Robert Wannamaker, The Spectral Music of James Tenney

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The spectral music of James Tenney

Robert A. Wannamaker
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Vol. 27, No. 1, February 2008, pp. 91 130
The Spectral Music of James Tenney

Robert A. Wannamaker
Between 1971 and 2006, James Tenney created more than fifty significant works of what
is now commonly called spectral music. In their materials and procedures, his
compositions frequently paralleled, sometimes anticipated, and in some instances
strikingly contrasted with spectralist developments in Europe. This article provides an
analytical introduction to the spectralist component of Tenneys large and varied output,
and explores its emergence and place within a North American tradition of spectral
music composition. Among the compositional concerns addressed are the duality of
timbre and harmony, the harmonic series as a structural resource, the instrumental
synthesis of speech, rhythmic analogs of spectral structures, the expansion of traditional
harmonic means, and practical performance considerations.
Keywords: James Tenney; Spectral
Phenomenalism; Just Intonation
Music;
Harmonic
Series;
Microtonality;
Introduction: Spectral Music

I regard as a necessary feature of spectral music that it invoke Fourier spectral
analysis as a conceptual point-of-reference. For music not meeting this minimal
requirement, the term spectral music would appear to be a misnomer. Surveys of
more elaborated characterizations can be found in Fineberg (2000a) and Moscovich
(1997). The following traits, at least, are commonly cited as typical of spectralist
compositions, although they are not definitive and are not necessarily present
together in any given work:
.
.
.
A general preoccupation with the phenomenology rather than the semantics of

sound.
The use of the harmonic series as an intervallic resource.
The orchestration of spectra in which instruments are assigned to individual
spectral components such as partials; this includes so-called additive instrumental synthesis in which such orchestration is guided by the spectrographic
ISSN 0749-4467 (print)/ISSN 1477-2256 (online) 2008 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/07494460701671558
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R. A. Wannamaker
analysis of acoustical sources, and orchestration of electroacoustic source
materials by analogous means.
An interest in the perceptual duality of timbre and harmony by way of which a
given collection of tones might, depending on its specific constitution and the
attitude of the listener, either perceptually fuse into a unitary percept with a
characteristic steady-state timbre or alternatively might dissociate into multiple
perceptually autonomous tones possessing a harmonic relationship.
The musical application of various acoustical or psychoacoustical concepts
including harmonic fusion, residue pitch, difference tones, Shepard-tone
phenomena, and amplitude or frequency modulation, etc.1
The invocation of gradual formal processes that allow (and encourage) attention
to subtle phenomenal details.
Discussions of spectral music have been dominated heretofore by developments in

Europe (see, e.g., Fineberg, 2000b; Rose, 1996). Tenneys uvre, however, includes a
great number of compositions involving all of the above characteristics, many of
which parallel and some of which anticipate European developments. I have made
the point elsewhere (Wannamaker, in press) that Tenneys work spearheads a
relatively undocumented North American school of spectral music composition that
deserves to be recognized within the burgeoning discourse surrounding spectralism,
and I do not propose to revisit that argument in detail here.2 The following treatment
is more concerned with a detailed exploration and appreciation of the music,
addressing the spectralist signatures listed above among other noteworthy features. I
hope that this analytical introduction to a representative few of Tenneys many
compositions will encourage further scholarly interest in this influential and
rewarding body of work.
The selection of pieces addressed below is intended to broadly survey the many
facets of Tenneys spectralist output. Clang (1972) and QUINTEXT V (1972) are
essential seminal works. Three Harmonic Studies, III (1974) and Spectral CANON for
CONLON Nancarrow (1974) demonstrate the adaptation of frequency structures to
temporal organization, while Three Indigenous Songs (1979) represents his interest in
the instrumental synthesis of speech. Voice(s) (1984) exemplifies Tenneys pieces
employing tape-delay systems, while Spectrum 6 (2001) represents a late synthesis of
techniques developed in various earlier stages of his career. The reader need not
digest all of the corresponding sections in order, but may instead proceed a` la carte if
so desired.
The Evolution of an Aesthetic
Tenneys spectral music was the product of a long and complex personal history
reflecting his ongoing interests in both science and music. Born in 1934 in Silver City,
New Mexico, his early academic studies included engineering at the University of
Denver (1952 1954) as well as piano with Eduard Steuermann at the Juilliard School
93
(1954 1955). He subsequently studied composition and conducting at Bennington

College (1956 1958) with Lionel Nowak and Henry Brant, respectively. His
compositions from this period betray the influences of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton
Webern and Edgard Vare`se, as well as a pithiness and conceptual clarity that are also
characteristic of his later work.3
In 1961, Tenney earned a masters degree in composition from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied composition with Kenneth Gaburo
and electronic music with Lejaren Hiller. His masters thesis, entitled META Hodos: A Phenomenology of 20th-Century Musical Materials and an Approach
to Form (Tenney, 1988 [1964]), applied principles of Gestalt psychology to the
perception of musical forms and has proven widely influential. During this period, he
also played in Harry Partchs Gate 5 Ensemble, and Partchs harmonic theories
(Partch, 1974 [1949]) were one inspiration for Tenneys own theory of harmonic
perception (Tenney, 1993 [1983]).
From 1961 1964 Tenney was employed as a member of the technical staff at Bell
Telephone Laboratories (now Bell Laboratories) in New Jersey. While there, he
composed some of the earliest substantial pieces of computer music and conducted
pioneering research on algorithmic composition, psychoacoustics, timbre modeling,
and computer sound generation, with Max Mathews. The detailed technical
experience that he acquired with acoustics, psychoacoustics, spectral analysis, signal
processing and information theory during this time informed much of his subsequent
compositional work, and his spectralist music in particular.4
Meanwhile, Tenney also studied composition privately with Chou Wen-chung
(1955 1956) and informally with Carl Ruggles (1956 1958), Edgard Vare`se (1956
1965) and John Cage (1961 1969). Exposure to Cages Zen-related phenomenological attitude towards letting sounds be themselves (Cage, 1961) had already
made a strong impression on the young composer. Tenney later said that people
having difficulty with 20th-century music are not hearing sound because theyre not
in a frame of mind to simply listen to sound for itself. Thats why Cage is
indispensable (Tenney, 1984b, p. 4). An attraction, both intellectual and sensuous, to
sound as a phenomenonto differentiating, experiencing and appreciating its facets,
and to becoming more fully aware personally of how the perceiving self is
constitutedwould bring him to employ spectralist means in the exploration of
timbral and harmonic perception.
During the 1960s, Tenney was peripherally involved in the Fluxus art movement
and was also an original performing member in both the Steve Reich Ensemble
(1967 1970) and the Philip Glass Ensemble (1969 1970). While his interest in
gradual formal processes precedes his involvement with these so-called minimalist
composers (appearing earlier in certain of his computer music compositions such as
Phases of 1963), his work since 1967 frequently has embraced unidirectional
processes of the sort also recognizable in, for instance, Reichs Come Out (1966). In
particular, between 1965 and 1971 Tenney composed a series of ten so-called Postal
Pieces, which he printed on postcards in 1971 and sent to his friends.5 Several of
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R. A. Wannamaker
these simple, but very effective, little pieces exhibit gradual unidirectional formal
processes and also bear other proto-spectral features. For instance, Swell Piece No. 2
(1971) asks performers to sound A4 (440 Hz), repeatedly entering dal niente,
increasing in intensity and then fading out again al niente in a manner rhythmically
independent of one another. With sustained communal concentration, the
intonation of the ensemble will improve progressively so that successively higher
harmonics of A4 will begin to ring out, encouraging listeners to hear-out these
partials within the composite harmonic spectrum.6
Early Spectralist Works
Although Tenneys Postal Pieces share a phenomenological orientation and the use of
gradual formal processes with the more paradigmatically spectralist music he soon
began writing, his experiences at Bell Labs in the early 1960s were probably a more
direct precedent for this compositional development. Indeed, his next work was an
orchestrated variant of the Shepard-tone phenomenon. Tenney knew of the
associated concept from his sojourn at Bell Labs alongside cognitive psychologist
Roger Shepard when Shepard first investigated it.7 In 1969, Tenney produced an
electro-acoustic piece based on the phenomenon entitled For Ann (rising), and in
1971 he undertook an orchestration thereof entitled For 12 Strings (rising).
Representing not only an instrumental rendering of an electroacoustic source, but
also an explicit orchestration of an evolving spectrum, to me For 12 Strings (rising)
seems an indisputableif uniqueearly example of spectral music (Wannamaker, in
press). However, Tenneys next work (entitled Clang) is immediately recognizable as
paradigmatic spectralism.
Clang (1972)
The title of Clang is borrowed from Tenneys theoretical research on temporal gestalt
perception in music (Tenney, 1988 [1964]; Tenney & Polansky, 1980), but in this
context it is apparently more onomatopoeic than technical. The piece is roughly
150 3000 in duration with a large-scale form comprising two successive gradual
processesthe first accumulative and the second dissolutiveas shown in Figure 1.
These are initiated, separated and concluded by three fortississimo percussive clangs.
Figure 1 Formal scheme showing reduced clang chords.
95
The second clang marks the onset of the dissolutive process and occurs about twothirds of the way through the work, dividing it roughly at its golden section.
These gradual progressions employ, for the first time in Tenneys output, what he
refers to as an available pitch process. The instructions in the score characterize this
as follows:
[T]he notation indicates available pitches to be played by sustained-tone
instruments (including rolls on the percussion instruments) in the following
way: each player chooses, at random, one after another of these available pitches
(when within the range of his or her instrument), and plays it beginning very softly
(almost inaudibly), gradually increasing the intensity to the dynamic level indicated
for that section, then gradually decreasing the intensity again to inaudibility. . . .
After a pause at least as long as the previous tone, each player then repeats this
process.
This espousal of indeterminacy in performance is a post-Cageian feature of Tenneys

