Matyas Seiber s Permutazioni er Cinque Graham Hair Acknowledgement The research on which this aer has been based was made ossible by a grant rom the Arts and Humanities Research Board o the United Kingdom.... It remains the tragedy o the urooted comoser to substitute olyglot versatility or the security o a national tradition.... The violent cross-currents o artistic inluences... may easily result in a creative deadlock or in an encycloaedic rolixity o style. Seiber manages skilully to steer clear o both dangers, but only at the exense o musical substance... (Redlich 1954, 148). These smug, atronising comments rom the then Proessor o Music at Manchester University can easily be deconstructed, viewed rom the ersective o 50 years on. Nevertheless, Redlich was undoubtedly right about Seiber s olyglot versatility. It s just that in an age o trans-national biograhies, olyglot versatility has come to be viewed much more ositively in 2004 than in 1954. Even in the context o the huge variety o exression o which Seiber was master, and the many dierent tyes o works which had come rom Seiber s en by the time he turned 50 in 1955, Permutazioni er Cinque reresents something o a dearture, and certainly does demonstrate his ease with olyglot versatility. To turn rom the intense melodic esressivity o Seiber s Third String Quartet, written in the early 1950s, to the chiry rhythmic bounce o Permutazioni er Cinque or wind quintet, written in 1958, is to turn to a comletely dierent world: rom autumn to sring, rom darker shades to bright colours, rom serioso to giocoso, rom a quasi-symhonic work to a divertimento. Nevertheless, it was not in Seiber s comositional ersonality to treat the comosition o such a divertimento as a trivial matter. Even such small roductions had a ull measure o care and attention lavished on them, and, as we shall see, Permutazioni maniests quite a ew interesting new turns in Seiber s musical develoment. In terms o cultural lineage, Permutazioni also reresents a turn rom a style which we could term ost-bergian to a ost-webernian one. This is not to suggest that Seiber s style is merely eigonal, in either case: merely to give an imression o the articular genealogy o its style in terms o the comositional ractice o the revious generation. Moreover to ursue the genealogical analogy urther or a moment it takes only a little scratching below the surace to discover additional admixtures o genes in Seiber s style, taken as a whole, as my remarks below on certain quasi-stravinskian aroaches to orm in Permutazioni indicate. To be sure, one o the eatures o the style o Permutazioni is the brevity o all o its rincial motis, and the way they are ut together to orm hrases and textures surely recalls that dialogue o sound and silence which the rising generation o comosers ater World War II ound so novel and so suggestive in Webern s music, and one o the several eatures which lead to the dubbing o the 1950s by some historians as the
ost-webern era. Indeed, in what ollows I shall have occasion to make seciic reerences to articular assages in Permutazioni and comare them to articular assages in certain works by Webern. Perhas one could go urther and suggest that like many orward-thinking comosers o mature years (though he was, o course, only in his mid-ities in 1958) o our or any other time (Haydn and Stravinsky come to mind in this regard), Seiber was simly learning rom what the younger generation were u to, but recasting what he learned in terms which were very much his own. Hugh Wood suggests that this little work anticiates new directions which Seiber s work might have taken had he lived a ew years longer. In act, the light, divertimento-like nature o Permutationi masks the considerable otentialities o the ideas on which it was ounded; and, alas, these ideas were never to be worked out in his work. (Wood 1970: 890) To be sure, the works written immediately ater Permutationi (such as the Violin Sonata, Imrovisations or Jazz Band and Symhony Orchestra and the ballet The Invitation) show ew signs o the new directions to which Wood reers, but Seiber had only two more years to live and a longer gestation eriod might well have ermitted the realisation o the concetions hinted at in Permutationi in a more thorough-going way. One o Wood s considerable otentialities indeed, one o the most immediately-striking asects o Permutazioni, and something which makes the work quite dierent rom Ulysses and the Third String Quartet is its aroach to orm. The instrumentation, reoccuation with rhythm, and ormal idiosyncracy o Permutazioni, taken together, surely call to mind that most inluential o twentieth-century works rom the ormal oint o view, Stravinsky s Symhonies o Wind Instruments. Edward Cone s celebrated article in the initial 1962 issue o the journal Persectives o New Music on the ormal rocedures o the Symhonies (Cone 1962) oints to several eatures which immediately also strike the most casual listener in Permutazioni. For examle: an idea is initiated, but beore its characteristics are ully develoed, it is interruted by a second idea, and erhas by a third. Ideas thus let hanging are later taken u again as material or variation, truncation, extended recaitulation, transormation into new ideas, or interenetration with ideas already heard, and so on. Seiber s own descition, quoted by Wood, conveys something o this: The various elements constantly enter into new connections with each other so that at every moment dierent musical situations, so to seak, arise in a rather unredictable way. (Wood 1970: 889) The result is a non-linear orm, in which the thread o continuity ollows a tortuous, winding course, which some writers (Pierre Boulez, amongst others) have designated as labyrinthine. More recently, ollowing u some hints ut orth by Stravinsky himsel, Richard Taruskin (1996) has shown that the orm o the Symhonies o Wind Instruments may derive rom certain asects o the Russian Orthodox Funeral Service (Symhonies was, ater all, written in memoriam Claude Debussy). Nevertheless, Cone s analysis still stands as a convincing account o the ormal asect o the work. Permutazioni, likewise, may suggest some kind o mysterious ceremony, but not, as ar as I can ascertain, a traditional one o this kind: erhas some kind o imaginary modern dance routine. On the other hand, its light-hearted character, bordering at times on the humorous, is, o course, comletely dierent rom the rather sober, unereal exression embodied in the Symhonies.
