Perspectives of New Music. Brian Ferneyhough in Conversation With Jame Boros

8/12/2019 Perspectives of New Music. Brian Ferneyhough in Conversation With Jame Boros

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Shattering the Vessels of Received WisdomAuthor(s): Brian Ferneyhough and James BorosSource: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Summer, 1990), pp. 6-50Published by: Perspectives of New MusicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833006 .Accessed: 20/11/2013 10:51

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SHAIT'FERING HE VESSELSOF RECEIVED WISDOM

L R b

BRIANFERNEYHOUGHIN CONVERSATION ITH

JAMESBOROS*

Y OUR MUSIC HAS the reputation f being extremely ifficult oplay; however,you've had a great deal of successwith a number of individual performers,

such as Pierre-Yves rtaud, and ensembles uchas the Arditti String Quartet, theASKO Ensemble, nd the Ensemble ntercontemporain. n your view, what liesbehind he astounding chievement f theseperformers n the face of what manyperceive o be unsurmountable ifficulties?

For a start, we should distinguish between musical and performatorydifficulty. I take it that you mean the latter. In general, one encounters twodistinct types of performer; one that might be termed the "gig" musician-

*BrianFerneyhough, ames oros.

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3/46

Shattering he Vessels f ReceivedWisdom

the player who, in a couple of rehearsals, is justly proud of producing a"professional" realization of just about anything. Often, such individualsare required to interpret vastly different styles in close juxtaposition andhave, in consequence, developed a technique of rapid reading and standard-ized, averaged-out presentation in order to maximalize effectivity for thevast majority of works and contexts. It seems to me that there is a certaintyranny involved in frequent attempts to impose this approach on thecomposer as some sort of desirable aesthetic norm-a "good, healthycommon sense" of music, so to speak. Inevitably, ease of rehearsal andperformance nvolves more than just a careful regard or technical difficulty.What happens is that whole chunks of conventional wisdom in terms ofmusical thinking are also absorbed, since ease of realization is frequently afunction of expectation or applicability of already present manual patterns.It seems to me no contradiction in terms to presuppose a species ofinterpreter for whom a lengthy and intense involvement with the artisticand technical demands and assumptions of a particular composer or groupof composers would be an essential prerequisite for adequate performance

activity. That's the performer who's willing to spend six months or so reallytrying to penetrate to the roots of a style, to focus in on the mentaldevelopment of the composer during the act of creation so as to be able toactively counterpoint this against his own personal learning and reproduc-tion dynamic. It's true that, over a couple of decades now, I have developeda significant relationship of this sort with a number of soloists and en-sembles. It would be a mistake, though, to concentrate overly on the quasi-virtuoso aspect of this: the spiritual relationship s always more important.Very often, such

peopleare

disparagedas some sort of

performinganimal

who make a living out of hawking around their manual dexterity. I imaginethat such individuals exist, but I have not come across many who play mymusic, perhaps because the effort involved is by no means invariablyassociated with the requisite illusion of supreme control and mastery trans-mitted by "virtuoso" vehicles. For one thing, I never collaboratewith agiven performer n the sense of having him give me his particular "box oftricks:" I believe that one should never start from the global effect, butrather allow it to emerge synthetically as a result of the confluence of other

compositional considerations. This seems to me the sole way to legitimize,to ground sonoric innovation; everything else is bongout. For example,there have been several quite well-known flutists who have refused to takemy Unity Capsule 1975) into their repertoire with the argument that it isnot worth the amount of time and effort required, since "similar" soundscan be improvised or else notated much more simply (perhaps graphically).There is no way that I can see to persuade such individuals that theapproach to learning the work is an essential polyphonic strand in the finalresult. Only the experience of actually attempting it can-perhaps-achieve

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Perspectives fNewMusic

that. There is a basic, unbridgeable abyss separating the effectful "vir-tuoso" approach from that adopted by my regular associates, and I am notin the business of obscuring this vital distinction, since to do so would beto trivialize the extent to which the performer's personal confrontationwith a richly-articulated musical environment can contribute to a grippingaural experience.

One should also remember that these players do not dedicate themselvesexclusively to my compositions: they do not function as regular, ong-termmembers of a "Ferneyhough Ensemble." We are talking about a quitedifferent situation than where a group plays one composer's music almostexclusively for an extremely lengthy period of time as in the case of, say,Stockhausen or, more recently, Steve Reich. Traditions built in that wayhave other dynamics.

A number ofpeiformers avedescribed xperiences hereby, fter having pentperiod of time working nyour music,getting beyondwhat were nitially perceivedas obstacles ocomprehension, manyproblems eemed o havesolved hemselves. 1

I've found that there's a kind of exponential time-saving process with my

music: if you spend six months learning one piece, you'll be able to learnanother in three weeks. For example (albeit an extreme case), the ArdittiQuartet was able to learn my Third String Quartet (Example 1) in only afew weeks, largely without my active supervision, because its members areall very familiar with my general approach. On that basis it was generallypossible for them to extrapolate plausible solutions to executive or aestheticquestions. In fact, I was still composing the final pages of the score duringthe final period of rehearsal, sometimes sitting in the same room as thequartet and passing new material over to be photocopied and run through,often during the same session. It was a strange experience 2

What many players often fail to realize is that most of the textures in myworks are to a large degree relatable o gestural conventions already amiliarfrom other contexts. What is unfamiliar s, firstly, the unusual rapidity withwhich these elements unfold and succeed one another; secondly, the highlevel of informational density in notational terms; and, thirdly, the extremedemands made throughout on the performer's technique and powers ofconcentration. Most of these hurdles to acceptance are encountered pre-

dominantly during the initial period of familiarization n which the neces-sary connection between notation and expressive realization s obscured bythe welter of surface detail. Once this reading phase has been passed, manyplayers have come to accept that these factors actually make their job easierand more rewarding. Of course, in the sort of rehearsal ituation prevailingin New Music today, there is little or no opportunity to achieve thisexperience; as a composer one has the choice of accepting this fact andworking with it, or seeking to establish performance raditions on a gradu-alistic basis. Both views have their arguments; essentially, I think, it's less a

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work within the bounds set by current socio-economic norms, to tailortheir production to them: I simply beg to differ and hope that my viewswill also be accorded respect.

Somecritics of your music claim that the speed f informational resentation stoohigh, that they, as listeners, an't keepup with it.