work that is not found in European spectral compositions. As in Cages music, it
promotes attention on the part of listeners to their perceptions of sound rather than
to the interpretation of local structural decisions made by the composer.
The pitches used in the piece correspond to the first eight prime-numbered
harmonics of an E and their octave equivalents (see Figure 2). These are
approximated using equal-tempered quarter-tones for partials 11, 13 and 7. The
resulting collection of pitch classes is a sort of just-intoned octatonic scale.8 This set
makes available approximations to a great variety of different just-intoned intervals,
which are heard in various contexts as the ensemble enacts the available pitch process.
With regard to intonation, the score indicates that great precision is obviously not
expected herein fact, the beats resulting from slight discrepancies from the actual
harmonic frequencies are welcomebut an effort should be made to improve the
approximation as much as is possible or practical.9
The opening clang is a pitch-class unison comprising all Es between E1 and E7,
inclusive. The following accumulative process represents a measured expansion of the
available pitch gamut, starting from E4 alone and gradually adding adjacent pitches
from the just-octatonic set. The range of available pitches is expanded symmetrically
above and below E4 in stages, rather as though the bandwidth of an ideal bandpass
filter were being gradually increased in steps so as to pass an increasing number of
Figure 2 Pitch-class set used in Clang. Quarter-tone inflections are denoted by accidentals
in parentheses. Deviations of the harmonic pitches from these quarter-tone approximations are shown in cents.
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R. A. Wannamaker
frequency components. Meticulous orchestration is employed to ensure that changes

in dynamic and timbre are extraordinarily smooth. For instance, after the initial
clang, the various instruments enter in stagesfractions of a choir at a timewith
the entrances of the various percussion instruments delayed to varying degrees, the
timpani entering last. Regarding the opening, the score indicates that [t]he effect
intended . . . is a single, continuous pitch with gradually changing timbre, followed . . . by a gradually expanding, quasi-random texture of changing timbres and
pitches. The result is by no means static; the available pitch procedure gives rise to a
churning ocean of sound from which varied and haunting harmonic efflorescences
emerge.
When all pitches in the just-octatonic set between E1 and E7 have become available,
the accumulative process stops and the second clang sounds; all sustaining
instruments falling silent for about three seconds in response and then continuing as
before. This second clang contrasts markedly with the first and last, as shown in
Figure 1. Here, because fixed-pitch percussion instruments are used, equal-tempered
B-flat is accepted as an approximation to the 11th partial of E. The chord thus
comprises approximations to partials 1, 3, 17 and 11. Whereas the opening and
concluding clangs are extreme consonances, the second clang is an extreme
dissonance, consisting as it does of interlocking tempered major sevenths and minor
ninths. However, it also contrasts sharply with the dense dissonant cluster that it
locally interrupts, partly as a result of its relatively open voicing. This voicing consists
of a symmetrical cyclical stacking of pitch intervals: 7, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 5, in
semitones reading from the bass, or an alternation of interval classes 5 and 6.
Throughout the sequel, whenever all sounding or available pitches can be
interpreted as harmonics of a common fundamental (whether the pitch associated
with that fundamental is actually sounding or not), I will refer to it as the conceptual
fundamental of the pitch collection. At the time of the second clang, all available
pitches can be regarded as harmonics of an infrasonic conceptual fundamental, E73.
The stages of the ensuing dissolutive process represent successive upward octave
transpositions of this conceptual fundamental, with those tones (and only those
tones) that cannot be interpreted as harmonics of each new fundamental dropping
out of the available set at each stage (see Figure 3).10 Thus the first pitches to drop out
are F1 and G1 (harmonics 17 and 19 of E73), since these pitches are not harmonics of
the new conceptual fundamental, E72. At the next stage A1-quarter-sharp and C2quarter-sharp (harmonics 11 and 13 of E72) drop out together with F2 and G2
(harmonics 17 and 19 of E72), since none of these pitches are harmonics of E71.
Pitches in the pitch class E are treated specially insofar as they are all retained in the
available pitch set even once they lie below the ascending conceptual fundamental. All
other pitches are gradually and systematically weeded out until only the Es between
E1 and E7 are left sounding, at which point these are reinforced and released by the
final clang.
As the process of Clangs second half unfolds, the texture becomes progressively
less noiselike and more tonalnot in a functional sense, of course, but in the sense
97
Figure 3 Two successive sections (i.e., available pitch sets) from the score to Clang,
between which the conceptual fundamental changes from E71 to E0. Filled noteheads
indicate pitches that will be deleted from the available pitch set in the next section.
1972 Sonic Art Editions. Used by permission of Smith Publications, 2617 Gwynndale
Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21207, USA.
that it increasingly resembles a single complex tone whose harmonic spectrum is

