PRACTICAL SPECTRALISM: A PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE SPECTRAL TECHNIQUES IN THE DAMAGES OF GRAVITY BY DAVID LITKE by ERIK MICHAEL FORST (Under the Direction of Timothy K. Adams, Jr.) ABSTRACT Spectral music is a school of compositional thought developed in France in the late 1960s in which composers utilize computer analyses of source sounds to derive pitch, melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and other compositional elements. By its very nature, spectral music as a genre is difficult to define and is often a difficult undertaking for performers. The purpose of this document is to provide performers of spectral music an analytical guide by which to demystify some of the more technical aspects of the genre and thereby aid them in providing more accurate representations of these compositions. By using an entirely new composition, I intend to show how the techniques commonly found in spectral compositions have simultaneously remained consistent over the past four decades as well as changed significantly through the evolution of compositional philosophies and computer technology. INDEX WORDS: Spectral Music, Spectralism, David Litke, Gerard Grisey, Tristan Murail, Percussion
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PRACTICAL SPECTRALISM: A PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE SPECTRAL
TECHNIQUES IN THE DAMAGES OF GRAVITY BY DAVID LITKE
by
ERIK MICHAEL FORST
(Under the Direction of Timothy K. Adams, Jr.)
ABSTRACT
Spectral music is a school of compositional thought developed in France in the late 1960s
in which composers utilize computer analyses of source sounds to derive pitch, melody,
harmony, rhythm, form, and other compositional elements. By its very nature, spectral music as
a genre is difficult to define and is often a difficult undertaking for performers. The purpose of
this document is to provide performers of spectral music an analytical guide by which to
demystify some of the more technical aspects of the genre and thereby aid them in providing
more accurate representations of these compositions. By using an entirely new composition, I
intend to show how the techniques commonly found in spectral compositions have
simultaneously remained consistent over the past four decades as well as changed significantly
through the evolution of compositional philosophies and computer technology.
INDEX WORDS: Spectral Music, Spectralism, David Litke, Gerard Grisey, Tristan Murail,
Percussion
PRACTICAL SPECTRALISM: A PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE SPECTRAL
TECHNIQUES IN THE DAMAGES OF GRAVITY BY DAVID LITKE
by
ERIK MICHAEL FORST
BMUS, The University of Georgia, 2003
MM, The University of Kansas, 2005
A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial
PRACTICAL SPECTRALISM: A PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF THE SPECTRAL
TECHNIQUES IN THE DAMAGES OF GRAVITY BY DAVID LITKE
by
ERIK MICHAEL FORST
Major Professor: Timothy K. Adams, Jr Committee: Adrian Childs Michael Robinson Electronic Version Approved: Julie Coffield Interim Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2015
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would first like to thank David Litke for his tireless work and dedication to this project.
Your talents and assistance have been an immeasurable help to me as I have worked through this
project, and I quite literally could not have done it without you.
I would like to thank Professor Timothy Adams for his guidance and support over the
past five years. Thank you for always pushing me in a new direction.
I would like to thank Drs. Adrian Childs and Michael Robinson for their efforts in
helping me craft this document.
I would like to thank the members of the quartet who helped me premier this work:
Allison Blumenthal, Richard Blumenthal, and Nathaniel Lee. Your commitment has helped to
make this project a reality.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Mandy, and my children, Phoebe and Elijah, without
whose love and endless support this project would not have been possible.