Again, it's partly a question of familiarity. I try not to be overly influ-enced by the thought that most listeners will hear a piece only once, even ifthis is often the case. One simply has to ask how people listen these days-are they listening more or less statistically, passively, or does a piece causesome form of inertial resistance in the perceptual works? The more thelistening mind gets tied up in powerfully structured contexts, the greater slikely to be its sense of informational overload. That's true of anythingwhich is at once unfamiliar and immediately demanding in terms of tryingto tie together partially perceived objects and processes into a provisionalwhole. One thing that makes this music perhaps more difficult than some isnot so much its actual density, but rather the slight disbalance I tend tobuild into the relationship of time-flow to complexity of individual seman-

tically coherent units. This gives the listener the sensation of always being"behind" the flow of events, of running to catch up, as it were. Somemight assume this to be a negative state of affairs; I simply utilize it as onemore tool for energizing the sonic flow, for modifying its perspectivalcharacteristics. t's clear that many interesting avenues of investigation openup when one adopts this sort of absorption ratio as a compositionalvariable. Some composers positively expect that the audience be essentiallypassive, whilst still others treat the public rather paternalistically. My ownattitude is to suggest to the ear sequential bundles of possible paths throughthe labyrinth-paths, that is, which are mapped out in the synchronizationof simultaneous processual layers with a view to encouraging the riskyundertaking of instantaneously selecting between them.

Things in the present-day world surely move rather quickly. It seemsrather anomalous to expect our art to be easily understandable; don't seemusic as providing a sort of breathing space between bouts of confrontationwith the world outside It is also not directly about offering privilegedinsights, but more about how to create one's own insights when immersed

in the complex ambiguity of the art object.How do you respond o other chargeswhich claim that you "over-notate" ourmusic?

It's true that some musicians have told me that they feel robbed of muchof their traditional autonomy of interpretation through my "over-specification." On the other hand, what might arguably upset a performereven more is not knowing why they're doing something, not having anyapplicable criteria of interpretational excellence. Most contemporary musiccan be scarcely said to be over-familiar; his state of unfamiliarity s often

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the result of a lack of such specific criteria. My method of notationattempts, at best, to suggest to the player relevant methods and prioritieswherewith the material can be usefully approached-the establishment ofhierarchies; at worst, I imagine that he will constantly be reminded thatnew works often do not permit much to be taken for granted. Suggestingcontexts of this sort via notation allows the player a different but no lessimportant "free space" within which to move. With a complex score,where does one begin? With the rhythms, sorting out the pitches, generalsorts of movement? How important is articulation, for instance? If you areconfronted with several distinct and independent layers of activity, as in myUnity Capsule (Example 2), then this surely becomes a central issue.3Everyone approaches the task in a unique fashion, each sets his ownpriorities. In consequence, the results are always somewhat different fromperformance to performance. Scores are more than just tabulatures forspecific actions or else some sort of picture of the required sound: they arealso artifacts with powerful auras of their own, as the history of notationalinnovation clearly shows us. As such, they are capable of playing an active

but not authoritarian role, even in a period of pluralistic aesthetic stan-dards: they carry their own history on their backs.The degree f variability rom oneperformance o another s somethingwhich s

strikingly evident n the multiple recorded ersions of your works or soloflute,which are radically different n many ways despite their being recordings finterpretations ya single musician.4

It's obvious hat you spend great deal of time and effort n considering, own othe most minute detail, exactly what you're asking a performer o do, whichrequires n unusually

highleveloffamiliarity and

identificationith instruments

and playing echniques.Thinking about composing means, first of all, thinking about the spe-

cific nature of the instruments to be employed. I'm very concerned that thethings I ask an instrumentalist to do be so instrument-specific that theyconspire to create a sort of "X-ray" of his instrument's inner essence. Thatdoesn't mean employing the entire catalogue of secondary effects (althoughit might), but rather ensuring that one could not imagine any otherinstrument playing the same material n the same way. My approach to an

instrument is really rather physical in the sense that I conceive of it as atheatrical space for the disposition of actions; the spatial relationship of theperformer and his movements to this framework s always a primary consid-eration if one wants to "polyphonicize" the apparent degree of difficulty ofa passage with its actual performative complexity. Very often my stringtextures, for instance, move rapidly from register to register, but it makesthe world of difference if one has chosen one's material disposition with aview to minimizing the real amount of distance that the left hand isexpected to traverse (Example 3). By these and similar means one is in a

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position to suggest contexts to the player that a more abstract treatment ofhis instrument might leave unremarked. If the composer does not occupyhimself directly with such questions, the performer might well considerhimself justified in applying received conservatory techniques in a blanketfashion not necessarily automatically appropriate or all forms of contempo-rary expression. I know a lot of composers who maintain that "if you justnotate the sounds you want, the techniques will look after themselves."Quite apart from leading composers into the occasional performative absur-dity, this is emphatically not the point I am starting from.

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"performances .. progressing ystematically owards complete xhaustion of thefreedom of choice, 9 it also represents unique, personal olution o the problemsposedby mobility. 0

Probably Cassandra s not a very typical example of the "open form"genre. When I was composing it, back in 1970, I was very well aware of theeffect of each of the limited number of combinations of fixed and freelyordered elements. This was important since it is precisely the vast diversityof energy-transfer ituations that the mobility of the freer elements provideswhich was my primary concern. It is a very physical piece, I think-the firstof my works, in fact, to consciously explore this aspect of performancepractice-and this is especially manifested by those boundary situationswhere one type of energy is forced to confront, blend with, or mutate intoanother. In the absence of metric subdivisions t is the manipulation of suchqualities which lends the piece its specific inner articulation, both withinand between sections. The clearly distinct implications of such an approachand that exemplified by the more overtly linear, "logical" sections areintended to sensibilize the flutist to the nuances of energy expenditure and

interpretative moment-to-moment detailing in a manner not otherwiseavailable o me at the time. Since then I have maintained the metaphor, butattached it, not so much to large-scale ections in confrontation, as to theconfrontation of various densities and consistencies of figurations with anetwork of temporal spaces within which they are confined. I don't seemuch point in maintaining the convention of regular pulse in a musicdevoid of the tonal harmonic rhythm which lends it significance on a globallevel; the measure thus tends to function for me, firstly, as a space, secondly(via the

bar-line),as the domain of a certain

energy quotient suddenlyfacing the necessity of leaping to a sometimes quite contrasted state. It isnot the emphasis on a down beat which counts, but the feel for what isneeded to leap this experiential hurdle to the immediately subsequentsituation. The length or regularity of measure disposition in relation to theimplied degree of continuity in a given material provides the player withessential information concerning relevant phrasing, weight of detailednuance as against emphasis of larger gestural aspects, etc. In shorter meas-ures the performer s necessarily stumbling from state to state; there is, if

you like, a high correlation of figural definition and "rhythmic harmony"(as opposed to harmonic rhythm) whilst the same materials spread over asmall number of larger measures would convey the necessity of integratingmore clearly these same figures into a more obviously continuous, evolvingperspective. Conversely, the latter case seems to imply a more catastrophictransition between measure boundaries than the former. Cassandra dealswith this issue more through its large-scale ormal dichotomies and, on themicro-level, the opposition of fermatas to written-out pauses combinedwith more or less anti-natural

interruptionsor distensions of the sort of

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time-flow that each type of texture seems to demand. It's very close to acompositional involvement of the well-known phenomenon whereby a soloperformer tends to calculate rests not so much by their actual writtendurations as by the degree of accumulated energic impetus with which heapproaches hem, with the consequence that their clock-time duration canfluctuate wildly from performance o performance. A recent example of thiswould be the concluding viola solo in my Third String Quartet, where theimmediately preceding whirlwind of linear motion causes the violist toperceive the rests as major impediments (Example 4). The effect of thisperception on the way he then attacks he intervening events is very evidentin performance.

