Gerard Grisey's name is almost always accompanied by his composition technique "Musique spectrale", which, as the name implies, is a composition technique based on instrumental analysis and thinking about the pitch and overtones of music. It is said that Gerard Grisey can hear a sound up to its 1 1 overtone without the help of musical instruments, which makes the starting point and structure of the whole sound world completely different when he composes for traditional musical instruments. The essential characteristics of sound and its correlation are the focus of his composition, not limited to the notes visible in the score. In the past, important elements of music, such as melody and rhythm, were considered as natural products after thinking about the nature of sound and sound under this new composition method. As far as timbre is concerned, the idea of score music can be traced back to the French tradition of Debussy and Olivier Messiaen, which is said to be one of the important reasons why karlheinz stockhausen went to Paris to study, but the score music school is more pure in concept.
If you still remember the description of sound in physics textbooks, you should have heard that frequency, loudness and tone are the three elements of sound. Among them, tone can be said to be the texture or color of sound. If we expand in the frequency domain with the help of instrumental analysis, we will find that this is actually because everyone/each instrument has the same pitch frequency, but if we look at higher frequencies, we will find that the intensity of overtones will be different when everyone speaks/each instrument makes sounds, which is why we can easily recognize other people's voices and distinguish various instruments in the orchestra. What Gerard Grisey does when composing music is to restore the sound produced by each instrument to its basic physical attributes (pitch and overtone) to think, and then slowly adjust the overtone ratio in the sound, which is often imperceptible to the human ear, thus changing the color of the whole sound and blurring the original texture, harmony and disharmony of each sound. Therefore, his music is often a world where the sound is changing slowly, which is what he calls "sound"
1973 five young French composers: Gerald Grisey, Tristan Moureyre (* 1947), Roger teissier (* 1939), Michael Levinas (* 1949), Hugo Dufour (. They jointly issued a declaration "l'tineraire" (meaning road and journey), saying that they would create a brand-new sound world through the cooperation of composers, performers and sound engineers. At that time, the name of the established orchestra was "French Orchestra". The manifesto opposes the non-essential structure of any sound, and thinks that sound is not static but an individual whose life changes at any time. This is the central idea of their composition. This brand-new concept can be said to be completely different from the active French composers at that time, such as pierre boulez and Iannis Xenakis. If we look for the composer who is closest to this idea in history with the eyes of hindsight, the Italian composer Jacinto SCELSI (1905-1988) may be the only lonely soul.
Gerard Grisey said in a course on spectrum music in 1979 1 month, "First of all, we must take sound seriously. If we can't learn to control it well, we will be played by it. Therefore, many people think that in this respect, score music is actually a continuation of the concept that sequential music completely mastered the sound at that time, and continues to explore, but it is essentially different from the trend initiated by the previous generation of composers in the mid-20th century. Hugo dufour, a French composer who worked hard with Grisey to open up a new situation, said, "Sequential music is an attempt to integrate musical elements of various regions and multi-cores, while score music is based on the integrity and continuity of music. The former conceals the inherent logic of music, and the progress of music depends on the potential integrity; The latter fully exposes the structural order of music without covering up its integrity. ..... The former relies on cohesion to achieve the tension of music, while the latter relies on change. The former is solved by chords to reduce musical conflicts, while the latter depends on regulation. Later, he even said, "score music takes the road pioneered by sequence music one step further and makes music more pure and transparent." Tristan Moureyre, another soul figure of spectrum music school, once described his way of composing music like this: "I compose music like a sculptor observing the internal texture of a stone, first trying to expose the original material of sound and get rid of all external styles, instead of building my music brick by brick as in the past." It can be seen that the order of considering the "type" and "essence" of sound in music is the biggest difference between overture and composition.
Such a composition idea involves a lot of subtle sound control and a lot of differential intervals, and intuitive imagination is the easiest to realize with electronic instruments. It is true that in most composers' works, the electronic part occupies a considerable proportion, except Gerard Grisey. I think this is because Gerard Grisey is really fascinated by the original sound of traditional instruments, so he spent most of his life studying the sound characteristics of traditional instruments. His important works, such as Vortex of Time by Vortex Temporum, Lesespaces Acoustique and Quartre Chants pour France Le Seuil, are all written for pure traditional instruments and even human voices. In my imagination, it takes several times more efforts to realize the above ideas with existing musical instruments than to give instructions to the players. I think this is an important reason why they have to form their own band and have close communication with the performers. Apart from the complicated rehearsal and communication during the performance, from the results alone, this is the key factor to attract Gerald Grisi's music. Fortunately, Ensemble l'tineraire, the second-generation composer of the score school, Philippe Hurel(* 1955) and Pierre-Andre Valade, the conductor, jointly established another group specializing in the score school at 19 1, all of which are highly skilled orchestras. According to their impressions of the scene and the recording, they all have extremely keen reactions to the sound. To fully grasp the subtle context of music, members naturally have excellent ear power. As you can imagine, most of the recordings of the existing music school were completed by their two groups.