Nevertheless, I hoe to show that the labyrinthine orm o Permutazioni is not simly a messy collage, or an illogical mosaic o bits and ieces, but is constructed with a controlling sense o coherent shaing. The act that we cannot easily categorise its atterns according to ormal stereotyes should not reclude a riori an account which demonstrates such coherence. In order to do this, I shall attemt a blow-by-blow account o the way in which I hear this iece. This may not be quite the same as the way in which it was comosed, but Seiber s notes on the structure o Permutazioni in the Seiber Archive in the British Library (including a air coy o the score in black ink, with annotations in brilliant red ink written uon it) do seem to lead us along a trajectory o thought which give us a retty good sense o the comositional rocess, at least in a general way. My sense o the urose o these annotations is that maybe Seiber wanted to have by him an aide-memoire to which he might later reer, when he comosed other ieces, and i that is so, Hugh Wood s 1970 conjecture about the new comositional directions imlied in Permutazioni was indeed correct, but Seiber simly never lived to realise them. Herewith, then, is a blow-by-blow account (but with several asides, romted by curious and interesting things which rise to attention as we roceed!) through Permutazioni. For the uroses o my argument, I have divided the work into ten sections. This is robably not the only way in which the work could be artitioned, but it seems to me lausible. Section One (bars 1 10) The work begins with a two-hrase musical idea. Since these hrases answer one another (in a sense we shall describe below), I shall use the traditional nomenclature to describe them: antecedent and consequent. But these hrases are ramed by a kind o anare a call to attention which is laid out according to the ollowing rhetorical ormat: Fanare > Antecedent > Fanare > Consequent > Fanare. The anare also rovides the rincial harmonic moti o the iece. One might thus comare the anare s role in the iece to that o the irst 5 bars o Beethoven s Fith Symhony. As in Beethoven 5, the role o the anare is to rovide a oint o demarcation: to announce a new section or the end o an old one, to rovide material or develoment and then to orm the basis o the eroration with which the work ends. Given that Permutazioni is scored or 5 wind instruments, it is idiomatically aroriate that such a rincial harmonic moti should take the orm o a 5-note chord layed by all the instruments in rhythmic unison. Distinctive also is its three-reeated-note (double-ubeat) rhythm, and inally, this rincial harmonic moti is distinctive in its idiosyncratic combination o intervals and voicing. Reading rom the bottom u, we have intervals o 8, 7, 6 and 5 semitones: Examle 1: Permutazioni, bar 1 In addition to these intervallic (8, 7, 6, 5, 4) and textural (rhythmic unison) characteristics, we should also call attention to its eatures o articulation (staccato) and rhythm (three reetitions). These our eatures are sometimes modiied as the iece goes along, but enough o them are maintained at its many recurrences or us
to be able to connect the varied maniestations with the original moti. We know that the character o this moti was at the oreront o Seiber s mind when comosing Permutazioni, or his manuscrit notes in the Seiber Archive in the British Library show that he wrote down all 24 ermutations o the voicing o the our intervals 8, 7, 6, 5, eliminating as he went along those which roduced octave relications. The succession 8, 7, 5, 6, or examle, was rejected or this reason, and all other ermutations in which the intervals 7 and 5 are adjacent. This reduced the ossible voicings to 18, most o which are used at some oint or other in Permutazioni. In the assage under discussion, as we have already observed, the anare initiates and terminates the section, and rovides a divider between its two hrases (antecedent and consequent). We shall now call this section as a whole (bars 1 10) the rincial theme. The relationshi o divider and terminator to the initiator is that o truncation and exansion resectively. The divider takes the same rhythmic attern and textural ormat (rhythmic unison) and the same staccato articulation, but alies them to a single interval (o 4 semitones). The terminator exands the original idea by adding an ubeat and sreading the initiator s series o intervals (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 semitones) over two dierent chords (interval-structures, resectively, reading uwards: 4, 5, 6 and 7, 8, 8, 7) 1 2 4 5 6 9 10 Examle 2: Permutazioni, bars 1 10 The result is, clearly, a 4-chord sequence built rom (resectively) our dierent adjacent intervals (5, 6, 7 and 8), then rom one (4), then rom three (4, 5 and 6) and inally rom two (7 and 8). A dierent kind o grouing rincile (which nevertheless also involves grous o 1, 2, or 4 items) inorms the shaing o the antecedent/consequent air which is ramed by this anare. In this chater s oening remarks, I reerred to the embryonic ost-webernian character o Permutazioni. One could even relate the oening to a seciic assage in Webern: that o the celebrated Concerto or Nine Instruments, which likewise begins with a concatenation o our tiny elements (trichords in Webern s case: the locus classicus o what Milton Babbitt had designated as a derived series, where one hears, in succession, our orms o the same trichord summing to a twelve-tone series). 4
