24044509
24044509
24044509
Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in the Music of Witold Lutosławski
Author(s): Michael Klein
Source: Indiana Theory Review, Vol. 20, No. 1 (SPRING 1999), pp. 37-70
Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of the Department of Music Theory,
Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24044509
Accessed: 16-04-2019 22:38 UTC
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Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in
the Music of Witold Lutoslawski
Michael Klein
lines and their interactions, where a precise definition for the term line
BY texture I mean
remains open according tothat
context. part
By registerof musical
I mean the placementstructure
of conceived as a number of
those lines in a pitch-space, whose span from low to high is segmented into
equal parts by the octave. Following Wallace Berry, we might conceive of a
coupling of texture and register into a single musical structure called texture-space.
Berry's definition of texture-space—"a two-dimensioned field setting out 'hori
zontal' and 'vertical' boundaries enclosing the element-successions which con
stitute the musical work"—implies a temporal element that I shall leave
relatively unexplored in this paper.1 His emphasis on registral boundaries, how
ever, resonates with properties defined in this paper that I find central to an
understanding of form in the music of Witold Lutoslawski.
Texture-space takes on a role of heightened importance in much avant-garde
music after 1960, notably in the music of Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki, and
György Ligeti, among others. The dense pitch clusters that are common in this
music have generated a confusing array of terms in historical and analytical stud
ies, including textural music, cluster compositions, net-structure compositions (Ligeti),
and aleatorism of texture (Lutoslawski). In recent publications, some theorists have
offered detailed observations of how texture-space generates form in music of the
1960s, particularly in the music of Ligeti.2 Absent from this literature is any
exposition of how texture-space functions in the music of Lutoslawski, per
haps because his method of organizing pitch (harmonic aggregates) and
rhythm (ad libitum sections) complicates such a study.
1 Wallace Berry, Structural Functions in Music (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1976), 279.
2Among many examples are Miguel Roig-Francoli, "Harmonic and Formal Processes in
Ligeti's Net-Structure Compositions," Music Theory Spectrum 17, no. 2 (1995): 242—67; Jonathan
W. Bernard, "Voice Leading as a Spatial Function in the Music of Ligeti," Music Analysis 13 (1994):
227—53; Alejandro Pulido, "Differentiation and Integration in Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, HI," Sonus
9 (1988): 17—37; Bernard, "Inaudible Structures, Audible Music: Ligeti's Problem, and His
Solution," Music Analysis 6 (1987): 207-36; and Robert Cogan, "György Ligeti: Lux Aeterna," in
New Images of Musical Sound (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984), 39—43.
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38 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
sSteven Stucky, Lutoslawski and His Music (New York: Cambridge University Press,
1981).
+Charles Bodman Rae, The Music of Lutoslawski (London: Faber and Faber, 1994).
sAloyse Michaely, "Lutosiawskis III. Sinfonie," Musik-Konzepte 71—73 (1991): 52—197.
6A complete list of Homma's work on the music of Lutoslawski is impractical here.
Most of these publications draw on material from her published dissertation Witold Lutoslawski:
Zwöftonharmonik, Formbildung, "aleatorischer Kontrapunkt"; Studien zum Gesamtwerk unter Einbezie
hung der Skizzen (Cologne: Bela, 1995).
7The Paul Sacher Foundation holds Lutoslawski's sketches and manuscripts with the excep
tion of some fair copies (final manuscripts) that the composer gave to performers who pre
miered his works. Extant are sketches for nearly all of his music after 1960.