When the composer thinks from the perspective of notes, the world of sound is naturally very different. Among Gerald Grisey's important works, Acoustic Space is the largest one, which is divided into six parts (overture, period, part, tone sandhi, transition and epilogue), and the writing time is * * * spent 1650. The whole song * * * about 90 minutes of music is actually rooted in the trombone E (4 1.2Hz) and its overtones. Gerard Grisey said that this piece of music is a laboratory of spectrum music, in which he experimented with what he later called instrumental synthesis, and started a series of life-and-death adventures about sound from the E sound. It is also in this set of music that Grisey can slowly put the techniques explored by the electronic music laboratory into the notation of traditional musical instruments and establish its unique style.
The whole song begins with a viola solo and a melodious overture. Starting with a single sound, the melody is like a spinning top, constantly testing the harmonious transition to a dissonant sound. At the end of this passage, the last note of the viola is continued by a seven-member chamber orchestra, and the music enters the second period, which is also the earliest period of the whole song. The composer believes that the three stages (tension, relaxation and stillness) correspond to human breathing-inhalation, exhalation and stillness, which are endless cycles of different lengths in nature. Music entered the third section Partiels (part), and the compilation of music was expanded to 18 people. This title just implies his idea of musical instrument synthesis. Each instrument is a part of the whole new harmony. By controlling the expression strength and pitch shift of each instrument, it can be regarded as a means to adjust the harmony/disharmony of a sound and change the timbre, and it is also the source of strength for music to advance. When listening to this kind of music, the texture of the new sound and the inherent texture of the instrument interfere with each other, sometimes vague and sometimes clear, which easily leads to a beautiful illusion, but I personally think that this technique will not really reach a harmonious state until another work, Vortex temporum. The fourth tone sandhi used a small orchestra of 33 people, and the next tone sandhi used an orchestra of 88 people. Grisey slowly added new overtones until Transitories used the 55th overtone of E-note. This kind of sound is too complicated to write such music without unusual ears. Finally, Epilogue turned around and took away the overtones in the music, and finally the whole music ended in absolute silence.
In order to make the scene as quiet as possible, the performer must play some tricks. At the end of the Cologne performance, the lights gathered in the hands of the orchestra, asking the percussion players with cymbals to ring loudly. The audience held their breath and the music ended smoothly. )
After this big experiment, two most mature works appeared, Vortex temporum and Quartre Chantspour French Seuil. Grisey's works have always been closely related to tradition: Vortex temporum, in addition to the four tones around the symmetrical negative seventh chord, actually directly uses the vortex sound form in Ravel's ballet music Daphnis and Chloe. The ever-rotating arpeggios and deformations combined with Grisey's mature techniques make this six-person ensemble for flute, clarinet, piano and cello colorful and breathtaking. The latter is Grisey's last work, written for 65,438+05 soloist and soprano. The titles of these four songs are Death of Angels, Death of Civilization, Death of Sound and Death of Man, and the lyrics come from a pre-flood prediction in the epics of French poet Christian Guz Ricol, ancient Egyptian and Greek poetess Elena Frotellos and Babylonian forgotten one. These four songs, together with Grisey's sudden death, always remind people of Richard Strauss's works of the same name or Mozart's Requiem. In this 40-minute-long work, two tubas and a bass cello are used, accompanied by percussion music with bass bias. In the inner explanation of the only recording of this piece, German music critic Peter Niklas Wilson especially mentioned Grisi's strong colors in his later years and his preference for bass instruments. He said that this reminds him of two composers, Berlioz and Mahler, who are also very unique in orchestral orchestration. On the other hand, listening to Grisey's music often reminds people of the new Vienna composer Berger, who all use brand-new musical vocabulary, but their music always shows a strong reference to tradition. The whirlpool of time and the French hymn are both very distinctive, but they are also beautiful. For such a work, just like listening to Berg's opera Wozek, we can simply appreciate the music without paying attention to the mysteries hidden in it.
The Manifesto of Music Music emphasizes that the original physical property of sound is the starting point of composition. Although it sounds simple, everyone uses different ways in actual writing, and the sound world is naturally very different. Tristan Moureyre, a composer who became the most important representative of spectrum music school with Grisey, was born in Harvard. In a large number of his works, the signal processing of electronic musical instruments and sounds occupies a very important position. Then, after the1980s, IRCAM, an important contemporary French music research institution, used computer-aided composition, mainly using computers to help calculate the combination of overtones as a reference for composers. In addition, he constantly tried to use various signal processing technologies such as modulation and feedback to create a bolder and more diverse sound world. Moureyre's music is direct and bright, which is contrary to Grisey's preference for darkness and vagueness. Without listening carefully, it is hard to imagine that they are all pioneers of today's music. Tristan Moureyre now teaches at Columbia University in new york.
Born in Paris, Michael Levinas is a composer and pianist. He studied under Vlado Perlemuter, Yvonne Lefebure and Yvonne Loriod at the Paris Conservatory of Music. In addition to being the conductor of the French symphony orchestra for a long time, he also recorded Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas at the Accord. His music often mixes the sounds of real and live instruments with the help of electronic instruments. He believes that music cannot be separated from drama. His more important works include Prefix, Short Sentences and Papers, Voutes, Clock and Freedom, and the opera Dialogue of Birds.
