Pedro Américo, Cabeça de Cristo (Ecce Homo) (1885);
Meteorango Kid (André Luiz Oliveira, 1969);
Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire (directed by Oliver Herrmann, singed by Christine Schäfer & conducted by Pierre Boulez);
"Il la terrasse au bord d'un gouffre séculaire,
Où, Lazare odorant déchirant son suaire,
Se meut dans son réveil le cadavre spectral
D'un vieil amour ranci, charmant et sépulcral."
Charles Baudelaire
"I mean, we didn't go to church or anything, but Patti Smith would read stuff from the Bible. People talk about 'Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine,' but to me she was always Christian... I mean, I love the rituals of Catholicism. I hate the fucking politics, and the pope and shit, but the rituals of it are magic. I mean, the mass is a magic ritual for God's sake, it's a transubstantiation, and the stations of the cross—I mean a crown of thorns? Getting whipped? It'spunk rock. I remember saying that on the Ton Snyder show one night and he said, 'Some people would—not me, but some people might think that's a blasphemous statement..."
Jim Carroll (Please Kill Me)
"... cargó desde entonces en una urna un pedazo de tela con la imagen del Buen Jesús pintada por un muchacho de Pombal que, por piadoso, se había ganado el nombre de Beatito."
Mario Vargas Llosa (La guerra del fin del mundo)
"Toile d'araignée comme exemple d'isolement 'naturel' d'une carcasse (pseudo-géométrique) d'infra mince."
Marcel Duchamp
"La modérnité est un allégement de l'individualité... même les répétitions peuvent exprimer une sorte nouvelle d'originalité..."
Paul Klee (traduction Pierre-Henri Gonthier)
"That could be a really American invention, the best American invention—to be able to disappear."
"Noli Me Tangere"
Andy Warhol (The Philosophy of)
"Ein letzter Gesichtspunkt: der Typus... tatsächlich von einer eigentümlichen Vielheit und Widersprüchlichkeit gewesen sein: eine solche Möglichkeit is nicht völlig auszuschliessen."
Nietzsche (Der Antichrist)
"La première image (Bild) de la manifestation divine est le symbole (Gleichniss) de Dieu. Elle fut formée d'après la Trinité divine et Dieu demeura en elle. Ce n'est autre que l'Esprit sorti du feu magique de l'âme et qui apparaît dans l'énergie de la lumière. En cette image réside le Christ, en elle il est devenu homme au sein de la Vierge éternelle... Le Christ est l'image virginale, reçue par l'image du premier Adam.."
Antoine Faivre, Exercices d'Imagination (Accès de l'ésotérisme occidental, tome II)
"... s’il faut que par une dialectique retorse il y ait dans le Texte, destructeur de tout sujet, un sujet à aimer, ce sujet est dispersé, un peu comme les cendres que on jette au vent après la mort... ou encore un film" (: 14).
"... fantasmatiquement, sa situation est fluide, éparpillée... se déplace dans la chose, comme le fumeur de hashish tout entier ramasé dans la fumée de sa pipe et qui 'se fume'..." (: 69).
"Sa vieillesse: il s’entoure de chats et de fleurs... Sa concierge le trouva mort, en redingote, à genoux au milieu des pots de fleurs... [Il] avait lu Sade..." (: 188).
- Roland Barthes, Sade, Fourier, Loyola (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1971);
"Un double peut fixer pour un temps l'instabilité du même, lui donner une identité provisoire, mais il creuse sourtout le même en abîme, il ouvre en lui un fond insoupçonné et insondable" (253).
- Julia Kristeva, Soleil Noir (Paris: Gallimard, 1987);
Police Station (drawing after a famous 1985's photograph of Arnaldo Antunes, A/Z post at Instagram);
Arnaldo Antunes, poems taken from Agora aqui ninguém precisa de si (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015);
Arnaldo Antunes (pictures taken from Arthur Dapieve's BRock);
Poems in English and Portuguese by Leminski, poems by Alice Ruiz;
Titãs: Televisão (1985);
Titãs: Comida (1987);
Titãs: O que (1986);
Titãs: Flores (1989);
Titãs: AA UU (1985);
Titãs: Lugar Nenhum (1987);
"Hat Jemand, Ende des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, einen deutlichen Begriff davon, was Dichter starker Zeitalter Inspirationnannten? Im andren Falle will ich’s beschreiben..."
Nietzsche (Ecce Homo)
"Uma porta aberta a balançar para lá, para cá, rangendo no silêncio de uma tarde... E de repente, sim, ali estava a coisa verdadeira. Um retrato antigo de alguém que não se conhece e nunca se conhecerá porque o retrato é antigo ou porque o retrato tornou-se pó — esta sem intenção modesta provocava nela um momento quieto e bom. Também um mastro sem bandeira, erecto e mudo, fincado num dia de verão — rosto e corpo cegos... existir, de preferência de maneira para e silenciosa... a marca."
Clarice Lispector (Perto do Coração Selvagem)
"The discourse of the Way is insipid and tasteless:
Ernest Nazareth, Improviso (composição dedicada a Villa-Lobos, interpretação de Arthur Moreira Lima);
Documentário "Lição de Piano" (Francisco Mignone, Funarte 1978/Ernesto Nazareth 150 Anos, Youtube);
Joaquim Callado, 170 anos depois (Radio Batuta, 2018); Pixinguinha, ao Mestre com Carinho (Caminhos da Reportagem/Rafael Casé, TvBrasil 2017);
"... wie der das Schwerste von Schicksal, ein Verhängniss von Aufgabe tragende Geist trotzdem der leichteste und jenseitigste sein kann — Zarathustra ist ein Tänzer —";
Nietzsche
"His increasing deafness was also a cause of suffering. In 1933, he was diagnosed as incurably insane, and the physicians were forced to commit him to a madhouse (Colônia de Psicopatas) in Jacarepaguá. In the beginning of 1934, he ran away from the institution, got lost and died drowned in a dam..." (p. 121).
"... nobody saw him playing or dancing in soirees... Nazareth didn't belong to any dominant clique..." [Baptista Siqueira] (p. 121).
"[Nazareth attained great popularity but...] he was not a popular composer. His compositions are very sophisticated, and were corrected painstakingly... Nazareth should be placed among erudite composers. Notwithstanding, he was able to capture essential traits of the people of Rio de Janeiro... this is why his music is so fundamental" (p. 122).
"The admission of Nazareth to the realm of erudite composers was (and remains) difficult. It should have been undisputed, but it wasn't" (p. 123).
"The titles given to his compositions bear witness to Nazareth's involvement in the everyday life of his surroundings: Cruz Perigo!! — Está chumbado — Gemendo, rindo e pulando — Gentes: o imposto pegou? — Mariazinha sentada na pedra — Não caio n'outra — Pipoca — Podia ser pior — Fonte do suspiro — Bicicleta-Club — Chile-Brasil — Paulicéia, como és formosa" (p. 123).
"... he composes in a very pianistic way..." (p. 123). - Bruno Kiefer, História da Música Brasileira (Porto Alegre: Movimento, 1997).
"Ernestinho understood quite well that, in this lofty world, all the shafts — either notes or human beings — should stand upright, steadfast, and aloof" (p. 121).
"... Ernesto Nazaré told me that he used to play a lot of Chopin. It came as no surprise, because of the subtle influence of Chopin's pianistic style over his entire oeuvre" (p. 123).
"... his popular simplicity is disguised under a luscious chromaticism of devilishly mellifluous twirls, in which altered notes pop up at any moment, taking us anawares as if an inhambu about to fly..." (p. 124). - Mario de Andrade, Música, Doce Música (São Paulo: Martins, 1976).
Rafael Rabello on Arthur Moreira Lima & Ney Matogrosso:
"Até conhecer o Ney pessoalmente, há poucos anos, eu jamais havia visto seus shows e desconhecia totalmente sua obra. Achava que ele fazia um tipo de arte que não era música, muito mais ligada à arte cênica, e o classificava na verdade como um performer. Nosso primeiro contato aconteceu na TV Manchete, num programa chamado Um Toque de Classe, apresentado semanalmente pelo Arthur Moreira Lima numa época em que o Paulo Moreira, O Arthur e eu mantínhamos um trabalho frequente em conjunto. Embora o Arthur fosse muito inovador, e o programa procurasse chocar os critérios preestabelecidos para a classificação da música séria, pensamos que ele havia pirado de vez quando comentou sua ideia de chamar o Ney para cantar no programa. Afinal, Ney Matogrosso não tinha nada a ver com aquela história ali! Mas, no dia da gravação, fiquei surpreso com o resultado esplêndido da interpretação do Besame Mucho e também com a adaptação do Ney àquela situação nova. Na realidade, minha surpresa decorria do meu desconhecimento do Ney, um artista superinteressante e que possui uma caraterística de quem é realmente talentoso: estar aberto a novos conceitos. É muito raro um artista não se prender aos conceitos que o levaram a ser sucesso, e também não estar em busca do sucesso. Ney é assim. Até verdadeiros artistas encontram-se, muitas vezes, presos à estrutura que os impulsionou a um determinado patamar de poder e, no final, acabam engolidos por essa estrutura."
(as quoted in Denise Pires Vaz/Ney Matogrosso, Um cara meio estranho)
Waltzing Saint, photograph by A/Z available with other photographs and drawings at Fine Art America;
A Odisséia Musical de Gilberto Mendes (Brazil, 2005):
"39... that's how many albums and CD's have been released by my grandfather in Brazil and the rest of the world. When I asked my father why it was so difficult to find one of them in Brazil, he replied: 'Brazil isn't a country, Brazil is a mission'", Gilberto Mendes' granddaughter.
"Gilberto Mendes simply hung in there, created the New Music Festival, kept composing music while everyone, literally everyone else [doing high repertory music in Brazil] just gave up", Décio Pignatari.
Gilberto Mendes, Son et Lumière (1968);
Gilberto Mendes, Estudo Magno (1993);
Gilberto Mendes, Blirium C9 (1965);
Gilberto Mendes, Eisler e Webern caminham nos mares do sul (1989);
Estudo, ex-tudo, eis tudo pois (1998);
José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Requiem (1816);
José Maurício Nunes Garcia, Zemira (Ouverture);
"Del viejo palacete que perteneció a Su Majestad Juan VI, y que más tarde abrigase al primer conservatorio nacional de música, quedan sólo ruinas... parte del suelo de segundo piso—todo en pino de Riga—ya se ha desplomado y todavía continúan cayendo tejas, así como astillas de vidrio de las ventanas..."