8In addition to this analytical work, there are a number of published interviews, includ
ing Irina Nikolska, Conversations with Witold Lutoslawski, trans. Valeri Yerokbin (Stockholm:
Melos, 1994); Tadeusz Kaczynski, Conversations with Witold Lutoslawski, trans. Yolanta May
(London: Chester Music, 1984); and Bâlint Andrâs Varga, Lutoslawski Profile: Witold Lutoslawski
in Conversation with Bàlint Andrâs Varga, trans, and ed. Stephen Walsh (London: Chester,
1976). Theses and dissertations about the music of Lutoslawski are numerous. Notable
theoretical studies among these include Michael L. Klein, "A Theoretical Study of the Late
Music of Witold Lutoslawski: New Interactions of Pitch, Rhythm, and Form," Ph.D. diss.,
State University of New York at Buffalo, 1995; Douglas M. Rust, "Lutoslawski's Sym
phonic Forms," Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1995; Gerald Evans, "The Development and
Application of New Structural Procedures in the Works Chain 1, Chain 11, and Chain III by
Witold Lutoslawski," Ph.D. diss., Kent State University, 1990 (especially Part II); and
Kathy Ann Russavage, "Instrumentation in the Works of Witold Lutoslawski," D.M.A.
thesis, University of Illinois, 1988. A more complete bibliography appears in Martina
Homma, "Auswahlbibliographie," Musik-Konzepte 71—73 (1991): 208—16.
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 39
harmonic aggregates, see Homma, Witold Lutoslawski; Klein, "A Theoretical Study of the Late
Music"; Rust, "Lutoslawski's Symphonic Forms"; Rae, The Music of Lutoslawski; and Stucky,
Lutoslawski and His Music.
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40 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
, Q i i— .. o«i«>
Ä °
1 fe tide ' ïo w
«> i°
rsyoi; #«. o ■
i —o 1 jo
9* t°jl'
3 t <6, 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 0, 3, 4, 7, T, E>
7-1-3-3-1-3-3-1-3-3-1
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 41
Within an aleatoric section, pitch can be stricdy fixed. That may appear
strange if you think of the loosening of time relations between sounds... .
This is the simplest way of organising pitch within an aleatoric
section. We compose a twelve tone chord, which serves as the basis of
that section. The instruments only play the notes belonging to that
chord. It may occur that the chord never actually sounds in its entirety
—it is supplemented by our memory and imagination.13
Only one harmonic aggregate unfolds within each ad libitum section, and because
of this one-to-one correspondence we can define both microrhythmic and
macrorhythmic structures in Lutoslawski's music. Mictorhythm includes all of
the attack points unfolding in the course of a single ad libitum section, analo
gous to the most surface or foreground rhythm in non-aleatoric music.
Macroihythm is created by the change from one harmonic aggregate to the next,
often corresponding to the changes from one ad libitum section to the next.14
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42 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
One can't deny that the controlled aleatory technique enriches the
music's rhythm and expression, and transforms the musical content
from a kind of versified speech into prose. But it also impoverishes the
musical matter to some extent. This impoverishment affects the har
monic flow, which inevitably slows down in all the sections played ad
libitum; and that in turn produces a somewhat static effect.15
Although the composer does not discuss the extension of stasis into the realm of
register, he surely must have known that if pitches are fixed throughout an ad
libitum section, so too are registers. But I suspect that, at first, Lutoslawski con
sidered this static effect to be a positive attribute. In fact, given the emphasis in
music of the 1960s on the generation of form through texture, timbre, and reg
ister, Lutoslawski may well have thought of ad libitum sections as liberating
forces that allowed him to focus on the coordination of blocks of sound.
Texture-Space
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 43
devoted a large portion of their Sonic Design to explaining the correlation between
historical conceptions of perspective in the pictorial arts and composers' use of
texture-space in music.16 Jonathan Bernard's work on the music of Varèse con
tains substantial development of a theory for that composer's use of register.17
Both the work of Cogan and Escot and that of Bernard use a grid notation to illus
trate the structure of texture-space. In these grids the vertical axis represents the
total available registral spectrum from CO to C8, and the horizontal axis repre
sents a movement through musical time. I will use a similar grid notation to illus
trate how Lutoslawski structures texture-space in the creation of musical form.