All musical examples provided are used by permission of the composer.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv
A LECTURE SCRIPT ..................................................................................................... 49
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Spectral music is a school of compositional thought and techniques that, by its very
nature, is difficult to define. Since its inception in the late 1960s, composers who based their
compositions on spectral analysis of source sounds have continually shied away from attaching
an all-encompassing label of “genre” or “style” to their works, allowing for their compositions to
evolve freely out of the source material. Joshua Fineberg noted the amorphous nature of spectral
music when he stated that “the most pertinent remark for understanding its meaning was made
by Tristan Murail when he referred to spectral composition as an attitude towards music and
composition, rather than a set of techniques.”1 Gerard Grisey, one of the progenitors of spectral
music, further reinforced this point when he stated, “The spectral adventure…is not a closed
technique but an attitude.”2
Despite spectral music’s resistance to definition, further analysis brings to light certain
elements that are common across most, if not all, the spectralist oeuvre, including the central
belief that music is sound evolving within time.3 Indeed, sound is central to the spectralist, and
the idea of sound as an object composed of many different parts rather than a singular entity
plays a pivotal role in most spectral compositions.4 Advances in sound analysis technology
1 Fineberg, Joshua. “Spectral Music.” Contemporary Music Review 19, part 2 (2000): 2
2 Grisey, Gérard. “Did You Say Spectral?” trans. Joshua Fineberg. Contemporary Music Review 19, part 3 (2000):3
3 Fineberg, “Spectral Music,” 2 4 Moscovich, Viviana. “French Spectral Music: An Introduction.” Tempo, New Series No. 200 (April, 1997): 21
2
allowed composers to see a continuous sound broken down into its component partials, and the
data from such analyses began to be used to inform all aspects of a composition, including form,
pitch content, rhythm, and timbral choices. As a result, certain compositional techniques, such
as instrumental synthesis, began to see common use among the many practitioners of spectral
composition. This technique, as well as the vast array of other approaches, can pose a daunting,
task for any performer to who is not versed in the language of spectralism.
It is the primary goal of this discourse to provide performers of spectral music an
analytical guide by which to demystify some of the more technical aspects of the genre so as to
aid in providing more accurate representations of these compositions. By using an entirely new
composition, I intend to show how the techniques commonly found in spectral compositions
have simultaneously remained consistent over the past four decades as well as changed
significantly through the evolution of compositional philosophies and technology. The result
will provide performers with both a classification system for various spectralist techniques, as
well as a suitable guide by which musicians can more accurately represent those techniques. It is
my hope that by providing this analysis, potential performers of this music may find it to be more
accessible than it initially seems.
Genesis of the Project
In the fall of 2012, I had the distinct pleasure of attending a lecture given by composer
David Litke as part of a seminar class in which I was enrolled that focused primarily on 20th
century French compositional techniques. Litke’s lecture centered on a compositional idiom
known as spectral music, a term given to a school of compositional thought and techniques that
gained popularity in France in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Litke’s lecture dealt not only with
the theories and attitudes behind Spectral composition, but also the technology available to
3
composers to obtain a spectral analysis and to utilize the information in their compositions.
Toward the end of the lecture, Litke presented the class with an example from one of his
own compositions, entitled “Elucide,” which was composed as part of his doctoral thesis at the
University of British Columbia. In this piece, Litke employed a technique common among many
spectral composers known as “instrumental synthesis,” in which a given sound--in this case, a
struck Tibetan prayer bowl--was broken down into its resonant frequencies, and those
frequencies were reassigned to the different members of the ensemble in an attempt to recreate
the source sound. I was immediately fascinated with the result of this technique, and it was then
that I decided to contact Litke regarding a commission that would serve as the basis of my own
doctoral capstone project. The composer promptly agreed, and the project moved forward.