synthesized by the various instrumental contributions. Indeed, once the conceptual
fundamental reaches E1, all available pitches thereafter correspond to harmonics of
this sounding tone. Thus the large-scale trajectory of the piece is a broad arc of
tension and resolution, moving from the simplicity of a single tone towards a
complex welter of different pitches and fleeting harmonic relationships, finally
returning via a different process to a unitary percept. For this listener, at least, the
manner in which apparent chaos gradually cedes to sublime order in many of
Tenneys works suggests a transcendentalist undertone, although the composer
avoided pronouncements on such matters.
Clang is published but, despite its modest technical demands, the work has never
had a concert premiere. It received a reading by the Los Angeles Philharmonic shortly
after it was composed and a bootleg quality cassette recording of that performance
survives. Despite its poor fidelity, this recording delivers a visceral impact upon
hearing. Near the end of his career, the composersupposing that the indeterminate
aspects of the score might have been a disincentive to its performancemade a new
realization of aspects of Clang in the conventionally notated work Panacousticon
(2005) for orchestra. To facilitate performance, the latter work uses a 12-tone equaltempered scale in place of the just-octatonic set. Its opening cluster builds upwards
from the bass rather than outward from the middle register, and it features novel
sorts of clang events, but the natures of its accumulative and dissolutive processes
98
R. A. Wannamaker
are essentially those of Clang. In July 2007, Panacousticon was premiered in Munich
by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
QUINTEXT: FIVE TEXTURES (1972)
The suite QUINTEXT: FIVE TEXTURES for string quartet and bass consists of five
pieces written by Tenney in tribute to fellow composers. They represent markedly
different sound worlds and methods of compositional organization. The spectralist
members of the set are I: Some Recent THOUGHTS for Morton Feldman, III: A Choir
of ANGELS for Carl Ruggles and V: SPECTRA for Harry Partch.11
QUINTEXT V: SPECTRA for Harry Partch is the most unprecedented of the group.
Its form comprises relatively brief opening and concluding sections bookending a
longer middle portion. The total duration is nine minutes. Here Tenney achieves
extremely precise intonation by means of an ingenious scordatura. The contrabass
tunes its IV (E) string up to F1, of which it then plays select natural harmonics up to
the 15th so that the other instruments can tune their open strings to these. The bass
plays only its F string throughout, but its other strings are tuned to harmonics of
this pitch so that they resonate sympathetically with it. (The cellos IV string is
similarly treated as a resonator.) All pitches sounded in the piece are either open
strings or natural harmonics up to the 7th, so that the highest harmonic available is
number 7 6 15 105 on the first violins I string. The complete set of pitches made
available in this fashion is shown string-by-string in Figure 4 (notating equaltempered pitch approximations) and by ascending pitch height in Figure 5
(indicating the precise pitches produced via cents deviations). Some pitches shown
in Figure 5 may be obtainable on more than one instrument, and some appear with
different enharmonic spellings in the score. Tenney notates all pitches as they sound,
Figure 4 Scordatura and string harmonics used in QUINTEXT V: SPECTRA for Harry
Partch.
99
Figure 5 Complete pitch set for QUINTEXT V: SPECTRA for Harry Partch. Deviations
from equal temperament (if any) are shown in cents above the staff.
but where natural harmonics are to be produced the conventional notation for
artificial harmonics is borrowed as well: sounding pitches are accompanied by a
figure in parentheses indicating the string to be played with a filled round notehead
while the location of the string node to be touched is indicated with an open
diamond notehead (see Figure 6). The score uses a proportional time notation, but is
fully determinate.
The opening section of SPECTRA begins with the basss mezzo forte F1, which
continues to be held as a drone throughout most of the piece. Over the next halfminute an additive synthesis process unfolds as successively higher harmonics of the
drone (all sustained on open strings) enter with gradually increasing rapidity in the
order {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15}, although some octave equivalents are
subsequently deleted so that the opening culminates with the sounding harmonic set
{1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15}. The members of this set subsequently drop out in high-tolow order until at the 60-second mark the F1 again sounds alone. This introductory
section might be regarded as an exposition of the open strings, with the subsequent
exploration of their natural harmonics constituting development. The main
(middle) section ensues, consisting of a gradual introduction of successively higher
harmonics of the F1 drone. The score indicates that instrumentalists should sustain
each notated pitch continuously until a new one is indicated, and that tones other
than the mezzo forte bass drone should be very soft, hovering near some threshold
between being heard as individual tones at all, on the one hand, and being heard
simply as intensifications of some harmonic in the spectrum of the basss low F.
Over the next 50 seconds all pitches obtainable using only open strings are heard,
the order of their compositional selection being apparently stochastic. Thereafter the
set of indicated pitches is enlarged by adding the first harmonics of open strings, with
successively higher harmonics of open strings being added in stages. In this way, the
total pitch set is expanded to include progressively higher harmonics of the F1 drone,
but not in any simple order. The expansion of this gamut reaches its limit (i.e., 7th
natural harmonics) at roughly the golden section of the movements duration
(50 3000 ). Up to this point, the sequence of attack timepoints has undergone a
continuous and roughly exponential accelerando from roughly 5 seconds/attack to
R. A. Wannamaker
100
Figure 6 Three systems from near the conclusion of QUINTEXT V: SPECTRA for Harry
Partch. 1972 Sonic Art Editions. Used by permission of Smith Publications, 2617
Gwynndale Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21207, USA.
101
0.83 seconds/attack, at which rate it then remains constant until the end of the
section. Nearing the conclusion of this main section, lower harmonics of open strings
begin to disappear from the texture until only open string harmonics 5, 6 and 7
remain (see Figure 6: 70 3000 70 5000 ). The bass drone skips upwards to natural
harmonics: first to F2, and then to F3 for the last 30 seconds of the section. The
fundamental thus becomes virtual since not all sounding tones are harmonics of
these new bass pitches (although most are).
The conclusion unfolds as instruments begin to sustain harmonics 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9,
11, 13 and 15 of F3 (i.e., the cumulative verticality of the opening section transposed
up two octaves; see Figure 6: 70 5000 80 1500 ). These are taken up in an irregularly
descending order, some as double stops. Once the full verticality is sounding, its tones
begin a sequence of downward octave transfers, now proceeding in strict sequential
order from highest harmonic number (15) to lowest (1). After the first set of octave
transfers, the complete verticality is heard above fundamental F2, with a second set of
octave transfers returning the piece to the verticality over F1 that was heard in the
opening section. Finally, in a retrogression of the movements opening process,
pitches drop out starting with the highest harmonic numbers until there remains only
the fading F1 drone.
Tones in QUINTEXT V lead double lives, alternately as contributors to the timbre
of a quasi-steady-state spectrum that subsumes them and as autonomous percepts
available to participate in harmonic relationships. Although this duality is a
characteristic preoccupation of spectralist composition (Fineberg, 2000a, p. 98), it is
subjected by Tenney to an unusually sustained scrutiny, becoming a meditation on
perception and its limits. When they are discernible, one might regard the role of the
string quartets tones as illuminatory, subtly highlighting first one then another of the
components and relationships latent within the basss tone (or, more precisely, within
our perception of that tone). The representation of very high partials not otherwise
discriminable, however, seems to go beyond this in a gesture towards the
preternatural and the transcendence of acoustical and perceptual horizons.
Rhythmic Analogs of Spectral Structures
Attempts to adapt the frequency structure of the harmonic series for use in rhythmic
applications have been pursued by composers as diverse as Karlheinz Stockhausen
(Heikinheimo, 1972; Truelove, 1984), Conlon Nancarrow (Gann, 1995), Elliott
Carter (Bernard, 1988), Ben Johnston (Von Gunden, 1986) and many younger postminimalist American composers (Gann, 1997b). The roots of this preoccupation are
traceable in large part to the early music and writings of Henry Cowell. In his seminal
text New Musical Resources (Cowell, 1996 [1930]), Cowell constructs a just chromatic
scale: a 12-note scale such that the ratio between the fundamental frequency
associated with any given scale degree and that of the tonic degree equals some
relatively simple numeric ratio occurring between terms in a harmonic series. He
then proposes scales of rhythm comprising durations or tempi in similar ratios
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R. A. Wannamaker
(Cowell, 1996 [1930], pp. 98 108). Cowell applies these concepts in his Quartet
Romantic (1917) and Quartet Euphometric (1919), wherein frequency ratios between
the tones of four-part chorales are translated directly into polyrhythmic relationships
between the instrumental lines (see the prefatory notes in Cowell, 1974).
One might expect that such rhythmic analogs of frequency structures would prove
particularly attractive to spectralist composers, but this appears to have been the case
only in North America. In a number of significant works by Tenney, both pitch and
rhythmic relationships are derived from the harmonic series so that both are
regulated by a common structural principle. These works include Spectral CANON
for CONLON Nancarrow (1974) for player piano, Three Harmonic Studies, III (1974)
for small orchestra, Septet (1981) for six electric guitars and electric bass guitar,
Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow, Variations I-III (1991 1998) for MIDI
piano, and SongnDance for Harry Partch, II. Dance: Mallets in the Air (1999) for
Partch instruments, strings and percussion.
Three Harmonic Studies, III (1974)
Figure 7 presents a score excerpt from near the conclusion of Tenneys Three
Harmonic Studies, III. Each part sounds just a single pitch. Parts that articulate the
Figure 7 Wind and percussion parts, partially condensed, from Three Harmonic Studies,
III, penultimate score-page. 1974 Sonic Art Editions. Used by permission of Smith
Publications, 2617 Gwynndale Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21207, USA.
103
same pitch have been combined on single staves, and the order of the staves has been
changed to reflect the height of their associated pitches. Only the wind and
percussion parts are presented. The string parts, which reinforce certain of the pitches
already shown, are omitted.
Observe that by the middle of the first measure the pitches presented comprise
equal-tempered approximations to the first through eleventh partials of a harmonic
series on F2. Regarding the parts as separate voices and numbering them from 1 to 12
beginning with the uppermost, notice that Voice n attacks periodically with an interattack duration of n 16th notes. There are two exceptions to this rule, however: a 3:2
polyrhythm between the flute and oboe delineates an 8th-note pulse, but with certain
attacks omitted, andnear the end of the third measure shownsome attacks in the
higher voices are omitted in order to render clearly audible a marcato ascension of the
harmonic series that sweeps through all of the parts at a steady 16th-note rate. Thus,
not only do the pitches associated with successively higher voices reside in a
harmonic pitch series (their associated fundamental frequencies being successive
multiples of the fundamental frequency associated with F2) butapart from the
marginal exceptions just notedthe inter-attack durations of successively lower
voices form a harmonic duration series since they are all successive multiples of the
xylophones inter-attack duration. That is, higher durational harmonics are associated
with lower pitch harmonics. Alternatively, regarding each line as possessing a distinct
tempo associated with the reciprocal of its characteristic inter-attack duration, we
could say that the tempi of successively lower voices form a subharmonic tempo series
since they are all submultiples of the xylophones tempo.12
It might be argued that such structural analogies between pitch and rhythm are
purely notional since pitch and time are phenomenologically independent (apples
and oranges), but in the case at hand the analogy engenders an audibly accessible
correspondence. If we accept that a ratio of, say, 11:10 is more perceptually complex
than a ratio of, say, 2:1, whether these be regarded as polyrhythmic tempo ratios or as
ratios between the fundamental frequencies of paired tones, then in Three Harmonic
Studies, III the complexity of inter-voice harmonic relationship decreases monotonically with increasing complexity of inter-voice polyrhythmic relationship. For
instance, inspecting Figure 7 we see that the harmonic relationship between Voice 1
(Xylophone) and Voice 2 (Fl. 1 & Ob.) is relatively complex (involving a frequency
ratio of 12:11), whereas the rhythmic relationship between these parts is simple (1:2).
On the other hand, the harmonic relationship between Voice 10 (Tbn. 1) and Voice
11 (Tbn. 2) is relatively simple (involving a frequency ratio of 2:1), whereas their
rhythmic relationship is relatively complex (involving a 10:11 polyrhythm). These
complexity relationships are straightforwardly audible.
The global form of Three Harmonic Studies, III is a sequence of 13 subsections,
each occupying a single three-measure-long page of score in 5/4 time. Suppose we
number the pages 0 12. (With this page numbering scheme, Figure 7 shows Page 11
and the first attack on Page 12.) Then Figure 8 provides a complete graphic score for
Pages 1 through the beginning of Page 12 with attacks represented by dots. First let us
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R. A. Wannamaker
Figure 8 Graphical pitch-time score for the body of Three Harmonic Studies, III.
consider the pitch structure shown. After a preparatory zeroth page (not shown)
introducing the pitch B5, Voice 1 (the xylophone) commences steady 16th notes on
that pitch. These are not typographically resolved in Figure 8 and thus appear as a
solid line across the top of the figure. One further voice is added with each successive
page until, on Page 11, the eleven voices of Figure 7 have accumulated. The pitches
assigned to all voices except Voice 1 change from one page to the next, however. The
sequence of lowest pitches descends a subharmonic series below that of the
xylophone so that the l-th subharmonic of the xylophones B5 appears in the lowest
voice on Page l. This permits the lowest pitch on Page l to serve as the fundamental of
a harmonic pitch series of which B5 is the l-th harmonic, the other harmonics being
supplied by the other instrumental parts.
Now consider the rhythmic structure. Numbering voices as before from the
xylophones Voice 1, let us denote the tempo of Voice n as Tn so that, in particular,
the xylophones 16th-note tempo (240 attacks per minute) is T1. As on Page 11, on
each page the tempi of successive voices below that of the xylophone fall in a
subharmonic tempo series (i.e., on Page l, the tempo of Voice n is Tn T1/n for
1 n l). Taking the special case of n l, we observe that the tempo of Voice l on
Page l is Tl T1/l. This means (and Figure 8 shows) that not only does the sequence
of lowest pitches descend a subharmonic pitch series below B5 (as mentioned above),
but that the sequence of tempi at which these lowest pitches appear is a subharmonic
tempo series. Each page introduces one new tempo that is always the lowest heard
thus far, and the tempo intervals within this succession of lowest tempi narrow just
as the pitch intervals between their associated pitches narrow.
On Page 12 the expected harmonic pitch series on E2 (the twelfth subharmonic of
B5) appears butwith the exception of its fundamental, which moves down to B1it
105
is then briefly displaced by an unexpected revisitation of the harmonic series on F2

before definitively returning in the final measure. This departure momentarily
generates a (tongue-in-cheek?) functional altered dominant of E major (B7[5[9[13),
which is cadentially resolved by the concluding return of the harmonic series on E.
As is usually the case in Tenneys music, listeners directing their attention
differently will find different interesting aural paths through the work. One possibility
involves focusing on various pairs or small groups of instruments and picking out
their polyrhythmic or harmonic relationships, as well as the aforementioned anticorrelation between these relationships. Observing the shifting harmonic role (i.e.,
location within the harmonic series) of each instrument/tempo as the movement
progresses is interesting too. Also, the combination of many differently pitched
polyrhythmic layers generates varied resultant melodic and rhythmic figures whose
constitution depends in part on the set of instruments to which the listener directs his
or her ear.
The reader has no doubt already noticed the striking appearance of the formal
structure illustrated in Figure 8. If rotated 90-degrees counterclockwise, the figure
resembles an ensemble of divisive polyrhythms undergoing a general ritardando.13
Inspecting the individual voices participating in this polyrhythm, it becomes
apparent that their tempi comprise the first twelve terms of a harmonic tempo series
(1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9:10:11:12). Regarded as a polyrhythm this structure embeds
characteristic patterns of coincidences between attacks; regarded as the formal
scheme that it actually is, these patterns of coincidence become patterns of pitch
recurrences (e.g., the recurrence of B5 on each score page, the recurrence of B4 on
every even-numbered page, the recurrence of E4 and E5 on every third page, etc.).
Clearly harmonic and subharmonic series are palimpsestically inscribed in the music:
as local pitch structure, as local rhythmic structure, as global pitch structure and as
global rhythmic structure. The resulting form is both organic and crystalline,
gradually and inexorably unfolding a web of shifting relationships between pitches,
tempi, intervals and polyrhythms whose aspects are rigorously integrated both
conceptually and phenomenally. Nonetheless, this remains one of the simpler
expressions of Tenneys interest in pitch-rhythm analogs (!). The most sophisticated
is surely his Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow.
Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow (1974)
The Spectral CANON was composed between 1972 and 1974. A teletype machine was
used to produce trial scores, with the final version taking the form of a player-piano
roll hand-punched by the works dedicatee as a favor to Tenney.14 The first
realizations were made by Tenney together with composer Gordon Mumma in Santa
Cruz, California, in 1974.15 The piano is retuned to sound the first 24 harmonics of
A1. The canon of the title unfolds in 24 voices, with each restricted to just one of these
harmonic pitches. The opening 80 seconds of the piece are illustrated graphically in
Figure 9. Each voice repeats its assigned pitch while slowly accelerating through 185
106
R. A. Wannamaker
attacks, following which this sequence of inter-attack durations begins to retrograde.