Berry has made a useful distinction between quantitative and qualitative accounts
of texture-space.18 Thus the difference between monophonie and polyphonic
textures is primarily quantitative (one voice versus two or more voices), while
that between polyphonic and heterophonic textures is primarily qualitative
(two or more independent voices versus two or more voices with hetero
melodic structures).19 The qualitative aspect of a texture entails an account of
the interaction of its voices, especially in regard to the relative independence of
their melodies, rhythms, timbres, contours, registers, and so on. The quantita
tive aspect of a texture entails a numeration of the span, voices, and thickness of
the textural fabric. I shall consider primarily quantitative characteristics of tex
ture-space when analyzing Lutoslawski's music, and among such characteristics
I shall make reference to three: field, density, and compression. Thefield of any
texture-space is the expanse of its register from the lowest to the highest notes
in that space.2 The density of any texture-space can be, according to context, the
"Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot, Sonic Design: The Nature of Sound and Music (Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1976).
"Jonathan W. Bernard, The Music ofEdgard Varèse (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1987). Earlier versions of this material appear in his "Pitch/Register in the Music of Edgard
Varèse, Music Theory Spectrum 3 (1981): 1—25; and in his "A Theory of Pitch and Register for the
Music ofEdgard Varèse," Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1977.
"Berry, Structural Functions in Music, 185.
"There is little agreement both on how many voices must be present to create a texture
and on how to define the term voice. For example, John White, The Analysis of Music (Engle
wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1976) asserts that "two or more voices . . . produce a texture,"
(185) while Berry allows textures to be made up of one voice. In the interest of both musical
and mathematical thoroughness I define textures as the product of zero (silence) or more
voices. For a more thorough discussion of the term voice, see Monte Tubb, "Textural Con
structions in Music," Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 1, no. 2 (1987): 201—24.
20Cogan and Escot, Sonic Design, define fields as "frequency areas of any width—from the
narrowness of a single frequency to the width of the entire available frequency range" (52).
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44 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
number of voices or the number of pitches in the textural field. Finally, compression
refers to how tightly packed the voices are within a textural field.21 A more
thorough and heuristic exposition of these three terms follows.
Our measurements of a textural_/ï'eU may be approximate or precise. Approxi
mately, we might measure the field of a texture-space by the entire register or
registers that it spans, where a fixed interval (traditionally the octave) marks the
boundary from one register to the next.22 The pitches shown in example 2 all fall
within a three-octave range, therefore the approximate field of the collection is
three octaves. The most precise measurement of the field of a texture-space,
however, is the total number of semitones from the lowest to highest pitches in
that space. Under this measurement the pitch collection of example 2 has a field
of 26 semitones. Note that the measurement for this field (and all of those that fol
low) has been from the lowest to highest pitches inclusive. Thus, a texture-space
that consists of one pitch has a field value of 1, not 0. The reason for this type of
computation will become clearer during the discussion of textural compression.
$f -ÖP
O
o
rf>
»
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formed Roles in Lutoslawski 45
TT ^ Pi h
1( it
(fatrh
g Ud*
-==
IP 1J —m
J J J1
w
/ i rj. n *
y ' ^ i, ^—r'
=rff
r \jBst
Lüj
Lutoslawski's limited aleatory technique creates a high degree of independ
ence among a relatively large number of voices. Often these voices will be
homo- or heteromelodic, yet the absence of a common meter results in what
Lutoslawski called a "richness of rhythm,"24 which is a qualitative characteristic
that contributes to textural complexity. Although the absence of a common
meter in limited aleatory sections is a solution to a compositional problem, it
presents an analytical problem in quantifying textural density. While the num
ber of voices (instrumental lines) remains constant with each performance of
any ad libitum section, the precise number of notes within each section will
change from performance to performance. When quantifying the density of the
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46 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
c-d/j
For example, given a pitch collection with a density of 4 pitches and a field of 11
semitones, the compression of that collection is 0.36 (0.36 = 4/11).27 Example
4 shows calculations for the compressions of two pitch collections. When con
sidering values for compression, higher values correspond to higher compression,
and the greatest possible compression of any pitch collection yields a value of c
— 1. If a collection has a compression value of 1, then every available pitch
within its field is present. In a metaphorical sense, we can think of compression
as the opacity of a pitch collection. In example 4 the second harmonic aggregate
has a higher value for compression than the first; therefore, it has greater com
pression, and we might think of it as being more opaque than the first harmonic
aggregate. Generally, we might contend that pitch structures with the extreme
compression value of 1 are central to the musical language of the 1960s. This
observation often extends to sections of music that focus on only one pitch.