1 2 Flute Clarinet Oboe Trumet Examle : Webern: Concerto or Nine Instruments, bars 1 In the initial antecedent hrase o the irst theme Permutazioni, the our elements are motis o 4,, 2 and 1 notes, resectively. One might even interret Seiber s assage as taking Webern o in an aectionately humorous way, given the use o rests to rame each tiny moti in a halo o silence. Humour or not, the hrase also relates to the anare moti in a structurally signiicant way. Consider the intervals o these motis, and irstly the -note moti o the clarinet (intervals: 10 and 9) and the two-note moti o the bassoon (interval: 11): in sum, large intervals, comlementing the medium-sized ones o the anares (4, 5, 6, 7 and 8). We might thus anticiate that the remaining moti (the lute s 4-note igure trilet igure) would comlement these igures with the small intervals (1, 2 and ), and thus comlete the aggregate o all 11 interval-classes. In the consequent hrase which is to ollow, that is indeed what Seiber writes. Just here, in the antecedent hrase in bar 1, however, he laces an excetional ( wrong ) orm o the 4-note moti (intervals: 4, and 11), brought about artly by octave dislacement: a wry, humorous gesture o transgression, erhas? Or erhas merely an excetion designating the moti s inciit status? At any rate, the moti reverts to what, in the context o the work as a whole, we can regard as its normal orm (intervals: 1, 2 and ) in the ollowing consequent hrase (bars 5-9). m 2 4 Examle 4: Permutazioni, bars 1 4 Let us turn now to the consequent hrase, irstly in terms o its intervallic structure: Flute and Bassoon 4-note trilet motis: intervals 1, 2 and. Clarinet -note moti: intervals 9 and 11. Horn -note moti: intervals 7 and 5. Two-note motis (clarinet > horn > oboe > bassoon): intervals 6, 10, 8 and 4. In rhetorical terms, the consequent hrase resents an exanded variant o the antecedent. The antecedent consists o one moti o 4 notes, one o, one o 2 and one o 1, whereas the consequent consists o one moti o 1, our o 2, two o and our o 4. The two hrases are arallel in that, in broad terms, they swee down 5
rom the uer register to the lower in both cases. They are arallel but retrograde-related in rhetorical shae as the ollowing summary demonstrates. Antecedent motis: 4 notes (lute) > (clarinet) > 2 (bassoon) > 1 (horn) Consequent motis: (a) Princial line: 1 note (oboe) > 2, 2, 2 and 2 (clarinet > horn > oboe and bassoon) > and (clarinet > horn) > 4 (bassoon) (b) Accomanying contrauntal descant : 4, 4 and 4 (all lute). 5 6 7 8 9 "Descant" Princial Line Examle 5: Permutazioni, bars 5 9 This summarises most o the main structural asects o the rincial theme, which overall, because o its antecedent/consequent airing o hrases seems to ollow essentially a classical eriod attern. We have not thus ar mentioned its general character, excet by imlication. We shall reer to it as the giocoso theme in order to contrast it with what ensues as the work unolds. Section Two (bars 10 21) Immediately ollowing comes a contrasting theme, based on variants o a new moti. This new moti also consists o 4 notes. To distinguish it rom the trilet moti o the giocoso theme, we shall call it the cantabile moti. Its characteristic rhythm, also new, is crotchet > quaver > crotchet > quaver. This new 4-note moti is given out by the bassoon. Its intervals are 9, 10 and 11 semitones. Its shae is also imortant: rising and alling, an inverted arabola. Bassoon 10 esress. 6 Examle 6: Permutazioni, bars 10 11 But although this is a new moti, the two tiny develoment hrases which ollow and are built uon it develoments o the kind we might call unolding develoments (entwicklungen) share with the irst theme a structure o small overlaing units, along the lines o the oening o the Webern Concerto (c Examle
, above). Indeed the Webernian character could be said to be even more marked here, as the our units are overlaing transormations o the bassoon moti. By that I mean that they share the bassoon s rhythmic moti, but have dierent intervallic characters: Flute 12 1 14 Oboe Clarinet Horn Examle 7: Permutazioni, bars 12 14 The dierent intervallic characters, taken together, sum to an intervallic aggregate structure, as we can see i we tabulate the intervallic characteristics o each: Phrase 1 (c Examle 7): our versions o the moti (o 4, 4, 4 and notes resectively): Flute: Cantabile moti, contour inversion, intervals 9, 10 and 11 Clarinet: Cantabile moti, intervals 6, 7 and 8 Oboe: Cantabile moti, contour inversion, intervals 5, 4 and Horn: Cantabile moti truncated (-note version), intervals 2 and 1 Phrase 2, in which the moti is heard in reduced -note orm ( liquidated, to use Schoenberg s term) assed amongst all 5 instruments: Flute: Cantabile moti, varied and truncated, intervals 11 and 10 Clarinet: Cantabile moti, contour inversion, varied and truncated, intervals 5 and 6 Oboe: Cantabile moti, contour inversion, varied and truncated, intervals 9 and 8 Bassoon: Cantabile moti, varied and truncated, intervals 7 and 4 Horn: Cantabile moti, varied, truncated, and elongated, intervals and 1 This use o intervallic aggregates is, o course, something which this second cantabile theme shares with the oening giocoso one. At this oint we ause or an aside, since another way o looking at the intervallic aggregate o the second art o Examle 7 (bars 12 14) is as a lute moti assed to clarinet, then oboe then horn, undergoing a characterchange in the rocess (because o the contrasting intervals assigned to each instrument). This may remind us 7
Violin 1 Violin 2 Andante esressivo (q = 70) 286 287 288 m 289 290 291 m m Viola m m m Violoncello m m Vln. 1 292 29 294 m 295 296 297 m sub Vln. 2 m sub Vla. Vc. m m sub m sub Examle 7A: Elliott Carter: Second String Quartet, bars 286 297 8