Manuel Puig (Cae la noche tropical)
"E nos amarga então a incúria com que... os nossos governos vivem nos seus brinquedos perigosos de política, sem beneficiar aos que nos devem ser caros pelo que de Brasil e por nós fizeram..."
Mario de Andrade (Padre José Maurício/Música Doce Música)
"... the names of his grandmothers are unknown—an important point which opens the perspective concerning the referred mixing [of races]..." (p. 9).
"... while far away from Brazil, the painter Nicolau Taunay will inquire [José Maurício's] brothers after the 'grand mulâtre'. Called to mold his mortuary mask, Manoel de Araujo Porto Alegre says: 'more than average build... the size of his bones shows that he had been a strong man'" (p. 11).
"His depressive state becomes manifest when he complains that 'the yelping of dogs... the chirping of crickets annoy me...'" (p. 11).
"... José Maurício resigned from the Order of Christ to the benefit of his son..." (p. 15).
"Besides studying music with his father, the physician Nunes Garcia studied painting with Debret, and left an oil portrait of José Maurício..." (p. 16).
"Among the four descendants that would live with his father at the time of his father's demise, Nunes Garcia refers to two younger sisters 'in a state of insanity since a long time...'" (p. 16).
"It is surprising that José Maurício, whose religious calling is at least controversial, accepted the priesthood at the age of 25... The grounds for the choice seem to be connected rather with a musical drive... it would better enable him to the position of master chaplain" (p. 19).
"José Maurício is referred to as a brilliant fellow, whose exceptional intelligence was improved by his priestly education: Philosophy, History, Geography, Latin, French, Italian as well as English and Greek" (p. 20).
"In the last years of the 18th century, already with a significant background as a composer, José Maurício became director of a music school... teaching was done for free..." (p. 23).
"José Maurício was acclaimed as an excellent organist... Sigismund Neukomm referred to his playing as that of 'the world greatest improviser'" (p. 31-32).
"D. João VI's curiosity for the mulatto musician aroused almost immediately" (p. 33).
"José Maurício had to perform many duties as composer, conductor, organist, archivist, besides having to carry out other bureaucratic tasks..." (p. 34).
"Timid, not used to curry favor, in a court plenty of arse-likers... it was only natural that the king did not give him what he didn't explicitly asked for" (p. 35).
"[In 1811] his position crumbled away, his production decays" (p. 36).
"In december 1819, João Maurício [conducted] the first audition of Mozart's Requiem in Brazil..." (p. 37)
*****Cleofe Person de Mattos, Catálogo Temático José Maurício Nunes Garcia (Rio de Janeiro: MEC, 1970).
***The music produced in Minas Gerais in the 18th century — by composers such as Lobo de Mesquita (1746-1805), before José Maurício — is also important (worldy speaking), and has been rescued from oblivion by the German-Uruguayan musicologist Dr. Francisco Curt Lange. See Julio Medaglia, "O Milagre Musical do Barroco Mulato," Musica Impopular (São Paulo: Global, 2009), p. 151-69.
The Brazilian concretist poet Décio Pignatari writes the following in his preface to this book: "Júlio Medaglia always knew that third-worldness is a reality, but he also knew that one should snatch it from the partisan claws of the jingoists [nacionaloides], who have always prescribed subculture to underdevelopment (some of these yesterday preachers are nowadays wealthy advisers of the powers that be). And Julio Medaglia always knew that the struggle in these countries has to go hand in hand with learning — not the learning of supposed national authenticities ('our values') but of international repertory and patterns," p. 9.
"... il y a aussi beaucoup de gens qui jouent bien, qui jouent très bien, et qu'on connaît moins. Ils ne sont peut-être pas de grands pianistes, parce qu'ils ne sont pas très connus."
Emmanuel à douze ans (interviewed by Herve Guibert)
"The young musician, philologian, and admirer of Schopenhauer made his way between them and instinctively went up to a piano which he had descried at the back of this fiendish parlor. He regarded it (these are his own words) as 'the only being with a soul in this company.'"
Thomas Mann (Nietzsche's Philosophy in the Light of Recent History/translation by Richard and Clara Winston)
"Jeder Fehler in jedem Sinne ist die Folge von Instinkt-Entartung, von Disgregation des Willens: man definiert beinahe damit das Schlechte. Alles Gute is Instinkt—und folglich leicht, notwendig, frei. Die Mühsal ist ein Einwand, der Gott is typisch vom Helden unterschieden (in meiner Sprache: die leichten Füsse das erste Attribut der Göttlichkeit)."
Nietzsche (Götzen-Dämmerung: Die vier grossen Irrtümer, 2)
"Seine höhere Obhut zeigte sich in dem Maasse stark, dass ich in keinem Falle auch nur geahnt habe, was in mir wächst, — dass alle meine Fähigkeiten plötzlich, reif, in ihrer letzten Vollkommenheit eines Tags hervorsprangen. Es fehlt in meiner Erinnerung, dass ich mich je bemüht hätte, — es ist kein Zug von Ringen in meinem Leben nachweisbar, ich bin der Gegensatz einer heroischen Natur. Etwas 'wollen', nach Etwas 'streben', einen 'Zweck', einen 'Wunsch' im Auge haben — das kenne ich Alles nicht aus Erfahrung."
Nietzsche (Ecce Homo)
"Si vou voulez vous pousser vous-même en avant pour parvenir, dit le Laozi, cela sera à la fois épuisant et risqué... ce qui se réalise effectivement ne peut être que de l'ordre de l'effet, et c'est toujours par un processus (transformant la situation), et non en fonction d'un but conduisant (directement) à l'action, qu'on parvient à l'effect, à titre de résultat..."
"À la différence de l'effet (visé par l'agir dans un rapport moyens-fin), l'effect n'est pas à 'chercher', en y tendant directement et de façon volontaire; il est appelé à découler 'naturellement' du processus engagé. Toute stratégie consistera, en retour, à savoir impliquer le processus en amont, d'où l'effet sera ensuite conduit de lui-même à venir."
"... cette efficacité est de l'ordre du fruit qui, en se transformant imperceptiblement, est conduit à mûrir, non du geste héroïque qui prétend obtenir à l'arraché... impossible, comme on sait, de tirer 'directement' sur la plante pour la faire grandir, il faut la laisser pousser."
"... c'est seulement si on ne cherche pas la virtu nommément comme telle (je veux être vertueux), mais qu'elle découle sponte sua, qu'elle coule de source, comme on dit, que la vertu (ou la capacité) surabonde et ne peut s'épuiser... qui, au contraire, ne cesse de vouloir atteindre la vertu, en se la fixant comme but et s'y 'attachant, qui cherche à tout coup à être vertueux, en agissant chaque fois express — sans donc perdre de vue la vertu, sans jamais se départir de son projet —, ne se trouvera jamais suffisamment riche de vertu ou de capacité... qui prétend en faire l'économie, et ne cesse de viser l'effet, est toujours à court d'effectivité. Car cette visée pénalise l'effet — le paralyse."
"... ce n'est pas en s'appliquant à la vertu d'équité qu'on peut parvenir à la droiture continue d'une conduite équitable, ni en exécutant minutieusement les rites qu'on peut parvenir à la pureté du respect rituel..."
"... ce qui permet à l'effet d'effectivement ouvrer est précisément ce 'fonds' discret — à l'antipode de l'effet voyant — qu'aucune mise en oeuvre ne saurait épuiser... Cette ressource ou ce fonds d'effet, comme on dit de quelqu'un qu'il a du fonds, est le fonds d'immanence de l'effet. Au gré d'images qui sont traditionnelles en Chine, il est la souche et le tronc de l'arbre à partir de quoi se déploient naturellement les branches comme autant d'effets singuliers; ou encore il est la mère de l'effet et les effets en sont les enfants..."
François Jullien (Traité de l'efficacité)
"What is weak and soft wins out over what is hard and strong.
A fish should not be withdrawn from the deeps..."
Daodejing/36 (Edmund Ryden's translation)
"... to see what is small is called insight; to keep to what is weak is called strenght..." Daodejing/52 (Edmund Ryden's translation)
"Dimm the light, unite with the dust...
This is called
'Becoming one with the abstruse.'"
Daodejing/56 (Edmund Ryden's translation)
"The Sage treats things as difficult [or rather: he undertakes heedfully],
"Et alors, ô miracle, comme ces leçons que nous nous sommes vainement épuisés à apprendre le soir et que nous retrouvons en nous, sues par coeur, après que nous avons dormi, comme aussi ces visages des morts que les efforts passionnés de notre mémoire poursuivent sans les retrouver et qui, quand nous ne pensons plus à eux, sont là devant nos yeux, avec la ressemblance de la vie, le talent de la Berma qui m'avait fui quand je cherchais si avidement 1a en saisir l'essence, maintenant, après ces années d'oubli, dans cette heure d'indifférence, s'imposait avec la force de l'évidence à mon admiration."
Marcel Proust (le narrateur, Le Côté de Germantes)
"Attention, dit Boehme, à ne pas t'enfoncer, comme en une ténèbre, dans le miroir de tes actes, de tes occupations! Car l'avidité (Geist), inséparable de notre volonté, détruirait l'image de Dieu, image magique, subtile comme un esprit, tellement plus subtile et plus délicate que l'âme même."
Antoine Faivre, "Pensées de dieu, images de l'homme" (Accès de l'ésoterisme occidental)
Anxiety & Play:
"... régner, ainsi que l'eau, dans le secret et 'par en dessous' (en laissant, en offrant à chaque 'sujet' la possibilité du plus complet, du plus heureux épanouissement...)"
Henri Pousseur (sur Lao-Tseu), Musiques Croisées
"Dans la pratique Zen du tir à l'arc, le disciple après un long apprentissage, est si bien absorbé qu'il parvient enfin au seuil de l'art sans art, et tout se passe comme si c'était l'arc qui se servirait du tireur au lieu du contraire."
André Masson (Une peinture de l'essentiel/Écris, anthologie établie par Françoise Levaillant)
"À l'affût des mouvement les plus insensibles, les plus intérieurs... retrouver l'automatisme de la vie réelle."
"Debussy jouait lui-même avec le piano fermé."