The durational sequence is identical in each voice, but voices enter canonically
in the order of their pitch height so that the lowest voice (sounding A1) enters first
and the highest voice enters last. In fact, the lowest voice commences retrogression at
the instant when the highest voice enters, and the piece concludes when this lowest
voice finishes its retrograde. Thus higher voices do not finish retrogression and the
highest voice is only just about to begin its retrograde when the piece ends 30 3600 after
it begins. This conclusion coincides via subtle construction with the first
simultaneous attack of all 24 voices.
The relationship of the harmonic series to the pitch structure of the opening is
explicit, but turning Figure 9 counterclockwise through 90 degrees reveals its
additional relationship to the rhythmic structure. The sequence of attack times in
each voice comprises a harmonic duration series, albeit one which starts from its
eighth partial rather than from its fundamental:

c log2 8; c log2 9; c log2 10; . . . seconds;
where c represents the value of a temporal octave as specified by the composer and
where the time origin precedes the first attack by three temporal octaves. The
entrances of successive voices are separated by time intervals corresponding to eight
attacks of the lowest voice (see Figure 9). In fact, these voice entrances themselves fall
in a harmonic duration series. Thus the entire rhythmic structure of the opening
might be regarded as a collection of individual intra-voice harmonic duration series
(governing attack times) constructed upon a master inter-voice harmonic duration
series (governing voice-entrance times).
A thorough elucidation of the complex structural and phenomenological
consequences entailed by this rigorous construction are beyond the scope of the
present treatment.16 It must suffice to note with reference to Figure 9 that
increasingly complex polyrhythms arise as successive voices enter and thatin
contrast with Three Harmonic Studies, IIIthe complexity of the polyrhythmic
relationship between any set of voices increases monotonically with the complexity of
the harmonic relationship between them. For instance, Voices 1 and 2 (here
numbering from bass to treble) exhibit a relatively simple harmonic relationship
Figure 9 Graphical pitch-time score for Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow
(opening).
107
(frequency ratio 1:2) and articulate a relatively simple polyrhythm (also 1:2), whereas
Voices 3 and 4 exhibit both a relatively more complex harmonic relationship
(frequency ratio 3:4) and polyrhythm (also 3:4).
The intricacy of the accumulating and accelerating polyrhythms eventually defeats
the perception of relationships between individual voices, producing an audibly
chaotic maelstrom of rhythmic and melodic fragments that obscures the
commencement of rhythmic retrogressions in the lower voices. As these retrogressions gradually invade higher voices, an unexpected textural transformation
unfolds. Harmonic glissandi begin to sweep progressively higher in pitch, ultimately
supplanting the preceding disarray with a new, multifaceted rhythmic and melodic
order. As this happens, the instrument seems to begin to ring as though it were
sustaining a single shimmering complex tone. The structural consequences are
illustrated in Figure 10, which shows the penultimate page of the score. Vertical lines
indicate attack-time coincidences. Note the increasing pitch compass of both the
coincidences between lower voices and the harmonic glissandi that flank them.
To my ears, the concluding tutti attack (not shown) is remarkable in part because it
does not seem like 24 individual voices, but rather like a single fused tone. This is a
consequence of the precise harmonic intonation of the various voices, which promotes
their perceptual fusion into a unitary hyper-piano tone in the same way that the
partials of any harmonic complex tone tend to perceptually fuse. It is as though the
spectral components of this final tone, having been separately accumulated
throughout the opening of the piece and subjected to great rhythmic pressures in
its interior, and are ultimately forged into a unified percept at its conclusion.
Speech-Modeling Pieces
Three Indigenous Songs (1979)
Three Indigenous Songs (1979), for two piccolos, alto flute, bassoon or tuba, and two
percussionists, addresses the instrumental synthesis of American English speech. Its
three movements are based upon three different vocal models: Tenneys transcription
of the song No More Good Water by the early blues singer Jaybird Coleman; a
transcription of Tenneys own voice as he reads the poem Kosmos by Walt
Whitman; and a prior setting by the composer of an Iroquois chant Hey when I sing
these 4 songs Hey look what happens as translated by Jerome Rothenberg.17 The
preface to the score contains the following passage:
The perceptual space induced by THREE INDIGENOUS SONGS is meant to be
somewhere near the threshold between music and speech. Occasionally, perhaps,
some semblance of the underlying texts may actually be heard.
The prospects for actually evoking intelligible utterances by means of instrumental

synthesis will not seem entirely implausible to those who have heard examples of
R. A. Wannamaker
108
Figure 10 The penultimate page of the score to Spectral CANON for CONLON
Nancarrow (redrawn). 1974 Sonic Art Editions. Used by permission of Smith
Publications, 2617 Gwynndale Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21207, USA.
so-called sine wave speech, in which comprehensible speech is produced using as

few as three sine waves whose frequencies track those of the lowest-frequency
formant peaks of the utterance to be evoked (Remez et al., 1981).18
109
The first two stanzas of the text to the source recording for Movement I are:
Well theres no more good water
because the pond is dry.
I walked down to the river
then turned around and round.
In the music, these stanzas are each preceded by freely composed equivalents of the
recordings harmonica choruses. My reconstruction of the composers working
method from his notes is illustrated in Figure 11. Part (a) of the figure shows measure
7 of the first movement. The text wa- - -ter is provided in the score only as a
reference, being neither spoken nor sung in performance. Rather it (or, more
precisely, its u, a, t and e sounds) are musically transcribed. The sounds subjected to
transcription are represented on the text staves using symbols of the International
Phonetic Alphabet. Consonants are rendered by the percussionists using woodblocks
(for k, t and p), tom-toms with sticks (for g, d and b), tom-toms with brushes (for th,
f and h) and suspended cymbals (for s and sh). The pitch of vowels is transcribed
from the source recording and appears throughout as the bassoon/tuba part. The
flute and piccolos play harmonics of this fundamental that are near the centers of the
first three vocal formants associated with that sound. Flutes are an apposite
instrumental choice for these upper parts because the relatively simple sound spectra
they produce suit their roles as suppliers of particular harmonics.
Figure 11(b) is adapted from Tenneys composition notes and specifies the
locations of the first three formants (labeled F1, F2 and F3) for the vowel sounds A (a)
and (e) that appear in water.19 These locations are indicated in the figure both as
frequencies taken from the acoustical literature and as the nearest corresponding
equal-tempered pitches.20 Each formant location falls within a range whose lower and
upper limits are indicated with filled noteheads and whose midpoint is indicated
using an open notehead. Figure 11(c) (also excerpted from Tenneys notes) shows
equal-tempered approximations to the harmonic series above the fundamentals
associated with the bassoon/tuba pitches C#3 and G2. With this information at hand,
it is a simple matter to select harmonics of the appropriate fundamental that fall
within the formant regions associated with a given vowel and assign the pitches of
those harmonics to the alto flute and piccolos. For instance, vowel A begins on
fundamental C#3 so that its 6th and 8th harmonics (G#5 and C#6) fall in the first and
second formant regions, respectively, and are assigned to the Alto Flute and Piccolo 2.
The 20th harmonic (F7) appearing in Piccolo 1 lies very close to the third formant
region.21 When the fundamental changes to G2, harmonics of that pitch must be
selected instead: harmonics 8, 10 and 24 (G5, B5 and D7) fall within the appropriate
formant regions. After the tam-tam renders the D (t) consonant, the (e) sound
appears, the formant regions shifting to those associated with this new vowel so that
now the 6th, 12th and 24th harmonics of G2 (i.e., D5, D6 and D7) appear in the flutes.
The fleeting G6 in Piccolo 2 probably emulates a formant transition, a rapid
R. A. Wannamaker
110
Figure 11 Three Indigenous Songs. (a) Score excerpt (m. 7). (b) Frequency values in hertz
and corresponding pitch ranges for the first three vocal formants (labeled F1, F2 and F3)
based on the composers notes. (c) Equal-tempered approximations to harmonic series
on C#3 and G2. 1979 Sonic Art Editions. Used by permission of Smith Publications,
2617 Gwynndale Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21207, USA.
movement of a formant peak that immediately follows or precedes certain

consonants and is important for their correct identification (Parsons, 1986,
pp. 121 123).
111
Tenney revisited the project of speech synthesis by instrumental means in two

subsequent works. Aint I a Woman? (1992) for 2 violins, 2 violas, 3 cellos and
celesta is based on a text by Sojourner Truth. Song n Dance for Harry Partch, I.
Song: My technique (1999) for Adapted Viola, Diamond Marimba, strings and
percussion is based on a recording of the composers voice reading from the
writings of Harry Partch. In the last of these, Tenneys progressive refinement of
the transcription process embraced the modeling of voiced consonants, sixths-ofa-semitone intonational accuracy in the harmonics, portamenti replicating vocal
inflections, and direct spectral analysis of the source recording using custom
software.
Like much of Tenneys work, these pieces decisively stake out for music a
perceptually and conceptually engaging domain of sonic organization not previously
regarded as proper to itin this case, a hybrid of concert music with speech and
physical acoustics. While none of these works evokes genuinely intelligible speech (a
fact that their composer readily pointed out), I personally hear their rhythmic and
inflectional patterns as decidedly speech-like. This is especially the case with Song n
Dance. The daunting technical difficulty of the latter work in particular has so far
prevented performances from achieving the marked tempo, so the possibility exists
that more-accurate renditions may yield stronger evocations of the musics spoken
model.
In any event, the considered choice of sources with strong sonic characters,
coupled with a faithfully pursued process of acoustically-informed transcription,
has clearly projected those particularities onto the resulting music. For instance, the
transcribed blues song, the Whitman poem and the Iroquois chant of Three
Indigenous Songs all exhibit markedly different characters immediately relatable to
their sources. Note, however, that these sources are themselves complex artifacts.
Each incorporates aspects inherited from: the physics of speech production; general
rhythmic, inflectional and grammatical patterns of the English language; qualities
related to the sources cultural origins; the unselfconscious vocal idiosyncrasies of
its original author; features intentionally imbued therein by that author; and, in
some cases, corresponding attributes from the contemporary speaker whose voice
was recorded for transcription purposes. The list of contributions runs a gamut
from the purely impersonal to the most intimately personal, although even the
latter is ultimately perceived through the alienating lens of spectrographic
transcription.
Where much instrumental music depends for its impact on the metaphorical
evocation of vocal expressivity, here the evocation is boldly literal. My experience of
these works is reminiscent of viewing an X-ray: they confront me with the strange
and variegated materiality underlying even the most intimate aspects of subjectivity.
This music presents the almost surreal spectacle of an ensemble seated upon a stage
attempting to re-enact before an audience the assembly of these material aspects into
a coherent, expressive self. Measures of success and shortfall both contribute to the
poetry of the work.
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R. A. Wannamaker
Pieces Employing Tape Delay

