Please listen to Ligeti's Atmosphères online, and read two articles by him:
"On Music and Politics," Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 16, No. 2. (Spring - Summer, 1978), pp. 19-24. Especially the opening couple of pages, summing up the compositional situation in the early 70s (and just as applicable now).
"States, Events, Transformations," György Ligeti; translated by Jonathan W. Bernard. Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 31, No. 1. (Winter, 1993), pp. 164-171. (Much of this article discusses his orchestra piece Apparitions, composed before Atmosphères - beyond the scope of this class - but his opening description of a recurrent childhood dream is riveting.)
For Atmosphères, please construct a time-chart for the piece, much as you did for Varèse; this piece is one of the few orchestral works I know where this approach works. After you've completed your chart, speculate as to what the form of the piece might be, using the comments section for this post.
Regarding Martirano's Underworld (sorry, no online listening - but check out his bio), here is a reference to U of I composers in the 1960s, in the midst of a generally bleak survey of contemporary music; see especially page 200.
"Where do we go from here? A European view," Wolf-Eberhard von Lewinski; trans. Paul Helmer. The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 2. (Apr., 1969), pp. 193-205.
An interesting review of the first recording of Underworld, along with other U of I electronic pieces:
"Electronic music from the University of Illinois," untitled review. Anuario, Vol. 3. (1967), pp. 129-131.
Finally, on Carter's A Mirror on Which to Dwell, please read the following analysis focusing on the first and third movements:
Brenda Ravenscroft, "Setting the pace: the role of speeds in Elliott Carter's A Mirror on Which to Dwell." (link to pdf download) Music Analysis 22/iii (2003), pp. 253-282.
Listening:
1, Anaphora
2, Argument
3, Sandpiper
4, Insomnia
5, A View of the Capitol from the Library of Congress
6, Breath
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15 comments:
I see an overall A-B-A arch design to "Atmospheres" with the sections defined by which registers are being emphasized. The B section which I hear beginning around 2:10 exploits both the highest and lowest registers. A climatic point is reached between 3:30 and 3:50 with the flutes in the highest part of their register. I also see the overall structure as conforming to Ligeti's "web" dream. The micropolyphony is amorphous threads of the web and throughout the piece there are moments of separation and dissipation (holes in the web) and very dense textures (knots in the web).
This is going to sound kind of stupid in a way, but I hear Atmosphères as a kind of three-part form. The first part ends around 2:54, the second part goes from there to about 5:40 (where I hear a kind of "recapitulation" of the very first sound of the piece, or at least a very similar sound), and then the third section goes from there until the end. Each section seems to be focused on different types of sonorities/textures or their combinations.
The first section is predominantly focused on very 'big' sonorities that are heard as a single texture despite the fact that they are made up of many micro-varying components.
The second section seems to me to be more focused on varying (e.g. pulsating or shimmering) and differentiated textures (as in different textures emerge from moment to moment), and each instrumental group of the orchestra dominates at least one of these textures. This section also features smaller pitch collections than the first which was pretty much chromatically saturated all the time, even when diatonic collections were brought out dynamically.
The third section then seems to mediate between the previous two sections by establishing more stable/unified sonorities (akin to the first section) over which more complex, varying textures (akin to the second section) are layered.
This is, of course, an overly simplistic summary of the formal design of the piece, but I think that at least on the surface level of the music this division into a three-part form is reasonable. I'm sure there is a much deeper level of structure at work in this music, but this is the best I can do with my ears alone!
After writing my analysis of "Atmospheres," I noticed some similarities that divided the piece into three main sections. The first section can be characterized by the presence of slowly changing cluster chords.
The middle section started around 2:10 with high pitches. In this section, the notes were moving quickly with tremolos and running patterns. The middle section ended around 5:05 with a brass cluster chord.
The last section used many cluster chords similar to the first section, but also had some faster moving pitches with many high sounds. It seemed to be a combination of A and B. I would say the overall form of this piece is ABC.
I am inclined to say that Atmospheres is in an ABA form based on the recap of the opening cluster at 5:40, but Ligeti seems to abandon it right away and introduces more new material. I hear the first section going all the way to the violin entrance at 4:04, as the piccolo quartet seems to be the climax of the whole first section. As a side note, I played this piece my freshmen year at Oberlin, and sitting behind four piccolos playing at the very top of their range was most unpleasant :) The next section is more focused on micropolyphany and shorter durations of notes. I hear somewhat of a recapitulation at 5:42, but then Ligeti goes on from there and uses new material, I even hear some rhythm, especially from the violas. That section is always the one that seems to stick with me after hearing the piece, because it is so different from the rest of the material. Ligeti starts moving back to the old material towards the end, but never seems to quite get there, so one might also be tempted to say that the piece is in a rondo ABACA form, but I'm just not quite convinced that there is another recapitulation.