Robert Bresson
"Ich kenne keine andre Art, mit großen Aufgaben zu verkehren als das Spiel: dies ist, als Anzeichen der Größe, eine wesentliche Voraussetzung."
Nietzsche (Ecce Homo)
"... the paradoxical concept of 'effortless striving'... a passionate, obsessive, overwhelming desire... but at the same time you must also maintain zero anxiety about it..."
Dean Radin (Real Magic)
"... there is a critical blindspot. The more intently we look for the answer in terms of the grid, the more impossible the task becomes."
Thomas P. Kasulis
"... one can become overly obsessed to the point of insanity. In the Buddha Way, one should first of all obtain the appropriate amount of knowledge such that it will empower one's practice. To know the appropriate amount is to be the one who truly knows."
Myoe (Mark Unno, Shingon Refractions)
"... a mouvement from that which the everyday self understands to be the ground of the Being of beings to the invisible basho grounding that basho vis-à-vis being. Observing with a detached seeing is the state in which the self's consciousness of itself disappears and the actor sees even his own dancing figure from the outside, as one observing from the audience."
Yasuo Yuasa
"There is always activity but it is free from compulsion, done from disinterest. And we are free to stop brooding and to observe the effects of our actions. (When we are proud, that pride keeps us from observing very clearly). And what do we observe: the effects of our actions on others or on ourselves? on ourselves; for if the effects on us are conducive to less separateness, less fear, more love, we may walk on then regardless of the others. Out of that lack of regard for the others we will not feel the need to be competitive, for as in those silences that occur when two people are confident of each other's friendship, there is no nervousness, only a sense of at-one-ness"
John Cage (Lecture on Something)
"Eu fiz xixi no banquinho e só me dei conta quando ouvi um 'óóóhhh' da platéia. Retirada da cena petrificada, ainda ouvi a mestra [Magdalena Tagliaferro] dizer para minha mãe: 'Sinto muito, sua filha tem o que chamamos stage fright. Ela é boa, mas não aconselho seguir na música.'" Rita Lee
Weight & Emotion:
"... when you sing, you are where you are..."
John Cage (Lecture on Nothing)
"Le talent est désir de faire fructifier ce qu'on a (parabole de Mathieu, 25, 14; le 'talent' vient de là). Or ce que nous avons est naturellement un poids." Joëlle (Les Samuraïs)
"Une énergie n'est disponible que lorsqu'on réussit à l'orienter." Olga (Les Samuraïs)
"When one moves on command, one first puts oneself in the total emotive situation... The cognitive function of 'pointing to' becomes possible only after the active, potential 'holding' has taken place... the existential arc first grasps its goal potentially by means of the bodily scheme."
Merleau-Ponty/Bergson/Yuasa
"La position du corps me semble importante, et la dimension de la surface. Qu'elle soit assez grande pour que le bras puisse la parcourir d'un seul mouvement. Trop petite, le champ le souffle est raréfié. Trop grand, il y aurait impossibilité matérielle, interruption, enfin disparition des images. Autre chose: je ne me vois pas assis, dansant plutôt."
André Masson (A propos de 22 dessins/Écris, anthologie établie par Françoise Levaillant)
"... Einstein's theory of general relativity describes gravity as a distortion in the fabric of space-time caused by the presence of mass. If such a distortion (introduced in this case by focused intention) was able to bend the space between the pitcher and the plate, then the ball would naturally follow that bend..."
Dean Radin (Real Magic)
"If one becomes accustomed to composing in an unrestrained posture such as standing or lying down, one cannot compose at all on formal occasions... My father admonished me not to compose waka even for a short while without the correct sitting posture."
Teika Jiwara
"Voyez cette danseuse, sa main est molle, elle ne fera jamais rien. Le génie de la danse cela part de l'extrémité du pied à l'extrémité de la main. La main, son dessin dans l'espace sera aigu mais sans raideur, c'est la terminaison d'une énergie, le parcours est le corps entier."
Henri Matisse (quoted by Masson, Conversations avec Henri Matisse/Écris, Françoise Levaillant)
"We pick up a needle from the floor and we spend on this action as much energy as is needed to lift up a man of our own weight."
Ouspensky
"Grande parte do movimento da mão é controlado por feixes de músculos que se contraem na zona mais afastada do antebraço."
Louise Gordon (Desenho Anatómico, tradução Conceição Jardim e Eduardo L. Nogueira)
"Ela não conseguia dar mais aquela antiga suavidade entre uma nota e outra, como um desmaio."
Clarice Lispector
Sound, Colour, Form:
"... il me paraît tellement important de développer une théorie du son et de la musique (de la matière sonore et musicale en mouvement) qui s'efforce de généraliser ces notions et d'en vérifier l'application dans des pratiques..."
Henri Pousseur, Musiques Croisées
"Mise à nu en forme de piano accompagné des 3 fracas et de souvenirs de jeunesse du gaz d'éclairage. D'un nombre conventionnel de notes de musique 'entendre' le groupe de celles qui ne sont pas jouées (refaire)..."
Marcel Duchamp
"Elementarism opposes to the orthogonal method of plasticism, that is, homogeneous with natural construction, a heterogeneous contrasting, labile method of expression by means of sloping planes relative to the static, perpendicular axis of gravity."
The van Doesburg (quoted in Linda Henderson's The Fourth Dimension)
"Qu'est-ce que dessiner? Comment y arriver? C'est l'action de se frayer un passage à travers un mur de fer invisible, qui semble se trouver entre ce que l'on sent et ce que l'on peut. Comment doit-on traverser ce mur, car il ne sert de rien d'y frapper fort..."
Van Gogh (cité par Artaud)
"Van Gogh est peintre parce qu'il a recollecté la nature, qu'il l'a comme retranspirée et fait suer..."
A. Artaud
"Un grand pianiste ne plaque pas l'émotion sur les touches. Il l'attend. Elle arrive et envahit ses doigts, le piano, lui, la salle."
Robert Bresson
"... the most important effect of these anticipatory probings which accompany the reading of images is that aura of space which appears to surround any naturalistic representation. The mere sign stands out as a figure against a neutral background, but this same ground recedes and assumes potential extension... aura... screen..."
Ersnt Gombrich
"While form is absolute [not quite true!], so that you say at the moment you draw any line that it is either right or wrong, colour is wholly relative [I'd rather say relative to the whole]. Every hue throughout your work is altered by every touch that you add in other places... every touch must be laid, not with a view to its effect at the time, but with a view to the result upon it of all that is afterwards... nothing but the devotion of life and great genius besides can make a colourist."
Ruskin/Gombrich
Quantum reality, brain:
"The important point here is that there is in principle, in the quantum model, an essential dynamic difference between the unconscious processing done by the Schrödinger evolution, which generates by a local process an expanding collection of classically conceivable experiential possibilities and the process associated with the sequence of conscious events that constitute the wilful selection of action."
J. M. Schwartz, Henry P. Stapp, Mario Beauregard
"... un cerebro medio contiene unos diez mil millones de neuronas, cada una de las cuales encierra varios millones de moléculas de distintos ácidos nucleicos; el número de combinaciones posibles es astronómico..."
Hyden/Cortázar
Gravitation:
"If falling in a gravitational field can get rid of any observable effects of gravity, accelerating in the absence of one can create the appearance of a gravitational field... As everyone who has ever been in an elevator has experienced, when it first starts to accelerate upward, you feel slightly heavier; namely, you feel a greater force exerted by the floor on your feet. If you were in outer space, where you would otherwise feel weightless, and the elevator you were in started to accelerate upward, you would feel a similar force pushing you down against the floor... if I shined a laser beam in an elevator... I would also see the light ray's trajectory bend downward... But special relativity tells us that light rays move at constant speed in straight lines... one way to go in a straight line and also travel in a curve is to travel on a straight line on a curved surface... Space, and to some extent time, can be curved in the presence of mass or energy..."
"Gravity is measured to be more than a billion billion billion billion times weaker than electromagnetism, and even weaker still when compared to the strong force [binding quarks in subatomic clusters]. It may not seem so weak... but remember that you are feeling the gravitational force of the entire earth acting on you. By contrast, even a small excess of electric charge on an object such as a balloon produces a large enough electric field to hold it up on a wall against the gravitational pull of the entire earth... In the Randall-Sundrum scheme... gravity near our brane acts effectively much more weakly than it does outside our brane... a microscopic distance 'away' from our world in the extra spatial dimension, gravity would appear to have the same strength as the other forces in nature..."
Lawrence M. Kraus, Hiding in the Mirror
"So, if string theorists are right, everywhere in visible space—at the tip of your nose... at the spot above the tennis court where your racket hit the ball the last time you served—there would be a six-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifold of invisibly tiny size..."
"Branes, like sower curtains and Loyd's fifteen game, trap things on lower-dimensional surfaces. They introduce the possibility that in a world with additional dimensions, not all matter is free to travel everywhere... But braneworlds are interesting precisely because we know that not everything is confined to a single brane. Gravity, for example... extends to the bulk and everything interacts via gravity..."
"... the equivalence principle, which states that the effects of acceleration cannot be distinguished from those of gravity... you wouldn't have any way of distinguishing uniform acceleration from standing still in a gravitational field... Einstein no longer saw gravity as a force that acts directly on an object. Instead, he describe it as a distortion of the geometry of spacetime that reflects the different accelerations required to cancel gravity in different places... the force of gravity is understood in terms of the curvature of spacetime, which in turn is determined by the matter and energy that are present..."
"Just as [a] Vermeer could not have executed his paintings with a two-inch-wide brush... particles cannot be sensitive to short-distance physical processes unless their wavefunction varies over only small scales... according to de Broglie... the wavelength of a particle-wave is inversely proportional to its momentum... you need high energies to be sensitive to the physics of short distances... "
- Feel fingers as inherently connected to the whole body and mind:
"Practicing at the piano is mainly practicing of the central nervous system, whether we are aware of it or not..." (: Preface).
- Play with the ear:
"Although Friedrich Wieck in the earlier period of his teaching used Logier’s Chiroplast in certain cases, his first concern was with the formation of touch and with teaching his pupils to listen and to hear, 'just as singing teachers rely upon the culture of a fine tone'" (: 6).
- Less is more (it is not a matter of strength but of optimizing movement):
"... the laws of work of the central nervous system, which directs our motor activity, exclude any possibility of making such calculations while playing, and limit the ability to control muscle work while practicing. Although muscles need regulation, and indeed extremely fine regulation, this has to be achieved in a quite different way" (: 10).
