Le 28 juin 2017
de 11h00 à 11h30
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
amphithéâtre 6
Séance - Analysing Arvo Pärt's Music
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Elena Tokun
The formal line of development in 20th century music points to the steady algorithmisation of imaginative processes, including sonic processes.
In analysing Arvo Pärtʼs music, we are making a surprising discovery: In his original tintinnabuli-technique, the composer has invented mechanisms for processing diatonic (or polymodal) material, that in their essence function similarly to the serial technique of dodecaphony. However, the tintinnabuli technique is not connected with the serialisation of the parameters of sound: The essence of tintinnabuli lies in the algorithmisation of musical form that proceeds from formulaic thinking. Such a creative mode differs qualitatively from the serial technique. In tintinnabuli music, the formula could be defined as a minimized numerical program that incorporates the algorithm of development, but at the same time contains the summary of the musical workʼs pitch structure in its variety.
In Pärtʼs compositional technique, the methods for working with melodic material, the logic of which is calculated with the help of the arithmetical progression, and with verbal text, all the parameters of which are most frequently used by the composer as a mathematical foundation for the construction of melodic voices (in other words, the text “dictates” numerical progressions), can be considered equally important. Unlike the arithmetical progression, the text allows of the “reading out” of more diverse and multilevelled numerical progressions that are projected into counterpoint, harmony (the vertical pitch structure), and the logic of form as a whole. To a large extent, this is exactly the source of the novelty of tintinnabuli.