Background of the Composition
The foundation for this document centers on Litke’s new work, entitled The Damages of
Gravity, scored for two pianos, two percussionists, and live electronic processing, and composed
specifically for this project. For inspiration, the composer has drawn upon an installation entitled
“Straight” by controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. This installation, completed in 2012, was
built out of nearly 150 tons of twisted rebar that the artist pulled from the rubble of various
schoolhouses in Sichuan Province (China) that collapsed and killed nearly 5000 schoolchildren
during the powerful earthquake of 2008. Ai’s initial impetus for the installation was to call
attention to the sub-par construction practices Ai and his investigative group found at the
collapsed buildings, which he believed might have led to the extremely high number of fatalities
associated with this event. Ai and his team then spent 3-½ years straightening the rebar by hand
in an effort to return them to their original state. He then arranged the rebar in a flowing and
wavelike landscape that serves both as a reminder to the government of the damage that such
4
shoddy construction practices can cause and as a memorial to the over 5000 schoolchildren and
teachers that lost their lives.5
From the earliest inception of the work, it was clear that Litke had a firm idea of the role
that spectral analysis and compositional techniques would play in this commission. In one of our
earliest email correspondences, Litke outlined an overview of the compositional processes that
would be realized in The Damages of Gravity:
Spectral analysis data will inform the pre-compositional process, and spectral
manipulation techniques will be performed using Max-MSP based processing, weaving
the piece's timbral structures and pitch material together. As well, the piece will exploit
the rhythmic abilities of the ensemble, drawing parallels between the degrees of
harmonicity and degrees of rhythmic regularity. The addition of real-time electroacoustic
projection to the ensemble will aim to facilitate the perceptibility of relationships between
the musical text and the instruments' timbral structures.6
As he began to apply the above compositional processes to the Ai Weiwei installation, Litke
found himself drawn to four philosophical elements he felt were central to “Straight” and are
most thoroughly expressed using Spectral techniques:
1. Empathy-which Litke identifies as a “strong motivational force behind
the Ai Weiwei work… ‘Straight’ is a way of dealing with the tragedy,
5 “Wenchuan Rebar.” YouTube Video, posted by “Ai Weiwei”, June 5, 2013. Accessed February 2, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2_t8VeJBE0
6 David Litke, e-mail message to author, January 23, 2013
5
working through a long, arduous process to try to repair the emotional
damage.”7
2. Deformation-the warping and bending of the original rebar serving as
the guide for compositional deformation through spectral means.
3. Transformation-the attempts to repair the damage being represented as
a process of musical change towards a resolution.
4. Reparation-the final resolution, in which the straightened fragments of
rebar are finally placed into a unified whole.8
It is important here to note that while the listener may be tempted to divine a programmatic
element to the piece based on the above elements, these concepts merely serve as a philosophical
starting point from which Litke begins to apply spectral techniques, each concept being
represented by a different spectral compositional approach.
7 David Litke, e-mail message to author, January 27, 2015 8 Ibid.
6
CHAPTER 2
SPECTRAL MUSIC: AN OVERVIEW
History of Spectral Music
A focused performance analysis of the spectral characteristics of Litke’s work will be
enhanced by an initial discussion of the genesis of the style and its progenitors to provide a point
of reference in terms of compositional characteristics and technological advances. While the
spectral music movement began in earnest in France in the 1960s, its roots trace back many years
beforehand. As Julian Anderson states, “The origins of spectral music are so diverse and
numerous that no single survey can pretend to be exhaustive.”9 Indeed, numerous composers
have expressed, either through composition or in prose, a fascination with the harmonic spectrum
and the psychoacoustic effects it has on the listener. In his article “A Provisional History of
Spectral Music,” Anderson points to several composers whose early works with acoustical
phenomena either directly or indirectly influenced the works of the later spectralists. Harry
Partch and Paul Hindemith both devised compositional systems derived from the overtone series
in an attempt to provide a natural foundation for their compositions.10 Cowell went so far as to
devise a rhythmic language that was based on superimposed polyrhythms based on the
proportions of the harmonic spectra,11 an idea which will feature prominently in The Damages of
Gravity Anderson goes on to list composers such as Edgard Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen,
9 Anderson, Julian. “A Provisional History of Spectral Music.” Contemporary Music Review Vol. 19, part 2 (2000): 8 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid.