Several Tenney works incorporate tape-delay systems in order to generate
dense quasi-orchestral textures using a soloist or a relatively small number
of instrumentalists. In particular, the works Symphony (1975) for woodwind
quintet, Saxony (1978) for one or more saxophone players22 and Voice(s) (1983
1984) for variable ensemble, voice(s) and multiple tape-delay systems use this
approach to accumulate complex textures based on one or more harmonic series.
Voice(s) (1983 1984)
As I read it, the title of Voice(s) has at least four different senses. An early version
of the work was composed for vocalist Joan LaBarbara and the title presumably
refers, in one of these senses, to the original dedicatee. After hearing the
original, the composer decided to make a second version with expanded instrumentation in order to achieve increased textural density. This later rendering is
the published version and my discussion here will address it specifically. The score
calls for at least one violin, one cello and one soprano voice, plus three or more
of the following: flute, alto flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, bass clarinet,
bassoon, saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), viola and trombone. Other
voices in any register may be used, but all must sing without vibrato and all pitches
must be sung in their written octaves. A second sense of the title refers to this
instrumentation.23
Voice(s) requires the use of four tape-machines, and calls for tape-changes and
volume manipulations whose timings must be accurately observed if the formal
design is to unfold as intended.24 The tape-machines perform the following
functions:
Machine 1:
records both the instrumental sounds and re-played sounds coming

from the other tape-machines.
Machine 2: after a delay of six seconds, plays back the tape from Machine 1
slightly attenuated so that a total acoustical fade-out time of about 60
seconds results. With one brief exception (see below), this echo
effect remains in use throughout the entire performance, thickening
the sonic texture.
Machine 3:
records roughly the first third of the performance using a tape-speed

of 15 inches-per-second (ips), then plays that recording backwards at
a halved tape-speed of 7.5 ips during roughly the last two-thirds of
the performance duration.
Machine 4: records roughly the first two-thirds of the performance at a tapespeed of 7.5 ips, then plays that recording forwards at a doubled
tape-speed of 15 ips during roughly the last third of the performance
duration.
113
A twofold increase in tape-speed causes the replayed signal to sound one octave
higher than the signal that was recorded and to last half as long. Conversely, a
decrease in tape-speed by a factor of two causes the replayed signal to sound one
octave lower than that recorded and to last twice as long. Thus, evoking a third sense
of the title, we can see that Voice(s) takes the form of a three-voice canon at the
octave, although each voice is (usually) a composite of multiple simultaneous
melodies rather than a single one. One voice (henceforth Voice 1) comprises the
sum of all live instrumental sounds while the other two voices are created by the
operation of the tape machines. The output of Machine 3 (Voice 2) is material from
Voice 1 heard retrograded, in rhythmic augmentation and one octave lower, while
the output of Machine 4 (Voice 3) is material from Voice 1 and Voice 2 heard
forwards, but in rhythmic diminution and an octave higher. Note that nothing is
recorded prior to the performance.
The instrumentalists of Voice 1 follow an available pitch procedure similar to that
employed in Clang. The score indicates that the pitches notated for each section are
to be used by all performers in an improvisatory way to create melodic sequences of
varying shape and duration. This instruction allows considerable melodic and even
stylistic freedom on the part of the instrumentalists, while rigorously fixing the
harmonic structure. Although my ensuing analysis necessarily concentrates upon the
works determinate harmonic plan, it should be kept in mind that realizations display
a prominent polyphonic melodic component. The effect of Machine 2s tape echo
and the accumulation of instrumental lines (some live and some on tape) is to
provide a rich harmonic cloud of sound on which melodies float and into which they
submerge.
Figure 12 shows the opening system of the score to Voice(s). Conventional pitch
notation is extended in order to provide accurate specification of pitches in the
harmonic series above B-flat0 using pitch gradations of one-sixth of a semitone (i.e.,
72-tone equal temperament). To this end, arrows bearing one to three arrowheads are
positioned above noteheads in order to indicate changes in the intonation (sharp or
flat) with respect to 12-tone equal temperament: one arrowhead per sixth-of-asemitone deflection. This system correctly specifies all target pitches used in the piece
Figure 12 Voice(s), opening system of the score. 1984 Sonic Art Editions. Used by
permission of Smith Publications, 2617 Gwynndale Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21207, USA.
114
R. A. Wannamaker
to within 7.7 cents, and all except the 13th partial and its octave equivalents to within
5 cents. In performance, reference pitches are provided by the cello and violin, which
employ scordatura such that the open strings of the cello are tuned to harmonics 2, 3,
5 and 7 of B-flat0 while those of the violin are tuned to harmonics 6, 10, 14 and 22.
These two instruments are instructed to play only open strings and natural
harmonics, thus making available to the other instrumentalists reliably accurate
intonational references for many of the pitches indicated in the score.
Figure 13 provides a formal schematic for Voice(s), with sections labeled by letters
corresponding to markings found in the score.25 The upper part of the figure shows
the timings of sectional changes (i.e., changes of available pitch set), the time intervals
during which Machines 3 and 4 are in record and playback modes, and indicates for
Voice 1 the ranges of harmonics of B-flat0 that correspond to available pitches in each
section. Regarding labeling, the first re-played materials in Voice 2, for instance, are
labeled b2/2 indicating that they are a recorded version of Voice 1s b2 materials
replayed at half speed and thus sounding one octave lower (a frequency ratio of 1/2).
Similarly, the first replayed materials in Voice 3 are labeled 2a2 indicating that they
include a recorded version of Voice 1s a2 materials replayed at double speed and thus
sounding one octave higher (a frequency ratio of 2/1). The lower part of the figure
shows the evolving pitch compass of each voice. In Section e, where this compass is
not delimited, bounding lines have been omitted. Sustained single pitches are
indicated with solid black horizontal lines and the conceptual fundamental of the
available pitch collection is indicated with a thick broken line.
Voice 1 opens with a single available pitch, B-flat2 (see Figure 12 and Figure 13),
gradually increasing in dynamic from pianissimo to fortissimo. If the instrumentalists
exercise good intonation, their massed unison will yield a timbrally modulated
complex tone with many ringing harmonics clearly audible above its fundamental. At
the end of Section a1, B-flat2 is supplanted by B-flat3, which fades to pianissimo over
the course of a 30-second time interval that is not marked in the score, but which I
will denote as Section a0 1. This time interval, spanning 10 3000 20 0000 , calls for a
strategic sequence of volume adjustments to Machine 2: at 10 3000 its playback level is
abruptly reduced to nil, remains thus until 10 3700 , and then is increased gradually to
normal level at 10 4500 (see Figure 12). The effect is that the B-flat2 is cleanly released
with no echo, this being the only such release in the piece. This unique early event
will engender a significant quasi-cadential figure heard in Voice 2 at the works
conclusion and discussed further below.
As illustrated by Figure 12 and Figure 13, in Section a2 harmonics 8 through 16 of
B-flat0 become available pitches. Over the next two sections (b1 and b2) the available
pitch set rises in register, admitting progressively more complex harmonic
relationships as it moves higher in the harmonic series and correspondingly contracts
in registral compass. The effect of the tape echo associated with Machine 2 is to blur
in performance the abrupt temporal boundaries between the successive pitch sets
indicated in the score and in Figure 13. At Section c the available set is extended both
upward to the 32nd harmonic of B-flat0 and downward to the 8th, re-embracing all
Figure 13 Formal schematic for Voice(s).

