicians during erormances o certain genres o Central Javanese music includes a detailed look at one kind o moment when not all o the musicians reach the skeletal itch at the same time. One musician within the ensemble is said to 'lead' other erormers to the next skeletal itch by laying a melodic line that aroaches 16 Maceda resents arguments or a hierarchical organization in "The Structure o Princial Court Musics o East and Southeast Asia," Asian Music Vol. 2, No. 2 (Sring/Summer 2001): Parts o Chater Three and most o Chater Four o Sumarsam's book "Gamelan" discuss the recise nature o the term Javanese terms Gendhing, Balungan, and Lagu (all related to the idea o structural itches) and their relationshi to the melodies o the gamelan reertoire. 25

32 the itch but does not actually reach it, leaving it or other musicians to inish. 18 What Brinner is describing here is the social organization o a Central Javanese erormance. Ideally, the musicians know all o the "melodies" (i.e. sequences o structural itches, but not necessarily the material between them) in the reertoire o their ensemble, and the layer o a certain instrument or sometimes a singer can decide which iece to erorm sily by beginning to lay or sing it, without verbally announcing it to the other musicians. This leader can then guide the other musicians to each skeletal itch by giving urely musical cues. 19 The social organization o Syncretisms, however, is the tyical one or a western chamber iece: the layers read rom their arts, and may also ollow a conductor who does not lay and gives only visual cues. I was aced, then, with an interesting coositional question: should I imitate this musical henomenon in my written-out arts have one voice lead to a itch that only other voices sound even though I'm not emulating the social organization with which it is intimately connected? I decided against it, but I understand that it easily could have gone the other way. Ater all, i these gestures are aesthetically leasing then there's no need to "excuse" them as being due only to the iece's social organization. Ilicit in the question is a deeer and unanswerable one about "why" Central Javanese (or any) music is the way it is. Are these gestures created "because" they're useul or keeing the ensemble organized, or is the erormance organized the way it is "because" it allows or the creation o those gestures? Knowing that there is never a clear resolution to aesthetic roblems like these, I went with my instincts. Ideally, it shouldn't matter whether these instincts were more inormed by my western aesthetic reerences or the aesthetic reerences I had absorbed during the course o this 18 Benjamin Brinner. Knowing Music, Making Music: Javanese Gamelan and the Theory o Musical Coetence and interaction. (Chicago: The University o Chicago Press, 1995), Benjamin Brinner. Knowing Music, Making Music: Javanese Gamelan and the Theory o Musical Coetence and interaction. (Chicago: The University o Chicago Press, 1995), 214,

33 roject. Either way the result would be the desired combination o Western and Southeast Asian coositional techniques. To create another such combination, I decided to use redetermined harmonies at the skeletal oints instead o single itches. The resence o these skeletal itches in Southeast Asian music has the interesting consequence o creating an interlay between coordination (at the skeletal itches) and discoordination (during the sans between skeletal itches) between arts. This is true harmonically as well as rhythmically, and in my music, I was able to exaggerate this dierence between harmonic coordination and discoordination by eloying tertian harmonies at the structural oints but leaving the intervening harmonies to be determined incidentally by the aths o multile indeendent melodic lines. The our most iortant harmonic oints o each colotomic unit are: mm. 7-8, a minor mm , -shar minor mm. 2-24, d-shar major mm. 1-2, c minor The harmonies listed above are oten colored with additional notes, usually a major or minor seventh or a minor sixth above the root.. The harmonies between these oints are less likely to be tertian. Coordination vs.discoordination as a Main Dramatic Device As I mentioned in the revious section, it has oten been said that there is no "vertical" harmonic thinking in the creation o the music o the reertory o study; that harmonies are the 27