Much of your music seems to revolve round what Boulez refers to as a"polyphony fpolyphonies. "

I do tend to work with distinct layers of activity, in the sense thatdiversely instrumentated, individually textured processual vectors are usu-ally co-extant in my works. Much of the larger-scale ormal working out ofmy structures is based on the intersection, collision, confluence, and diver-

gence of these strands of activity. I find this way of imagining and orderingsound much more congenial than treating an ensemble as a value-free andpristine source of possible sonorities. In larger groupings, too, the per-former has a chance to orientate himself towards eveilt, emanating from hisimmediate neighborhood, or at least remaining constant for a significantperiod of time. My large orchestral work La Terre est un homme (1976-79),12 for instance, treats each of the instrumental families very much as aunit of activity in itself-something supported, in some cases, by theinclusion of the complete

spectrumof members of that

family,the clarinet

group, for instance, comprising Eb, Bb, Bass and Contrabass. These distinctstrands may then be combined into larger conglomerates: one example thatcomes to mind is the regular association of four muted trumpets with theoboe/english horn quartet. On a still larger scale we have the integration ofall wind instruments pitted against all the strings (as in the very opening ofthe work, where a single woodwind/brass process is pitted against a com-plex mass of more than forty solo strings). This sort of constant fluctuationof alliances militates against the utilisation of the orchestra in its normal

division offorces; at the same time, I feel that there is a certain timbral logicat work which goes beyond usual concepts of "orchestration." All the largeensemble pieces in the Carceri d'invenzione'3 ycle are tropes of the sameapproach: in the third and last of the series, the woodwind, brass, andpercussion have clearly distinct roles to play in the articulation of the form,whilst in the first two of the series the constant generation and redefinitionof color-groups as polyphonic strata form the very roots of their particularidentities.

It seems to me that this approach s basically an extension of my attitude

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towards the multiple defining vectors which go to make up single, lesstexturally complex sound events. One of my enduring aims has been not tocreate some automatic transliteration of

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of reference rom one layer of articulation to another, but rather o providea rich meshing of analogous approaches which, whilst specific to each levelof activity, are nevertheless sufficiently imbued with points of processualcontact as to permit significant perceptual inter-reference n the part of thelistener. Quite often, pupils make the mistake of assuming that the sort ofproportional relationship effective on one level of a composition will beequally effective (or at least function in much the same manner) on a higherformal level; usually this is far from being the case. On the other hand, aconstant awareness of the general category of operation or shaping strategyinforming all levels of a discourse is extremely useful, and something thecomposer should make every effort to suggest. Often, people have beenrather disappointed to discover that the operations I employ at any givenmoment are really rather basic. This is necessary in order to ensure theirwider applicability n an extended family of comparable situations; one isoften mildly astounded to see how complex a context can become as theresult of the intersection of just a few such primitive procedures

Stockhausen as stated that, beginning with his Kontra-Punkte (1951), he

"didn't want any background ny more,... everythingwas... ofequalimportance."14 Do you view each of the lines or processual trata in yourmusic as being ofequal mportance?

It's interesting that Stockhausen takes that particular stance. Althoughwhat he says would seem to be a natural consequence of the total serialconcept as he understood it, in the sense that anything derived directlyfrom the fundamental steering mechanisms would be theoretically equiv-alent (even if not so in terms of perceived structural weight), in fact thedefinitive version of the piece doesn't function at all that way. We knowfrom his sketches that Kontra-Punkte s the result of at least two interleavedwork-processes, the one more basic, the other essentially interpolative orelaborational. One might suppose that this implies a certain disbalance nthe mode of assessment of sonic experience: after all, even if "everythingwas ... of equal importance," that still depends on the perceived "grain"built into the texture in terms of such before-after strategies. The punningnature of the title is surely aimed at Stockhausen's dissatisfaction both withthe premisses of Punkte and the basic "point" approach in general; it is

fairly easy to discern the moments at which the global, group effect isprimary. As in Orwellian democracy, all may be equal, but some are stillmore equal than others.

In my own music, I certainly try to legitimize all strata equally in termsof their inner coherence and sense of self, but this is not to be interpreted asthe espousal of some sort of principled equality in the resultant compoundtexture. Some types of texture are, by their very nature, more insistentthan others. In addition, I employ the detailed definition of things liketimbre and amplitude to move lines or linear complexes in and out of focus.

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In terms of their contribution to the overall argument, all lines might be ofcomparable significance but, by adjusting their relative dynamic envelopes,all sorts of interesting weightings of things like translucency, physical pres-ence, and resonantial support-functioning can be arranged. Even in moreobviously traditional contexts it's often the things you can't hear (or canonly hear in a limited way) which are instrumental in giving a texture itsdecisive nudge in a particular direction. Also, when event-strata do becomedirectly audible (rather than mediatedly perceived via their syntacticallyarticulational effects on other layers), they exhibit more sense of continuityand directionality precisely because they had a prior "inaudible" run-up.Even in a Bach-style fugue it's frequently the absences which are as influen-tial as those things stated right out; the same, in perhaps greater measure, istrue of something like a Webern Bagatelle, where, at any given time, only asmall portion of the contributory ordering is consciously assimilated, evenafter many hearings. For me, silence-by which I mean also "functionalsilence," the camouflaging or dissimulating of functions-is far from being aneutral medium for spacing out events: I see it (perhaps fancifully) as a

disembodied "aether" capable of acting as an energized vehicle for the"silent continuation" of fragmented developmental structures.In other words, silencesmay simply represent hases during which particular

processes re "hidden" from view, much as a stream may disappear eneath heground, only o re-appear t another point; theydon't necessarily ignifya suspen-sion ofaction or arrested motion.

That's right. Without assuming something along those lines, it would bemuch more difficult for me to allow textures to re-emerge, perhaps greatlyevolved, and

expectthem to be

appreciatedas another

aspectof a

"perfo-rated continuity" prepared earlier in the work, the series of "tips oficebergs."

Given this contextually reactive approach, it would be less than useful toattempt to define all aspects of a situation simultaneously, right at theoutset. In fact, precisely the opposite is the case, in that I am often struckby the divergent paths material takes when identical operations are carriedout in a different order-so much so that decisions concerning precedencesof this type usually form part of a work's initial generative repertoire,setting up further levels of constraints through which invention and intui-tion can meaningfully express themselves.