Such sections have a small field of 1 but an extreme compression of 1. An example
appears in the first movement of Ligeti's Cello Concerto, whose opening pitch
material is limited to a single sustained E4 and whose textural field expands from
this E4 rather slowly. Lutoslawski's Chain 7, to be analyzed later in this paper,
illustrates a second such example.
Values for compression will be rounded to two figures after the decimal point.
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 47
cc == compression
compressiond =ddensity
= density
/ = field
/ = field
cc == dt
d!ff
pxx
VO
IX
xx
«
n
%?
%F
m pige
ptfN
d»
i£»
PTT
d=
= 12 /= 56 rf= 12 /= 32
c= 12/56 = 0.21 c= 12/32 = 0.38
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48 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
a) b)
-X
-fe +TT
frA*
J **> o o
-CT; 8S e
/= 8 /= 26 /= 18 /= 12 /= 6
</=4
<7=4 rf=4
<7=4 rf=2
<7=2 <7=2
</=2 <7=2
</=2
c = 0.5 c = 0.15 c = 0.11 c= 0.17 c=0.33
c)
$I ¥ S o
/= 18 /= 12 /= 6
<7=6
rf=6 <7
rf=4
= 4 <7=2
<7=2
c = 0.33 c = 0.33 c = 0.33
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 49
sm m
i
$ f= 28 /= 12
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SO Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
Because the clef change may make it difficult to visualize this field contraction,
example 7 transfers these harmonic aggregates into grid notation. Here, we can
monitor visually the increase in compression from the first harmonic aggregate
to the last by focusing on the amount of space between notes. As is the case in
much of Lutoslawski's music, the six harmonic aggregates in the introduction of
"Pensées" gradually contract to reach a registral goal with the extreme com
pression of c — 1. Later in this paper, I will show how the vocal section that fol
lows the introduction uses pitch collections with the same compression (c = 1 )
to structure the first stanza of "Pensées."
01
1 1
Jn
1
| 1 F#
: : ! ! ! d:
c
I:
1 ■
1 i
B
■
Bb
s
! 1 ] !1 1I 11
' 1
A
1 i
Ab
C
H Aggregates 1
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 51
"Bernard often uses simply expansion or contraction without the modifier symmetric. In order
to avoid confusion between these techniques and the more general registral expansions and
contractions outlined earlier, I will always use the terms symmetric expansion and symmetric con
traction to refer to exact measurements between highest and lowest notes, as defined in Bernard's
work. The terms expansion and contraction without the modifier symmetric will refer to the
more general use of wider or narrower textural fields.
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52 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
winds 3f
3Î <7,9,0,2,4,6,
<7,9,0,2,4,6, 8,
8, 9,
9, E,
E, 1,3,
1,3, 5,
5, 8,
8, T>
T>
2- 3- 2- 2- 2- 2-1-2-2- 2- 2- 3-2
brass 4t<7,8,9,T>
4î<7,8,9,T>
1-1-1
pianos If
1T<E,
<E,3,0,4,1,5,2,6>
3, 0,4,1,5,2,6>
4- 9-4-33-4-9-4
(9)
with twenty-four pitches, where each pitch class appears in two registers. Alter
natively, we might consider this final section to consist of two harmonic aggre
gates played simultaneously. The appearance of the twenty-four pitches in this
final section doubles the density found in most other ad libitum sections. We
might view this doubling of density as a solution to the problem of constant
density that occurs when music is based solely on the standard harmonic aggre
gate with twelve pitches. Lutoslawski only rarely repeats this solution in his
later works, with one such example appearing in a section of his Fourth Symphony
(1992).30 The rare reappearance of this solution may be because it results in
greater density, while the compositional problem that Lutoslawski claims to
have been facing involved the writing of music with less density.