"A man with the muscles of a Hercules could be very clumsy in his walking..." (: 11).
"The requirements of an individual finger in piano playing are usually much less than its natural ability [Oscar Raif’s experiments]" (: 12).
"... beginning practice starts with too much expenditure of force" (: 13).
"... the energy of a movement is conditioned by the clarity and strength of the artistic imagination" (: 14).
"[Otto] Ortmann made many important observations that helped expose the fallibility of some existing ideas in piano pedagogy. He said, for example: 'Electrical stimulation has shown that, muscularly and mechanically, the normal infant is as ready to play a rapid five-ginger sequence as is the trained adult...'" (: 15).
"... the psycho-technical school suggests that the more our consciousness is diverted from the movement, and the stronger it is concentrated on the purpose of this movement, the more vividly do artistic idea and tonal conception persist in the mind" (: 17).
"Listening to great pianists not only miraculously influences a pupil’s musicianship but his motor sphere as well" (: 17).
"Never think of your music in terms of execution (of what your hands and fingers should or are going to do) but in terms of interpretative rendering (what you would expect it to sound like if a performer from heaven were executing it for you) [Bonpensiere]" (: 17).
"The human brain contains many billions of nerve cells which are connected with each other through nerve fibers" (: 21).
"We are not conscious of how we function but are concerned with the purpose of our action. ... The spatial and temporal regulation of movement forms depends on the fine collaboration of the cortex with the sub-cortical centers..." (: 22).
"What is important is strong, active finger work, since we receive much weaker sensations from weak movements than from strong ones./ A slight pressure into the key after its full depression is recommended in slow practicing... At the slightest sensation of fatigue in the upper parts of the arm, this practicing should be stopped" (: 25).
"The reason for difficulty in executing a trill is usually not the lack of capability of the fingers involved" (: 27).
"... the auditory stimulation (conditional stimulus), must always precede the motor reaction (unconditional stimulus), in performance as well as in practicing... The musical incentive has to be a signal provoking the motor activity" (: 28).
"Sometimes excessive industry and strenuous practicing can result in failure... Fatigue of the central nervous system, which is not noticed by the player, is the reason for this failure" (: 29).
******George Kochevitsky, The Art of Piano Playing (Evanston: Summy-Birchard Company, 1967).
"... in playing, the fingers should be arched, and the muscles relaxed. The less these two conditions are satisfied, the more attention must be given to them. Stiffness hampers all movement, above all the constantly required rapid extension and contraction of the hands... through intelligent practice it is easy to achieve that which can never be attained by excessive straining of the muscles... never undertake more than can be kept under control in public performance, where it is seldom possible to relax properly or even to maintain a fitting disposition... as a means of learning the essentials of good performance it is advisable to listen to accomplished musicians. Above all, lose no opportunity to hear artistic singing..." (Bach's Essay) (: 27-30).
"... a physical approach that ruled out all affectation and unnecessary movement" (Mozart’s "ideal Viennese technique") (: 52).
"Hummel 'feels that three hours a day of practice at the most should be enough for the advancing student to achieve excellence... unbecoming habits should be carefully avoided; as holding the face too near the book, biting the lips, nodding the head... that an adagio is much more difficult to perform with propriety than an allegro is a fact acknowledged by every one...'" (: 70-77).
"... the crescendo should never be produced by a visible exertion of the hands, or by lifting up the fingers higher than is usual... but only by an increased internal action of the nerves, and by a greater degree of weight" (Czerny’s approach) (: 112).
"... then [Liszt] had Calerie play the elementary exercise: do-re-me-fa-sol-fa-me-re-do, striking each note six, eight, or twelve times while holding down the notes not involved. Valerie had trouble folding them down and occasionally released the third or fourth fingers. Liszt then asked her to play the exercise as fast as she could and without holding down any keys. 'Can you hear how uneven it is'?" (181).
"[Prentice]... emphasized the importance of deep breathing exercises for the pianist" (: 233).
"The arm must be in a state of complete rest and passivity, and simple allow itself to be guided as whole through the prescribed motions... each separate finger, quite unaffected by the task which its neighbor has to perform, must carry out with perfect independence the commands transmitted to it from the brain" (Caland) (: 257-59).
"... for [Leschetizky], music making was a vital experience, as urgent and important as life itself" (: 272).
"Annette Hullah recalled that [Leschetizky] felt that four or, at the most five hours a day of concentrated practice was sufficient… 'concentrated thought is the basis of his principles'" (: 274).
"Leschetizky teaches his pupils to save their bodies fatigue by devitalizing the muscles not called into play. Let anyone support the extended arm of another, and then at a given word allow the arm to drop. If it falls to the side instantly and quite limp, it is said to be devitalized, but many people find difficulty in letting the arm go entirely in this way with all their muscles relaxed" (: 279).
******Reginald R. Gerig. Famous Pianists and Their Technique (R. B. Luce, 1974).
"Curiously the discussion on body-sense and body-movement, together called proprioception, are two central topics of discussion in neurobiology. Proprioception is a third sense (apart from the sensations of outer and inner objects) that tells us how much effort we need to give for movement, and where the body parts are located in relation to one another, an awareness of the body which stems from sensory receptors — proprioceptors — in the muscles, tendons, and joints, creating adequate stimuli for deep receptors... While this vital sense is challenged in patients with psychiatric and neural disorders, it is present in a heightened degree in performers of martial arts where the other person’s (proprioceptive) capability is also considered as feedback... Together seen and understood the viewpoint in space creates the identity of the performer/artist and one’s presence that transcends color, form, and body, and in the process creates a transpersonal space that is still, peaceful, and aesthetic," Sangeetha Menon Shankar Rajaraman's & Lakshmi Kuchibotla's "Well-being and Self-Transformation in Indian Psychology" (International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 37/1, 2018, pp. 13–26);
A Poem by Mario Quintana;
First of all, the ending of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove/1964 ("We'll meet again" — Ross Parker and Hughie Charles, 1939; Vera Lynn's rendition);
Eduardo Dusek's Nostradamus;
Rita Lee's Baila Comigo;
Rita Lee's Barata Tonta;
Then a little Sid Vicius...
Evgny Kissin playing Scriabin (Etude Op. 42 N. 5);
Schubert's Fantasy in F minor (Lucas & Arthur Jussen);
Fita Amarela (Noel Rosa);
Manifesto Juliana Dorneles (experimental video by A/Z) [I took this video out of Youtube, because I wanted to change it];
Smithereens (Susan Seidelman, 1982) ["You know, I had this dream last night. The whole world had been blown up five years ago. Right to smithereens. And everyone was just floatin' around on parts of it. They hadn't even realized what had happened yet..."];
(to be continued...)
"E ele, o avião, A Coisa veio correndo para cima de nós, fazendo o barulho maior do mundo. Meu Deus!"
Rubem Fonseca, Madona (A Coleira do Cão)
"... vieron elevarse al doctor Alfredo Gama varios metros... cayó a viente pasos convertido en un informe montón de carne."
Mario Vargas Llosa (La guerra del fin del mundo)
"Ontem, os Estados Unidos foram atingidos com força pelo ciclone BLIND FAITH."
Gerald Thomas, Entre Duas Fileiras
"... the flower burning in the Day..."
Allen Ginsberg
"Et maintenant, elle explose!"
Paul Virilio, L'Université du désastre
"... je saisis vos pirouettes..."
Julia Kristeva, Le vieil homme et les loups
"What does she care for the atom bomb, the bedbugs..."
William Burroughs, Naked Lunch
"... horror fades whereas comedy endures."
James St. James
"E, subitamente... um cataclisma, o órgão invisível desabrochou... Qualquer instante que se sucedesse àquele seria mais baixo e vazio. Queria subir e só a morte como um fim me daria o auge sem a queda."
Clarice Lispector, Perto do Coração Selvagem
"Il n'y a que les scorpions qui peuvent survivre."
Paco (interviewed by Hervé Guibert)
"So punk wasn't about decay, punk was about the apocalypse... You know, if you found out the missiles were on their way, you'd probably start saying what you always wanted to, you'd probably turn to your wife and say, 'you know, I always thought you were a fat cow."
Legs McNeil (Please Kill Me)
"The biggest effect on me growing up was the Cuban Missile Crisis. That explains my total drug thing, and nihilism, and why I felt I was running out of time... The Brother in Catholic School said, 'Don't worry, if those sirens start ringing, by ten this morning we will all be down in the gymnasium and we'll have concentrated wafers and water to last three months.' I though, 'Don't worry? The old Ground Zero for where the Russians would drop their missiles was Forty-second Street, and then they'd draw circles around it showing which areas would be hit the hardest. They'd say, 'you are in this circle, you're going to be incinerated immediately, and if you're in this circle you're going to die within two days of radiation sickness... I live in Manhattan in the first fucking zone, you know... Oh, it was total trauma..."
Jim Carroll (Please Kill Me)
"Eduardo Dusek começou sua carreira musical em 1974, assinando como Duardo e fazendo fama no circuito alternativo do Rio como um seguidor de David Bowie. Era o in do in fluminense por suas apresentações absurdamente privês, montadas em um apartamento duplex em Botafogo, onde moravam ele, seu parceiro Luis Antônio de Cássio e o ator Luiz Fernando Guimarães. Em 1977, acompanhado da Banda Furiosa, percorreu algumas capitais com o espetáculo Não tem perigo, elogiadíssimo... Mas o grande passo para as manchetes seria dado no festival MPB-80, onde defendeu a irônica 'Nostradamus', que narrava o fim do mundo, tocando de cartola, fraque e ceroula."
Ricardo Alexandre (Dias de Luta)
"Hiergegen hat der Kranke nur Ein großes Heilmittel, — ich nenne es den russischen Fatalismus, jenen Fatalismus ohne Revolte, mit dem sich ein russischer Soldat, dem der Feldzug zu hart wird, zuletzt in den Schnee legt."
Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
"Moral: Modern British (!) art will now be represented in the National Gallery of the Luxembourg by one of the finest paintings dues to the brush of an English (!) artist, name, Mr. Whistler's portrait of his mother."
Whistler/Illustrated London News
"And, by golly, we did..."