o a similar rocess o instrumental characterisation which aears in (or examle) Elliott Carter s Second String Quartet comosed in the same year (1958) as Permutazioni and later develoed by Carter in much more elaborate and extensive ways. Our examle is the beginning o the slow movement o Carter s quartet (see Examle 7A). Phrase 1: The movement begins with a 5-note rising igure in the viola, groued as 1++1. This igure is imitated by the cello: again a 5-note rising igure, groued 1++1, but outlining a dierent succession o intervals. Note that the attern o dynamics (crescendo-decrescendo) is also shared. The last three notes o the cello s igure are then imitated by the irst violin: same shae and rhythm, dierent intervals. Phrase 2: a -note alling igure (groued as 2+1), descrescendo, assed rom viola to second violin to irst violin. Phrase : a descending, decrescendo 2-note igure with an exressive emhasis on the irst note. It is assed rom viola (descending tritone) to irst violin (descending minor third) to cello (descending minor seventh) to second violin (descending major third). Phrase 4: a three-note igure, rising and alling, crescendo-diminuendo, but each instrument is characterised by very dierent intervallic and rhythmic eatures. O course, Carter s concet o musical discourse as a kind o dramatic dialogue o instrumental characters deends ultimately on dierentiation o behaviour in a more extensive sense than in this small excert, but indeed Seiber s sense o dramatic dialogue in Permutazioni also becomes more extensive as the work roceeds. It rogressively calls into lay more extremes o rhetorical dierentiation, a rocess which reach its zenith in the cadenza assage (bars 140 169). Returning to our assage in section 2, we may note that this little unolding rocess is then cut short by what we shall call a third moti: its role o bringing an unolding rocess to a conclusion suggests that we should call it a cadence moti. The moti consists o a lourish (a raid 8-note gruetto) in octaves and multile octaves between lute and bassoon (bar 19). Desite this octave doubling, the variation between single-octave doubling and multile-octave doubling allows the contour o lute and bassoon arts to dier, thus enabling the intervals o the two arts to be either similar and dierent. The result is: lute 6, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 6, 11 and bassoon 6, 5, 5, 4,, 10, 6, 11. Flute 19 m Bassoon m Examle 8: Permutazioni, bar 19 This cadence moti is, however, ollowed by an aterthought (anhang), which comletes the set o intervals outlined in the cadence lourish: a chord on horn and clarinet (interval 4) and a scra o melody, which is a remniscence o the lute s 4-note trilet moti rom theme 1, but with the cantabile character o the moti on 9
which theme 2 is built (intervals, 2 and 1). Oboe Horn & Bassoon 20 21 esress. Examle 9:Permutazioni, bars 19 21 I have analysed this lourish moti and its aterthought in terms o its comlementary intervallic content, in the light o the structure o both the giocoso theme and the cantabile one, which seem to be conceived in such terms. However, it is robably signiicant that the lourish also consists o eight dierent itch-classes: a truncated itch-class aggregate in act. Subsequent develoments o this lourish moti suggest that we should think o it as an embryonic twelve-tone aggregate to comlement the twelve-interval aggregates on which we have been ocussing attention. Most o Permutazioni is not conceived in twelve-tone terms, but twelve-tone aggregates or even, as we shall later see twelve-tone series (ie ordered series, not just collections o twelve items) do occasionally emerge. To conclude this discussion o the second theme, we may notice that its overall shae seems to ollow a classical sentence attern (statement o an idea > liquidation o its main eatures > cadence hrase) with an added aterthought: quite dierent rom the irst theme s eriod attern o balancing antecedent and consequent hrases. The two themes are thus contrasted in structure as well as in character. Section Three (bars 21 5) The stage is now set or a dialogue between the various motis and characters (anare, giocoso, cantabile, lourish) which have been exosed in the course o utting together these two themes during the work s irst 21 bars. The third section, starting at the change o temo (crotchet = MM 90, in the second hal o bar 21), begins with a develoment, or more recisely another unolding (entwicklung), this time based on versions o the motis heard during the course o the giocoso irst theme. The unolding is built uon a selection o very short rhythmic motis, and a limited set o intervals: material which is laid out by the bassoon hrase which initiates this section (bars 21 2). Four motis are exosed, all o them derived rom the giocoso theme, and the hrase is also built on a selection o 5 o the 11 ossible interval-classes. The 4 motis (a, b, c and d) and the intervals 6*, 5, 4*, 7 and * (comound intervals, in the case o the three asterisked intervals) are indicated in Examle 10: 10
Bassoon A 6 B 5 C 4 7 D Examle 10: Permutazioni, bars 21 2 This use o comound intervals or the giocoso material is retty well new: only the interval 6 (in bar 6) was comound in the irst aearance o the giocoso theme at the beginning o the work (bars 1 10). These comound intervals in bars 21 1 accentuate the giocoso character, that is aroriately, or an unolding section the unolding rocess intensiies the character o the material on which it is based. The unolding section builds u rom this single voice (bassoon) to two voices (add clarinet), to three (add oboe) to ive, although the ive-voice culmination is o +2 texture: voices in rhythmic unison (oboe, clarinet and bassoon), with the other 2 voices (lute and horn) counterointed against them. The two counterointing voices are in close rhythmic canon at the distance o a quaver: a Webernian characteristic which can be comared with the oening o Webern s Saxohone Quartet, and which will be taken u more extensively later in Permutazioni: 6 7 8 9 10 11 Flute Examle 11: Webern: Saxohone Quartet, irst movement, bars 6 11 m Horn m Examle 12: Permutazioni, bars 29 1 This unolding section treats both the rhythmic motis and the interval-class succession in certain quite recisely-comosed ways. Thus, i we annotate the bassoon s oening rhythmic-moti succession as a b c d and its intervallic succession 6* 5 4* 7 *, as in Examle 10 above, the clarinet hrase which enters in bar 11