115
116
R. A. Wannamaker
of the pitches heard since the beginning of Section a2 (see Figure 13).26 Twenty
seconds later, Voice 2 enters with the retrograded materials of Section b2 transposed
down an octave (designated b2/2 in the figure), thus effectively dropping the
conceptual fundamental of the collection from B-flat0 to B-flat71. The density of the
texture increases as the complex harmonies heard in Voice 1 just 20 seconds earlier
reappear an octave lower in Voice 2. The pitches appearing in Voice 2 are harmonic
numbers 16 24 of B-flat71 while those in Voice 1 are now harmonics 8 32 of Bflat0, so that Voice 2 fills in the low end of Voice 1, doubling the number of distinct
sounding pitches between B-flat3 and F4.
Sections d and e extend Voice 1s available pitch gamut still further, ultimately
down to the B-flat2 of the opening and upwards without bound into high natural
string harmonics. Voice 2 persists in the role of filling in Voice 1s lower pitch
extremity over Sections d and e, its registral descents synchronized with those of
Voice 1, but also, of course, retrograding at the octave and in rhythmic augmentation
both the outline and details of Voice 1s earlier ascent between the 2- and 8-minute
marks. The measured increase in the range, number of sounding voices and harmonic
complexity accumulates a texture of almost oceanic depth by 170 .
Voice 3 enters at 160 5000 with harmonics 8 16 of B-flat1 (or, equivalently, evennumbered harmonics of B-flat0 between numbers 16 and 32), serving over the next
few minutes to emphasize harmonics in progressively higher registers and eventually
extending its range above that of Voice 1. Of course, it presents in rhythmic
diminution at the octave not only all materials that previously appeared in Voice 1,
but also (starting at 200 0000 ) materials previously heard in Voice 2 during the time
interval 80 2000 160 2000 , which now appear in a fourth voice presenting an
incomplete retrograde of Voice 1 (30 5000 70 5000 ) at pitch and in tempo (marked
Voice 4 in Figure 13). This section marks the zenith of the works textural and
harmonic complexity. Amid the vast number of simultaneously sounding tones,
individual instruments lose their identities as partials dissociate from their
particular instrumental sources, undergoing kaleidoscopic harmonic fission and
fusion. The resulting texture evokes not instrumental sources, but rather a gigantic
choir whose range extends both above and below that of normal human voices. The
progression from the individual voice (or voices) heard at the opening to this
immense and seething choral texture at the works culmination reveals a fourth sense
of the title.
Several aspects of the formal design strategically collude to produce a dramatic
conclusion. First, the harmonic complexity of Voice 2 has been decreasing gradually
as it descends lower in the harmonic series of B-flat71, finally giving way to a single
B-flat2 pitch at 200 0000 (although the emergence of this harmonically simpler texture is
rendered gradual by the operation of the tape echo). This amounts to a progressive
harmonic clarification of the texture following the welter of the preceding minutes.
Second, at 210 0000 the upward range of Voice 1 is strategically reined in, in
preparation for Voice 3s subsequent ascent. Third, and most importantly, at 200 0000 ,
Section a0 1/2 commences in Voice 2, providing a crescendo on B-flat2 lasting just long
117
enough (60 seconds) for the tape-echoes of the various other Voice-2 pitches
sounded in Section a2/2 to completely fade. This is significant because among them
are the only pitches in the total texture necessarily associated with the conceptual
fundamental B-flat71 rather than any higher fundamental. Of course, the conclusion
of the crescendo on B-flat2 corresponds to the aforementioned clean (i.e., un-echoed)
release of B-flat2 in Voice 1 at 10 3000 , which is now heard in retrograde and transposed
down an octave, becoming a clean attack of B-flat1 in Voice 2. This is the lowest pitch
heard in the piece and it has not sounded previously. It appears just as Section f
commences at 210 0000 , at which time the same B-flat1 is made available to the
instrumentalists of Voice 1 and all odd-numbered harmonics of B-flat0 are deleted
from Voice 1s available pitch set (which thus becomes a harmonic series on B-flat1).
All pitches in Voice 3 can also be regarded as harmonics of B-flat1, so as the echoes of
Section e fade the conceptual fundamental of the total sounding pitch collection is
effectively raised from a non-sounding B-flat71 to this sounding B-flat1. For the first
time in the piece since the opening unisons, the conceptual fundamental corresponds
with an actually sounding pitch, aurally rationalizing all tones as harmonics within
the spectrum of this fundamental. Section f is marked with a diminuendo to
pianissimo, and Voice 2 executes a similar fade as it retrogrades Section a1, so that in
the end we are left with the high fleeting tones of Voice 3, still intelligible as upper
harmonics of the fading fundamental. The piece closes with just a hint (10 seconds
worth) of Section 2e replaying in Voice 3 as that voice is finally faded out as well.
Thus Voice 3 finishes with a pitch set whose lowest member is a B-flat.
As in Clang, we observe in Voice(s) a global trajectory of gradual, systematic
harmonic complexification and subsequent clarification that assumes a motivating
and unifying role somewhat reminiscent of that played by background harmonic
prolongation and resolution in tonal music, but without resort to traditional
harmonic formulae.
Other Works
Tenneys compositional uvre is more varied in its techniques and concerns than
that of most composers. Apart from the groundbreaking computer music already
mentioned, it includes influential examples of tape collage,27 Fluxus-related
performance pieces, works predicated on his theories of formal perception,
percussion music, pieces inspired by the music and theories of Ruth Crawford and
Charles Seeger, inventive arrangements of music by other composers such as Cage
and Nancarrow, and even striking examples of original ragtime music. Nonetheless,
what I have been calling Tenneys spectral music comprises the single largest
component of his output since 1971. Other significant early compositions in this vein
not discussed above include Chorales for Orchestra (1974) and Orchestral Study
(1974).28 Tenneys later spectralism-related works are numerous, but include Glissade
(1982) for viola, cello, contrabass and tape-delay system, Critical Band (1988) for any
ten or more sustaining instruments,29 Diapason (1996) for string orchestra (which
118
R. A. Wannamaker
extends the system of scordatura developed for QUINTEXT V: SPECTRA for Harry
Partch), In a large open space (1994) for variable ensemble, Arbor Vitae (2006) for
string quartet30 and the series of works entitled Spectrum 1 8 (1995 2001).
In the Three Harmonic Studies (1974) for small orchestra and the sequence of
compositions entitled Harmonium #1 #7 (1976 2000) Tenney began to explore the
harmonic series as a source of specifically harmonic relationships. In Harmonium #1
(1976) for variable ensemble, which presents the conception behind the Harmonia
series in its plainest form, a chordal texture undergoes a gradual transition (one tone
at a time) between subsets of harmonic series with different fundamentals. In the first
half of the piece, the fundamental of the new subset is always the last tone to be
supplied by this gradual modulation. Its arrival is marked each time by a sudden
strong perceptual fusion between all of the sounding tones together with a
concomitant increase in sensory consonance. The composer described this
phenomenon as a sudden making of sense of the harmonic relationships between
pitches.
Tenney spent much of the next thirty years exploring such harmonic relationships
both theoretically and compositionally. Only a small fraction of his theoretical
writings on the subject have appeared in print, but among those that have one finds a
semantic history of the terms consonance and dissonance (Tenney, 1988), a call for
a descriptive harmonic theory consistent with a post-Cagean empiricism together
with the quantitative foundations for such a theory (Tenney, 1993 [1983]), proposed
neurophysiological mechanisms underlying harmonic perception (Tenney, 1992),
and an algorithm for accumulating referential pitch-class sets based on a quantitative
measure of harmonic distance between pitches (Tenney, 2007). Also, in addition to
the Harmonia series, this line of exploration has yielded a body of other major
compositions including Bridge (1984) for two pianos/eight hands in a microtonal
tuning system, Koan (1984) for string quartet, Water on the Mountain . . . Fire in
Heaven (1985) for six electric guitars, the monumental Changes: 64 Studies for 6
Harps (1985), and the series of works Forms 1 4 (1993) for variable ensemble, to
name only a few.31 Detailed discussion of these works and their theoretical
underpinnings is beyond the scope of the present treatment. In any event, a specific
interest in harmonic perception arguably diverges from the paradigmatic spectralist
concern with the duality of harmony and timbre. Indeed it is significant, in part,
precisely because it opens a progressive and fruitful compositional avenue that leads
beyond classic spectralism while retaining unalloyed its radical phenomenological
orientation.
Spectrum 6 (2001)
The Spectrum series represents a convergence of Tenneys compositional and
theoretical interests in spectrum as timbre, harmonic perception and temporal gestalt
perception in music. Tenneys gestalt theory is sophisticated and cannot be treated in
detail here (see Tenney, 1988 [1964]; Tenney & Polansky, 1980). In outline, he
119
theorized the hierarchical perceptual grouping of musical components, proposing

that grouping is promoted by proximity in time and/or similarity in other musical
parameters (pitch, timbre, dynamic, etc.). In Tenneys parlance, indivisible musical
elements (typically individual notes or chords) group into clangs (collections often
with the cardinality, if not necessarily the function, of motives), which in turn group
into sequences (collections of length often similar to phrases) and so forth through
higher hierarchical levels such as subsections, sections and so on. The largest
grouping is the piece as a whole. In the pieces of the Spectrum series, such musical
components were generated algorithmically using software written by the composer
that was customized as needed for individual works.
Consider Spectrum 6 (2001) for six instruments. In this work, the instrumentation is divided into two Groups. Group 1 comprises flute, bass clarinet and piano
while Group 2 comprises violin, cello and percussion. The piano is microtonally
retuned. The percussionist plays a standard equal-tempered vibraphone with
motor off, plus seven freely chosen unpitched percussion instruments. All
instruments except percussion share throughout a common pitch reservoir, shown
in Figure 14. The pitches to the right of the barline comprise a 12-note just
chromatic scale that divides the octave fairly uniformly. This 12-note scale is
repeated in higher octaves (not shown) up to the top of the ensembles range. All
pitches correspond to harmonics of F0, so some pitches of the chromatic scale do
not appear in the lower registers. Note that the conceptual fundamental F0 is not
itself in the set.
Each instrumental part is generated in a separate software run. The inputs to the
routine include the duration of the work, the name and range of the instrument, the
maximum number of tones per chord for polyphonic instruments and any required
transposition for the part. Various composer-defined time-dependent mathematical
functions control the selection of clang durations, the number of elements per
clang, the probability that a clang will be replaced by a rest and the dynamic of
each clang. The algorithm itself only generates elements and clangslarger-scale
formal organization is compositionally imposed by prescribing these functions.
The particular functions used in Spectrum 6 are shown in Figure 15, as specified in the
code to Tenneys software. Note that different curves are stipulated for each of the
two instrumental Groups.32
Consider the generation of clangs and elements in Group 1. (Everything proceeds
similarly for Group 2.) The length of each clang is selected at random without bias
Figure 14 Pitch set used in Spectrum 6 (2001). The pitches after the barline are repeated
in higher octaves (not shown).
120
R. A. Wannamaker
between the limits provided by the upper and lower solid curves in Figure 15(a),
reading the figure at the time value that corresponds to the beginning of the clang in
question. With the probability indicated in Figure 15(b), the clang is randomly
replaced with an equivalent period of rest. If it is not so replaced, then the number of
elements within the clang is randomly selected without bias from the range between
the solid lines in Figure 15(c), and their associated attacks are distributed evenly
throughout the duration of the clang. A dynamic is assigned to the clang as
deterministically specified by Figure 15(d). If the clang was not replaced by rest, then
a padding rest of 0.5 seconds is appended to it in order to ensure its perceptual
segregation with respect to neighboring clangs.
Figure 16 shows the first and last systems of the concert-pitch score. Time is
proportionally notated. Individual clangs are beamed together wherever this is
typographically convenient, in which case the beamed group is to be played legato.
Breath marks () signal the beginning of rests. Numbers above noteheads indicate
deviations in cents from 12-tone equal-temperament, and noteheads replaced by
numbers identify non-pitched percussion instruments.
Figure 15 Parametric curves used in the algorithmic composition Spectrum 6.
121
Figure 16 The (a) first and (b) last systems from the concert score to Spectrum 6. 2001
James Tenney. Used by permission. Published by Frog Peak Music (http://www.frogpeak.
org).
122
R. A. Wannamaker
Compare Figure 15 with Figure 16. The variations and counterpoint of the
parameters illustrated in Figure 15 are easily observable by ear and in the score,
resulting in a unique variety of contrapuntal spectral music. For a given instrumental
Group, clang duration and rest probability decrease (on average) over the course of
the work, while the number of elements per clang and the dynamic increase (on
average). Furthermore, variations in all parameters are initially out-of-phase between
the instrumental Groups, but over the course of the work they gradually come into
phase, exhibiting an interesting parametric counterpoint along the way. Thus
Group 1 begins with (on average) relatively brief clangs, low probability of rest, high
numbers of elements per clang, and loud dynamic, whereas Group 2 begins with just
the opposite attributes. At the conclusion of the work, on the other hand, both
Groups exhibit the same highly energetic temporal and dynamic attributes. Finally,
note how local maxima of the elements-per-clang and dynamic curves (and local
minima of the clang duration and rest probability curves) flank the golden ratio
conjugate, F 0.618, of the works duration. This general variety of parametric
counterpoint has often featured in Tenneys algorithmic compositions beginning
with his computer music of the 1960s (see Tenney, 1969; Polansky, 1983, pp. 159
171).
The pitch content of the work is also determined algorithmically. For each element
within a clang, a pitch is drawn from the pitch reservoir at random within the range
of the respective instrument. If the instrument is classified as polyphonic (in this
work, only the piano is thus regarded), then the number of tones in the given element
is determined at random in such a fashion that the probability of a large number is a
decreasing function of the attack rate within the clang (so that fast clangs are
primarily monophonic). When determining the multiple tones within a single chord,
the pitch probabilities are adjusted after each individual pitch choice so that pitches
near the previous one are favored for the next choice of chord tone. This deters the
formation of chords exhibiting extreme registral dispersion. On the other hand,
whenever a given pitch class is selected, the probability of its being selected again is
strongly suppressed, gradually returning to normal over the course of the next six
attacks. This serves to promote the regular circulation of all pitch classes within each
instrumental part. In the percussion part it is assumed that only standard tempered
pitches are available from the vibraphone, so if a selected pitch differs by more than
five cents from the nearest tempered pitch then an unpitched percussion sound is
assigned to the corresponding element. After all elements in a given clang have been
specified, the algorithm advances the time value by the duration of the clang (plus
any padding rest) and the process is repeated for the next clang.
The absent fundamental F0 of the pitch collection serves behind the scenes as a
unifying force for the entire work in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the
background tonic harmony in tonal music. In passages where the number of elements
per clang is low, I tend to become preoccupied with hearing the various local
harmonic relationships between tones, some of which are simple and some of which
are complex. As the event density increases, the texture becomes increasingly
123
polyphonic as melodies emerge due to the grouping of tones by both proximity in