In the introduction o his analysis fyour piano workLemma-Icon-Epigram,Richard Toop tates hat your compositional rocess

is not a predetermined ath, but a labyrinth, and the completed ork s, in asense, an arbitrary byproduct f that labyrinth, to the extent that there isnothing predestined r predetermined bout the outcome of any particularmoment n it; each moment s, rather, the inspired momentary esponse o a

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given set of constraints, nd in each caseother solutions, qually ompelling,would have been hinkable.15

For me, a piece of music tends to grow like a coral reef, accumulating orsedimenting the remains of many small animaculae. In that sense it is reallya record of past processes, it is an imperfect and partial imprint of a nolonger determinable set of compositional presuppositions. Music is alwaysan interactive thing; just as you define it, it tells you what it needs for thenext stage of its development, telling you in terms that would not neces-sarily have been meaningful or even available at an earlier stage ofcomposer/work evolution. In this essentially symbiotic activity the tem-poral succession of decision-making s absolutely crucial. The high densityof pre-compositional preparation for a piece does not set out to define apriori each and every event: it is meant to provide a life-support system, adispositive of constraints and delimitations with which it is meaningful tomake decisions affecting other parts of the totality. The almost ritualactivity of bringing events together in predetermined frames sometimes

gives rise to sudden insights on an altogether different level. In an impor-tant sense, processes don't exist in order to generate music, they're there topredispose one to approach the act of composition in a work-specificfashion.

It's not as if you simply et theseprocessesn motion and allow them to proceedwithout heir interacting r affecting ach other. There's vast difference etweenthis approach nd that which is manifested n "algorithmic" compositions ycomposersuch as Xenakis or Hiller.

It's curious how often I've been askedwhy, given

thecomplex

nature ofmy scores, I just don't specify some appropriately omplex algorithm at theoutset which would generate everything at once Needless to say, thisreflects a massive misprision concerning my approach to music, evenassuming that such a utopian calculatory device were available, even inprinciple: it effectively eliminates from the picture any sense of the widercompositional consequences of decision-making acts without which theexercise would be null and void. Invention always follows from limitation;constraints are aids to thinking, to processually molding sensations as

articulate subsets of the universal.What role do the processual trata play in your worksfor solo nstruments, s

opposedoyour ensemblemusic?They function in essentially the same way, seen as musical structures,

even if their accumulation in a single voice in practice eads to the informa-tion being differently evaluated. Of course, if you are composing for twentyinstruments you are going to think twice about the efficacy of simul-taneously specifying thirteen individually quantified informational strandsfor each and every

player,since the Law of

DiminishingReturns soon

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comes into force to render even such maximally defined textures in terms of"terminal grey" tones, the sort of non-color remaining on an artist'spalette after all his paints have been thoroughly mixed at the end of the day.

One thinks ofJohn Cage's description f the "mud" of Ives'smusic. 6I'm not familiar with that comment but it certainly sounds appropriate.

Sometimes, it's true, I find such states useful, but it would be anti produc-tive to maintain this overall-ness or too long: in recent works I have tendedto employ articulational stranding to enhance the specific sense of shapingof individual lines or texture-types at key moments, to increase their"presence," their power to generate a cutting-edge identity within diver-sity. An example of a piece constructed almost exclusively on this premisewould be Carceri d'invenzione of 1981 (Example 5), where the degree offocus of this or that texture within a larger mass is a key both to its overallfunction and its degree of internal coherence, its self-awareness, f you like.With solo instruments we have a wholly different situation in which theissue is not so much defining a continuous identity in the mass but ratherone of constantly thrusting at the performer the non-identity of the work,

those centrifugal tendencies which are only provisionally held in check bythe multiplicity of compositional devices which serve to define the strandsyou mention. The more these are explicitly rendered by the notation, themore a "separation of powers" is imaginable, an exploding outward fromtentatively common trajectories.

This brings us to your concept f a musical "fgure. ) You have written:

It is ... imperative hat the ideology f the holisticgesture be dethroned nfavour ofa typeofpatterning which takesgreater ccountof the transforma-tory and energetic otential of the sub-components f which the gesture iscomposed.

... Thegesture is brought ofunction in severalwayssimultaneously, husthrowing ts shadow beyond he limits set by its physical borders, whilst thestrands ofparametric nformation fwhich t is composedakeon livesof theirown-without, however, ivorcing hemselvesfrom the concretepoint of theircommon manifestation o such a degree hat their independence n theprocessual evelcouldeverposea serious hreat to the credibility f integrity fthegesture tself 17

Wouldyou care oamplify hese tatements?In my efforts to clarify to myself the inner workings of musical struc-

tures, I've found it useful to distinguish three fundamental areas ofactivity-or, at least, three distinct ways of looking at those activities. Theyare (1) Texture; (2) Gesture; and (3) Figure. I am, by the way, certainly notsuggesting that these are mutually exclusive domains-quite the contrary, n

21



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if - "'1 rV*-

Ciar.Bss~~~~~~~~ 4-=: ~~ 0 e -

-" - I 4Clar. L rIAVi-'ldF~C3-~FW---,,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~k

:a OMMM,' V.- . - -me-cl:;j - I- 'k L. . 9 . f

I, I --_ - .--- ...___.>'t> ' = ft ) YI| | i:

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EXAMPLE 5: Carceri d'invenzione I

fact, since their usefulness to me as a composer resides precisely in theirencouragement of "cross-fading" from one to another. Basically, I'mpostulating that the identification of function or identity proceeds from thegeneral to the specific, that is, from types of activity up to particular

22

Bsn.

Hn

Tpt

Tbne

Ten.Tba.

Pfte

'Vln 1

Vn.2

Via

Cello

DBss

W.crsori --L .~ . ----4 _ -L ?r rA

I

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fr - .---.. .- .---lo . W I ,I



19/46


20/46


had been working for some years with the idea of "parametric polyphony"I mentioned in connection with Unity Capsule: n that piece the overtmulti-stranding of articulational qualities was pretty much carried on thesurface as a sort of formal carapace, so the ultimate sound result was clearlysynthetic in nature. More recent pieces had moved away from that position,partly because I was writing more ensemble pieces where that approach wasless appropriate. Nevertheless, the approach remained the same, in thatindividual gestures were still made up of articulative particles which, inprinciple, retained the status of free radicals.

