How is Stravinky still recognisable even if he “merely” transcribes someone else’s work and orchestrates almost without changing pitch and rhythm? What technical procedures enable him to add a certain haptic and physical feel to the sound? As Wolfgang Rihm once said, Stravinsky formed music – even that of others – with his big hands to suit it to his own image and thereby paving two ways: one historical and the other personal. Both of these lead to Venice. This essay concentrates on the analysis of Stravinsky\''s Two sacred songs from 1968. An accurate profile may be given to the results by comparing them with the orchestration (written for nearly the same instruments) which is realized in Gérard Grisey’s Wolf-Lieder from 1997. Works from the German-Austrian compositional tradition conflict both with Stravinsky’s and Grisey’s arrangements on account of a sensitivity to timbre that dates from an originally French tradition of orchestration. It will be shown that counterpoint can effectively become a neutralizing agent in this clash of cultures.

Under de senaste två åren har jag genomfört min masterutbildning i komposition vid Kungliga Musikhögskolan i Stockholm. I det här arbetet gör jag en undersökning och ett formulerande av de tankar som kommit ur – och styrt – mitt komponerande, mitt lyssnande och mitt lärande under dessa två år. Begreppet anslag blir här en ledsagare för tanken och arbetet inleds med skapandet begreppet. Därefter presenteras och analyseras sex av de musikverk jag komponerat under masterutbildningen. Ingången till de sex verk som presenteras sker från vitt skilda håll, i hopp om att bredda förståelsen kring uppkomsten av begreppet anslag och att fördjupa dess dubbelverkande utbyte med musiken. Genom begreppet anslag bli skapandet av musik ett instrument med vilket undersökningar av världen och existensen tycks mer möjliga att påbörja.

Zugl.: Berlin, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2007.

Als sollte das Vorurteil bestätigt werden, mitteleuropäische Ohren seien für klangliche Sensationen wenig empfänglich, ist die Musik des 1998 verstorbenen Spektralisten Gérard Grisey in Deutschland nach wie vor wenig bekannt. Nach einer Einführung in das Werk Le Temps et l`Écume (Die Zeit und der Schaum) folgt zum besseren Verständnis der analytischen Untersuchungen ein naturwissenschaftlicher Exkurs in die Welt der Quantenphysik sowie eine kurze Abhandlung zum Begriff der musikalischen Zeit bei Grisey. Einen ersten Zugang zum Werk verschafft eine Höranalyse bevor eine detaillierte Analyse des Werks erfolgt. Dabei ist ein Aspekt die exemplarische Untersuchung der Instrumentation sowie die Vorstellung einer Instrumentencharakteristik Griseys. Ein Ergebnis der Analyse ist, dass Grisey – obwohl er die Mathematik als musikalisches Modell ablehnt – bei der Konstruktion von Klanggesten auf mathematische Werkzeuge zurückgreift. Abschließend wird mit der Partialtonklassen-Analyse eine in Deutschland nur selten verwendete Analysemethode vorgestellt, die in ihren Grundlagen auf Hugo Riemann und James Tenney zurückgeht. Mit dieser Methode werden Teile des Werks eingehend analysiert.