James St. James
"We'll meet again
Don't know where
Don't know when
But I know we'll meet again
Some sunny day
Keep smiling through
Just like you always do
'Till the blue skies
Drive the dark clouds far away..."
- rhythmic factors: duration, intensity, waves (fluctuations of intensity, caused by variations of pitch, timbre etc.) (p. 23-26);
- elements that shape melodic intervals: tension, luminosity (p. 49);
- chord: the simultaneous sounding of three or more sounds (p. 70);
- figure: melodic fragment that, inside a piece, turns out to be indivisible (p. 51);
- motive: has a complementary or contrary fragment that generates tension in relation to it (p. 54);
- theme: melodic fragment (made of one or more figures), used in the building of a section (p. 61); structural bloc, with a melodic, rhythmic and/or harmonic character (p. 63);
- repetition: if literal, produces monotony; it might take place through ascendant or descendant progression (p. 52);
- imitation: repetition that occurs between different voices (with or without variation) (p. 52, 61-62);
- variation: "repetition with superficial or more deep changes in the model"; it might involve direct motion, inversion and retrograde motion, with augmentation or diminution of rhythmic values (p. 52-53);
- polyphony: superposition of two or more voices (which are rhythmically or melodically independent; each voice should have its own expressive meaning); vertical (harmonic) factors are also important (otherwise we would have only a cacophony) (p. 65); the voices might imitate one another or not (p. 67-68);
- fugue: the theme "remains" (p. 62);
- sonata-allegro form: two themes are presented (A), the material is developed (B), the themes are presented again (p. 63) [exposition-development-recapitulation, as says John Baur in his Music Theory Through Literature, Vol. 2 (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1985) p. 10];
Diachrony [cf. "Why, if everything is possible, do we concern ourselves with history (in other words, with a sense of what is necessary to be done at a particular time)? And I would answer, in order to thicken the plot... all those interpenetrations which seem at first glance hellish—history, for instance, if we are speaking of experimental music—are to be espoused," (John Cage History of Experimental Music in the United States)]:
- from the 9th century onwards: polyphony: importance of vertical dimension (p. 70);
- 13th century: thirds are admitted as imperfect consonant sounds (p. 71);
- 14th century: sixths are admitted as consonant sounds (Philippe de Vitry) (p. 71);
- 15th century: increase in the use of perfect major and minor chords (root position and first inversion) (gain in terms of sensuous qualities) (p. 71);
- baroque: increase in the use of dissonances (dramatic/expressive purposes) (seventh chords) (Monteverdi) (p. 72);
- baroque (third phase): consolidation of the tonal system (p. 72);
- Beethoven onwards: harmonic innovations (p. 73);
- romanticism: great enrichment of harmony; introduction of elements contributing to the dissolution of the tonal system (p. 73);
- Schoenberg (second phase): atonalism (p. 73);
- Pierre Schaeffer: concrete music (p. 73);
- electronic music (p. 74);
*****Bruno Kiefer, Elementos da Linguagem Musical (Porto Alegre: Movimento, 1987);
Brazilian Modinhas e Lundus:
"... the music there was peculiarly bewitching and delightful, the modinhas... it was all which made the merit of music in antiquity, and belonged to poetry and sense... that melody and harmony which steals into the heart... melts the soul... Such music is irresistible in its effects in the southern climate..."
William Thomas Beckford
"Le lundù a des charmes qui tournent les têtes les plus solides."
Santa-Anna Nery
[most remarkable characteristic of both modinhas and lundus: syncopated melodic lines (semiquaver — quaver — semiquaver);]
"... descending melodic lines are the most common. The beginning of those lines is generally attained by significant ascending leaps or by ascending arpeggios... Such characteristics lend the modinhas simplicity, intimism, sweetness, longing. The modinha is a sequence of sensual sighs... it is far away from the grandiloquence of arias in Italian operas [but frequently harmed by the shadow of bel canto]..." (Bruno Kiefer, Raízes da Música Popular Brasileira: da modinha e lundo ao samba. Porto Alegre: Movimento, 2013, p. 28).
**************************************************************
(meta)física & antropologia do som (Wisnik):
"A onda é formada de um sinal que se apresenta e de uma ausência que o pontua desde dentro, ou desde sempre... Sem esse lapso, o som não pode durar... O tímpano auditivo entraria em espasmo. O som é presença e ausência... está permeado de silêncio."
"É impossível a um som se apresentar sem durar, minimamente que seja, assim como é impossível que uma duração sonora se apresente concretamente sem se encontrar numa faixa qualquer de altura, por mais indefinida e próxima do ruído que essa altura possa ser."
"... aquele ponto de inflexão... entre dez e quinze vibrações por segundo, no limiar oscilante entre as figuras rítmicas e a altura melódica, coincide muito aproximadamente com a faixa vibratória do chamado ritmo alfa... Segundo Alain Daniélou... a base que determina o valor do tempo relativo e consequentemente todas as relações do ser vivo com seu ambiente... diapasão temporal" [cf. John Cage: "therefore any valid structure involving sounds and silences should be based, not as occidentally traditional, on frequency, but rightly on duration, one enters an anechoic chamber to discover that one hears two sounds of one's own unintentional making (nerve's systematic operation, blood's circulation)" (Experimental Music: Doctrine); "... of all the aspects of sound including frequency, amplitude, and timbre, duration, alone, was also a characteristic of silence..."/still an "abstraction", but perhaps in the end and as such the most useful (Composition as Process)].
"... cada som concreto corresponde na realidade não a uma onda pura, mas a um feixe de ondas, uma superposição intricada de freqüências de comprimento desigual... imbricação de pulsos desiguais, em atrito relativo... aquela singularidade colorística que chamamos timbre... que pode ser, como através de um prisma, subdividido nos sons da chamada série harmônica."
"A intensidade é uma informação sobre um certo grau de energia da fonte sonora... Através das alturas e durações, timbres e intensidades, repetidos e/ou variados, o som se diferencia ilimitadamente... O som do mar: durações oscilantes entre a pulsação e a inconstância, num movimento ilimitado; alturas em todas as freqüências, das mais graves às mais agudas, formando o que se chama um ruído branco."
"... a música não refere nem nomeia coisas visíveis, como a linguagem verbal... aponta para o não verbalizável... toca em pontos de ligação efetivos do mental e do corporal, do intelectual e do afetivo... o som é invisível e impalpável... isso faz com que se tenha atribuído à música as próprias propriedades do espírito... os instrumentos musicais são vistos como objeto mágicos... A música traduz para nossa escala sensorial... a intimidade anímica da matéria... eficácia simbólica [Lévi-Strauss]... materialidade sutil [hinduísmo]."
"... essa música [ritual] é voltada para pulsação rítmica; nela, as alturas melódicas estão quase sempre a serviço do ritmo, criando pulsações complexas e uma experiência do tempo vivido como descontinuidade contínua, como repetição permanente do diferente... o canto gregoriano acaba por desviar a música modal do domínio do pulso para o predomínio das alturas... Com isso inaugurou de certo modo o ciclo da música ocidental moderna..."
"Stravinski, na Sagração da Primavera (1913), introduziu agregados de acordes, quase-clusters que funcionam como ruído, impulsões ruidosas, percussão operando numa métrica irregular que volta a questionar a linha perdida na tradição do Ocidente: a base produtiva do pulso."
"O sistema dodecafônico de Schoenberg, como proposta de organização melódico-harmônica da uma música pós-tonal, sem centro, sem o mecanismo de tensão-e-repouso que marca o tonalismo, e que foge a toda polarização, radicalizada depois no serialismo, é não só a música do não-pulso como também o limiar da não-altura."
"Cage fez com que o piano, de instrumento produtor de alturas, se transformasse num multiplicador de timbres e ruídos... O ritmo para Cage não está na regularidade das batidas nem na mensurabilidade das durações, mas na flutuação 'sobre a crista de uma vaga métrica' ou de uma não-métrica enquanto tal... desativação do tempo do ego, do prazer como descarga de energia acumulada, e uma dessacralização radical do som..."
"Um som musical de altura definida... já tem embutido dentro de si um espectro intervalar... uma configuração harmônica virtual... sequência dos harmônicos... vibrações mais rápidas que se incluem como múltiplos no mesmo pulso fundamental... o sampler permite realizar essa experiência de conversão do tom em pulso... contraponto instantâneo entre Europa e África..."
"O trítono é baseado numa relação numérica 32/45. Divide a oitava ao meio, e é igual à própria inversão: projeta com isso uma forte instabilidade."
"A segunda menor... está perto dos menores intervalos relevantes para a diferenciação auditiva. Como é produto da defasagem entre dois pulsos muito próximos, 15/16 ciclos, a arritmia dissonante que ele produz soa como um erro... distorção... diferença... tensão... sensível."
"... o ritmo supõe... uma leitura de sua recorrência sempre a partir de certas balizas... Dois pulsos... podem estar defasados... o que resultará em síncopa, a alternância entremeada de dois pulsos jogando entre o tempo e o contratempo, e chamando o corpo a ocupar esse intervalo que os diferencia através da dança."
"... a quinta, o segundo intervalo da escala harmônica, que sucede a oitava e a dinamiza, gerando movimento e diferença, é a base para a construção das escalas mais conhecidas e usadas no mundo todo: a pentatônica... a diatônica (sete notas)..."
"A circularidade em torno de um eixo harmônico fixo é um traço próprio do mundo modal, e diferenciador em relação ao mundo da música tonal..."
"... se o engendramento por quintas prossegue para além da pentatônica, surgem problemas novos [dois semitons e o trítono]... escala diatônica... imago mundi da perfeição defeituosa."
"Os gregos chamavam ethos o caráter de cada modo, vendo nele uma qualidade mimética e uma potencialidade ética... construção de modos... Messiaen... Debussy [escala de sons inteiros, equivalência, trítonos]."
"O único intervalo fixo que os árabes adotam é a quarta... todos os outros intervalos são variáveis e móveis, permitindo a construção de múltiplas combinações escalares... colorido microtonalismo... potência expressiva... 133 ciclos escalares... A tradição indiana também cria uma complexa multiplicidade escalar baseada na riqueza das nuances... A combinatória intervalar produz 72 escalas completas."
"O sistema de afinação 'natural', que respeita aquelas nuances que garantem a máxima definição do intervalo, só é compatível, no entanto, com o sistema modal, onde as notas de uma escala se reportam a cada vez a uma tônica fixa [ao contrário, a música tonal moderna favorece o trânsito da tônica por modulações]."