Hugo dufour was born in Lyon, and he was the only student who was not interested in Mei among the first five students. In his rich creation, he experienced many changes in style. In the 1970s, he created works that were purely in line with the concept of music, such as Saturn (1979). However, the development of style in the future includes not only the keen requirements for timbre, but also the architectural thinking of sequence music, which is completely different from the pure practice of Grisey and Moureyre on the concept and techniques of score music. Julianne Anderson (* 1967), a student of Miao La Boyle and a British composer, described in his music, "You can breathe the fresh air of sibelius and Varese. But the most striking thing in his works is his close connection with painting, which can be easily seen from the names of a large number of his paintings, except his early Tempest in giorgione (The Tempest after giorgione). Lucifer d 'Apres Pollock (Lucifer after Pollock) and Hivers (Winter1992-2001) performed for the first time last year. These four works are all inspired by painters: Le Philosopher Selon Rembrandt (philosopher after Rembrandt), Le Deluge d' Apres Poussin (flood after Pu Sang), Les Chasseurs dans la Neige d 'Apres Bruegel (snow hunter after Bruegel), La Gondole sur la Lagune d 'Apres Guardian (gondola on the lagoon after Guardian). When the composer was asked about the significance of paintings to his works, he said: "These paintings are not only a stimulus, a reference or a pleasant reason for my music, but also a drainage of the subconscious, so these paintings constitute a" museum of unique mind "for me ... I tried to extend the plane of the picture to time and timbre, and it was the potential power of painting that attracted me to compose. Is one of the most active composers in contemporary France.
Philippe Hurel(* 1955) was born in Domfland, France. He studied under Ivo Malik at the Paris Conservatory of Music. He was fascinated by counterpoint and rhythm in the Conservatory of Music, and later influenced by Miao La, he used spectrum technology and computer-aided composition, so there are two basic contradictory factors in his music. In the past ten years, he has gradually stepped out of his unique personal style. Different from Grisey's careful control of sound between harmony and disharmony, he skillfully combined the two elements, and the theme constantly changed, repeated, dismembered and reappeared, forming a very lively and expressive music language similar to variation style. Different from the theme in traditional variations, composers call this material situation (musical situation).
With the counterpoint method he is good at, he expanded the possibility of linking vertical and horizontal sounds in composing techniques, and made use of the change and development of materials to make listeners hear different contents and feelings every time they listened repeatedly. Francois Raffinot, the choreographer who moved Hurrell's work Six Miniatures (Six Phantom Sketches,199193) to la ville de Paris Theatre in Paris, recalled his cooperation experience and said: "He was a friend with many faces and unpredictable colors, always connecting black and white like dusk. Some people compare this kind of behavior, which combines similar variations, memories and reality, and draws the listener into listening, to flashback in art cinema. In fact, he has a song called Flash Back (1998), which is composed of many of his old works with multi-layer music structure. Tombo in Memory of Gerald Grisi (1999) is based on the changeable colors of piano solo passages with uneven speed at the end of the first movement of Time Vortex. The composer said that this is one of the few non-objective works in his works, and it is also an attempt to express the greatest respect to Gerard Grisey. Philip Hurel is the most attractive composer in the second generation of score music.
Others are Philip Leroux (* 1959), Francis Paris (* 196 1), Marc Andrei Dalbavie (* 196 1) and Philip de Ville (*). In the past twenty years, score music has become an important part of French music. In recent years, the music of Gerard Grisey, Tristan Moureyre and others has also begun to appear in a large number of contemporary music festivals outside France, not just in French-speaking areas. It's just that Gerard Grisey died suddenly and didn't see this scene with his own eyes, which added another regret to the music industry.
Recording of Gerald Grisey's works
Time vortex, Talea/ Accord 462 292-2
Acoustic space/Accord 465 386-2
Talea-Prologue，Jour contre Jour，Anoubis-Nout/Accord 20 1952
Accord has been merged into Universal Group now, so almost all CDs have been changed into new packages and new numbers, but it has not made their CDs easier to buy at the same time. Interested people still have to find a way to go to French or French CD mail-order websites.
French hymn/kairos 00 12252 Kay
Bretz commanded Schoenberg, Beriau, Carter, Kurtag, etc. Including Grisey: Modulations, hugues dufourt: antiphysis/erato 4509-98496-2 (5 CDs).
Recordings by other composers
Tristan Moureyre
Aubrey Territory/Accord 465 899-2
Memory/corrosion, ether, etc. / Accord 465 900-2
Ocean color, and so on. / Accord 465 90 1-2
Michael Levinas
Waters/AECSD 0103
International conferences/agreements 465 605-2
Hugo dufour
Sa Tourne, Surgil/Accord 465 7 14-2
Source House, Lucifer d 'Apres Pollock/Accord461947-2.
Philip Hurel
Tromso-Loy and other six miniature paintings. / Accord 465 3 10-2
Flashback, Tom Bo in memory of Gerald Grice, etc. /aeon AECD 0 105
Marc-Andre Dalbavie
Seuils，Diademes/ Accord 465 3 13-2