The writing technique as a component of the compositional process (on the examples of creative practice of the second half of the 20th – 21st centuries)

Background, objectives and methodology of the research. The social and cultural paradigm of the 20th century has given rise to a type of composing thinking that did not exist before – a scientific one. Thus, the evolution of the composer’s writing can be defined as a path from thinking by perfect consonance, emancipated dissonance to thinking by deterministic sound and its parameters (height, duration, dynamics, timbre, and articulation). The term of the «composer’s writing technique» means a set of techniques and methods of working with the musical material as a result of the activity of thinking/awareness. Therefore, the aim of this article is an attempt to explore the relationship between the compositional process and writing techniques of the 20th – 21st centuries (pointillism, aleatorysonorous, algorithmic composition), as well as the specifics of polyphonic, homophonic writing in a new context. The methodology of the study includes references to the scientific works by P. Boulez (1971), K. Stockhausen (1963), V. Medushevsky (1984), M. Bonfeld (2006), I. Beckman (2010), I. Kuznetsov (2011), K. Maidenberg-Todorova (2013), M. Vysotska and G. Grigoryeva (2014). Presentation of research results. The phenomenon of writing techniques is very important in the study of the specifics of the compositional process, as it is the technique, for the most part, becomes the goal of creation for many composers of the 20th century. In addition to new techniques, polyphonic and homophonic writing have undergone some changes. The polyphonic one has specific features that are manifested in linearity, part-writing, etc. Examples can be found in the works by D. Ligeti (micro-polyphony), R. Shchedrin, V. Bibik, V. Ptushkin, V. Sylvestrov, and O. Shchetynsky. Regarding the homophonic writing, we shall note that, first of all, it is an indicator of style and conceptual thinking of a composer (works by A. Pyart, J. Tavener, and L. Sumera). In pointillism, the sound is thought of as a deterministic, isolated structure, which is expressed by its various parameters. Here are the examples from the creative work by A. Webern («The Variations for the Piano»; «The Variations for the Orchestra»), by E. Denysov «DSCH». The aleatory-sonorous technique is associated with the operation of timbre sonorities, according to their specific patterns, and developed in the 50–60s of the 20th century in the works by I. Xenakis, V. Lyutoslavsky, Ksh. Penderetsky, and D. Ligeti. The algorithmic composition is an indicator of scientific and mathematical thinking, and is divided into: fractal, stochastic, spectral, concrete and electroacoustic music. The first was formed within the framework of the works by C. Dodge, G. li Nelson, D. Ligeti, and others (I. Beckman, 2010). Stochastic music is associated with the name of I. Xenakis, and the ancestors of the spectral school are the French composers G. Grisey and T. Murray. Conclusions. The article considers the writing techniques of the 20th–21st centuries as components of the compositional process. It can be concluded that the studied techniques are fundamentally interconnected, revealing the nature of the composer’s thinking/consciousness from different positions. The presented techniques are: the objectification of sound forms, the method of creation; the fact of the composer’s consciousness; the consequence of the historical and cultural evolution of the musical language and communication.

Composition trends in polish vocal lyric. Musical language features in polish songs after the mid-20th century based on selected examples

The subject for analysis were works for voice and piano by selected Polish composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, e.g. Grażyna Bacewicz, Tadeusz Baird, Henryk Czyż, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, Henryk Hubertus Jabłoński, Wojciech Kilar, Zygmunt Krauze, Szymon Laks, Witold Lutosławski, Juliusz Mieczysław Łuciuk, Wojciech Łukaszewski, Paweł Łukaszewski, Maciej Małecki, Paweł Mykietyn, Edward Pałłasz, Konrad Pałubicki, Krzysztof Penderecki, Witold Rudziński, Marian Sawa, Kazimierz Serocki, Tadeusz Szeligowski and Romuald Twardowski. An important matter for the author was to determine whether there are common features for this creative genre. She also attempted to find an answer to the question if the trends from the second half of the 20th century were reflected in songs. The scope of analysis covered the repertoire the author knew from her performance practice from the standpoint of a pianist. To the general characteristics of selected songs she added a review of famous trends, techniques and styles of composition, such as impressionism, neoromanticism, expressionism, dodecaphony, serialism, punctualism, minimalism, sonorism, spectralism, neoclassicism, vitalism, postmodernism, aleatoricism, bruitism, microtonality, electronic music, musique concrète, stochastic music, references to previous periods, to folklore and to popular music. She compared musical notation of the analysed works. She also confronted forms of songs with contemporary composition techniques. Interesting was the approach of composers to chamber relations in a duo and the way they made texts musical. Most composers distanced themselves from the avant-garde in works for voice and piano which had a specific poetic text because of the clarity of narration. Matching composers unequivocally to just one trend turned out impossible. Various techniques and phenomena may co-exist in one piece and in the same way one creator may search for different means of expression.