This change n your music has been described y Toop: "... The structuralprocesses hich wereoncearticulated t surface evelbythe different indsofplayingtechniques avenowsunk down ovarious evels elow hesurface, o that the musicitselfbecomes, o somedegree, he 'sediment' of theseprocesses.18

That's so. In some forms of total serial practice, a (in my view largelyjust) criticism was that the serially-generated ntersection of parametricstrands produced a sound object which in no way clearly reflected theordered nature of these same strands: the polyphony was generationally

virtual whilst remaining perceptually latent. In my own recent pieces, I'vetried to bypass this problem by allowing the individually manipulableparametric trata to begin life authenticated by means of functional embed-ding in a concrete gestural context. I invariably envisage a sonic event asfluctuating between two notional poles-that is, its immediate, identifiable,gestural gestalt, and its role as a launching pad for the subsequent establish-ment of independent linear trajectories of the gestalt's constituent charac-teristics. The specifically figural aspect of an event is thus the degree towhich these

parametric quantarender themselves obviously amenable to

such separation, extension, and re-combination in later constellations.Clearly, under such circumstances, it's not useful to restrict oneself to the"traditional" parameters; I myself treat anything as a parametric variablethat (a) can be quantified sufficiently consistently as to permit stepwisemodulation and (b) is a clear enough component of its parent gestalt toensure its adequate perception in later contexts. Whereas, in earlier pieces,the sonic events were resultants of independent parametric modulation, mymore recent efforts have been concentrated on precisely the opposite, i.e.

the definition and deployment of linear-polyphonic sound-qualities such asinitially arise from fully composed-out events. This has the advantage ofbeing able to exploit the ambiguity inherent in the object/effect dichotomy;parametric ines of force can be clearly perceived as infecting, damaging, orreconstituting their carrier vehicles. The opening of my Second StringQuartet is perhaps a particularly clear example of this technique,19 (Ex-ample 6) but many of the works from the Carceri d'invenzione 1981-86)cycle would do just as well.

Your notion and handling ofparametric omposition ppears o be much more

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I'd like to turn briefly o a question elated o one asked earlier. I've witnessednumerous isteners, after hearing your music, ask themselves nd others "Am Ireally expected o absorb everything hat's going on?" How do you respond o this?

I'd hesitate to suggest that my approach be more "sophisticated" thansome serial tendencies; it's just that personal priorities-the sort of informa-tion that one imagines sound to be able realistically o convey-inevitablydiffer. The sort of presumptions one makes as, for example, to the relation-ship between smallest compositional building-blocks and smallest auralunit reference conspire to create wholly different evaluational models. Somepeople start with a very central awareness of absolute pitch identities; Imyself prefer to exploit the ever-changing field of forces created by theopposition of pitch and interval. These things are important and needsomehow to be conveyed at an early stage of a work's audition.

The orientation which each composer, each composition sets out tosubliminally propose naturally has a vital influence on the sensitive listener'sconcept of "thingness." If we talk of "everything" we are begging a lot ofquestions. Most Western art music has been based on the assumption of

structural priorities, things that are more or less important on various director indirect levels of perception. The lack of expectations dogging a lot ofcontemporary music in this respect plus, perhaps, the experience of moreliteral-minded species of twelve-tone thinking, has indirectly engenderedan odd egalitarianism n which an event ceases effectively to exist if it is notprojected onto the same two-dimensional, high-gloss screen as everythingelse. Was it Richard Strauss who once, when told that a certain instrumentcouldn't be heard, replied "Maybe, but I'd notice if it were not there?"Much the same could be said, I expect, for a lot of secondary strata, in thatperhaps t's not so much their physical presence which is contributive at anygiven moment as their providing of pre-planned points of structural coinci-dence with other processual areas, points where things suddenly "clicktogether" without us always being precisely aware of what it is that's doingthe clicking. "Hearing" inevitably relies for much of its effect on anticipa-tion, for slotting stimuli into provisional frameworks, at least some ofwhich must clearly be suggested by the piece itself if it is to lay plausibleclaims to both coherence and individuality.

I was once asked if I could "hear" all the notes and rhythms occurring ina single beat of the large orchestral work I mentioned some time ago. Thevery formulation of the question seemed to me to underline how little ofwhat was going on had been "heard" by my interlocutor, since hisapproach eliminated a priori all aspects of causality and musical conse-quence, identity of line, instrumentation and consistency of texture-everything, in short, that made the passage in question what it was.Process, after all, is nothing less than a slanting object In such a case, arewe listening to everything at once? In one sense, yes, in another, no.

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What other suggestionsmight you offer o listeners who are approaching ourmusicfor thefirst time?Try and remember that, no matter how strange or daunting, no music

stands alone in the world. There may be no genre-dictated norms ofexpectation satisfaction; anything that remains is a valid approach, nomatter from what apparently distant domain of experience it may come.Works of art act, in some deep sense, as "meaning-magnets;" they shouldembrace, not thrust away, he personal perceptions of the listener-which isnot to suggest that this is necessarily a pleasant sensation for the latter, orthat they should achieve this by means of some spurious pretension toimmediacy Often, we shove things into categorical shoe boxes precisely inorder to avoid the weird, perhaps frightening, feeling of sacrificing-up omeintegral part of ourselves to an alien environment in order that we subse-quently receive it back again, enriched and re-articulated. There's noguarantee of that, of course, which initially makes the whole transaction soseemingly onesided. Ambiguity-or, rather, the constant awareness ofambiguity-is always something that my music presupposes: embrace it,

but not uncritically. One should not hesitate to make instantaneous deci-sions as to listening direction; at the same time, though, every attemptshould be made to retain the sensation of multiple realities which thelayerings of process and texture provide. Musical logic is not necessarilybased on an exclusive "either-or" but on an inclusive "both-and."

And then, get to hear the piece againYou've aught compositionor a good number of years hroughout Europe nd,

more recently, n the United States. What are yourfeelings with regard o the role

ofthe

compositioneacher?

Some years ago I wrote that "composition" is a subject perpetually insearch of a content. What once was traditionally counted as compositionhas experienced something of a partition since the Second World War, withmuch of its previous content being siphoned-off towards theoretical disci-plines. There are plenty of people who regret this; I myself don't necessarilysee its lack of precise definition as a bad thing. Why should it be wrong forthe methodology of a creative discipline to reflect, to some extent, thenatural flexibility and open-endedness of the activity itself? Compositionteaching does well to be constantly in a state of self-critical evolution,especially in the university, where the natural infrastructural pressurestowards conformity are more intense. Of course, I'm talking primarily hereof advanced instruction; in Europe there's a lot less of the sort of basicbread-and-butter composition course that is characteristic of universitysituations here, largely because composers are, in general, less bound to thesuccessive steps of the academic career path than in the States. People tendto come to formal instruction later, when they have already produced acertain body of work, and the vexed

questionof style-bound or

style-freeteaching is moot.

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Perspectives fNewMusic2

4s4 E



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flute and tape (Example ), thefinal workof the Carceri d'invenzione cycle,as"... an amplification; densification f the techniques hat until that point hadbeen treated n the cycle. 23How did you achieve his result? What role did thetape, and its interaction with the live lutist, play?