time and similarity in timbre (i.e., instrument), although harmonic relationships
remain salient. During passages of high event density (and especially at the works
conclusion), I begin to perceive the ensemble of pitches as elements of a harmonic
spectrum above the missing F0, especially when other members of this pitch class
prominently sound. Spectrum 6 thus illuminates the composers longstanding
interests in harmonic perception, on the one hand, and spectrum as timbre, on the
other, as two sides of a coin.
Conclusions
Tenneys work is a seminal representative of a broader current of spectral music
composition that arose in North America independently of spectralist developments
in Europe. It has significant roots, on the one hand, in encounters by artists with a
scientific culture whose influence and pervasiveness expanded enormously during the
postwar era and, on the other hand, in a quasi-empiricist musical aesthetic inherited
principally from John Cage.33 Tenneys work is not the only expression of these
influences, of course; one finds related manifestations in the music of Alvin Lucier (b.
1931), La Monte Young (b. 1935), Terry Riley (b. 1935), Maryanne Amacher (b.
1943), Phill Niblock (b. 1944), Glenn Branca (b. 1948), and many younger composers
(see Hasegawa, 2006; Gann, 1997a, 2004). Nonetheless, Tenneys Clang and Quintext
seem to be the earliest examples of paradigmatic spectral music arising in North
America, clearly displaying the ensemble of characteristics outlined in the
introduction.
Tenneys work exhibits certain characteristics, however, that distinguish it from
most European spectral music. These derive in large part from his focused concern
with phenomenology and the nature of perception, and include:
.
.
.
His relatively strict intonational stipulations, which promote strong harmonic

fusion and allow discrimination of many distinct harmonic-series intervals, in
contrast with the common acceptance of quarter-tone pitch approximations in
European spectralism.
An apparent disinterest in inharmonic spectra due to their lack of referential
perceptual status, compared with the frequent appearance of such spectra in
European works (Anderson, 2000).
The relative exclusion from his music of concerns for textural variety and formal
elaboration of the sort that became increasingly prominent in continental
spectralism after 1980 (Anderson, 2000, pp. 15 16).
Tenneys increasing interest in harmonic perception, a productive route away
from classic spectralism that retained its radical phenomenological orientation.
The element of post-Cageian indeterminacy manifested in Tenneys available
pitch procedures, which serves in part to direct the listeners attention to
perception rather than to local semantic considerations.
124
R. A. Wannamaker
Another conspicuous distinction is the appearance in Tenneys work of rhythmic