7
and even Claude Debussy as further “pre-spectral” composers whose influences can be seen in
the output of spectral composers.12
Of all the composers listed above, it was perhaps Olivier Messiaen who had the deepest
influence on the spectral movement. Profoundly fascinated with timbre and the harmonic series,
Messiaen’s experiments with re-orchestrating non-harmonic percussive resonances using
harmonic instruments (i.e. the low end of the piano) are direct precursors to the “instrumental
synthesis” techniques of later spectral composers.13 Anderson goes on to connect Messiaen’s
Couleurs de la Cité Céleste, in which the composer attempts to distort the sound and resonance
of trombone pedal tones by adding to it three-part clarinet chords in the upper tessitura, to the
seminal spectral work Partiels, in which Grisey simulates the entire trombone spectrum using an
instrumental ensemble, adding that it illustrates the “extent [to which] French spectralists
emanated very directly from certain aspects of Messiaen’s thought.”14 It is therefore not
surprising to find that the two main progenitors of the spectralist movement, Gerard Grisey and
Tristan Murail, were both composition students of Messiaen and cite him as a main influence in
their works.
While the aforementioned composers may have based their compositional systems on a
theoretical view of the harmonic spectrum, it was not until the 1970s that technological advances
in sound analysis and synthesis allowed composers to take a complete look at the vast amount of
data the harmonic spectrum provided and employ it in their compositions. Beginning in France
in the mid-1970s, the spectral music movement originated in reaction to what was deemed a
creative impasse in the field of contemporary music, specifically the “total serialism” being
12 Anderson, Julian. “A Provisional History of Spectral Music.” 10. 13 Ibid. 14 Ibid, 11
8
employed by Pierre Boulez and his contemporaries, which Grisey claimed “neutralizes the
parameter of pitch.”15 A group of young composers, many of them students of Messiaen and led
by Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail, began to experiment with a compositional philosophy that
involved using detailed computer analyses of sounds to derive pitch material, rhythmic material,
and new possibilities for timbral combinations and formal structures. This approach to
composition intentionally allows for a wide variety of interpretations, leading composers largely
to shun the idea of assigning an all-encompassing “genre” to their music. As Murail states, “I
think that it is chiefly an attitude towards musical and sonic phenomena, although it entails a few
techniques, of course. We were trying to find a way out of the structuralist contradiction. At the
same time, we did not want to be completely intuitive like the aleatoric composers…”16 This
attitude, coupled with the rapidly changing technological landscape of the 1970s, led to an
outpouring of what would eventually be known as “spectral music.”
One of the main analytical tools that became available to the composers of this era and
allowed for a more complete look at the harmonic spectrum is known as a Fast Fourier
Transform, or FFT. Building off of Joseph Fourier’s theorem that a complex waveform can be
expressed as a series of sinusoids of varying amplitudes and phases, an FFT is a spectrograph
that breaks down any sound into its component partials, giving the frequency, amplitude, and
phase data for each.17 According to Litke, FFT analyses are particularly interesting to composers
of spectral music due to the psychoacoustic implications inherent in the way the FFT depicts a
sound:
15 Grisey, “ Did You Say Spectral?” 1 16 Smith, Ronald Bruce and Tristan Murail. “An Interview With Tristan Murail.” Computer Music Journal 24, No. 1 (Spring, 2000):12
17 Litke, David. “Elucide.” DMA Diss., University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Can.) April, 2008. Used with permission of author. 5, footnote
9
Just as an FFT divides a signal into narrow frequency bands, the ear senses sound
using an array of hair cells. Owing to this physiological mechanism, our
perceptual images of sounds tend to align intuitively with the graphic
representations of FFT data; with careful attention and practice, the ear can
differentiate individual partials of many stable timbres in much the same way that
the FFT divides a signal into component sine waves.18
Figure 2.1-Fast Fourier Transform of Mdl_B3
Figure 2.1 is an FFT analysis of a synthesized metal plate sound that serves as one of the main
foundations for The Damages of Gravity. The narrow bands represent the various partials found
18 Litke, “Elucide,” 5-6.
10
within the sound, the darkness of each band indicating the amplitude (volume) for each partial,
and the length of each band representing the duration of each partial. This visual analysis of a
sound provides spectral composers with an enormous amount of data upon which a composition
can be built, and it has led to composers developing numerous techniques for applying said data
in their compositions.
