scholarly publications
Expectation and Treatment of Dissonance in Wolfgang Rihm's Third String Quartet
Article in the Dutch Journal of Music Theory, Vol.14, Issue 3 (November 2009).
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Abstract
In his Third String Quartet, as in many of his works, composer Wolfgang Rihm demonstrates his fascination with the unexpected. It appears that in order for expectation to be thwarted, a passionate, though highly sophisticated level of expectation first has to be established.
In the second movement, he employs a classical tonal progression to conjure up the expectation of resolution, without necessarily fulfilling it. In this article, it is shown how the major seventh appoggiatura is used as the driving force behind these expectations in the post-Darmstadtian stylistic context of the other sections of the work. To show how the major seventh can be employed as the antidote to the appoggiatura, the first of Webern’s Six Bagatelles Op. 9 is briefly analysed.
Reference and Mosaic Form in Peter-Jan Wagemans’ Opera Legende
Article in the Journal of the Royal Society for Music History of The Netherlands (November 2009).
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The three pillars of Wagemans’s aesthetic, as he outlined in a 1994 publication by Donemus, are recollection, association and quality. In Adorno’s view, expression had become a commodified cliché in music aesthetics of the late nineteenth century, a far cry from music’s actual capacity to express. For Schoenberg, expression could only regain meaning by pushing the musical material beyond the borders of tonality. However for Wagemans, the extension of this idea to its logical conclusion by the total serialists of the post-war years meant that the technique had yet again lost touch with what had sparked it in the first place: expression.
Other Articles
Pluralist Music Composition, a Manifesto
The Capilano Review Vancouver (TCR) Winter 2011, issue 3.13 ‘Manifestos Now!’
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During the time immediately after WWII composers felt the urge to start from point zero, reinventing every parameter of musical composition, and incorporating traditionally non-musical sounds into music. At a time when the world was broken after the war, this formed the ground for a new beginning. More than three generations later, young composers cling to the alienated avant-garde forms and ideas of fifty years ago. But working in a style that was once mod-ern and progressive is just as conservative as writing in the style of Liszt or Wagner, composers who were considered modern in their day. The music of the 1950s is the avant-garde of your grandfather, just like radio was his home entertainment. We can enjoy his music-it is still controversial, shocking, and new-but only because we can place it in its time period. To be contemporary we need something else. The following points are written as a critique and an alternative.
From Comic to Mosaic Form
Peter-Jan Wagemans’ Opera Legende
Programme Book and CD liner notes for The Netherlands' Opera in Amsterdam (DNO) for the opera Legende by Peter-Jan Wagemans (February 2011)
Tom’s Rituals
ti-TCR (The Capilano Review) a web folio, number 4, spring 2012, pp. 19-23
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“Bourbon?” was one of the first questions that playwright, Tom Cone asked me, in his slow and calming voice. I first met Tom at a Song-Room event in his home. The next morning, I received a call that would be the first of many, “Hi Edward, it’s Tom.” He was brimming with ideas, the first of which was to collaborate on a chamber opera. Upon reading his earlier work, True Mummy, I was immediately drawn to its provocative tone and the themes of wickedness, intricate rituals and ceremonies, and the re-purposing of ancient artifacts. Tom created fleshy characters who were ‘real people’, but more notably, they were characters who did not leave an audience indifferent. Indifference was the enemy to Tom. We agreed.
paper presented at the Graduate Exchange Conference 2007 King's College London
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Whether used as an undercurrent, or as gestures or style quotations on the surface, tonality is a characteristic device in many of my compositions. Before revealing reasons for my interest in this device, I will define tonal meaning in the context of my atonal and/or eclectic style. Subsequently, eclecticism, in itself, will be compared to uniform style. The best solution for evaluating the benefits of tonal references is to do the opposite -—explore my works where tonality is absent (Marble Sparks (2004) and Most Beautiful Bird of Paradise (2003)).
Finally, in examples of my pieces where tonality IS present, its meaning varies according to both its own unique characteristics and its context (The Stillpoint (1995), The Overwhelming Blankness of the Ultimate Meaninglessness of Tragedy (1996), both string quartets (1997/8 and 2002), ...and he wept bitterly (2001) and Kwart/Four (2006)). It is the contrast between its identity and its context that produces interesting music.