"[texturas polifônicas dos balineses e pigmeus]... cada músico sustenta um motivo de caráter repetitivo e, como esses motivos são desiguais, o resultado é uma pulsação com pontos múltiplos de fase e de defasagem, de acentuações de caráter cíclico em permanente deslocamento, de sucessiva repetição continuamente diferente."
"O caráter heptatônico do modelo planetário tradicional coincide com a estrutura escalar heptatônica [modelo cosmológico, música das alturas; dias da semana e ciclo de quintas]."
"A resolução do trítono no acorde [cadência] equivale igualmente à formulação da perspectiva na pintura."
"Bach poderá escrever o primeiro volume do Cravo bem temperado, no mesmo ano (1722) em que Rameau publica o seu Tratado de harmonia."
"... os sons daquele acorde que contém mais defasagens implícitas geram tensão, e daqueles que contenham menos defasagens, ou mais freqüências de fase, geram repouso. A história do sistema tonal é a história da administração desse jogo..."
"Impõe-se perguntar que tipo de escolhas teria levado a fixar o modo de ut [dó]... como a ordem básica da nova música... é o único em que as tríades formadas sobre os graus da tônica e das dominantes [quinto e quarto grau] são tríades maiores... Isso contribui para dar um relevo enfático à polaridade tônica/dominante... um outro ponto crucial... o acorde de sétima de dominante [sol-si-re-fá, sétima menor]... contém dentro de si o trítono... situado estrategicamente, como dupla sensível, no ponto mais adequado à sua resolução, pela vizinhança estreita que mantém com o acorde da tônica."
"... a tonalidade guarda um resíduo modal na forma da oposição entre os modos maior e menor..."
"... a forma sonata clássica irá fazer da modulação o seu recurso maior de dramatização..."
"[Já] em Mozart, por exemplo, numa peça como a Fantasia K. 475, em dó menor, o deslizamento modulatório torna difícil a própria definição tonal..."
"O dodecafonismo é a mais completa explicitação do pano de fundo cromático sobre o qual se desenvolve o tonalismo, que vem à tona negando todo diatonismo e todo movimento cadencial... tonalismo pelo avesso: o diabolus cobra seu preço..."
"Não estaria Mahler, o leitor de Dostoiévski, realizando obliquamente aquele projeto musical desentranhado do Fausto, e que está contido em germe em O Adolescente?"
"Os espelhos [da série dodecafônica] abrem um campo de variações ao tratamento polifônico... a série raramente se apresenta como um tema melódico, mas já através de agrupamentos de acordes, de emissões sonoras espalhadas pelo campo da tessitura, pontilhadas fragmentariamente por vários instrumentos, numa melodia de timbres."
"Weber singulariza o seu tratamento da série radicalizando o princípio do espelho: ele procura configurações intervalares de doze sons que já sejam, elas mesmas, a condensação de um espaço simétrico, ao mesmo tempo que labiríntico e sem centro (uma série que já contenha, em avesso do avesso, os seus próprios espelhos)."
"Stockhausen uniu interesse serial a uma sondagem toda pessoal da relação entre o tempo e o espaço na estrutura sonora. A sua composição se combina na década de 50 com uma inquietação teórica sobre as relações entre durações e alturas, espacialização melódica e temporalidade rítmica, que a pesquisa eletrônica faz ver como aspectos de uma mesma coisa..."
"A intuição das durações e das alturas como formas diferentes de uma mesma base freqüencial é o monólito negro da história das músicas. Essa intuição é ao mesmo tempo arcaica e futura... (presente e ausente, real e fantasmático)..."
[Doktor Faustus, O Adolescente, Bakhtin, Haroldo de Campos]
[Beethoven, últimos quartetos, Sonata op. 106]
[Chopin, Liszt, compositores russos]
[Charles Ives, Villa-Lobos]
*****José Miguel Wisnik, O Som e o Sentido: Uma outra história das músicas (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2011);
More:
"For all his radicalism in matters of style, Schoenberg believed that every composer needed to understand how to handle these traditional forms [sonata, rondo etc.]; the more exploratory and boundary-stretching musical language was becoming, he insisted, the more important it was that the technical and structural articulation of the language must be securely based... Most of these sonic devices [for colouristic sonorities in Webern's String Quartet of 1905] turn up in music of earlier periods (Mozart's deployment of muted string sound, for instance, is wonderfully imaginative)."
"It is significant that Schoenberg, who wrote a number of textbooks on musical subjects—harmony, counterpoint, form, fundamentals of composition—never wrote one on twelve-note technique, and never taught it to any of his pupils (neither did Webern). There exists a potentially infinite variety of twelve-note methods; Webern, like Schoenberg, used more than one approach at various times, as has virtually every other twelve-note composer since. Some even had earlier. The Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer... Charles Ives... The description 'serial', too, is often used as if it were interchangeable with 'twelve-note'. This is little misleading... Strict counterpoint, particularly canonic counterpoint, amounts to a genre of serial procedure... it can be argued that many passages in Bach or Josquin de Près, for instance, are in this sense serial music."
Malcolm Hayes, Anton von Webern
"As Stockhausen showed in the 1950s, electronic instruments unify the time field between the audio or intoned frequencies above about 20 Hz and the infrasonic or rhythmic frequencies below this threshold. This means that we can compose throughout this zone, where rhythms morph into tones and vice versa."
"A sine [in a simple sinusoidal wave] repeats at exactly constant intervals of time. Repeating waveforms are called periodic. If there is no discernible repetition pattern, it is called aperiodic or noise. In between the extremes of periodic and aperiodic is a vast domain of quasi-periodic tones. The rate of repetition of a periodic sound is called its fundamental frequency, measured in cycles per second."
"The starting point of a periodic waveform on the y or amplitude axis is its initial phase. The cycle of periodic waveform repetition can be mapped to rotation around a circle, where one complete cycle is 360 degrees... When identical waveforms start at the same initial phase, they are said to be in phase or phase-aligned... when two waveforms start at different initial phases, they are said to be out of phase."
"Many frequencies can superimpose in a waveform. A frequency-domain or spectrum representation shows the distribution of frequency energy in a sound... A working definition of spectrum is: a measure of the distribution of signal energy as a function of frequency. Such a definition may seem straightforward, but in practice, different analysis techniques measure properties that they each call 'spectrum' with diverging results. Except for isolated test cases, the practice of spectrum analysis is not an exact science."
"Individual frequency components of the spectrum are referred to as partials. Harmonic partials (or simply harmonics) are a special case. Harmonics are simple integer multiples of the fundamental frequency... many complex sounds have many partials but no particular fundamental frequency."
"Myriad alternatives to Fourier-based spectrum estimation exist. Among them, one family is of particular interest, as they decompose a sound into a collection of sound atoms (analogous to grains)."
"... the ear is especially sensitive to frequencies between 1000 Hz and 4000 Hz. Tones in this region sound louder than tones of equal intensity in other frequencies. Thus the measurement of loudness falls under the realm of psychoacoustics."
"The subject of masking inevitably arises in discussions of loudness perception. In its most basic form, masking describes a phenomenon wherein a low-level sound is obscured by a higher-level sound. For example, standing in a shower masks many sounds, such as someone speaking nearby."
"... other types of masking effects are time-based: forward and backward masking. Consider a short sound that ends abruptly. The human auditory system continues to react for a short time (about a half second) after the sound ends. This 'resonance' can blur our perception of the onset of a second sound. Indeed, when the time interval between impulses is less than about 50 ms, the ear no longer perceives them as separate impulses... Backward masking is a curious phenomenon. Basically, a loud click or noise coming less than 100 ms after another sound can obscure our perception of the earlier sound. The masking sound can disrupt the brain’s ability to hear a preceding sound, hence the term backward). It is interesting that both forward masking and backward masking occur in the visual domain as well."
"Low-frequency impulsive events are perceived as rhythms. These are the infrasonic frequencies in the range below about 20 Hz. The infectious beating rhythms of percussion instruments fall within this range."
"Structure-borne sound is vibration that one can feel, like the vibration caused by a train rumbling down nearby tracks. These are typically low-frequency vibrations that one’s ear may be able to hear, but they are also felt through the body. Of course, we can also feel high frequencies, such as the buzzing of an electric razor, which is felt by the hand, as well as heard by the ear."
"Ultrasound comprises the domain of high frequencies beyond the range of human audibility."
"Sound propagates at different rates, depending on the medium of propagation... Sounds at extreme sonic velocities are destructive. Explosives can generate powerful transonic shock wave air currents traveling at up to 8000 meters per second, corresponding to Mach 24. These destroy everything in their path."
"Sounds have a specific physical size as well as shape. A quiet sound is physically petite. One has to put one’s ear close to it because the body of air it perturbs is tiny. Other sound waves are gigantic, such as the Krakatoa explosion of August 1883. It was heard 4800 kilometers away, and the pressure wave traveled around the earth for 127 hours."
"When rhythms are sped up, they morph into tones. When modulations like tremolo and vibrato are sped up, they morph into complex spectra. Streaming around the thresholds of this zone of morphosis—where discrete events turn into continuous tones—is intrinsically fascinating."
"A compound color is produced by the admixture of two or more simple ones, and an assemblage of tones, such as we obtain when the fundamental tone and the harmonics of a string sound together, is called by the Germans Klang. May we not employ the English word clang to denote the same thing, and thus give the term a precise scientific meaning akin to its popular one? And may we not, like Helmholtz, add the word color or tint, to denote the character of the clang, using the term clang-tint as the equivalent of Klangfarbe? [John Tyndall, 1875]"
"Everyone agrees that timbre is a 'multidimensional property,' but there is no general scientific agreement about what these properties are or how to measure them."
"Recognizing that the vast range of sound material opened up by musique concrète was largely undefined and unclassified, Pierre Schaeffer made a pio- neering attempt to describe the correlates of timbre in his Traité and the disc plus booklet Solfège de l’object sonore. Although the vocabulary he developed is idiosyncratic, there is no question that Schaeffer made many discoveries on the nature of sound color."
"In the acoustic world, there is a continuum of sound between periodic and aperiodic waveforms. Pitched noises, for example, stand somewhere between unpitched white noise and a pure sine wave. In the time domain, noise can be defined as sound in which the amplitude over time changes with a degree of randomness. The amplitude is maximally random in white noise."