34 incidental results o multile indeendent horizontal melodic lines. This is sometimes even cited as the main dierence between Western and Asian music. While there is some truth to this, rom studying this music I have come to believe that the musicians are at least aware o when they are vertically coordinated (rhythmically and harmonically) and when they are not, as well as the degree o this coordination or discoordination. The tension-and-release this creates seems to be an integral art o the dramatic energy o this music. Though he doesn't use the terms "coordination" and "discoordination," Morton's oetic descrition o Thai music aints a similar icture: The music "breathes" by contracting to one itch, then exanding to a wide variety o itches, then contracting again to another structural itch, and so on throughout. 20 In Syncretisms, I decided to exaggerate the dierences between coordinated and discoordinated material. My coordinated moments occurring every eight bars at the "A," "B," and "C" colotomic markers are both rhythmically and harmonically coordinated. All o the instruments laying at these oints lay the same motive and "work together" to sell tertian chords. Between these oints, each instrument's art is dominated by its own idiomatic motives (discussed above), and they work indeendently, creating harmonies by chance. To use the term "working indeendently" is to exaggerate. Brinner describes that Central Javanese musicians are never sily ignoring each other and leaving the result to chance; they're working together the create an aesthetically desirable amount o discoordination. 21 My coosition, o course, is a iece o coosed music or Western-trained erormers who exect to ollow a written art but who are not exected to be skilled at irovisation let alone in a 20 David Morton, The Traditional Music o Thailand (Berkeley: University o Caliornia Press, 1976), Benjamin Brinner. Knowing Music, Making Music: Javanese Gamelan and the Theory o Musical Coetence and interaction. (Chicago: The University o Chicago Press, 1995),

35 harmonic and motivic language that is largely unique to this coosition, and certainly not i they have to ay attention to how coordinated their ensemble is while irovising. Instead, I made it my job to control the amount and character o discoordination while coosing. It was an intricate coositional challenge to create a satisyingly discoordinated heterohonic texture. To believe sily that the instincts about western counteroint and voice leading I've been cultivating over the years became, or this roject, guides as to what not to do is actually too easy an answer to this challenge, artly because a colete avoidance o coordination turned out to be rather dull, and artly because each voice in the Southeast Asian musics I am studying still retains an integrity o its own, just as voices in a western contrauntal or chorale texture do. In act, in order to give each voice a style amiliar to Western ears, as I intended to do as art o the remise or this roject, I sometimes eloyed melodic gestures that are amiliar to Westerners rom harmonically coordinated writing, and laced them alternately in more coordinated or less coordinated situations. 22 For exale, in measures , the oboe has two gestures that intentionally sound something like aoggiaturas. (This is one o the oboe's idiomatic identiiers, as described above.) When the ehasized B-lat on the strong beat resolves uwards to the C, it sounds like a resolution because o the ilied F-major chord here. I the oboe art were heard alone, the same gesture a ew beats later could be heard the same way, as D resolving uwards to E. But taken in context, the E is harmonized with G and A-lat, and doesn't much sound like a resolution. The irst gesture was a sort o 'teaser,' intended to lead the ear into execting this recurring idiomatic gesture in the oboe art to behave like an uward resolution. As it turns out, 22 For more detailed accounts o careully crated discoordination in Southeast Asian reertories, see Benjamin Brinner, "Freedom and Formulaity in the 'Suling' Playing o Baak Tarnoangrawit" Asian Music Vol. 24, No. 2 (Sring/Summer 199): 1-7; and "Coetence and Interaction in the Perormance o Pathetan in Central Java." PhD diss, University o Caliornia, Berkeley,

36 it sometimes does and sometimes does not behave this way, and this turned out to be a more intriguing way to create the eect o discoordination than a texture that had no resolutions at all. To make things interesting and a little less redictable, I also inserted some moments o rhythmic (but not necessarily harmonic) coordination at oints other than the colotomic markers. In measure 14, or exale, the accented eighth note tied to a dotted quarter in the second hal o the measure is layed together by three o the ive instruments laying in this section. These moments are always motivically distinct rom the colotomic marker motives so that no conusion should arise as to the iece's orm. That "coordination vs. discoordination" is a major orce in Southeast Asian music is an attitude I arrived at mysel based mostly on listening analysis. While evidence suorting this view can be ound in the writing o other scholars, some o those writers have ound other ways o raming the issue. Matusky, writing seciically o certain erormance ractices in arts o Malaysia, describes an interlay between long, vibrato-less notes ("dead" notes) which are broken u with swit lurries o melodic igures. 2 I was not able to locate any recordings o music that eatured this articular technique, and I did not eel coortable emulating it just rom a written descrition, so I did not include anything like it in Syncretisms. In any case, it seems like it might be a notably dierent organization rom that observed in the melodies in the reertory o study or this thesis: it sounds rom the descrition that the unornamented material (the "dead" notes) is longer in roortion than the colicated material (the melodic lurries). This is the oosite roortion rom the music I have been studying, which eatures long colicated sections (the "discoordinated" sections) broken u with only brie oints o relative silicity (the skeletal itches). 2 Patricia Matusky and Tan Sooi Beng, The Music o Malaysia: The Classical, Folk, and Syncretic Traditions, (Hashire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2004), 2. 0