Common Spectral Compositional Techniques
As stated above, advances in FFT sound analysis technology combined with an
overarching “sound-first” philosophy led composers of the spectral school to develop a
dauntingly vast array of compositional techniques and devices. However, a performance guide
to some of the more common techniques associated with spectral music can more effectively
focus on four techniques found both in the historical works of spectral composers and The
Damages of Gravity. These techniques are as follows:
1. Instrumental Synthesis--the reconstruction of analyzed sound by acoustic
instruments
2. Pitch Derivation-- the use of FFT analysis to derive melodic and harmonic
content
3. Transformation--the act of moving from one spectrum to another, quite often
by means of pitch, often through modulatory means or by a process known as
“interpolation”
4. Rhythmic derivation--the use of FFT analysis to derive rhythmic and/or
metrical content
11
It is important to remember that the above-mentioned techniques are a mere sampling of the total
amount of techniques available to spectral composers. However, they represent some of the
more common ways composers, including Grisey, Murail, and Litke, make use of spectral data to
craft their compositions.
Instrumental Synthesis
One of the hallmarks of spectral composition is quite possibly its most easily identifiable
compositional device, known as instrumental synthesis. Simply put, instrumental synthesis
involves using FFT data of an analyzed sound to find its component partials, then orchestrating
those partials in a given ensemble in an attempt to recreate the sound. Using the concept of
additive synthesis19 as a guiding principle, the composer examines an FFT of a given sound,
discovers the resonant frequencies, then reassigns those frequencies to instruments they feel best
represent the correct frequency, amplitude, and period of the analyzed sound. While
theoretically a simple concept, instrumental synthesis is mathematically challenging for the
composer, as complex sounds most often do not fit into the frequency envelopes generated by the
tonal system upon which our instruments are based, thereby often requiring the use of quarter
tones and pitch shading to approximate the desired frequency. However, it is generally not the
composer’s intention to recreate the source sound exactly, but rather to use that sound to generate
new timbral possibilities in the ensemble based upon the sound. As Joshua Fineberg notes, “the
sounds created in this way keep something of the coherence and quality that comes from the
model while adding numerous dimensions of instrumental and timbral richness and variety.”20
19 According to Fineberg’s appendix, additive synthesis builds upon Fourier’s Theorem, applying the principle thatif a sound can be broken down into its component sine waves, those waves can be combined to recreate the original sound. 20 Fineberg, Joshua. “Guide to the Basic Concepts and Techniques of Spectral Music.” Contemporary Music Review 19, part 2 (2000): 85
12
Each instrument comes with its own sound spectrum, and as such they embellish and enrich the
modeled sound; thus, new timbres and orchestrations are discovered.21
While the concept of approximating a sound with an orchestra or small ensemble is
certainly not a compositional technique that is unique to spectral composers, the incorporation of
sound analysis technology has afforded the spectralist the opportunity to represent source sounds
more closely than ever before. Early pre-spectral attempts by composers such as Jolivet and
Messiaen are notable in their accuracy without the use of this technology;22 however, sound
analysis techniques allowed composers such as Grisey to approximate their source sounds to an
even finer degree. In “Partiels,” the third movement in the seminal spectral work Les espaces
acoustiques, Grisey’s analyzed source sound, a trombone low E2 (82.4 hz) played forte, is scored
out for and synthesized by 18 musicians. Of note here is the degree of exactness with which
Grisey attempts to synthesize the sound; the opening attack is played by repeated notes on the
bass and an initial attack by the trombone that fades quickly to niente, while the rest of the
ensemble simulates the resonance of the source sound. The result is a striking and haunting
effect that is widely regarded as the prototypical example of instrumental synthesis.23
Litke has also made wide use of instrumental synthesis in his works. In “Elucide”, his
chamber work that formed the basis for his doctoral thesis, Litke draws on a variety of spectrally
analyzed sounds as a means of deriving new timbre possibilities. One such example is the
aforementioned struck Tibetan prayer bowl, whose FFT data is shown in Figure 2.2:
