This article offers a formal analysis of Tōru Takemitsu’s composition November Steps and discusses the composer’s statements that the piece has eleven variations (that he calls “Steps”) and is an equivalent of a Western Theme and Variations form as well as of a Japanese traditional form called danmono. There is a discrepancy between these statements and the music’s temporal organization. Not too much has been written about November Steps, and musicologists that have done it have avoided the “perplexing task” of double checking what is true about them and what is not. Therefore, this article’s goal is to unveil the mysteries about November Steps’ form, which is thoroughly considered here as musical time. The work displays a unique conception of temporality, identified here as circular, at one level, and cyclic, at another. The article explains the notion of circularity as applied to musical time, and also discusses the relationship between this specific work and the Japanese and Western traditional concepts of time that are reflected in the music.
Resumo: A tensão entre nostalgia e inovação se manifesta de maneira única em Gagaku, o quarto movimento de Sept Haikai, de Olivier Messiaen. A religiosidade de Messiaen representa uma forma de nostalgia para a vanguarda intelectual francesa. Messiaen considera o senso de ritual e de estase como expressões musicais do sagrado. Através da comparação da estrutura do Gagaku de Messiaen (analisado à luz de seus próprios escritos sobre os seus métodos composicionais) e da estrutura da música tradicional japonesa gagaku, este artigo mostra de que modo o senso de ritual e de estase constitui o elemento estético comum existente independentemente em ambas as formas musicais. A existência de um elemento comum entre a "fonte" não-ocidental e a composição ocidental inspirada por esta fonte provê a condição necessária para a transformação de nostalgia em inovação. O conceito de écriture tem um papel importante na dialética de passado/futuro desta transformação, causando estrutura e estilo a se diferenciarem baseados no princípio da não-imitação, e afirmando-se como o elemento formativo que faz de Gagaku uma peça distintamente francesa. Palavras-chave: Olivier Messiaen; vanguarda musical; influência não-ocidental; música japonesa tradicional; religião; estética musical. Messiaen's Gagaku Abstract:The tension between nostalgia and innovation is uniquely manifested in Olivier Messiaen's Gagaku, the fourth movement of his 1962 composition Sept Haikai. Messiaen's religiosity represented a form of nostalgia to the intellectual French Avant-Garde. Messiaen considers the sense of ritual and stasis as musical expressions of sacredness. By comparing the structure of Messiaen's Gagaku (analyzed in the light of his writings about his compositional methods) and that of ancient Japanese gagaku court music, this paper will show how this sense of ritual and stasis constitutes the aesthetic common ground existing independently in both forms. The existence of common elements between a non-western "source" and the western composition inspired by that source provides the necessary condition for the transformation of nostalgia into innovation. The concept of écriture plays an important role in the past/future dialectic of this transformation, causing structure and style to differ based on the principle of non-imitation and asserting itself as the shaping element that makes Gagaku a piece of distinctly French music.
This article is written by a composer on his own music. It describes a set of rhythmic organization principles used in my compositional research since 1989. These principles greately expand what is traditionally known as "modal rhythm" , which appears for the first time in the music of the 12th century polyphonists of the Notre Dame School: Leoninus and Perotinus. For this reason, I call this group of rhythmic principles "expanded modal rhythm" . They are a part of a larger context of temporal organization principles designed to generating ametric textures, complex polyrhythm and cross rhythms, and certain desired types or rhythmic flow. I use examples taken from four of my compositions.
A obra Vṛtrahan (2017), de XXXX, para saxofone barítono e percussão, cria uma nova relação entre pensamentos musical e mítico, assim como muitas outras composições do autor desde 1988. Nesta peça, o mito védico de Indra matando o Dragão Cósmico Vṛtra sugere procedimentos estruturantes, fontes sonoras instrumentais e imagens sonoras, resultando numa congruência entre música e mito muito maior do que uma simples relação programática. A discussão de alguns processos composicionais desta obra, conforme foram sugeridas pelo pensamento mítico, ilustra a ideia do autor de composição como cosmologia.
This article examines the combination of Japanese and Western musical traditional instruments in regards to Tōru Takemitsu’s November Steps. The composer brought into an yōgaku (Western music style) composition not only two traditional instruments but also their traditional music, with the intention of creating an opposition of Japanese and Western musical characteristics, and shaping them as irreconcilable forces. In order to give a fair consideration of the matter, it is necessary to know the circumstantial and historical factors that have contributed to the predicaments involved in this pioneer act of incorporation of traditional Japanese aesthetics and culture in the world of musical composition.
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