24 states the ollowing ermutations: a c b d and 7 6 4 5 * and continues at bar 26 with c d a b and 6 4 5 8 * (the 8 is an oddball excetion) while the oboe enters with c b a d and 6 7 4* 5 *. In other words we have here a kind o invention based on ermutations o 4 rhythmic motis and ermutations o a succession o 5 intervals. At this oint, the lute and horn enter and set u a +2 texture (bars 29 1): a double-layered textural dialogue with the three instruments already laying: (i) The lute/horn layer comrises 2-voiced counteroint in close rhythmic imitation; both lute and horn resent the moti-ermutation d c b a with the interval- ermutation 6* 7 * 4 5* (lute) lus 4* 5 6* * 7* (horn). (ii) For the oboe/clarinet/basson layer we have a -voiced rhythmic unison; all three instruments resent the moti-ermutation c d a b with the interval-ermutation * 5 4* 6 7* (oboe) lus two irregular successions or clarinet and bassoon: * 6 4* 5 8* and * 7 4* 4 9 resectively (ossibly due to misrints in the score?). But desite certain deliberate or inadvertent transgressions o the ormation-rincile behind this assage, we can see rom the ollowing table that essentially just 6 o the ossible 24 ermutations o the 4 motis are actually used. Some o the others aear in later assages, however. Bar 21 24 26 29 ( +2 texture) Flute Oboe Clarinet Horn Bassoon a b c d 6* 5 4* 7 * a c b d 7 6 4 5 * a d c b 6* 5 4* 7 * c b a d 6* 7 4* 5 * c d a b 6 4 5 8 * c d a b 6* 5 4* 7 * d c b a 6* 7 * 4 5* c d a b * 5 4* 6 7* c d a b * 6 4* 5 8* d c b a 4* 5 6* * 7* c d a b * 7 4* 4 9* From this table, one can see that what we have here in section is a assage which comlements what has taken lace during sections 1 and 2 in various ways. The use o a dierent kind o develoment is one such way: in lace o the unolding rocess (entwicklungsrocess) which we have had hitherto, characterised by a concentration on motivic narrative, as the term unolding imlies, at this oint the themes are led through some dramatically dierent new contexts (durchührungen). The aearance o more obviously cumulative shaing o material is another change indicative o this new level o develoment rocess. More seciically imortant or later sections o the iece is the idea o a assage based on a restricted bunch o interval-classes (, 4, 5, 6, 7) in lace o sections based on aggregates o all eleven interval-classes. In this resect, the assage suggests comositional thinking related more seciically to those o other works o this mid-1950s eriod. Another work based on the interlay o aggregates o intervals and restricted intervalbunches is Milton Babbitt s Second String Quartet, comosed in 1954, in which a sequence o assages based on dierent restricted bunches o intervals recede and lead u to a culminating assage where an all-interval 12
Violin 1 Violin 2 Viola q = 96 m m m m m m Violoncello Violin 1 Viola q = 72 con sord. Examle 12B: Milton Babbitt: Second String Quartet, bars 1- con sord. m m m m m m m Violoncello con sord. m m Vln. 1 m m m Vla. Vc. m m m m Examle 12C: Milton Babbitt: Second String Quartet, bars 9 96 m m m 1
series emerges. Seiber and Babbitt knew one another quite well; they were, or examle, both delegates to the ISCM in 1952, Babbitt as the American reresentative, Seiber as the British one, and ten years ater Seiber s death, when The Musical Times ran a series o tributes in memoriam Matyas Seiber, Babbitt was one o the contributors. So it is quite ossible that this structural eature in Permutazioni was more than a matter o the general structural zeitgeist, and a quite conscious relationshi to a articular comoser and work. However that may be, Examle 12A shows the eventual all-interval series o Babbitt s Second String Quartet, as it occurs at bar 266: Violin 2 m Examle 12A: Milton Babbitt: Second String Quartet, bars 266 268 Comare this with Examle 12B, the quartet s oening (bars 1 ), which is based entirely on the irst interval o this series (the interval ) only, and Examle 12C, the slow movement section, based entirely on the extracted tetrachord (interval-sequence 5 9 1) ormed by notes through 6 o the series. This unolding assage is then terminated by another raming aearance o the original anare moti. Here we see most o the eatures o the moti rom its original orm: note the same rhythmic igure and staccato articulation with intervals, reading uwards, o 5, 6 7, 8, although one can also notice that the horn comonent has been rhythmically dislaced by a semiquaver (icking u, erhas, the eature o close canon rom the climactic assage o the immediately-receding develoment section), thus modiying the 5-voiced rhythmic unison textural ormat to become a 4+1 texture. This 4+1 texture then gives rise immediately to a ourvoiced aterbeat (intervals 7, 6 and 5).. Examle 1: Permutazioni, bars 2 Like the second section, this third section then concludes with the introduction o a new 8-note moti, which we shall call, given its textural character, the klangarben moti: a series o 8 isolated single notes and a concluding air, outlining intervals which comlement those o the anare moti (4,, 2, 1, 10, 9 and 11). m 14
Examle 14: Permutazioni, bars 4 Again, this klangarben moti is ramed by the anare moti, which, however, aears in yet another new guise: still recognisable rom its rhythmic igure (the -note igure c, to use the nomenclature introduced above), its rhythmic unison textural ormat (but now with only 4 voices, not 5) and its staccato articulation, but this time its harmonic character is modiied (intervals rom bottom to to:, 2 and 1). 