21 Fineberg, “Guide to the Basic Concepts and Techniques of Spectral Music,” 8522 Jolivet approximates the sound of a Bali gong to an exacting degree in “The Bali Princess” from his piano suiteMana; Messiaen’s attempts to recreate metallic percussion sounds in Couleurs de la Cité Céleste and his various birdsong pieces are also notable here. 23 Arrell, Christopher. “The Music of Sound: An Analysis of ‘Partiels’ by Gérard Grisey.” (lecture, IstanbulSpectral Musics Conference). Ed. Robert Reigle and Paul Whitehead. Issu, 2013: 318-333. Accessed January 21, 2015 http://issuu.com/chrisarrell/docs/arrellpartielsanalysis 320
13
Figure 2.2-FFT of struck prayer bowl in “Elucide”
Using FFT data, Litke is able to derive the strongest partials of the source sound, shown in the
above analysis by the darker horizontal lines, as well as amplitude and length for each. Using
this data, Litke then attempts to recreate this sound using a complex series of strings harmonics
and piano dynamics, as shown in Example 2.1. As stated before, the intent here is not
necessarily to synthesize the sound completely, but rather to explore new timbral possibilities
while staying true to the original sound. There are multiple examples of instrumental synthesis
throughout “Elucide”, including reconstructions of various piano chords and a particularly
noticeable synthesis of an analyzed low E1 from a double bass.
14
Ex. 2.1-Instrumental synthesis of prayer bowl in “Elucide”
Pitch Derivation
Perhaps the most common way spectral composers make use of FFT data is to derive
pitch material from an analyzed sound and applying it either harmonically or melodically to a
composition. Simply put, the composer uses the FFT and various algorithms to ascertain the
most important frequencies of a particular sound and employs those frequencies to form the basis
of the melodic and harmonic content of a piece or section of a piece. In terms of harmony,
Joshua Fineberg suggests that as composers begin to build orchestral structures based on
instrumental synthesis, a “powerful ambiguity” begins to develop between what the listener
perceives as harmony as opposed to timbre.24 Instead, Fineberg suggests that it is “often more
relevant to combine the two concepts into the more general concept of a harmony/timbre.”25 In
essence, as a composer moves from one spectrum to another, the listener perceives
simultaneously a change in the harmonic content (based on the content of the new spectrum), and
24 Fineberg, “Guide to the Basic Concepts and Techniques of Spectral Music,” 9825 Ibid, 98-99
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a change in timbre (based on the instrumental synthesis of the new spectrum), blurring the lines
between the two. Often, this involves moving from an area of harmonicity, or spectrum based on
the harmonic series (or a pitched sound), to an area of inharmonicity, or a spectrum based on a
non-harmonic series (non-pitched sound). The manner in which the change between spectra
occurs will be explored in the next section; however, it is important here to understand the notion
that, for the spectral composer, harmony and timbre are quite often regarded as being one and the
same, and both are derived from spectral analysis.
In addition to using spectral analysis to derive harmonic/timbral content, spectral
composers will also use spectra to derive pitch content that can be applied melodically.
Referring to spectra-based acoustic models as “reservoirs,” Fineberg notes that the pitches
derived from these models are quite often used as modes, by which the composer will generate
melodic lines.26 Spectral composers maintain a wide variety of opinions related to melody and its
function in spectral music; subsequently, there are numerous methods by which the spectral
composer will apply these reservoirs in a melodic fashion. Some composers, such as Grisey, will
often place their focus more on the unfolding of transformations between spectra, in which case
the “melody” is the harmonic motion, as is the case in “Partiels.” Other composers will
sometimes use these reservoirs to generate busier surface activity on top of slow-moving
harmonic/timbral motion,27 an example of which can be seen both in the rapidly descending
woodwind and piano lines of Murail’s Winter Fragments and in several of the piano passages in
The Damages of Gravity, both of which take place over longer harmonic and timbral
transformations. It is important to understand that there is no unified approach to melodic
26 Fineberg, “Guide to the Basic Concepts and Techniques of Spectral Music,” 99 27 Ibid, 99
16
treatment in the spectral world, outside of the fact that melodic material is often derived from the
spectral analysis of source sounds.