June 2007 report of this Festival after a performance of my work Four
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The first edition of the SoundOn Festival took place in stylish La Jolla, just outside San Diego (think Beverly Hills on the coast) and was initiated by San Diego New Music's ensemble, NOISE. On many occasions during the past ten years this enthusiastic ensemble has made itself heard at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, a charming and informal location also forming the backdrop of this festival. For the occasion, NOISE, consisting of Colin McAllister (director and guitar), Lisa Cella (artistic director and flute), Morris Palter (percussion), and Christopher Adler (piano, khaen and composer-in-residence), initiated a composition competition. Of the 250 contestants, four winning works were eventually chosen for performance. My composition, Four, the only work written for the complete instrumentation of NOISE, found itself among the winners, which also included works by American composers Moiya Callahan, Bill Ryan, and Orlando Garcia.
You spirit double, you pale fellow!
Why do you mimic my love-pain so?
Der Doppelgänger (1827) Franz Schubert after Heinrich Heine
This essay explores vocal expansion by means of shadow singers, or, doubles, in Wolfgang Rihm's opera Die Eroberung von Mexico. Before moving on to the analysis supporting this specific feature, examples will be given from works Rihm composed before and after this one. Also, influences of composer Luigi Nono and the approach to theatre of Antonin Artaud will be examined, after which the questions of why the only two characters in this work are shaped by multiple singers and how their phrases are anticipated and extended, will be answered.
Boodschapper van het kwaad (in Dutch)
Review of the 'Rihm Woche' in Zurich in February 2003
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‘Misschien wel weer duister spel? Oorspronkelijk moest het dat niet worden. Het moest gedempt, koel, kuis, klassiek, aan de rand van het hoorbare stromen. Waarom liep het allemaal zo anders. Ik weet het niet. Vraag het zelf.’
‘Vormen die zichzelf genereren, maar ook het jagen naar vormen. De aanpak is intuïtief en wars van compositietheorie en ideologie.’
‘Een zekere stoïcijnse houding bij het componeren is op zijn plaats: wat komt, komt.’
‘Muziek vergeet duidelijk hoorbaar per moment dat wat er aan voorafging. Ze vergeet zichzelf.’
‘Ik geloof dat een publiek pas reageert op een stuk als het vanuit een subjectieve, zeer persoonlijke situatie is ontstaan en op die manier herkenbaar is.’
In den vreemde (in Dutch)
Naar aanleiding van verblijf in de VS in 2002-03.
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In bepaalde culturen worden vrouwen betaald om te huilen op begrafenissen om zo het verdriet voor nabestaanden te intensiveren wat beter is voor het verwerkingsproces. In Bangkok, waar ik jaren gewoond heb, was ik eens op een traditioneel Chinese begrafenis van een bekende. De heftige betrokkenheid van zowel familieleden als gasten aanwezig bij het ritueel, waren gebaseerd op een schokkende gebeurtenis die écht was; uit het ‘leven’. De emoties die opgewekt werden echter heb ik sindsdien op eenzelfde manier ervaren bv. in de opera waar helemaal niets uit het echte leven is. De identiteit van de prikkel is ondergeschikt aan het ervaren.
Volgens Aristoteles bezit de tragedie kracht die een helende werking heeft op het gestel. Het is een feit dat in muziek de oorsprong van zo’n kracht te vinden is. ‘De geboorte van de tragedie uit de geest van de muziek’, het is de titel van het debuut van een schrijver die ik als ik onderweg ben in den vreemde, koester; Friedrich Nietzsche.
In den vreemde… misschien voel ik me daar thuis waar ikzelf een vreemde ben.
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Groep (in Dutch), groepsemoties, volksgekte, uitschakeling van individueel denken
Ultieme vrijheid is:
1) In de Gouden eeuw: "zeven onafhankelijke souveraine staten"= individueel denken. De mens is uitgerust met het intellect en is zich dientengevolge bewust van zijn persoonlijkheid die zich onderscheidt van de massa. Deze wil tot onderscheiden, oftewel 'the importance of being important' (Lajos Egri) is een bepalende factor in de wil tot leven van ieder individu.
Ter onderscheiding van eerstgenoemde:
2) Volksgedachte. De mens is een kuddedier en vindt voldoening in het leven als onderdeel van een groep. Onder bepaalde voorwaarden en wetten waaraan hij zich dient te houden, verschaft de groep hem voordeel en bescherming. Bewustzijn van persoonlijkheid is geen prioriteit of wordt gezien als bedreiging voor de groep en dus voor het individu.