"... many noises in the real world are mixtures of periodic and aperiodic waveforms (the sounds of cars, refrigerators, etc.). They are driven by processes that are complicated and turbulent, with embedded periodicities, not necessarily 'random' in nature. Thus, like the fuzzy term 'timbre,' 'noise' serves as a kind of linguistic placeholder for a large class of complex, not always understood, signals."
"In the ideal, a source of noise should generate random values. To define an algorithm for generating truly random numbers is, however, impossible mathematically (Chaitin). Any software method for random number generation ultimately rests on a finite, deterministic procedure. Hence, an algorithm for generating 'random' numbers is actually a pseudorandom number generator... Stephen Wolfram famously developed a new type of pseudorandom number generator that he called rule 30 based on a cellular automata algorithm that is much more random than previous algorithms. A main challenge for digital synthesis is creating more sophisticated algorithmic models for noise... Natural wind, sea spray, waterfalls, and thunder are excellent sources of wideband noise. Speech and animal sounds contain many evocative noises, especially the fricatives and plosives of speech [s], [z], [sh], [f], [k], [t], [p], [g], and so on. I have already mentioned the rich noises of the unpitched percussion instruments. Collections of samples recorded at industrial sites are available. These feature the sounds of crushing, creaking, scraping, squealing, squeaking, and grinding... Analog devices produce some of the most complex and unstable noises. For example, the noise from a diode section of a transistor is widely considered to be one of the most random phenomena in nature... The ear is attracted to changes in noise, to trends... As early drum machines taught us, white noise is a poor substitute for a cymbal crash."
"Certain transformations start from an analysis of an existing sound... Every method of analysis should be viewed as fitting the input signal to an assumed model. For example, spectrum estimation methods based on Fourier analysis model an input sound as a sum of harmonically related sinusoids—which it may or may not be. Other techniques model an input signal as a collection of atoms in a dictionary, a sum of square waves, a combination of inharmonically related sinusoids, a set of formant peaks with added noise, or a set of equations that represent the mechanical vibration of a traditional instrument. Innumerable other models are conceivable... No method of sound analysis is ideal for all applications."
"Rhythm rarely appears in a pure form. In order to create a pure rhythm, isolated from all other musical elements, one would need to vary the onset times and durations of a sound while keeping all other sonic dimensions (i.e., loudness, pitch, timbre, and spatial position) constant. Of course, in real music, all these dimensions are changing simultaneously. Thus rhythm simultaneously organizes and is itself organized by these elements."
"... we need to acknowledge the true complexity of music. Electronic music, in particular, is not merely a beat machine. It undulates (under envelope control), modulates (under low-frequency oscillator or LFO control), and triggers, as well as beats. These phenomena are the result of many simultaneous clocks and functions of time applied to pitch, timbre, space, etc... Moreover, broken and jagged beats, loops and diced loops are common currency of electronic music discourse. Electronic music can deploy overlapping polyrhythms generated by algorithms and advanced clocking schemes that ambulate around zones of rhythmic morphosis. Moreover, the local temporal context is always functioning within a hierarchy of larger timescales. In all these ways, the art of rhythm is far ahead of science’s ability to track it, much less explain it."
"The epoch of the 14th-century Ars Nova in music, which saw the introduction of notated tempi, was also the age of the earliest mechanical clocks, which divided time into minutes... The promulgation of Newtonian clockwork time coincided with the birth of the classical masters J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel, and D. Scarlatti, around 1685. In their lifetimes, new musical rules for structuring time came into common practice, including time signatures, bar lines, and tempo indications, which divided time according to a uniform grid."
"Fundamental to the modern concept of rhythm is the recognition of the continuum between rhythm and tone (i.e., between the infrasonic frequencies—periodic and aperiodic rhythms—and the audible frequencies— pitched and unpitched tones)... Henry Cowell’s ideas on the continuum precede those of Stockhausen by almost 30 years and demonstrate that a comprehensive multiscale view of time can be separated completely from serial theory... The continuum was also central to the foundations of the spectral school of composition, which emerged in the 1980s."
"As Messiaen observed, when combining multiple simultaneous rhythms, one confronts 'neutralizing forces' that prevent clear perception of their superimposition. In general, these forces pertain to any kind of similarity between the various rhythmic voices, be it timbral, registral, harmonic, durational, or similarity of intensity and attack time. Messiaen was especially insistent on how isochronous pulsations destroy the polyrhythmic 'scaffolding' (échafaudage). Messiaen suggested that polyrhythms be articulated by polytonality and polymodality."
"Pulsation articulates a periodic pattern with a sharp onset, in contrast to undula- tions, smooth waves of energy unfolding in time. An undulation is the result of the slow fluctuation or modulation of a sonic parameter. The source of fluctuation does not have to be periodic; it can be a random function... the scope of undulation includes the expressive morphologies of envelopes, first studied in detail by Pierre Schaeffer and documented in the Solfège des objets musicaux."
"Spectromorphology is a collection of descriptors for sound shapes and their structural functions. It was designed for analyzing the experience of listening to electronic music."
"All music is a play of forces, attracting and repulsing, uniting and opposing. Attracting and unifying forces play with similarities, while repulsing and opposing forces play with dissimilarities and contrasts."
"What is pitch? From a scientific viewpoint, pitch has no basis outside the mind. Pitch is a subjective mental impression, a reaction of the human auditory system to periodic waveforms in the range of about 40 Hz to about 5000 Hz. The impression of pitch is especially strong for waveforms in which the fundamental frequency is strong. However, the impression of pitch can be induced when the fundamental is miss- ing if harmonics of the fundamental imply its presence."
"Classical music theory treats pitch as a constant scalar quantity. Yet every musician knows that slight differences in pitch are common in ensemble performance, and pitches waver... Intentional variations in pitch are also common, including glissando and portamento effects, vibrato and trills (akin to frequency modulations in the range of 6–10 Hz), and flutter... from a more general perspective, pitch can be viewed as a freely flowing periodic energy that emerges from instability, intermittency, and noise only in specific circumstances."
"The world’s first synthesizer, Thaddeus Cahill’s gigantic Telharmonium (1906), could be played with a microtonal keyboard of 36 keys per octave: 12 standard equal tempered, 12 slightly sharp, and 12 slightly flat. In Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, the composer Ferrucio Busoni speculated that the Telharmonium might lead to new solutions in microtonal scale construction. Leon Theremin’s Thereminovox (or Theremin), an instrument played by hand motions in the air, was played with continuous—rather than fixed—pitch control."
"Following the ancient tradition of drone in Hindustani music, composers of electronic music have adopted the idea that a continuous pitch serves as a center of gravity around which other events revolve."
"We have seen that pitch can be viewed as a pattern of wavefront periodicity on a micro timescale, and noise can be viewed as aperiodicity. We can also view pitch combinations along a continuum from relatively simple harmonizations to more complicated tone fusion effects that fall within the realm of spectrum or timbre."
"In contrast to 12-note ET, a microtonal tuning system is commonly defined as any tuning that is not 12-note ET; the intervals may be smaller or larger than a semitone. Microtonal music is sometimes referred to as xenharmonic music, the term deriving from the Greek xenia (hospitable) and xenos (foreign or strange)."
"The traditional octaviating tunings cycle is at the 2/1 ratio or octave. In contrast, many non-octaviating tunings do not include the octave interval... The notion of cyclic is related to octaviating. A cyclic tuning repeats a fixed set of intervals in different frequency ranges or registers."
"Polytonality refers to the practice of mixing keys in tonal music, a practice that has been explored by composers such as Bartok, Debussy, Ives, Koechlin, and Milhaud, among others... The multitracking capabilities of electronic music studios make it trivial to layer tracks on top of one another, where each track corresponds to a particular tonal/harmonic scheme."
Curtis Roads, Composing Electronic Music
"Comprendre un concept comme étant un point requiert un formalisme qui dépasse largement le simple concept d’un point de la géométrie classique... un ton est un point dans un espace de paramètres musicaux, et une partition est composée de notes, représentant des symboles pour les tons. Mais dans une compréhension de sons comme elle est pratiquée en informatique musicale, un tel objet est aussi un point dans un espace vectoriel de fonctions, fussent-elles les ingrédients de la représentation de Fourier, de la synthèse FM, des ondelettes ou de la modélisation physique. Mais déjà la compréhension classique de ce qu’est un ton inclut non seulement les notes, mais les intervalles, les accords, ou les motifs mélodiques..."
"Chez Boulez, une analyse n’est pas jugée par sa qualité autonome d’effort intellectuel abstrait, mais elle est validée selon son potentiel de créativité compositionnelle. Si nous maintenons par analogie que la qualité d’une analyse se mesure à ses implications pour l’interprétation, la thèse boulézienne prend un aspect remarquable : joue-moi la musique et je jugerai de la qualité de ton analyse! Cette attitude relativise complètement l’analyse et la met au service de la composition et de l’interprétation. Par conséquent, outre la qualité intrinsèque de formalisation intellectuelle que possède traditionnellement l’analyse, celle-ci gagne une signification externe qui serait en réalité un critère expérimental: à partir de l’expérience compositionnelle ou interprétative, nous jugerons la qualité musicale de l’œuvre. C’est là une direction de pensée de la musique qui cherche à recouvrir le contenu de la réflexion intellectuelle à l’intérieur de la musique même. Une vraie preuve d’une réflexion musicale doit terminer par et dans la musique même."
Guerino Mazzola (La vérité du beau dans la musique)
"Disons que les problèmes d'enregistrement et surtout de restitution multi-phonique sont horriblement complexes, qu'ils ne sont maitrisés, et encore, que pour le champ spécifique de la musique orchestrale, et qu'on est encore très loin en 2010 de pouvoir restituer pour le son ce qui pour un objet visuel serait sa spatialité et son volume."
"Sons fixés est donc une terme que nous avons promu en 1990, de préférence à celui de 'sons enregistrés' (qui met l'accent sur une supposée réalité sonore préexistant à sa fixation), pour désigner des sons stabilisés et inscrits dans leurs détails concrets sur un support d'enregistrement quelconque, quelles que soient leur origine et la façon dont ils ont été obtenus."
"... si l'on peut transposer une mélodie, on ne transpose pas comme cela un son..."