This essay focusses on the relation between timbre and musical logic. I try to draw a connection between Schoenberg’s remarks on »Klangfarbenmelodie« in his Harmonielehre (1911) and the concept of »harmonie-timbre« represented by the spectral composers Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail in the 1970s. At first glance, this relation between free atonality and spectral music seems far-fetched as Grisey and Murail rarely commented on Schoenberg’s theories. Nevertheless, a detailed investigation shows a parallelism of both analytical and aesthetic problems. Both the free atonal Schoenberg and the spectralists argued for developing sound sequences out of the innermost quality of timbre. Besides, the forming of free atonal and spectral sound sequences cannot resort to a structural preformation of material as in dodecaphonic or serial music. Therefore qualities of listening gain major importance. In order to realize free atonal or spectral sound sequences, it is necessary to apply a wide notion of perception: on the one hand, the composer enters the »inner« world of timbre by eaves- dropping on timbral nuances carefully. This perceptual attitude (»Lauschen«) brings to mind the transient presence and alterity of sound. On the other hand, this fascination with an »inner« quality of timbre should not lead to the assumption that free atonal or spectral sound sequences are unfolding in an »auto-generative« manner. Although composers can surrender themselves to a »passive« perception of sonic nuances, they are also compelled to make decisions about the direction of the music – decisions within the area of timbre, which seems to be resistant against decision-making. These decisions eventually constitute what might be perceived as musical logic. As a result, listeners of free atonal and spectral music are confronted with a fundamental tension between »inner« and »outer« compositional aspects: they perceive an illusory perfect and organic growth of sound (cf. Adorno: »Schein des Organischen«). The idea of a subject which articulates itself within a »pure« sound unleashes a tension between sense and its subversion, between active and passive listening. This tension seems to be one of the reasons why Schoenberg hesitated between sound and musical »sense«, and why he was fascinated by the »futuristic phantasy« to reconcile the apparent opposites of timbre and musical logic.

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Cette thèse étudie trois compositeurs reliés autour du courant « musiquespectrale » dont les pensées et les oeuvres sont fortement marquées dans un premiertemps par la prise de conscience de la nature « dynamique » du son : Giacinto Scelsi,Gérard Grisey et Kaija Saariaho, trois compositeurs représentant trois périodesdifférentes dans l’histoire du courant spectral. Dans leurs oeuvres et leurs écritsthéoriques, plusieurs questions s’élèvent ou dérivent de la conception « énergétique »du matériau et dépassent le simple cadre de celui-ci : la perception, la forme, le tempsmusical, l’expressivité, le rapport à la tradition, etc. Plus généralement, une questionessentielle se pose : qu’est-ce qui existe au-delà du son, au-delà de l’énergie àl’intérieur du son ?Pour répondre à cette question, cette recherche se base sur des analyses deplusieurs oeuvres de ces trois compositeurs tout en gardant à l’esprit la conceptionadornienne du matériau qui met en cause l’idée « naturaliste » de celui-ci et l’idée du« son » isolé comme auto-suffisant. Plusieurs catégories, comme « médiation »,« articulation », « tradition », « histoire », « culture/nature », entrent en jeu. Ainsi,cette étude est parvenue à mettre en relief trois différentes « esthétiques » qui sedéveloppent à partir d’une base commune de « l’énergie sonore » comme porteuse dela forme musicale — l’esthétique de l’énergie sonore, l’esthétique du processus, etl’esthétique de l’expression, trois esthétiques qui semblent montrer une évolution versune « interpénétration de l’énergétique et de la sémiotique ». / This thesis studies three composers connected around the "spectral music" andwhose thoughts and works are strongly marked at first by the awareness of the"dynamic" nature of sound: Giacinto Scelsi, Gérard Grisey and Kaija Saariaho, threecomposers representing three different periods in the history of the spectral current. Intheir works and their theoretical writings, several questions arise or derive from the"energetic" conception of the material and go beyond the framework of the material:perception, form, musical time, expressivity, relation to the tradition, etc. Moregenerally, an essential question arises: what exists beyond the sound, beyond theenergy within the sound?To answer this question, this research analyses several works by the threecomposers while keeping in mind the adornian conception of material whichquestions the "naturalist" idea of material and the idea of an isolated sound as selfsufficient.Several categories, such as "mediation", "articulation", "tradition","history", "culture / nature" come into play. Thus, this study has managed to highlightthree different "aesthetics" that develop from a common base of "sound energy" as thebearer of musical form — the aesthetics of sound energy, the aesthetics of process,and the aesthetics of expression, three aesthetics that seem to show an evolutiontowards an "interpenetration of the energetics and the semiotics".

Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral--Technische Universität, Berlin). / Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-327).