What I was aiming at through the confrontation was a reintegration ofmetric and harmonic patterns of order. The tape part consists entirely ofchordal sequences initiated always and only at the downbeat of each meas-ure, thereafter generally remaining immobile. The chordal materials werederived from the eight-chord sequence underlying almost the entire Carcericycle. The sounds on the tape are invariably electronically unmodified bassflute sonorities; the soloist co-ordinates his more complex activities withthe tape by means of a click track. The latter enabled me to employ"irrational meters" such as 3/10, 5/24, etcetera and to modify tempi inexact proportional relationships.

The pitches of the solo part are either (a) the same as those appearing onthe tape or (b) pitches related to these latter by a limited, constantlyevolving set of secondary intervals. At the beginning of the piece the

number of notes on the tape is very small, while the number of secondaryintervals in the solo part very large; in consequence, the tape sounds verymuch like some atrophied, ethereal cantus firmus. As the work progresses,the density of pitches in the bass flute diminishes, whilst that in the tapeincreases, effecting a sort of "cross-play," an exchange of perceived physicalpresence, weight, or whatever. The effect is interesting in that the slowunfolding of the chords creates a very particular temporal tactility whilstthe increasingly obvious web of referential restrictions imposed on the

maneuveringsof the flutist

generates quiteanother sense of

physicality.Mnemosyne has actually been played in a realization for nine bass flutes,by Pierre-Yves Artaud in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The effect was farmore transparent, the micro-variations n each long-held note more imme-diately audible by reason of the spatial distribution of the sound sources.

Wouldyou mind speaking boutyour more ecent works? oyou think thatyourcompositional oncerns ave beenundergoing major changes f late?

It's certainly the case that moving to California has changed something inthe dynamics of how I approach the compositional act: whether that will

have an audible effect on my subsequent production I can't tell as yet. Asfar as I am aware, the things I have been doing follow directly out of what Ihad concerned myself with immediately before leaving Europe, in particularthe matter of the musical object and its processual manifestation.

In 1988 I completed a piece, La Chute d'Icare, for performance in theStrasbourg Festival, which addressed this issue head-on. There is anobbligato clarinet part (written for Armand Angster, the excellentStrasbourg clarinettist) placed against a small chamber ensemble. Both

partiesbegin the work with

essentiallythe same,

quite primitive material,

33



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31/46


consisting of invariant ascending and descending modes (Example 9); theentire first section of La Chute is concerned with eroding both thisextremely hard-edged situation and with dissolving the heterophonic com-plicity which initially binds the solo player and the ensemble together (inthat the latter simply echo the undulating riffs of the former at a slower,irregularly octave-transposed rate). It is as if the entire processual build-upto this extremely naked state has been composed, and then violentlysuppressed. Deprived of its generational grounding, the modal "object"cannot but commence a gradual but irreversible decay, the soloist in onedirection (leaping over different groups of intervals, microtonal inflections,etcetera), the ensemble (modifying rate of heterophonic distortion, num-ber of pitches sounding on, tendential linear modification of ancillary tringtextures, microtonal pitch deviations, etcetera) in one or more others. It isas if the object had been gradually "wiped over" (pace the paintings ofFrancis Bacon), become threadbare and perforated. In so doing, other,smaller objects and states become visible "below the surface," graduallycoming to take over the action. It was quite something for me to decide to

point up the issue at stake in such a blatantly obvious fashion (especially soin view of the piece's subtitle "Little Serenade of Disappearance").In a recent onversation ou onceagain made useof the term "labyrinth" when

referring o the 137-bar rhythmic scheme which, overlapped nd canonicallytreated, orms the basisof La Chute. Why does his notion appeal oyou?

We shouldn't always capitulate to the urge to explain away our basicdrives, images, and predilections The symbol of the labyrinth is too deeplyembedded in our collective consciousness for me to claim any personalproprietary rights. All of life is a maze; no one can see where the nextturning will lead, even though we can-and do-make educated guesses.That's what consciousness is about, surely? All creativity is essentiallymysterious, and all answers to the Sphynx's riddle orbit around theanthropocentric dilemma. The various mannerist periods of Europeanmusic history have understood very well how invention and artifice areinextricably and ecstatically ntertwined; I find much to identify with in theconcerns manifested in such styles.

Since the completion of La Chute, I have finished Kurze Schatten I for

solo guitar, something begun several years ago. In it I return to theminiature form which has always attracted me, attempting to locate themusical events at the precise and brilliantly blinding intersection of formand substance. This intention is suggested in the choice of title, which istaken from aphoristic writings of Walter Benjamin in which the authorspeaks of the uttermost reality of the object revealed as the sun pro-gressively wipes away the shadows in its approach to its noon zenith. It wasextremely challenging to work with the guitar, especially in view of thegenerally brusk violence of my vernacular: had to seek gestural areas which

35



32/46

36 Perspectives fNewMusic

(

Ic L~ mI? o?'*-y/ I~ I ?*&~~~~~II- Il, T .^lll=~ l

C

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33/46

Shattering he Vessels f Received Wisdom

were amenable to collecting and explosively releasing energies "in minia-ture," rather analogous to the violent effect but factually ow amplitude) f avery pronounced flute key click. Talking earlier of the compositional inte-gration of performance technique: these seven pieces are played with athree-string scordatura. At the conclusion of every second piece one stringis retuned to normal, so that by the seventh movement only one string (BO)is still detuned (to Bb). The narrowing-down process continues, in that thefinal section of the work is a tiny fantasy utilizing exclusively that string(Example 10).

-, - S42 ul-->^&7j,""-lBf^4

2tasto--. (I.

*mute gliss.sempre ; A V0v3 gs Vi

PPL -'LULUp IPf Wfi t .;is

Iamo j i 32o -mo36t56^ arm. gliss.>.32 (j) --12) tasto., ungh. -- S

'p'"--?...._-- .....i~:-------------A''--Y--.--'

L

I'---- "1 7. gs----L s fim(A). c/__J ~ r ,)MP '^ ItjP - (

'^ Fine

EXAMPLE 0: Kurze Schatten II (CONCLUSION)

My Third String Quartet addresses this object/process dichotomy per-haps even more extremely, in that two movements stand starkly opposed,unmediated, one of them essentially composed of a series of more or lesswell-defined objects continually being recombined, the other a totallylinear, process-oriented mirror image of the first in which transformationcomes much more clearly to the fore. Despite the vast gulf which separatesthem, both movements have their origin in one and the same precomposi-

tional disposition of periodic, metric and rhythmic patterns.Most recently, I've been busy with a string bass solo piece, Trittico perGertrude tein, which pursues several satellite concepts in the field of large-scale rhythmic confluence and interference. There is still a lot to be donethere, I think.

One final, difficult question: n your opinion, what role does (or should)contemporary rt play in our society?