analogs to frequency spectral structures, although this may be motivated less by
phenomenological considerations than by structuralist curiosity and an identification
with the tradition of American experimental music in which such analogs have
played a significant role since Cowell.
Compositions in a spectralist vein appear among the works of a number of Tenneys
students. Among their ranks are such important composers such as Larry Polansky (b.
1954) and John Luther Adams (b. 1953). Polanskys contrabass quartet of 1975 1977
entitled Movement for Lou Harrison uses natural harmonics on just-tuned strings to
achieve an evolving variety of pitch constellations within a given harmonic series, a
technique that the composer indicates was first suggested to him by Tenneys
QUINTEXT V: SPECTRA for Harry Partch (Polansky, 1994). Later Polansky
compositions such as Psaltery (1979) for tape, and Horn (1989) for horn and tape,
employ gradual systematic modulations between different harmonic spectra. John
Luther Adams large-scale musical theatre work Earth and the Great Weather (1990
1993) includes a collection of pieces for strings and digital delay. Several of these
employ textures, techniques and tuning systems related to those found in such Tenney
compositions as QUINTEXT V and Glissade. Indeed, Adams explicitly describes one
of them as an homage to Tenney (Adams, 1994). Earth and the Great Weather
departs from strict phenomenological concerns in its attention to the evocation of
place. Here spectralist techniques function in part to suggest the austerity and rarefied
temporal sense associated with the Alaskan wilderness where the composer resides.34
From 1976 to 2000 Tenney lived and taught in Toronto, Canada, where his influence was felt by a number of Canadian composers including Marc Sabat (b. 1965),
Paul Swoger-Ruston (b. 1968), Josh Thorpe (b. 1975) and the author (b. 1967).
I would like to conclude with some remarks of a more personal sort. It seems to me
that certain artists bequeath to future generations a legacy that is not limited to a
distinctive body of accomplished works, nor even to an expansion of expressive
means, but which also includes new aesthetics that enlarge our conception of the art
form itself. The work of such composers as Vare`se, Cage, Feldman, Lucier and La
Monte Young, for instance, impart viable new senses for the phrase listening to
music. This is the case with Tenneys music as well, particularly in its affirmation
that the exploration of perception and a self-reflective experience of its operation are
subjects proper to the domain of music. In this way For Ann (rising), Clang, Three
Indigenous Songs and Changes broke ground for new wings on the idea of music.
These are now open, and subsequent generations of artists are busy occupying and
expanding them.
Tenneys works refuse adulteration by concerns for impressiveness or approachability, but ultimately attain both through their insistence that the modes of
perception and comprehension they engage are wondrous and rewarding in
themselves. This variety of artistic integrity is part of what I find inspiring in his
work. Tenney once indicated to me that he believed in the possibility of an art
motivated not by desire for posterity and the concomitant cult of the masterpiece,
125
but instead by curiosity regarding ourselves and our world. For me, this idea is an
important part of his legacy. It does not prevent me from finding masterful his deft
unlocking of spaces where listeners encounter anew the audible universe and their
perceiving selves.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Lauren Pratt for answering my numerous questions and
allowing me access to James Tenneys notes and library of recordings. My thanks are
also due to Robert Hasegawa for reading drafts of this article and offering helpful
suggestions.
Notes
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Harmonic fusion refers to the perceptual synthesis of a tones multiple partials into a
unitary percept, as commonly happens when we hear instrumental tones in traditional
musical contexts. Partials arrayed in a harmonic series undergo such fusion much more
readily than partials exhibiting other intervallic relationships, a fact that lends the harmonic
series a special perceptual status. Where other terms in the above list arise below, they will be
explained in context. For the remainder, and for further information regarding these
topics, interested readers should consult a general reference on acoustics or psychoacoustics
(e.g., Moore, 1997).
I would like to thank the editors of the published proceedings in which Wannamaker (in
press) appears for allowing me to reprint here the introductory biographical text and two
figures from that paper. Readers interested in Tenneys work should be aware that analyses of
For 12 Strings Rising (1971) and Saxony (1978) can be found in the earlier paper, as well as
discussions of Clang (1972), QUINTEXT (1972) and Three Indigenous Songs (1979) that are
briefer than those herein.
Most of Tenneys major works completed between 1960 and 1980 receive detailed
examination in Larry Polanskys book-length analytical study of his music (Polansky, 1983),
which remains an indispensable scholarly resource for anyone interested in Tenneys work.
It is published in Soundings 13 (Garland, 1984). Hardcopies are available from Frog Peak
Music (http://www.frogpeak.org), and the entire text is freely available online from
the publishers website: http://www.frogpeak.org/unbound (accessed 12 October 2007).
Tenneys computer music can be heard on James Tenney: Selected Works, 1961 1969, New
World Records CD 80570. An analytical survey of these works is available in (Polansky, 1983,
pp. 151 171), a version of which constitutes Polansky (2003). In Tenney (1969), the
composer himself published analyses of these works and an account of his time at Bell Labs.
Technical aspects of the research that Tenney conducted while there on sound synthesis and
the modeling of instrumental timbres appears in Tenney (1963), which is one of the very first
publications regarding computerized sound synthesis directed towards musicians, while
some of his conclusions regarding the physical correlates of timbre are collected in Tenney
(1965).
Detailed discussion of all of the postal pieces can be found in Polansky (1983, pp. 193 203)
and expanded in Polansky (2004).
The reason that successively higher partials become salient is that if the fundamental
frequencies of two complex tones in a unison dyad are mistuned by a frequency difference
f27f1, (which will be the frequency of beating between them) then the n-th harmonics above
126
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
R. A. Wannamaker
these fundamentals will be mistuned by a frequency difference nf27nf1 n(f27f1). Thus,
once the intonation has improved sufficiently so that the rate of beating between lower
harmonics is no longer noticeable, then the beating between relatively higher harmonics
becomes evident due to its greater rapidity.
A Shepard tone is a collection of sine tones, separated in pitch by octave intervals, all of
which are glissading or stepping upwards together at a common rate in semitones per
second. Each tone is individually subjected to an identical amplitude envelope such that it
gradually fades in beginning at some given bass pitch, attains a dynamic plateau and then
fades out as it approaches a given treble pitch. The impression imparted to a listener is that
of a tone rising continuously in pitch without getting higher (see Shepard, 1964).
Just intonation refers to any of a variety of intonational systems based solely on intervals
occurring in the harmonic series. Quarter-tones are indicated in this score using accidentals
in parentheses, denoting pitch alterations by halfrather than by fullsemitone.
Over the next decade, Tenney would become increasingly strict regarding the need for
intonational accuracy, settling in the 1980s on stipulations of pitches to within +5 cents.
This +5 cent guideline applies, of course, to the intonation of intervals derived from the
harmonic series. As such, it receives some support within the psychoacoustical literature.
Studies of thresholds for hearing mistuned lower partials in harmonic complexes as separate
tones set such thresholds as low as 8 cents for some subjects with stimulus durations of
1610 msec (Moore & Glasberg, 1986). Furthermore, these thresholds fall with increasing
stimulus duration (1610 msec was the longest reported). Tenneys progressive strictness
regarding intonational accuracy sharply distinguishes his thinking from that of European
spectralist composers, who even to the present day have commonly accepted the quartertone as an approximation.
Tenney appreciated the potential performance difficulties engendered by his intonational
demands, and developed means of making them feasible that were appropriate for each
piece. These included the provision of intonational references (in the form, e.g., of tunable
electronic keyboards or scordatura strings playing natural harmonics), textures that permit
tuning via monitoring the tempo of beating, the use of multiple instruments tuned sixths-ofa-semitone apart in order to realize 72-tone equal-temperament (which includes excellent
approximations to many just intervals), the monitoring by instrumentalists of electronic
tuners in live performance, and the re-tuning of tunable instruments such as pianos. He
always believed, however, that performance practice would evolve such that one day nonspecialized players would commonly be able to accurately tune the intervals of such music by
ear alone just as he could, and in my experience an increasing number of instrumentalists
seem to be doing just that.
Tenneys structural use of this process in Clang predates its appearance in the work of
composers such as Gerard Grisey, in whose music ascents or descents of the conceptual
fundamental by octaves are associated by Rose (1996, pp. 9 10) with motion towards
harmonicity or inharmonicity, respectively.
An analytical treatment of the entire QUINTEXT suite is available in (Polansky, 1983, pp.
208 218).
A subharmonic series of frequencies comprises a fundamental frequency f0 together with its
submultiples (i.e., f0/1, f0/2, f0/3, f0/4, . . . etc.) The corresponding pitch sequence is an
intervallically inverted harmonic series. The subharmonic series does not possess the unique
acoustical and psychoacoustical properties of the harmonic series: it is not naturally
produced by common physical oscillatory systems and its components have no strong
tendency to perceptually fuse. It does have an intelligible interpretation, however, as the
collection of fundamental frequencies of which f0 is a harmonic. The definition of a
subharmonic series of durations or tempi can be accomplished by analogy with the
definition of a subharmonic series of frequencies.
127
[13] The ritardando disappears if fundamental frequencies are plotted instead of pitches.
[14] See also the discussion of Spectral CANON in Brian Belets article in this special issue.
[15] A recording of this realization is available on Cold Blue, Cold Blue Music CB0008, compact
disc; also on Donaueschingen Musiktage, 1994, col legno WWE 3CD 31882, compact disc;
also on the cassette accompanying Musicworks 27 (Pearson & Monahan, 1984). A reference
score is available in (Tenney, 1976) and the player-piano roll itself appears in Musicworks 27
magazine (Pearson & Monahan, 1984). There also exists an interesting unreleased extended
(50 2500 ) version of the Spectral CANON dating from 1991 (realized by composer Clarence
Barlow on a Yamaha Disklavier) in which all voices are allowed to completely finish their
retrogrades. Finally, there exist Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow, Variations #1-3
(1991/1998) for harmonic player piano realized by composer Ciaran Maher to Tenneys
specifications in 2006/2007 using MIDI (available online with documentation at: http://
www.rhizomecowboy.com/spectral_variations; accessed 25 March 2007). These utilize the
same inter-attack duration sequence as the original, but specify different temporal patterns
for the voice entrances.
[16] The author is preparing a separate report addressing the topic (see also Polansky, 1983,
pp. 223 227).
[17] The earlier setting is Hey When I Sing These 4 Songs Hey Look What Happens (1971) for soprano,
alto, tenor and bass voice(s). Tenney also provided the Coleman transcription with a more direct
musical rendering in Blues for Annie (1975) for viola. The original Coleman recording can be
heard online at: http://www.juneberry78s.com/sounds/ListenToCountryBlues.htm (accessed
19 June 2007) or on Jaybird Coleman & The Birmingham Jug Band 1927 1930, Document
Records DOCD-5140, compact disc. See also the discussion of Three Indigenous Songs in Brian
Belets article in this special issue. A recording of Three Indigenous Songs is available on the audio
cassette accompanying Musicworks, 27 (Pearson & Monahan, 1984).
[18] Examples of sine wave speech can be heard online at: http://www.haskins.yale.edu/research/
sws.html (accessed 1 August 2007). A formant is a peak in the power spectrum of an
acoustical signal occurring at a resonant frequency of the originating acoustical system. Vocal
formant frequencies vary independently of the vocal pitch as the shape of the vocal tract
changes during speech or singing, permitting the production of different vowels or voiced
consonants with the same pitch (see Parsons, 1986, pp. 104 106).
[19] The initial u sound in water is transcribed in the previous measure.
[20] Tenneys notes indicate that he began work on Three Indigenous Songs as early as 1975, and
he apparently updated his working formant data during the course of composition. An early
source was Peterson and Barney (1952), but it seems that in the late 1970s he preferred data
from Fairbanks and Grubb (1961). Thus the frequency data in Figure 11(b) correspond with
Fairbanks and Grubb (1961) except for the entries in parentheses, which derive from
Peterson and Barney (1952). The latter may have been invoked because they entailed a
broader formant region within which harmonics might fall. Perhaps for a similar reason, the
pitch associated with the asterisked 640 Hz figure is rounded up to E5 when it is actually
slightly closer to D#5.
[21] It is unclear to me why the 18th harmonic (D#7), which falls squarely within the third formants
bandwidth, was not selected. It may be because this pitch was present in the immediately
preceding sound and a new pitch was considered appropriate for a new articulation.
[22] A detailed analysis of Saxony can be found in Wannamaker (in press). Alternate versions of
the work exist for the following instrumentation, all with tape delay: (1) brass quintet, (2)
three saxophones, (3) string trio or string quartet. Also, the composer indicates that the work
may be realized as a stochastic canon using any instrumentation.
[23] A recording of Voice(s) is available on the audio cassette accompanying Musicworks, 27
(Pearson & Monahan, 1984), although it suffers from poor production quality. The works
score is reproduced in the issue.
128
R. A. Wannamaker
[24] Of course, today all of this hardware and associated manipulations can be replaced with a
rudimentary Max or Pd patch.
[25] I have made a few finer sectional discriminations through the introduction of primes on
some labels.
[26] Above the 24th harmonic, only even-numbered harmonics are employed, these being octave
equivalents of more familiar partials residing lower in the series.
[27] Tenneys Collage #1 (Blue Suede) (1961) is the earliest example of so-called plunderphonic
music of which I am aware (see Polansky, 1983, pp. 144 146; Davies, 1996, p. 10).
[28] The interested reader is referred to the analysis of Chorales for Orchestra in Polansky (1983,
pp. 219 222) and brief remarks on both works in Wannamaker (in press).
[29] An analysis of Critical Band can be found in Gilmore (1995). Glissade is discussed in Brian
Belets article in this special issue.
[30] See the article by Michael Winter in this special issue.
[31] Bridge is recorded on James Tenney: Bridge & Flocking, hat ART CD 6193. Koan can be heard
on Musicworks 64 CD. Water on the Mountain . . . Fire in Heaven is recorded on Seth Josel:
Long Distance CRI CD 697. Forms 1-4 are collected on hat[now]ART 2-127 CD. For further
information on these compositions, the reader is referred to Von Schweinitz (2007). Analyses
of all of these works except the Forms can be found in Belet (1990); Koan for string quartet is
discussed in Belets article in this special issue. The composer published his own detailed
analysis of Changes in Tenney (1987). Regarding Bridge, also see Tenney (1984a, 1984b).
Analytical remarks on the Forms series can be found in Morchen (2000).
[32] For readers who are interested, all of the illustrated functions have a common mathematical
form. They are cosines with decreasing frequencies plus linear ramps: at b c cos(2prtp),
where a, b, c, r and p are constants specified for each individual curve and t is the time
variable. Additionally, ordinates of the clang duration and number-of-elements-per-clang
curves are subjected to an exponential transformation of the form x ! 2x. The constants r are
chosen such that the curves for instrumental Groups 1 and 2 begin in anti-phase and end in
phase. The value of the exponent p 5 1 is the same for all curves and was specified such that
the vertical line shown in the figures occurs at the golden ratio conjugate, F 0.618, of the
works duration.
[33] Tenney himself makes this connection with Cage in Tenney (1993 [1983]).
[34] Score excerpts and further information regarding Adamss work can be found in Feisst
(2001).
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Contemporary Music Review

The spectral music of James Tenney

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Contemporary Music Review

The Spectral Music of James Tenney

Introduction: Spectral Music

A general preoccupation with the phenomenology rather than the semantics of

ISSN 0749-4467 (print)/ISSN 1477-2256 (online) 2008 Taylor & Francis

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Discussions of spectral music have been dominated heretofore by developments in

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Contemporary Music Review

(1954 1955). He subsequently studied composition and conducting at Bennington

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Figure 1 Formal scheme showing reduced clang chords.

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Contemporary Music Review

This espousal of indeterminacy in performance is a post-Cageian feature of Tenneys

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frequency components. Meticulous orchestration is employed to ensure that changes

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Contemporary Music Review

that it increasingly resembles a single complex tone whose harmonic spectrum is

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Contemporary Music Review

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Contemporary Music Review

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Contemporary Music Review

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Contemporary Music Review

is then briefly displaced by an unexpected revisitation of the harmonic series on F2

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attacks, following which this sequence of inter-attack durations begins to retrograde.

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Contemporary Music Review

The prospects for actually evoking intelligible utterances by means of instrumental

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so-called sine wave speech, in which comprehensible speech is produced using as

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Contemporary Music Review

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movement of a formant peak that immediately follows or precedes certain

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Contemporary Music Review

Tenney revisited the project of speech synthesis by instrumental means in two

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Pieces Employing Tape Delay

records both the instrumental sounds and re-played sounds coming

records roughly the first third of the performance using a tape-speed

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Contemporary Music Review