Lutoslawski's choice of registers for each of the three pitched orchestral
groups reveals a process of symmetric contraction and symmetric expansion
with respect to the initiating wind section. The highest and lowest notes of each
of these orchestral groups appear on a grid in example 8. Since the winds first
perform alone, their highest and lowest pitches appear in the left part of the
grid. The pitches of the brass section and the piano section are added to the
pitches of the wind section as we move through the grid from left to right, and
the three different shapes in the grid represent the three different timbres (circle
i0The section in question appears at rehearsal numbers 53—58. Here Lutoslawski gradually
builds a harmonic aggregate with an octave duplication of each pitch, resulting in a harmonic
aggregate with twenty-four pitches.
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 53
F#
Li i ii
+20y . --''
Bb
Bb 1i <it
-12
* *S ,
"A Bb
1 1 1 II
u 1 1 II
Cm
o G
X'
I
+ 12
GG
« 1 < it
'' ^.
.
-20 '•v
* i Li Ia
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54 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/ 1
s
u
o
Winds
Winds Brass
BrassPianos
Pianos Tutti
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutosiawski S S
Orchestral
Orchestral 35-45 winds 4f <2,3,4,5,
4| <2,3,4,5, 6,
6, 7,
7, 8,9,
8,9, T>
T>
interlude:
interlude:
part 1
orchestral introduction, and here I expand that analysis to include the entire
first stanza, in which three lines of text compare thought to an indistinct sea.
Lutoslawsld devotes an ad libitum section to each of the first two lines, and he
devotes two ad libitum sections to the third line. The entire stanza is sung a cappella.
Following the first stanza, the orchestra enters briefly but then pauses before
setting up the choral entrance for the second stanza. Typical of Lutoslawski's
music is the careful alternation of high and low voices to mark clearly the struc
ture of the stanza. This information, along with the harmonic aggregates that
appear in the ad libitum sections, is summarized in table 2. Under the entry for
"Line 3 (Begin)," the soprano and alto parts are enclosed within parentheses
(SA) because their pitch material from Line 2 carries over into the third line of
the poem. Similarly, under the entry for "Line 3 (end)," the tenor part is en
closed within parentheses (T) because it maintains the pitch material from Line
3 (begin). Together the pitch material for lines 2, 3 (begin), and 3 (end) form a
harmonic aggregate, and the compression values for all of the entries in table 2
are equivalent at c = 1. Since the harmonic aggregate is divided into three sub
sets (in three ad libitum sections) that vary in their fields but share equivalent
compressions, this first stanza offers another solution to the problem of con
stant density in works structured with harmonic aggregates.
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56 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
+ 4 semit ones
A A
— -> < t Bb
:-s.
F# > "J
(
D
( ► 4 > < >
—^ (
'■V
< > Bb
C
*D#
-4 ;emitones
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 57
The grid also reveals that the texture-space of the first stanza—from the
opening choral part to the close of the orchestral interlude—undergoes the
transformation of symmetric expansion. At the opening of the stanza the high
est pitch of the choral part is F#4, and by the end of the stanza the wind section
expands this note up four semitones to BM-; similarly, the lowest pitch in the
opening choral part is G3, and by the end of the stanza the basses expand this
note down four semitones to DÜ3. Despite the large ensemble required for per
formance of this work, Lutoslawski contains the opening stanza of "Pensées"
within a texture-space whose narrowness is matched by the extreme compres
sion of the individual pitch collections. The music navigates through this narrow
texture-space through two projections. In the first projection the sopranos and
altos expand the higher register of the musical space to A4, which is nearly the
highest pitch of the entire first stanza. In the second projection, the tenors and
basses mirror the expansion of the sopranos and altos by reaching down to Dit 3,
the lowest pitch of the first stanza.