5 15 Examle 15: Permutazioni, bar 5 Section Four (bars 6 44) This brings us to section our, and we are now able to see a larger-scale attern o events emerging rom these ragmentary musical moti-grous, or the basic shae o the section again consists o a develoment o a reviously-heard idea, ollowed by a new idea as cadence hrase and the whole ramed by a version o the anare moti. This ourth section (temo 66) begins at bar 6. First comes a develoment o the cantabile material. There is no truncation rocess at this aearance. Four statements o the cantabile moti aear: three are comlete (4-note) versions, the other an exanded (5-note) version. Indeed, rom the rhythmic (or at least the durational) oint o view, the moti is actually exanded: in lace o the original crotchet > quaver > crotchet > quaver attern, each o the our notes is now a dotted crotchet. The ollowing table summarises the intervallic characteristics (bars 6 41). Bassoon: intervals 5, 6, 7 and 8 (exanded version) Clarinet: intervals 9, 10 and 11 Oboe: intervals 5, 6, 7 and 8 Flute: intervals 9, 10 and 11 (contour inversion o the clarinet art) Although in the receding aragrah I described the cadence hrase as a new idea, it could be construed as a version o the lourish moti, or it consists o a raid 7-note gruetto in the horn (muted and cuivré). Like the lourish moti, it consists o a series o dierent itch-classes, and could thus be seen as an embryonic twelve-tone aggregate, and indeed very deinitely, in this case as an embryonic twelve-tone series, or its ordering o intervals is 1, 2,, 4, 5, 6 and 7, a reliminary, ragmentary version o what will ultimately become a twelve-tone series incororating the interval-aggregate, ie an all-interval series. Because its structure is based on a sequence o dierent itch-classes as well as dierent interval-classes, I will call it the twelve-tone
lourish moti, desite the act that it contains only seven itch-classes at this oint! Examle 16: Permutazioni, bar 42 Again, the ourth section, like sections 1 and o what has receded, is ramed by the anare moti, but now in a transormation which will have larger consequences or the later course o the work. Again we have three reeated 5-note chords, but just as the third section closed by alying new intervals (, 2 and 1) to this chord, it aears here in tandem with yet another new set o intervals (8, 9, 10 and 11). Moreover, although the reeated-note rhythm is retained, the length o the chords and the ianissimo dynamic means that the original giocoso character is much dissiated. Clearly, this is a more ar-reaching transormation o the anare moti. Indeed we will give it a new name: the sostenuto moti. Its signiicance is that it becomes the basis o an extended develoment section (o the durchühring tye) later on, whereas the original orm o the anare moti has had essentially a signalling (non-develomental) unction u to this oint. Examle 17: Permutazioni, bars 4 44 Section Five (bars 45 76) The motivic, structural and character atterns which have been established during the irst our sections are taken urther in section ive. Like sections three and our, section ive oens with a develoment hrase, develoing material (the twelve-tone lourish moti) which has not until this oint been subjected to any real develoment (indeed has only occurred en assant hitherto); again a new moti is subsequently introduced (at bar 48). But section ive is also the terminal section o what we shall call the exository rocess: ater its conclusion (in bar 76), no signiicantly new material is thereater introduced in the remaining 187 bars o the work, though various new transormations o the material laid out in the exosition do later aear. Section ive is thereore also culminating in character in another sense: ater the develoment o the twelvetone lourish moti, the music circles back to bring together some o the material which has occurred earlier and which will acquire greater signiicance in the later rogress o the work. This includes the irst comlete statement o the twelve-tone lourish with all twelve interval-classes and all twelve itch-classes in lace at the same time (bars 55 56), and an extended develoment o a version o the cantabile motive which aeared as a mere aterthought hrase at the end o section two (bars 20 21). The reason or highlighting this aarently insigniicant aterthought is not really very aarent in section ive itsel, but its signiicance becomes evident later, when it orms one o the three motis which are used to construct a long cadenza-like assage (bars 16 169), which in general character (relaxed and imrovisational) is a oil to the intense motivic consistency and concentration and the technical rigour o most o the rest o the work. 16
So section ive begins with a develoment o the twelve-tone lourish moti. It starts out with a 7-note gruetto (7 dierent notes outlining 6 dierent intervals), rather similar to the version o the lourish moti which was heard near the end o the revious section (in bar 42), though it is not just a transosition or other obvious transormation o the 7-note gruetto heard there, but a ermutation (5 6 4 2 1) o the interval attern o bar 42 (1 2 4 5 6). This version o the lourish moti is then develoed by extension. The extensions consist o urther gruetti (o 4, 5, 4 and 4 notes in turn). This time the twelve-tone asect o the moti is not just embryonic, however, or these gruetti exand the moti to a length o 24 notes in all, and these 24 notes between them sell out two comlete twelve-tone aggregates (though they are aggregates unrelated by any o the usual twelve-tone transormations transosition, inversion, retrogression and combinations thereo and thus must be counted as indeendent series rom the twelve-tone oint o view). The exansion o this twelve-tone lourish moti, rom a single 7-note gruetto in bar 42 into a hrase o 5 gruetti and 24 notes in the course o bars 45 49, also allows sace or the comletion o the intervalaggregate (o all 11 interval-classes) as well, by outlining the intervals 7, 10 and 11 (in the irst 4-note gruetto), and then the intervals 9 and 8 (in the initial two intervals o the 5-note gruetto). Taking these last two intervals as common, the remaining 10 intervals also sell out (well almost! - with the excetion o the reeated 2 in lace o 11 ) an interval-class aggregate. 