I might suggest that Atmospheres is a Rondo form. The opening static sonic texture is the rondo, the place to which the music always returns. Episodes occur when the texture changes from this, but the baseline texture always reappears. The rondo alternates with episodes, as the form dictates. The work ends, however, not with the rondo (the opening texture) but with a coda of new material.
I also see this as a 3 part form, although I would nt be so inclined as to label them ABA. Rather, an ABC structure is present, with each section being separated by silence, or near-silence. The first near silence occurs around 2:12, and the second occurs about 6:12. Each section is shaped nicely so that it gradually crescendos to begin and decresendos to end each section.
My idea of the form for "Atmospheres" was related to rondo form. The A section had the long chords with most instruments playing. The B section started around 1 min 56 sec mark with less instrumentation and small motives coming through. The A section returns with the entrance of low strings at 3 min 48 sec. The C section (4 min 47 sec) was characterized by individual crescendos of various instrument groups. At first I was only going to classify this piece as ABA form, but I had a hard time with this section. It was too different sounding for me to relate it with anything I had heard previously in the piece. The "A section" returns one final time around 7 min. I wasn't sure how to label this last section - either A' or coda.
I am inclined to agree with Aaron and Bobbi. I thought of it as more of a rondo, always returning to a sustained section. There are several crescendos, tremolos, and fast sharp passages, but in between, the texture tends to think out, and the sustained tones return. I found the ending to be very appropriate. The color and texture grew through instrumentation, crescendo, and even the technical passages in the strings, and then it simply returns to that soft thin texture before the end of the piece. I think it relates well to the imagry of the atmosphere-generally calm with occasional storms and activity, but always returning to the state of calm.
Concerning the form of the piece Atmospheres, I interpret it as A-B-A'-B'-A. At a very macro level, I can see the outline of an typical A-B-A form, however, in the middle section I do feel like there is a short return to the A section and also the B section combined. I labeled these as A' and B'. In my own mind, I referred to this as a "thunderstorm" form. Let me explain:
The piece reminded me of a thunderstorm in that you feel the storm coming in the dissonant sustain of the strings, and then BOOM it hits in all its glory. After that you get that return to a sort of call with just the rain, the rain being the intermittent string and brass hits in the middle of the work. Then you continue to hear the thunders slight return in the low brass, slowly fading away in the distance. At the same time, you get the gradual return to the original calm but unsure feeling as in the beginning.
I would label this piece as an overall A-B-C-D-A form, with the A section ending at about 2'11" and then starting again at around 6' 54". However, the middle section(s) was (were) hard to analyze for me, because there were so many different textures and sounds created within this "middle" section.
I would lean toward creating numerous smaller subsections ending with the apex of each crescendo: 3' 28", 4' 41", 5' 10".
As such, my final form analysis would read A-B-C-D-A.
I would agree that the broad structure of this piece can be classified as an ABA form. But looking more closely I think it can be broken down further into five sections: some have labeled this ABACA or ABA'B'A or ABCDA'. For this piece I don't think the specific label of each section is as important as the fact that most seem to be hearing the same form of ABA overall and five smaller sections.
I would say that the first section, A, goes to about 2:54, the second section, B, from there to about 5:43, and the third section, A', from there to the end.
I hear Ligeti mark the beginning of each new section by employing a new, unique set of sonorities and markedly changing the color of the orchestra overall.
I can hear an "introduction" up to 2'11 and "coda" from 6'31-both giving the feeling of somewhat calm (before and after) stage.
And in between there are two episodes,kind of waves with climaxes in different registers.
I've heard it again after posting my comment and it was all different impression-if it's kind of prelude,"before the events"-it's only the first long chord up to 1'17.
Then there four different things "go by" 1'17-3'48
3'48-4'44
4'44-5'40
6'31-8'09
May I call it ABCD with short Intro?
In a very slowly modulating way, I would consider this piece an A-B-A form. Without getting too specific, it begins and ends the same way by fading in and then out in the same manner. The middle is more chaotic including the woodwinds, brass, and percussion more. I deffinately see the connection to the "web dream".
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