I'm not sure I can answer this, nor am I sure that a straightforwardstatement would even begin to accurately reflect the contorted complexities

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of the situation. It's clear that there are as many views on this as there arecomposers The actual role of contemporary music in society at large is, ofcourse, peripheral n the extreme. There is nothing particularly wrong withthis unless quality equals numbers, even though we'd all like more lis-teners, of course. By its very nature, a critical art form will be thrust intothe position of a tolerated irritant by the vested interests of a ConsensusSociety; it assuages chronic bad conscience among those who are aware hatsomething is very badly wrong but are unable or unwilling to distancethemselves from the prevalent entertainment ideology imposed byincreasingly onerous media constraints. I myself view the growth of mega-corporative communications networks as something of a blessing in dis-guise, in that anything which doesn't fit into their acceptance patterns willfall between the cracks into the spaces beneath and, in clear opposition,may flourish once more with a sense of mission. The idea of attempting tograpple the odd fifteen-minute slot for contemporary music on somesatellite channel is grotesque in the extreme and, in my view, misses theopportunity completely.

On the more positive side, I believe that new and challenging aestheticapproaches are still possible and represent one of the very few open spaces,in increasingly over-developed Western society, for a resensibilization o thepossibility of the "total individual" beyond the manipulative splintering ofour social selves which is turning us increasingly nto sleepwalking ugglers.Whether the individual work of art is still capable of achieving suchmomentary reintegration is unclear, but at least it can aim at making usvitally aware of the utopian possibility.

The whole raison d'etre of much oftwentieth-century

art has been toshatter the vessels of received wisdom (including its own ); it would be agreat tragedy if the open-ended, imperfect project of critical aestheticthinking were to decay by reason of well-meaning but inappropriate appealsto external evaluative norms.

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NOTES

1. Harry Halbreich, jacket notes to Stil 3108-S-83, "BrianFerneyhough rencontre Pierre-Yves Artaud."

2. The Arditti Quartet plans to release a recording of Ferneyhough'sthree string quartets on CD.

3. For a description of some of the compositional techniques used inUnity Capsule, see Brian Ferneyhough, "Unity Capsule: un journaldu bord," Contrechamps (1988): 139-48.

4. See footnote 1. This recording contains two versions of Unity Capsuleand three of Cassandra's ream Song.

5. Kurt Stone, "Problems and Methods of Notation," Perspectives fNewMusic 1, no. 2 (Spring-Summer 1963): 30. (Reprinted in Perspectiveson Notation and Performance, dited by Benjamin Boretz and EdwardT. Cone [New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1976], 30.)

6. Ferneyhough's notes read as follows:

This work owes its conception to certain considerations arisingout of the problems and possibilities inherent in the notation-realisation relationship. The choice of notation in this instancewas principally dictated by a desire to define the quality of thefinal sound by

relatingt

consciouslyto the

degreeof

complexitypresent in the score. The piece as it stands is, therefore, notintended to be the plan of an "ideal" performance. The notationdoes not represent the result required: t is the attempt to realisethe written specifications in practice which is designed toproduce the desired (but unnotatable) sound-quality.

A "beautiful," cultivated performance s not to be aimed at:some of the combinations of actions specified are in any caseeither not literally realisable certain dynamic groupings) or else

lead to complex, partly unpredictable results. Nevertheless, avalid realisation will only result from a rigorous attempt toreproduce as many of the textural details as possible: suchdivergencies and "impurities" as then follow from the naturallimitations of the instrument itself may be taken to be theintentions of the composer. No attempt should be made toconceal the difficulty of the music by resorting to compromisesand inexactitudes (i.e. of rhythm) designed to achieve asuperficially more "polished" result. On the

contrary,the

39



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audible and visual degree of difficulty is to be drawn as anintegral structural element into the fabric of the compositionitself. (Brian Ferneyhough, introductory notes to Cassandra'sDream Song [C.F. Peters Edition])

7. Brian Ferneyhough, jacket notes to Stil 3108-S-83.

8. Herman Sabbe, "A Logic of Coherence and an Aesthetic ofContingency: European versus American 'Open Structure' Music,"Interface 6, no. 3 (1987): 182.

9. Ibid., 182.

10. The form of Cassandra s a direct result of the interpenetration of twodifferent musical structures, one being fixed in sequence and"directional," the other being variable in sequence and"nondirectional." The score of the work consists of two sheets: thefirst contains six sections of music, labelled 1 through 6, and thesecond contains five sections, labelled A through E. Ferneyhough's

instructions regarding the manner in which the contents of the twosheets are made to interpenetrate are as follows:

The six numbered sections (1-6) on sheet one must be played inthe given numerical order. The piece therefore invariably beginswith 1.

In between each of these sections is interspersed one of the otherof the five sections (A-E) to be found on sheet two. These maybe played in any order.The piece thus ends with 6 on sheet one.

No section may be played more than once.

One immediately deduces that, firstly, a realization of Cassandra,revolving around the placement of the five variable elements withinthe fixed structure defined by the six numbered sections, will yield analternation between the two

typesof material, as

depictedin

Example11. This regular fluctuation proves to be both an importantstructural element and a dramatic feature which adds an element ofpredictability that tends to balance the indeterminate aspects of themobile scenario. Secondly, because of the denial of sectionalrepetition, no section may be omitted. Thus, the interpreter isimmediately limited to a total of 5 = 120 possible permutations ofthe five variable elements. We therefore avoid the difficultiescharacteristic of works which contain both "obligatory" and

40



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VARIABLE STRUCTURE

(SHEET TWO)

w EFIXED STRUCTURE

(SHEET ONE)

EXAMPLE 11: Cassandra's Dream Song

5E 52]



38/46

Perspectives of New Music

IT EI o4-

I u

CI (AI 1

U

Q

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I

r,,I

II

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i 6Xu r4

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42



39/46

Shattering he Vessels f Received Wisdom

"optional" passages, the latter being viewed by many as being"functionally indispensible to the essential cycles of the narrative"(Robert Black, "Boulez's Third Piano Sonata: Surface andSensibility," Perspectives f New Music 20 [1981-82]: 189) of such apiece, and therefore mandatory.

The listener, in confronting a performance of Cassandra, s greatlyaided by the fact that each sheet of music possesses its own distinctivesound quality: for example, sheet one gravitates around and stronglyemphasizes a single pitch, A 440 Hertz, while sheet two typicallyavoids this pitch (Example 12). This extremely clear differentiation ofbasic material is reminiscent of Boulez's distinction between"points" and "blocs" in the "Constellation-Miroir" formant of hisThird Piano Sonata.

The overall result of these concerns is a "directional" work, onewhich is easily recognizable from one performance o the next despitethe presence of the mobile sections.

11. Pierre Boulez, Boulez on Music Today, ranslated by Susan Bradshawand Richard Rodney Bennett (London: Faber and Faber, 1971), 115.