5 6 4 2 1 7 10 11 9 8 6 2 1 10 2 5 4 7 17 Examle 18: Permutazioni, bars 45 48 Picking u the rhythmic dislacement rocess which was alied to the giocoso moti (in bars 29 1) and the anare moti (in bar 2), this develoment rocess roceeds in the same way, by canonic imitation at the octave: clarinet answered by oboe an octave higher answered by lute an octave higher again. Then the inal new moti is introduced. We shall call it the horn-call moti, rom its irst aearance, which is indeed in the horn (in bar 48), though it is assed back and orth between horn and oboe in the course o unolding into a comlete hrase. Its distinctive eatures are its dramatic character, its rhythm (using syncoation and quaver trilets), and a redominance o wide intervals (8, 9, 11, 5 ollowed by 11, 9, 8 ollowed by 10, 6, * ollowed by 4*, 10, *), where asterisks indicate comound intervals. 8 9 11 5 11 9 8 10 6 9 4 10 Examle 19: Permutazioni, bars 48 55 This horn-call moti is accomanied by a moti which combines characteristics o the anare moti (see bar 1) and the c element o the giocoso iguration (see bar 2) on the basis o the rhythmic igure which is common to both. But this time, both the reeated-note element and the rhythmic-unison textural ormat are eliminated in avour o a melodic eature: a conjunction o the intervals 2 and 1, orming a trichord igure which will be
icked u again later in the iece. Examle 20: Permutazioni, bars 51 55 Like section two, this irst art o section ive comes to a halt with the twelve-tone lourish moti (orming a cadential hrase) ollowed by an aterthought hrase, recisely like the end o section two (bars 19 21). s 18 esress. Examle 21: Permutazioni, bars 55 60 This twelve-tone lourish moti outlines the twelve-tone succession F, G A lat, D lat G lat, C, A, B D shar, D, B lat, E (intervals 2, 1, 7, 5, 6,, 10, 4, 11, 4, 6: viz an aggregate o eleven interval-classes minus the 8 and the 9). The aterthought which ollows (bars 57 60) resents the characteristic elements o the aterthought moti, drawn rom the aterthought at the end o section two (bars 20 21): a 4-note clarinet moti (intervals 4, and 2) accomanied by a dyad (interval 1) on horn and oboe, with a rhythmic character consisting o an inciit o adjacent semiquaver attacks, the third o which is a long note, and terminated by a single note to end the hrase. Then inally comes another develoment o the cantabile motive, this time much more extended (bars 61 72), and a terminal statement o the anare moti, more or less in its 5-voiced original orm (intervals 8, 7, 6 and 5), albeit slightly modiied and extended (bars 7 76). m dim. Examle 22: Permutazioni, bars 7 76 This variation o the anare moti rhythm (stuttering grous o 4 attacks, 2 attacks and 1 attack) has extensive imlications or the eroration with which the work is to end, where the reeated-note igure will dominate the dialogue between the reertoire o motis in order to create an intense, emhatic rhetoric, suitable or a inal
climax and conclusion. Thus, at bar 76, ends what we might call the Exosition section o Permutazioni. O course, such a descrition imlies exository tendencies, rather than a section rom which develoment rocesses are excluded altogether, or as we have noted, develoment o two or three dierent tyes has in act occurred. But develoment o a much more ar-reaching kind does begin to make its aearance thereater, so I insist on distinguishing the irst 76 bars rom the idea o a true develoment section er se, beginning at bar 77. Section Six (bars 77 98) The develoment rocess alls into three arts, each quite dierent in character rom the others. The irst art (section 6, bars 77 98) is rather reliminary in nature, and here, or the irst time, the anare moti, which hitherto has layed a signalling role, becomes itsel the subject o develoment. In the course o this develoment, the moti aears in many new variants. Only the giocoso c moti (which, as we have seen, is closely related to the anare moti anyway) and a ragment o the lourish moti interrut this develoment. Section Seven (bars 99 19) Section seven reresents a kind o stock-taking. All the motis heard so ar are heard in new juxtaositions and variants. The assage commences with a mosaic o ragments, abrutly cutting rom one to another, but as the assage roceeds, the sense o ragmentation lessens, because the motis begin to overla one another. So we begin with the mosaic: the cantabile moti (bars 99 104), the sostenuto moti (bars 105 106), the klangarben moti (bars 109 110), and the sostenuto moti again (bars 111 112). Then ollows the assage where overlaing begins: the giocoso material (bars 11 122) overlas the entry o the horn-call moti, whose two hrases (bars 120 125 and 127 1) rovide the section s climax, counterointed against a barrage o shrieking ragments elements o the twelve-tone lourish moti, in octave- and multile octavedoublings (bars 12 11) rom the other our instruments. This horn-call moti inally subsides onto a single extended tone, over which is heard the merest hint o the anare moti (bars 14 15), and then, inally, o the aterthought moti. The aterthought moti, clearly, is introduced at this oint in order to reare or the next section, where it orms the basis o the oboe s cadenza. Section Eight (bars 140 169) Section eight is a long trile cadenza (bars 140 169). This is the section which most nearly realises a Carterian dramatic dialogue o instrumental characters which I reerred to earlier. O the three cadenzas, the irst is or oboe: a brooding, recitativo rubato, built on the rhythmic and thematic material o the aterthought moti, but eaturing the ive intervals 2,, 5, 6 and 8, the last used once only, to considerable dramatic eect, at the end o the irst oboe assage (bar 144 145), just beore the clarinet entry. The second is a brilliant, swirling maelstrom o clarinet assage-work and trills, using only three intervals: 1, 4 and 7. The third returns to the giocoso material on bassoon, also using only three dierent intervals: 9, 10 and 11. Thus with this bassoon cadenza, the interval-class aggregate is comleted. We may note that the whole assage outlines but a single such interval-class aggregate, and thus this is the assage o slowest harmonic rhythm in the entire work. Its 0-bar extent may be comared and contrasted with the various statements o the lourish moti, which occuy merely a bar or two to comlete the interval-class aggregate. 19