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58 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 59
Ob ± D Eb f Efb
\Bb • i || SI
II |K •
ffl A#
eb!^
M ISIs
11
At? u
■
G#
i.l
*# A# A
R ff:
#: 11 2
2 3
3 4
4 5
5 6
6 7
7 8
8 9
9 10
10 11
11 12
12 13
13 18
18 20
20 21
21 24 26 29
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60 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
number 10, the lowest and highest notes of the vocal part are Eh3 and EhS.
Octaves 3 and S he on either side of octave 4, which will be the final register of
the entire movement. The total registral space that unfolds within this section is
a contraction of the solo piano part that precedes it. Notice that here the con
traction is not symmetric since the highest pitch of the piano part, C6, lies nine
semitones above the highest vocal pitch, and the lowest pitch of the piano part,
Al>2, lies seven semitones below the lowest note of the vocal part. However,
we can characterize the piano part as establishing a textural space from octave
6 to octave 2, which the vocal part contracts to a range of octave S to octave 3
through a gradual downward projection.
Due to the extreme compression of the vocal pitch collections up to rehearsal
number 10, the graph does not reveal well the gradual increase in density that
accompanies the projection of this section. Each vocal pitch collection contains
one more pitch than the previous one, starting with the opening collection of
seven notes. The only exception occurs precisely at the completion of the pro
jection at rehearsal number 8, where there is a move from a collection of ten
notes directly to the full aggregate. Following the completion of the projection,
the density decreases and the field of the vocal part undergoes two symmetric
contractions so that the end of this section is reduced to a single pitch, G#3,
which is part of the dyad {Gif, A} that lies at the center of the previous pitch
collection, G through At.
Following this single Gtt, the return of the solo harp playing repeated
pitches implies a new musical section parallel to the opening of the movement.
This formal division receives support in the structure of the poem, since the G#
in the vocal part at the end of rehearsal number 10 marks the end of the first
stanza. We might characterize the entire first stanza as establishing a texture
space between octaves 3 and 5 through a steadily descending projection of pitch
collections with equivalent compressions and ever-expanding fields and densities.
Upon reaching the lower register, these pitch collections contract to a single
pitch in the third register, mirroring the single pitch in the fifth register at the
opening of the movement.
The use of texture-space in the second stanza represents a wider field but
less compression than the texture-space of the first stanza. The lower range of
the vocal part extends to include register 2, which has a counterpart in the use
of register 6 in the piano part that opens this stanza. The use of a wider field in
the vocal part culminates in the pitch collection that extends from A2 to FS
immediately before the climactic Fits. The sudden collapse of register to the sin
gle FÜ4 in the solo harp highlights the climax of the movement.
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutosiawski 61
EXAMPLE 13. Centers of registral balance for stanza 2 of "Repos dans le Malheur"
a
u
SS 3
>
2
y
O 2
R#: 11 12 13 18 20 21 24 26
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62 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
Stanza 1 Stanza 2
5% II
registral shape of "Repos". This incomplete motion may represent a kind of for
mal analog to the two-part tonal form that Heinrich Schenker describes as an
interruption in the fundamental line, although here the fundamental line is one of
register, and it is not given a priori but develops from the texture of the entire
composition through repetitions in timbre (the four harp pitches). Because of the
similarity to interruption form, I have borrowed the symbol of parallel lines that
Schenker uses to mark an interruption and placed it between the two stanzas.
"The two reductions show pitch only. No attempt has been made to notate the
rhythm of the passages (a highly difficult task in any case, given their notation as ad libitum
sections). Lutoslawski himself uses similar rhythmless reductions in the scores (vocal and
instrumental) of his Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux.
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 63
Opening
Rehearsal no.: 1 2 3 before 4
ka.
ko.
jf to
pi pP
«*>
Climax
Rehearsal no.: 46 47
1?