Origins of Algorithmic Thinking in Music

Musicians’ relationships with algorithms have deep precedents in the confluence of music and mathematics across millennia and across cultures. Technological and musico-mathematical precedents in the ancient world predate the Arabic etymology of the term ‘algorithm’. From Guido d’Arezzo’s hand to rule systems in music theory and eighteenth-century ars combinatoria, there is a rich background to twentieth-century rule-led music making. Robotic music, too, has precedents, and there is an interesting proto-computational thread linking the automata builder Vaucanson to early programmable weaving looms. Ada Lovelace’s writing, Joseph Schillinger’s composition system, and John Pierce’s 1950 stochastic music science fiction article provide productive insight into the origins of algorithmic music. Indeed, the world’s musics reveal a panoply of interesting practices, such as campanology, Nzakara court harp music, time structures in Indian classical music, and many more examples of the rich combinations of music and mathematics often predating musical computer science.

Compositional Design Based on Stochastic Procedures

In this article, we discuss the application of stochastic music techniques in an aesthetic context different from that originally employed by Xenakis. These techniques applied in the serialism of pitch-classes were the basis for the creation of a computer program with the purpose to determine the duration and the harmonic profiles of pre-compositional materials from restrictions set by the composer. The resulting data, obtained by the exponential probability distribution, allowed us to plan and compose two works: one for pierrot ensemble and other for string quartet.

Spontaneous organisation, pattern models, and music

Pattern theory provides a set of principles for constructing generative models of the information contained in natural signals, such as images or sound. Consequently, it also represents a useful language within which to develop generative systems of art. A pattern theory inspired framework and set of algorithms for interactive computer music composition are presented in the form of a self-organising hidden Markov model – a modular, graphical approach to the representation and spontaneous organisation of sound events in time and in parameter space. The result constitutes a system for composing stochastic music which incorporates creative and structural ideas such as uncertainty, variability, hierarchy and complexity, and which bears a strong relationship to realistic models of statistical physics or perceptual systems. The pattern theory approach to composition provides an elegant set of organisational principles for the production of sound by computer. Further, its machine learning underpinnings suggest many interesting applications to emergent tasks concerning the learning and creative modification of musical forms.

The Contemporary Problem

“And now,” I said to a prospective pupil, 21, with an awe-inspiring thesis on his heart, “I've got to go home and write 750 words on chance. The editor of Tempo wants them by tomorrow.” “Chance?” he asked respectlessly, “that's not your subject. Musical determinism, yes.” He was right; in fact, as will be seen in seven hundred words' time, he had given the reason why I chose the subject. As long ago as 1966, I was struck by the philosophical and indeed musico-analytical naivety of Iannis Xenakis's (otherwise fascinating) piece ‘The Origins of Stochastic Music’ (Tempo 78), which defends the introduction of mathematics into music on the basis of the proposition that “by reason of its complexity, the strict, deterministic causality extolled by the neo-serialists was a lost cause”. I wrote my heart out when total serialism started, diagnosing the lost cause as it was born—but I never observed any complexity: a phrase of Beethoven needed far more complex analysis than a page of neo-serialism, whose saint-like simplicity seemed its only charm. What produced the illusion of complexity was inaudibility: ‘This must be very complex: I can't hear it’. It wasn't complex at all; you just couldn't hear it. Xenakis got nearer the truth when he said, “A contradiction exists between the linear polyphonic system and the result as heard (my italics), which is merely surface and mass”.

The Origins of Stochastic Music

Art (and especially music) has a fundamental catalytic function, which is to effect sublimation by all its means of expression. It should aim to lead by constant points of reference towards that total exaltation in which, unaware of self, the individual will identify with an immediate, rare, vast and perfect truth. If a work of art achieves this even for an instant, it has fulfilled its purpose. This massive truth does not consist in objects, nor feelings, nor sensations; it lies beyond them, as Beethoven's Seventh lies beyond music. For this reason, art is capable of leading to those regions still occupied by certain religions.