While the bassoon s giocoso stutters and eters out, ragments o the clarinet cadenza and then the oboe one are briely recalled. In terms o dramatic contrast and harmonic rhythm, this section is the relaxed, imrovisatory counter-climax, o the iece, contrasting with various dierent sorts o climaxes registral, textural, rhythmic and dynamic occurring elsewhere. Section Nine (bars 170 196) Just as the develoment section began with an extended treatment o the anare moti (section 6), so it ends here with an extended transormation o that moti s alter ego, the sostenuto moti. In the course o this, most o the eatures which originally linked it to the anare moti are urged rom it. The ninth section begins (bars 170 172) with a version o the sostenuto moti, which, to be sure, maniests something o the anare s original intervallic character (intervals rom the bottom u: 8, 7, 6 and 5), but resented now as a long-drawn-out chord (Più lento) and with only a single reetition (which even then, is a rhythmic unison o only 4 or the 5 instruments, under a held lute tone). Later (bars 180 185) it sawns a new outgrowth in the orm o a two-note comound interval moti (intervals 1, 2, and 4), by which time, all vestiges o the anare moti are gone ( killed o, so to seak), though at the end o the section, two inal twitches o it (reduced to 2- and -note chords) licker briely. As in several earlier sections, the cadence-hrase o section 9 is built rom a version o the lourish moti (bars 19 195); the inal twitches o the anare moti thus constitutes a inal reerence to the anare s original raming unction, since these twiches (bars 192 and 196) now rame the cadence-hrase. Examle 2: Permutazioni, bars 192 196 Section Ten (bars 197 26) The stage is now cleared or the return o the anare moti, to bring the work to a dramatic conclusion. Using the kind o oetic descrition ( killed o etc) we have coined in relation to the immediately-receding section, we might aroriately call it a resurrection o the moti, esecially since it takes on a dierent, extended and more vigorous lie. Section ten is thus an u temo eroration and coda (marked, aroriately, stretto). The anare moti dominates throughout, although a ragment o recaitulation (o the irst theme s consequent hrase) also aears within it (bars 205 211), along with statements o the klangarben moti, the sostenuto moti, the giocoso moti ( c version) and the lourish moti. During the course o this eroration, two assages in which the anare and klangarben motis merge (bars 215 220 and 245 249) into a twelve-tone series resented in all-interval order or the irst and only time in the work, roduce a climax o another sort, which we might call a structural climax 20
Examle 24: Permutazioni, bars 215 220 246 247 248 cresc. m m 249 Examle 24A: Permutazioni, bars 245 249 Ater this the remaining 14 bars are given entirely to the inal ecstatic eroration on our versions o the anare moti, using, in order, the intervals 1, 2, and 4 (all comound), then 8, 9, 10 and 11 and inally the version characterised by the intervals 8, 7, 6, 5 (the rincial harmonic moti: a transosition o the orm in which it was heard in the very irst bar o the iece). 250 Intervals (bottom to to) 1 2 4 25 256 262 8 10 9 11 8 7 6 5 8 7 6 5 Examle25: Permutazioni, bars 250 26 Postscrit: Eleven Interval Comosition As a ootnote to the ost-webernian language which Seiber has develoed in this little divertimento, one may note that the lexibility which results rom the way in which Seiber causes the concets o itch-class and register to interenetrate to roduce his own ersonal counterart o the classic Schoenbergian twelve-tone language: viz, a kind o eleven-interval language. The basic structural comonent o this eleven-interval language is the aggregate o interval-classes, which may on occasion, but by no means necessarily or ordinarily be aligned structurally with the aggregate o itch-classes, but where the aggregate o intervalclasses takes recedence and is deinitely what drives the musical structure. 21
In this Seiberian eleven-interval language, the interval-class can be reresented, in any intervallic succession, in two ways. For examle, the interval rom the itch A can be reresented by a C (any C) above the A or by an F shar (any F shar) below the A. Thus, at any oint, there is a choice o two ways in which to reresent the interval-class, and this allows or considerable lexibility in making decisions about how itch-class structures are to relate to other structural arameters involved in the assage in question: to contour or to harmony, or instance. Or, to look at it the other way round: the itch-class succession A C can reresent either o the interval-classes or 9, deending on the choice o register in each case. The ossibilities multily when successions o interval-classes are comosed into successions o itch-classes. To take merely a rather simle and straightorward examle, consider the develoment assage in bars 21 1, based on the 6-note hrase o the solo bassoon, outlining the interval-class succession 6 5 4 7. Without taking into account transositions o this hrase, or the use o octave dislacement, there are in the case o a hrase starting on (say) B 16 ossible itch-class successions which could reresent the interval-class succession 6 5 4 7. Bibliograhy BABBITT, Milton (1970) In Memoriam Matyas Seiber, The Musical Times, 111/151 (Setember), 886 CONE, E T (1962) Stravinsky: the Progress o a Method Persectives o New Music 1/1, 18 26. REDLICH, Hans (1954) Concertante Music or Orchestra, The Music Review 15, 148 150 TARUSKIN, Richard (1996) Stravinsky and the Russian Tradition: A Biograhy o the Works through Mavra (New York & Oxord: OUP) WOOD, Hugh (1970) The Music o Mátyás Seiber, The Musical Times, 111/151 (Setember), 888 891 22