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Beneath the Skin of Time: Alternative Temporalities in Grisey's "Prologue for Solo Viola"

2009; Perspectives of New Music; Volume: 47; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/pnm.2009.0005

2325-7180

Jeffrey J. Hennessy,

Music Technology and Sound Studies

Beneath the Skin of Time: Alternative Temporalities inGrisey's Prologue for Solo Viola L-? JeffreyJ. Hennessy Gerard Grisey (1946-1998) iswidely considered to be one of the founders of the movement known as French "spectralism," origi nating in Paris in themid 1970s. Spectral composers utilize the analyses of the complex harmonic spectra of individual sounds as a primary pitch resource. These spectra are orchestrated to produce "spectral chords," which are then manipulated in various ways including: filtering, fre quency modulation, and evolving inharmonicity. In many ways, the original spectral concept developed in reaction to the compositional trends of the previous generation, what Grisey referred to as the "misunderstanding of perception our elders had attained," when they "ended up confusing themap with the lie of the land."1 Instead of the artificial pitch organization of European and American serialism, spectral composers sought new pitch resources based on the organic qualities of sounds themselves. It is not surprising Beneath the SkinofTime 37 then that the majority of analytical studies of Grisey's music (and spectral music in general) have focused on the pitches inherent in the source spectra and the various orchestrational techniques used to score and transform the resulting harmonic complexes.2 For Grisey however, itwas not only pitch that needed liberation, but also time. He often rejected (or simply ignored) the term spectralism when describing his own music. In his view, the term spectralism was: just a sticker thatwe got at a certain period. I thinkmy attitude is basically the same, but the departure point of spectralism was . . . the fascination for extended time and for continuity. How to com pose an extended type of time in a composition without writing the sort of chromatic clusters likeLigeti inAtmospheres. What language does that extended time imply?That is really the starting point of spectralism and not thewriting of spectrums or whatever.3 Grisey's published articles, interviews, and CD liner notes all reflect his continuing preoccupation with the relativity of temporal perception inhis evolving sound complexes. In effect, the spectra provided nothing more than static pre-compositional harmonic backgrounds to Grisey, while he considered time to be themore malleable parameter. Indeed, a simple survey of titles of his laterworks reflects his fascination with time: Talea, Tempus exMachina, Vortex Temporum. In an article titled "Did You Say Spectral?" in Contemporary Music Review, Grisey outlined what he considered to be the prime elements of spectral composition: What is radically different in spectral music is the attitude of the composer faced with the cluster of forces thatmake up sounds and faced with the time needed for their emergence. From its begin nings, thismusic has been characterized by the hypnotic power of slowness and by a virtual obsession with continuity, thresholds, transience, and dynamic forms. It is in radical opposition to all sorts of formalism which refuse to include time and entropy as the actual foundation of all musical dimensions. Strengthened by an ecology of sounds, spectral music no longer integrates time as an external element imposed upon a sonic material considered as being "outside time," but instead treats it as a constituent element of sound itself.This music forces itself to make time palpable in the "impersonable" form of durations; apparently far removed from spoken language, but doubtlessly close to other biological rhythms which we have yet to discover.4 38 PerspectivesofNew Music In 1980 Grisey presented a lecture at the Internationale Ferienkursen at Darmstadt entitled "Tempus exMachina: A Composer's Reflections on Musical Time." He divided his lecture into three sections referred to respectively as "The Skeleton of Time," "The Flesh of Time," and "The Skin of Time." Grisey considered these to be three alternative temporalities coexistent within the same musical space.5 The "Skeleton of Time" refers to the basic quantitative, temporal infrastructureof awork asmeasured in chronometric time (i.e., minutes and seconds). Grisey maintained that the temporal divisions of the skeleton are not immediately discernible. In other words, the crude arbitrarymeasurement ofmusical events in terms of seconds is of no real consequence to the listener. However, the temporal unfolding of musical events does, inGrisey's view, affect the degree of predictability of musical units. This, in turn, plays with a sense of...