Transformation
The concept of transformation is an important one in the spectral world, and it plays a
central role in both the early works of the style as well as in The Damages of Gravity. In spectral
music, transformation generally refers to the act of moving from one spectrum to another,
thereby giving a spectral work a sense of formal process. One common process of
transformation is moving from an area harmonicity, or stability, to an area of inharmonicity, or
instability.28 This process and its reverse are seen in many of the early works of the spectral
movement, and it is central to Litke’s work. Murail’s Gondwana presents a large-scale
transformation, via ring modulation, from an orchestrally synthesized inharmonic bell to an
orchestrally synthesized harmonic brass sound.29In Partiels, Grisey formal process is based on
the “tripartite respiratory rhythm of inhalation, exhalation, and repose.”30 Whereas sections of
repose are harmonic, sections of inhalation gradually move toward inharmonicity, and
exhalations gradually transform back to harmonicity31. As we will see in The Damages of
Gravity, the idea of transformation from areas of instability to more stable areas is central to
Litke’s compositional process. However, Litke’s approach to transformation is unique, applying
techniques that are both common spectral devices, such as interpolation, as well as devices of his
own invention, many of which are either extensions of spectral composition or lie completely
outside of it.
28 Fineberg, “Guide to the Basic Concepts and Techniques of Spectral Music,” 108 29 Ibid. 30 Arrell, Christopher. “The Music of Sound: An Analysis of ‘Partiels’ by Gérard Grisey.” 320 31 Ibid.
17
While there are many transformational devices available to the spectral composer, the
process of interpolation is common both in Litke’s work and in the works of past composers.
Interpolation can be used in almost any aspect of music, but Litke most commonly makes use of
the technique using pitches as a way of getting from one harmonic area to another. The
composer maps out a beginning chord and an ending chord, most often derived from spectral
analysis, then plots out the intermediate chords that occur as each voice in the chord moves
toward the terminal area. A simple reduction of this process is seen in Example 2.2:
Ex. 2.2-simple interpolation reduction
As the data derived from spectral analysis is quite large, the above process tends to occur on a
much larger scale. Example 2.3 is taken from Litke’s notes from The Damages of Gravity, and
represents one of several interpolations found in the piece:
Ex. 2.3- interpolation process realized in The Damages of Gravity
Each of the arpeggiated chords consists of ten voices, each moving from a spectrally analyzed
chord rooted in D4 to a final chord, a spectrally analyzed chord rooted in A-flat. The five
interpolated chords represent the composer’s process for getting from the first chord to the last,
each voice moving equally on its way to the destination, making frequent use of microtones
along the way. Through interpolation, we begin to understand that, for the spectral composer,
the process of transforming one spectrum to another is as important and quite often more
important that the instrumental synthesis of those spectra. As Fineberg notes, “the true interest is
not the beginning or the end, but the discoveries that are made along the way.”32
Rhythmic Derivation
Lost in some of the more novel ideals of pitch and harmony that grew out of the spectral
movement is the composer’s treatment of rhythm and duration. For many composers, the study
of duration and its relationship with the spectrum held a fascination that led to the creation of a
great many spectral works. Gerard Grisey was particularly interested in time, duration, and
rhythm, calling time “the very object of form.”33 It was Grisey’s goal to blur the lines between
rhythm and duration and in doing so separate rhythm from the rhythms of spoken language.34
Grisey often explored the relationship between different time scales, often superimposing longer,
more dilated time scales upon the harmonic motion of the background spectra with short, quick
melodic gestures, the proportions of the rhythmic values between the two quite often determined
by the proportions of harmonics arrived at by spectral analysis.35 This approach to rhythm and
duration can be seen in two of Grisey’s most notable works that dealt specifically with time,
Vortex temporum and Tempus ex machina. This approach to duration can also be seen in The
32 Fineberg, “Guide to the Basic Concepts and Techniques of Spectral Music,” 108 33 Grisey, “Did You Say Spectral?” 2 34 Ibid. 35 David Litke, e-mail message to author, January 25, 2015
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Damages of Gravity, which is replete with quick rhythmic gestures on top of slower harmonic
motion. Indeed, Litke cites a performance of Tempus ex machina he attended as a student as
being highly influential in his approach to rhythm and time, saying “it definitely made an
impression on me.”36Another way Litke derives rhythmic content from spectral analysis in
Damages is by using the ratios found between partials in the harmonic series to determine metric
modulation and polyrhythmic material. In the next chapter, we will explore several of these
ratios, both on the macro level with large-scale metric modulations, as well as on the micro level,
with small polyrhythmic groups performed both by one player and by several.