1? at|Ä
t|a
4^ T
ÛS T koTWfo
nfë ,
i ^ M i>o
simultaneity
simultaneity *
^ \ total
\ chromatic
shortly before the end of the work. Both sections appear as a series of ad libitum
sections in the full score, and given their considerable rhythmic activity we may
at first focus our attention on their registral shapes. The opening passage begins
on a single pitch from which the texture-space expands in both directions,
only to collapse again onto a single pitch, like the unfolding and infolding of
the wings of a large bird of prey. The climactic passage begins with a wide tex
tural field that collapses onto a single pitch, only to expand and then collapse
again onto a chromatic cluster. Here, the extremely active rhythm and dynamic
intensity might suggest that a more appropriate image is that of a dying sun, col
lapsing and expanding, only to gather energy one last time before a violent ex
plosion leaves behind a single dense black hole. The two passages express
similar registral ideas that cut across time, forging a connection between the
opening and climax of this remarkable music. Although the images I have drawn
above may help to bring these passages to life for the reader, the textural char
acteristics of field and compression may lead to a richer, if less poetic, under
standing of this music.
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64 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 65
Ab
< >Ab
D< »
Ab
Ab
A< i
F1 ■ F
*•
\ << »
A< „ A# ( ; a#
Ff . ■ F#
u
Cm
O
D#
D#. ■ D#
CA
a» B i! • B < ► B
>
2 /
CJ / /
(( Il
o mElu ■ ■ / ■ . E
I1' i( i
C D
G<<
G \i //'
( i
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66 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
A
r AAi
! • '
\
\\
\ >
d! \
\
s
\
\
\
\
t
N
\ N
\
• \
\ ^3—t
^ IV
E F# -23
-23
#
►
•
• i V
\
5 •
BbBb
O t •
* >
Bb
Bb
t Bb]
Bb
# < . *
M
(V 4 | •
>
(0 -23 «\
-23
I
■M *
• /
-A B
U V /
O C •
\
I /
/
\ /
3
cc $. B
c# t
C#
R#: 41 42 43 44 44 45 46 46 47
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 67
The final harmonic aggregate returns to the register defined by the two sin
gle pitches of the introduction of Chain 1. Indeed, the lowest pitch of the final
harmonic aggregate, B3, is the same as the final pitch of the introduction, and the
highest pitch, Bt4, is only one semitone higher than the opening pitch of the
introduction. This final harmonic aggregate nearly bisects the textural field of the
previous harmonic aggregate at rehearsal number 46. The lowest pitch in the
final harmonic aggregate, B3, is twelve semitones higher than the B2 of the pre
vious harmonic aggregate, and the highest pitch in the final harmonic aggregate,
BU-, is eleven semitones lower than the A5 of the previous harmonic aggregate.
Lutoslawski might have achieved a perfect bisection of texture-space here by
making A4 the highest note of the final harmonic aggregate. In that case, the
highest and lowest pitches of the final harmonic aggregate would correspond to
the single pitches that frame the introduction but would sacrifice a complete
harmonic aggregate, since all twelve pitch classes cannot appear within the field
whose boundaries are B3 and A4. A perfect bisection of the textural field does
occur at rehearsal number 46 with the single pitch Bi>4 that is twenty-three
semitones lower than the highest pitch of the previous harmonic aggregate and
twenty-three semitones higher than the lowest pitch of the following harmonic
aggregate. This registral relationship between the single pitch and its surround
ing harmonic aggregates helps us hear these final four events as part of a single
formal component.
The register of the final harmonic aggregate involves two octave transfers.
These are shown in example 17 as dotted arrows. The first octave transfer occurs
between the highest note of the harmonic aggregate at rehearsal number 45 and
the highest note of the harmonic aggregate at 46. The second octave transfer
occurs between the lowest note of the harmonic aggregate at rehearsal number
46 and the lowest note of the final harmonic aggregate. Recall that in the intro
duction octave transfers served to produce a symmetric contraction between
two harmonic aggregates. In the climax the contraction appears between three
harmonic aggregates; however, the contraction is still symmetric in that it involves
a reduction of one octave in both the highest and lowest registers.