12. La Terre was commissioned by the British Broadcasting Corporationand was premiered on 20 September 1979 at the Musica NovaFestival in Glasgow, Scotland by the Scottish National Orchestraconducted by Elgar Howarth. Ferneyhough has commented:

Over the years I have developed a "nose," I think, about what is

likelyto stimulate me and what not. Sometimes other works of

art (usually not music) have acted as catalyst, not directly leadingto the piece, but acting as focus points for the collecting andordering of all sorts of fragmentary mpressions, speculations andso on. One of these was the Matta painting La terre st un homme,which served this purpose on several levels at once, such as theactual configuration of the elements, the title and itsimplications, and the sort of surreal animism that lends thepainting its specific life. (Paul Griffiths, "Interview with Brian

Ferneyhough," New Sounds, New Personalities, ritish Composers fthe 1980s [London: Faber and Faber, 1985], 78)

13. The Carceri d'invenzione cycle consists of seven works, and totalsapproximately 1 1/2hours in duration. (The title, taken from the well-known series of etchings by Piranesi, is yet another example ofFerneyhough's being influenced and stimulated by the visual arts.)The constituent works are:

43



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Superscriptio 1981)Carceri d'invenzione (1982)

Intermedio ll ciaccona 1986)

Carceri d'invenzione I (1985)

Etudes ranscendantales/Intermedio I (1982-85)

Carceri d'invenzione II (1986)

Mnemosyne 1986)

The first complete performance of the cycle was given on 17October 1986, at the Donaueschingen Music Days.

14. Karlheinz Stockhausen, cited in Jonathan Cott, Stockhausen:Conversations ith the Composer London: Picador, 1974), 35.

15. Richard Toop, "Lemme-Icone-Epigramme," translated by Daniel

Haefliger Contrechamps (1988): 86. Original English text in thisissue, below.

16. John Cage, "Two Statements on Ives," in A rear from Monday(Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1963), 42.

17. Brian Ferneyhough, "Form, Figure, Style: An IntermediateAssessment," Darmstidter Beitrage ur Neuen Musik 19 (1984): 64-65.

18. Richard Toop, "Ferneyhough's Dungeons of Invention," MusicalTimes 128 (no. 1737) (1987): 624-25.

19. For details, see Brian Ferneyhough, "Deuxieme quatuor a cordes,"Cahier Musique 1 (1980): 1-5. Reprinted in Contrechamps (1988):149-62.

20. Jonathan Harvey, "Brian Ferneyhough," Musical Times 120 (no.1639) (1979): 725.

21. Pierre Boulez, "The Teacher's Task," in Orientations, dited by Jean-Jacques Nattiez, translated by Martin Cooper (London and Boston:Faber and Faber; Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986): 119.

22. Time and Motion Study I is the second in a series of three works, thefirst being a piece for solo bass clarinet, and the third being a piece forsixteen solo voices with percussion and electronics. An additionalcomment reads:

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Shattering he Vessels f ReceivedWisdom 45

... The very complexity and nature of the instrumental/electronic layout will almost certainly induce associations withwith extra-musical events (i.e. capital punishment practices ofvarious national varieties ... ) which, whilst not entirelyunwelcome, are not in any way to be boosted onto a level ofimportance equal to that represented by the purely musicalsubstance. (Brian Ferneyhough, introductory notes to Time andMotion Study I [C.F. Peters Edition])

23. Richard Toop, "Brian Ferneyhough in Conversation," inFerneyhough: Carceri d'invenzione (London: Peters Edition Ltd.,1987): 11.



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1974 Time and Motion Study II 23'sixteen solo voices (with perc. andelectronics)

1972-75 Transit 45'six solo voices (with amplif.) and chamberorch.

1975-76 Unity Capsule 14'solo flute

1973-76 Time and Motion Study I 17-24'solo 'cello (with electronics, 3 assistants)

1971-77 Time and Motion Study 9'solo bass clarinet

1976-79 La Terre Est un Homme 15'orchestra (101 players)1969-80 Funerailles and II 23'

2 vlns, 2 vlas, 2 vcl, cb, hp

1980 Second String Quartet 11 1/2'2 vlns, via, vcl

1981 Lemma-Icon-Epigram 14'solo piano

Superscriptio 5 1/2'solo piccolo

1982 Carceri d'invenzione I 12 '/2'chamber orchestra (16 players)

1983 Adagissimo 1 3/4'string quartet

1985 Carceri d'invenzione Ia 14'solo flute and chamber orchestra (20players)

Carceri d'invenzione Ib 10'

solo flute

47



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1982-85 Etudes ranscendentales/Intermedio I 27'fl (picc/afl), ob (ca), vcl, hpsd, sop

1986 Carceri d'invenzione III 10 1/2'15 wind instruments and percussion(3 players)

Intermedio lla ciaccona 7'solo violin

Mnemosyne 10 1/4'bass flute and tape

1987 Third String Quartet 18'2 vlns, via, vcl

1985-88 Kurze Schatten I 13'

solo guitar

1988 La Chute D'Icare 10'solo clarinet and chamber ensemble

1989 Trittico per Gertude Stein 6'solo double bass

1989- Fourth String Quartet (in progress)2 vlns, via, vcl, sop

Note: with the exception of Firecycle eta, which is published byRicordi, all of the works listed above are available rom Peters EditionLtd., London.

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A FERNEYHOUGH DISCOGRAPHY

label

RCA Red SealRL 70610

Decca Headline

HEAD 18

MusicaphonBM 30 SL 1715

Editions Stil31085 83

RCA Red SealRL 70883

IRCAM/EratoSTU 71556;reissued onErato ECD 88261

Wergo 60111

Frequenz

Bauer

EtceteraKTC 1070

title

Sonatas or String Quartet

Transit

Timeand Motion Study I

Unity Capsule

Cassandra'sDream Song

Second String Quartet

Funerailles, ersions I & II

Timeand Motion Study II

Lemma-Icon-Epigram

Supersciptio

Cassandras Dream SongLa Chute d'Icare

Etudes ranscendentales

Superscriptio

perforr(s)

Berne String Quartet

London Sinfonietta/

Elgar Howarth,cond.

Werner Taube

Pierre-Yves Artaud

Pierre-Yves Artaud

Arditti StringQuartet

Ensemble Inter-contemporainPierre Boulez, cond.

Schola Cantorum

Stuttgart/ClytusGottwald

MassimilianoDamerini

Carin Levine

Carin Levine

Nieuw EnsembleAmsterdam/Ed Spanjaard, ond.

Nieuw EnsembleAmsterdam/Ed Spanjaard, ond.,Brenda Mitchell, sop.Harrie Starreveld

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NeumaCD450.72

Editions Montagne(forthcoming)

Attacca Babel8945-1

MnemosyneIntermedio lla ciaccona

Cassandra's ream Song

String Quartets 1-3plus Adagissimo

Timeand MotionStudy

Harrie StarreveldIrvine Arditti

Pierre-Yves Artaud

Arditti StringQuartet

Harry Spaarnay

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Perspectives of New Music. Brian Ferneyhough in Conversation With Jame Boros

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Transcript of Perspectives of New Music. Brian Ferneyhough in Conversation With Jame Boros