Carter - Considering

Considering Elliott Carter’s Harmonic Process
through Sketch Study
by John Aylward
Much has been written about the kinds of harmonies Elliott Carter uses in
his music. From Carter’s Harmony Book to the numerous articles published
on his use of all-interval tetrachords, writings on Carter’s raw materials
abound.1 A far less substantial literature is available on his compositional
techniques regarding these harmonies, and yet, the fact that we now know
so much about them allows us to ask more penetrating questions. What
does Carter consider when deciding upon a progression of harmony? What
harmonic relationships does he wish to make vivid on the surface of his
music? How do his compositional decisions regarding harmony motivate
form?
One of the most fruitful ways of addressing these questions is to look at
how Carter initially constructs harmonic relationships in his sketches.
Within Carter’s sketchbooks, we can find not only the harmonic content
often discussed, but also clues as to his methodology for constructing actual
progressions. Sketch study can also clarify Carter’s harmonic intent in cases
where the score is not fully illuminating.
Consider one of the more harmonically obscure passages from Carter’s
Fifth String Quartet (1995): the very end of “Interlude No. 1.” Carter makes
a point to end the first interlude with a transposition of the work’s opening
harmony (Example 1). The relationship by transposition is clear, but it is
difficult to discern the harmonic content of the entire gesture leading up to
the transposed chord. Is the entire gesture one harmony? Should we hear
the final attack as a separate harmony? Does this gesture have a relationship
to the beginning of the “Lento espressivo,” which overlaps with the inter-
lude’s ending?
It is reasonable to hear the gesture as one harmony, but closer analysis
shows that the chord looks contextually anomalous; 01235679t (Forte
name 9-11) is not featured elsewhere in the work, and Carter has built
the harmonic framework of the quartet around four- and eight-note
chords, not nine-note chords.2 We could parse these nine notes in a variety
of ways, but it is hard to devise a method for understanding Carter’s com-
42
Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, Nr. 24, April 2011

Example 1: End of “Interlude No. 1” and beginning of “Lento espressivo.”
Example 2: Rendering from excerpt of sketchbook page, dated April 9, 1995.
Example 3: Analysis of sketchbook harmonies.
positional decision by simply isolating some groups of notes while dismiss-

ing others.
In the sketchbooks, we find a draft of this moment on a page dated
“April 9th, 1995” (Example 2).3 This page contains numerous drafts of the
“Lento espressivo.” One part of this page contains two harmonies, 8-5
(octatonic) and 8-9, separated by an attempt to draft the closing gesture to
“Interlude No. 1.” The draft clearly demonstrates Carter’s desire to end the
first violin’s gesture with the F/A dyad – a dyad prominently featured in the
work’s opening.
43

Example 4
Chord 8-5 is arranged in a fashion similar to an arrangement in Carter’s

Harmony Book. Carter separates the dyad D/G#, perhaps because he is con-
sidering a chord that features this tritone. He also arranges the octatonic
chord in groups of dyads – another arrangement somewhat similar to the
Harmony Book.
These two chords are further analyzed in Example 3. Notice that the
sketched chords share six pitches and differ only by the displacement of a
minor third dyad. If the F#/D# dyad is added to the six shared pitches,
8-5 is generated. If the Bb/Db dyad is added, 8-9 is generated. The gesture
itself features rhyming minor thirds and major sixths, a surface detail that
highlights the only difference between the two harmonies. If we let the
sketch inform our analysis, we find that Carter is most interested in express-
ing an octatonic collection. The contrasting minor thirds both highlight the
octatonic collection and extend it into the 8-9 harmony.
The prominent harmony within the very end of the gesture, the 4-24
chord, is not found within Carter’s chosen octatonic transposition. Carter
achieves this tetrachord by borrowing the Bb/Db minor third from the
8-9 harmony. Knowing this, we can interpret the final tetrachord as having
an element of tension. Its Bb/Db dyad pushes against the sounding octatonic
collection while completing the 8-9 harmony. The A/F dyad is familiar
to both collections, and so we can hear this other half of the final attack as
stable. The confluence of these two dyads creates a moment where the
work’s opening harmony is re-contextualized as having elements of stability
and tension.
If we hear this final gesture as integrating these two eight-note chords,
we can also find a place for the first high pitches of the “Lento espressivo.”
The C, G#, and D are three pitches common to both harmonies (Example 4).
The E in the low register is not part of either the 8-5 or the 8-9 harmonies,
and so we could interpret it as anticipating the following music of the “Lento
espressivo.” However, the E has a compelling relationship to the climactic
4-24 chord. It can be combined with the F, A, and Db to form the trans-
position of 4-24 used at the work’s opening.
44

The interchangeability of the E in this context highlights how Carter
takes advantage of the whole tone triad (048) within the 4-24 chord. There
is a powerful sounding of the F, A, Db trichord, as part of two versions of
4-24, at the same time that a separate whole-tone trichord (C, E, G#) un-
folds. Carter references the work’s initial harmonic content while providing
a new transposition of it that looks forward.
These interpretations of this short excerpt, gained through sketch study,
provide an opportunity to hear Carter’s music differently. While we most
likely hear this excerpt as containing one harmony, the sketches reveal that
Carter uses two harmonies related by an octatonic collection. Also, we may
not hear any connection between the end of “Interlude No. 1” and the be-
ginning of the “Lento espressivo,” but the sketches show that the opening
of the “Lento espressivo” is harmonically linked to the interlude’s closing
gesture. While it is possible to reach these conclusions through study of the
score alone, they would be difficult and ultimately unsubstantiated. The
sketch work clearly substantiates this interpretation of the passage and
provides an insight into how Carter intends the passage to be heard.
1
Elliott Carter, Harmony Book, ed. by Nicholas Hopkins and John F. Link (New York: Carl
Fischer, 2002).
2
This article primarily uses Carter’s nomenclature for chord designation. This is the only
time that I reference Forte’s system.
3
Elliott Carter’s sketches for String Quartet No. 5, “Interlude No. 1,” preserved at the Elliott
Carter Collection, Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel.
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Considering Elliott Carter’s Harmonic Process

through Sketch Study

Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, Nr. 24, April 2011

Example 2: Rendering from excerpt of sketchbook page, dated April 9, 1995.

Example 3: Analysis of sketchbook harmonies.

positional decision by simply isolating some groups of notes while dismiss-

Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, Nr. 24, April 2011

Chord 8-5 is arranged in a fashion similar to an arrangement in Carter’s

Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, Nr. 24, April 2011

Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, Nr. 24, April 2011

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