The symmetry of the contraction is difficult to see in example 17 because
there is a phase-shift of register in the final four pitch collections. Example 18
shows a version of the same passage in grid notation, but here the contraction is
used to put the passage back in phase. In the example only the highest and low
est pitches are shown with the Bl>4 that bisects the field of these pitches. This
Bt>4 appears in all four of the final pitch collections of the climax. On the left
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68 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
i< ,A <
iJ
1J -J
< ,A 1< ,,A
A
5
- - - < h < i—
O B B B B B
S 4 ( i i
>
71
y] B 71'
yl' B
2
u
O
3 i i i >
B B
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Klein, Texture, Register, and Their Formal Roles in Lutoslawski 69
Conclusion
I would like to conclude this paper by making explicit the nature of the
claims I am making about register and texture in the music of Lutoslawski. In
order to do this, it will be useful to make reference to a well known tripartition
of musical facts into areas focusing on the composer, the material form(s), and
the listener, or, roughly, what Jean-Jacques Nattiez calls the poietic, immanent,
and esthesic dimensions.35
Most of the claims in this paper involve the immanent dimension. In other
words, I am describing structures and the ways in which they connect large sec
tions of Lutoslawski's music. These structures involve texture-space, with a
particular emphasis on registral boundaries. In the pursuit of spatial metaphors
with which we can imagine this music, I have had to marginalize many details
that some might find worthy of more attention. For example, although I have
demonstrated how harmonic aggregates have a profound effect on the treat
ment of texture-space, I have ignored the internal details of these pitch struc
tures and their precise unfolding in ad libitum sections in order to highlight
large-scale registral connections. A more complete theory for the music of
Lutoslawski will have to contend with the difficulty of coordinating these regis
tral events with the enormous detail and complexity within the individual ad
libitum sections. In addition, such a theory will have to address the question of
how Lutoslawski writes the thinner textures that characterize his music in the
1980s, when harmonic aggregates cease to be the sole source of pitch organization.
I have made no claims in this paper about the perceivability of the registral
motions that I describe (the esthesic dimension). Such claims would need the
support of research and/or experimentation in cognition and perception. How
ever, I do believe that most of these transformations are easy enough to hear.
Simply put, such hearings require that the listener attend to the registral
boundaries of some static sections of music, and that she notice the ways in
which those boundaries expand or contract from section to section.
Finally, although I cannot yet make solid claims about how the registral
procedures I describe match Lutoslawski's creative processes (the poietic dimen
sion), I have tried to develop a theory that is sensitive to the composer's con
cerns. Among much documentary evidence implying that texture and register
were of primary importance to Lutoslawski, his description of how he began to
write texture music seems worth repeating here:
?5Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music, trans. Carolyn
Abbate (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990).
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70 Indiana Theory Review Vol. 20/1
Although, like any passage, this one is open to many interpretations, I believe that
the description of working from the whole to the little detail may suggest that
Lutoslawski began his compositions of the 1960s by sketching out long-range regis
tral motions; only later in the process did he flesh out these motions within each ad
libitum section. This contention is supported by a look at Lutoslawski's sketches,
which are often drawn on graph paper and include geometric shapes. A fuller
account of these types of sketches, however, is too broad a subject for this paper.
The analyses included here give us clues to the types of textural and regis
tral procedures that Lutoslawski favors in his music after 1960. For example,
pitch collections with extreme compression are often the starting points or
goals of formed motions in texture-space. In the first and third movements of
Trois poèmes compressed pitch collections expand the registral field through pro
jections and symmetric expansions, and in Chain 1 compressed pitch collections
create an association between the introduction and the climax. Reference to the
properties of texture-space that I have defined (field, density, and compression)
may be useful for understanding the music of other composers active during the
1960s and '70s as well. In this regard, I have already mentioned the Cello Concerto
of Ligeti, but I could extend this reference to include the music of Xenakis,
Penderecki, and others.
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