36 David Litke, e-mail message to author, January 25, 2015
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CHAPTER 3
THE DAMAGES OF GRAVITY: A PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SPECTRAL
TECHNIQUES
Background and Large-Scale Elements
As stated in Chapter 1, the primary focus of this document centers on David Litke’s new
work The Damages of Gravity, scored for two pianos, two percussionists, and live electronics.
Through a detailed analysis of the spectral techniques found within this new work, my goal is to
highlight both the techniques that are common to most spectral works as well as techniques that
are unique to the composer. Throughout the analytical process, particular attention will be paid
to the ramifications that the spectral techniques found in Damages have for the performing
musician. In doing so, it is my hope to provide an analytical framework that will offer insight
into the creative structures behind the work in order to provide a suitable starting point for future
performers of this and other works by Litke and other composers in the spectral vein.
One of the overarching themes found in Damages is the constant struggle between
degrees of inharmonicity and harmonicity, represented by the two source sounds analyzed for
this piece, five synthetically modeled metallic plate sounds (inharmonic spectrum) and two piano
chords that were freely composed (harmonic spectrum). According to Litke’s notes, the piece
deals mainly with interactions between the natural world, represented by the inharmonic
spectrum of the metal plate, and human intention, represented by the harmonic structures created
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by the piano chords.37 In choosing to base his composition on the spectral materials provided by
these sources, Litke states that he was often confronted by the aforementioned struggle between
the natural world and human intention, saying:
Taking spectral information as primary material, I am confronted with a sonic
phenomenon as it appears; in composing with this data, I need to make decisions
about how faithful I will be to the original material--sometimes I embellish and
modify the material liberally, sometimes I adhere quite strictly to the source
data.38
This dichotomy and the composer’s struggle with it permeate the entire composition and form
the foundation for the work’s harmonic content and formal processes. As it relates to the piece
by Ai Weiwei, this struggle is meant to symbolize the artist coming to terms with the devastating
effects of an earthquake, a natural occurrence, and the failure of the human structures designed to
be protective.
A significant facet to Damages is the source of the inharmonic, or natural, sound. As
stated above, this spectrum is represented by a metal plate sound that was synthetically modeled
using Modalys, a computerized synthetic sound-manufacturing environment used by composers
at the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music, or IRCAM.39 Rather than
record the sound of a struck metal plate, Litke physically modeled the sound by entering
information into Modalys, which then processed the data and created the sound. Litke created
37 David Litke, e-mail message to author, January 14, 2015 38 Litke e-mail message to author, January 14, 2015 39 “Modalys: Creating Virtual Instruments and Sounds Using Physical Descriptions.” IRCAM Forumnet. Accessed February 16, 2015, http://forumnet.ircam.fr/product/modalys/
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five of these sounds, which were then spectrally analyzed using an FFT, the data derived from
the FFT providing the basis for the inharmonic aspects to the piece. As seen in Example 3.1,
each chord is labeled with the Mdl_ prefix, followed by the name of the pitch that serves as the