"D'autre part, les systèmes de phono-génération et de programmes de synthèse se renouvellent constamment et chacun a sa couleur caractéristique, de sorte que l'auditeur, même s'il n'est pas connaisseur et n'est pas forcément en mesure de dire — comme certains el peuvent — de quel synthétiseur ou de quel programme provient le son qu'il entend, discerne assez bien si le son date des années 60, 70 ou 80..."
"... il restait aux sons électriques le domaine des sons purs, sans accidents, pauvres en harmoniques. Leur conception permet aussi d'explorer le champ des déliaisons acoustiques."
"... un son dit reproduit et enregistré comporte d'innombrables différences avec la verbération d'origine, notamment au niveau de l'équilibre spectral, de l'espace, de la texture et de la dynamique (contrastes d'intensité, qui sont par définition resserrés et 'écrétés' dans les enregistrements). Ce que l'on qualifie de fidélité est donc ce qu'il faudrait plutôt appeler la définition, et réside dans un certain nombre de gains quantitatifs, mais aussi dans la présence de détails, créés souvent, lors de la prise de son, par la proximité entre la source sonore et les micros, et qui sont d'ailleurs pour cela, comme Glenn Gould l'a bien analysé, inaudibles à l'auditeur en situation classique de concert... Il en découle une sensation d'hyper-réalisme, notamment dans la perception des aigus, qui procure un effet de vivacité perceptive, d'attention et de réaction instantanée de l'oreille, et donne une impression d'extrême présent."
"... les aigus des enregistrements sont beaucoup plus durs que ceux de la réalité. Si l'on en doute, il suffit de penser à ces sons fins et clairs que produisent par exemple des tintements de verre en cristal et de couverts en métal, ou bien le bruissement d'un tapis de feuilles mortes quand on le foule, voire le crissement de pas dans la neige. Il est rarissime que l'équilibre délicat de ces sons tel qu'on les perçoit in situ soit retrouvé dans les enregistrements qu'on en fait et même dans les bruitages les plus réussis, et, en général, le son que l'on entend sur haut parleur, qu'il soit pris à la réalité ou recréé, est, soit trop sec et perçant, soit pas assez net et fin."
"... le bruit d'un train écouté par haut-parleur, même s'il est enregistré et reproduit en 'haute-définition', devient un isolat acoustique par rapport aux sensations éprouvées dans un train, où ce bruit s'associe à des sensations non seulement visuelles mais aussi phoriques (sensation d'être porté, secoué, qui remonte à la vie foetale)."
"... la décroissance d'intensité d'un note de piano s'accompagne d'un appauvrissement progressif du spectre harmonique, etc. Or, la déliaison acoustique créée par les machines permet d'isoler ces variables, donnant naissance à des sons à la lettre 'inouïs' avant l'ère technologique... Certes, la musique instrumentale, bien avant les machines modernes, ne s'est pas privée de travailler sur la déliaison des caractères acoustiques (variations de hauteur seule, variations d'intensité seule, etc.), en sachant que les sons dont un caractère à la fois varie peuvent paraître certaines fois plus pauvres et plus ternes — mais pourquoi pas, puisque dans certains cas cela crée un effet expressif et esthétique? Tchaïkovski, par exemple, comme orchestrateur, travaille sur la 'déliaison' des effets habituels; chez lui, une montée dans l'aigu peut ne pas s'accompagner d'un crescendo, un tutti d'orchestre peut être d'une sonorité terne, etc."
"La pauvreté reprochée à beaucoup de sons synthétiques, et pas seulement sur les appareils 'bas gamme', provient souvent du fait que peu de paramètres varient, par exemple que seule la hauteur change, alors qu'entre une note d'un instrument acoustique et la note immédiatement plus grave ou plus aiguë, une foule de variables bougent (pente de décroissance d'intensité, timbre harmonique, vibrato...) simultanément avec la hauteur, même si c'est plus discrètement qu'elle. En même temps, c'est cette pauvreté qui fait le charme propre des sons synthétiques, et des groupes et auteurs 'pop' comme Kraftwerk ou Brian Eno."
"Alan Williams défend l'idée — que nous partageons — que 'ce n'est jamais le sont littéral, 'original'qui est reproduit dans l'enregistrement, mais une perspective sur lui."
"S'agissant de l'écoute d'une musique classique, la question de la discrimination d'unités de perception est plus complexe qu'il n'y parait, puisque l'unité de notations — la note — n'est aucunement une unité de perception ipso facto. Les 'traits' (arpèges ou gammes rapides) dans les concertos de Mozart, par exemple, sont des unités perceptives, beaucoup plus que les notes à l'aide desquels ils sont constitués."
"... le timbre n'est pas une notion homogène. Il se ramène à n'importe quoi, susceptible de permettre l'identification d'une famille de sources sonores, et peut puiser des traits pertinents pour l'identification de la cause dans n'importe quel aspect du son."
"Si on casse le timbre — base non dite, sur laquelle on appuie les valeurs, elles, distinctes et repérables de hauteur, intensité, durée —, comme nous le cassons, c'est tout le son qu'on casse; il faut tout reconstruire."
"... la musique contemporaine et les expressions audio-visuelles recourent plus souvent à des sons sans fin, des sons sans contour, de sons-processus, des sons qui sont plus à-travers-le-temps que dans-le-temps, et qui ne présentent pas à l'oreille un tracé limité dans le temps et mémorisable."
"... le son pourrait avoir d'être 'inréifiable' tout en étant accessible à une description et une appréhension plus précises."
"... tout un système musical a dû être créé de pied en cap par le grand compositeur Arnold Schoenberg — le système dodécaphonique sériel — autour de cette seule idée d'empêcher un son isolé — en l'occurrence la hauteur du son définissant la tonalité — de devenir 'le roi', de fonctionner comme note pivot, note d'attraction, note-repère."
[use of imperfect consonances in motetos (“only in internal portion of the phrase and moving to perfect intervals”); use of dissonances (seconds, sevenths, and tritones), as neighboring and passing tones (: 60);]
[Ars Nova: triple to duple meter; increase of thirds; extension of isorhythm (: 76);]
"The fifteenth century was the beginning of the real codification of dissonance usage" (: 93);
"The suspension is one of the most important dissonances from the fifteenth century thorough the nineteenth century. It consists of three parts: preparation [weak beat/consonant], suspension [strong beat/ dissonant], and resolution [weak beat/ consonant]. ... With only one exception, the suspension occurs in an upper voice and always resolves downward by step, thereby creating the following possible intervallic successions: 2-1, 4-3, 7-6, 9-8. ... Note that the bass line moves to create the dissonance, and the other voice has its note suspended and then resolves" (: 94);
[single leading tone cadence {vii-I} (96);]
[tonal cadence {V-1} {common toward late 15th century but can be found earlier} (97-98)]
"Although examples of four-part music existed before the mid-fifteenth century, it is not until then that pieces with more than three voices became standard. The addition of the fourth voice creates one major compositional problem: in a four-voice setting of a three-note triad, a note must be doubled" (:114);
"The problem of parallel-fifth and parallel-octave motion between two voices came to composers’ attention in the fifteenth century. It gradually became considered improper to use this motion, partly for the sake of the sound and partly because of a concern to preserve independence of parts" (: 116-117);
"In a four-part setting, composers of this period tend to infuse the top line with a larger portion of the melodic interest and drive" (: 118);
"Josquin des Prez (ca. 1440-1521) was one of the most remarkable composers of all time. Respected by musicians, religious authorities, and laymen alike, he set the standard for the style of the sixteenth century almost single-handedly" (: 138);
"Pervasive imitation controls the flow of melodic/harmonic motion and the presentation of ideas. A short melodic fragment, clearly constructed and immediately “imitated” in each of the voices, is used for each phrase of text" (: 138);
"One additional tonal cadence is used as well, the deceptive cadence. As the names implies, this occurs when an authentic cadence is expected and a deceptive shift results. The deceptive motion occurs when the V chord resolves to a chord with a root a second above V—that is, to the vi chord, instead of the tonic triad. The purpose for this could very well be one of extension... it... is helpful in extending the piece and avoiding finality. In addition, it is a most effective way of building tension, thereby enhancing the final V-I cadence" (: 143);
"... the sixteenth century used dissonance somewhat less than in earlier periods" (: 143);
"One type of suspension that comes into greater use is the so-called bass suspension. It follows the normal process of suspensions, but instead of a voice being suspended above the bass, the bass itself is the suspended note. The only intervallic configuration for this type of suspension is 2-3. In reality the 2-3 suspension is the inversion of the 7-6 suspension. The two voices are simply exchanges, and each moves in its original manner" (: 144);
"use of secondary tonics" (: 144);
"Another voice leading principle deals with the dissonance of the tritone, the d5 or A4. In previous centuries, this interval was prohibited. However, in the fifteenth century and to an even greater extent in the sixteenth century, it began to be used within the diminished triad. Usually used in first inversion with the third of the triad (the bass voice) doubled... Augmented intervals usually resolve outward, while diminished ones resolve inward. This rule indicates the proper resolution of most tritones" (: 167);
"As will be recalled it is necessary that a V chord be major in order to contain a half-step leading tone to the next chord. .../ This is the system of secondary function that we have seen as far back as Josquin. The means used for this are secondary dominants, or triads that function as dominants to triads other than the tonic of the key. Any degree of the scale can become a secondary tonic, if a secondary dominant is constructed to lead to that pitch" (: 192);
"Another important contribution of Monteverdi is his use of the seventh chord. ... The triad first used as a basis for the addition of the seventh was the dominant" (: 194);
"... numerous uses of chords can be seen, but they usually fall into a few basic patterns: IV-V-I; ii-V-I; vi-IV-I; IV-vii[dim]-I. The common feature here is that of the position of each chord in relation to the tonic. A IV or ii chord usually precedes a V chord. A vii[dim] or V chord almost always precedes a I chord (the exception being the plagal motion of IV-I). And vi almost always precedes a IV or a ii chord, occasionally a V chord" (: 202);
"The chromatic pattern helps create tension both melodically and harmonically; the dramatic qualities of this motion, and their relationship to the opera, are of special significance. At this moment in the opera, Dido has just been left by her lover Aeneas, and she is about to die by her own hand. The idea of death is portrayed musically, as well as dramatically, by the chromatic descent of the ground bass. The use of minor mode, the chromaticism, and the large amount of dissonance add to the pathos" (: 217);
"A most important feature of the minor scales is that they contain great melodic and harmonic possibilities. The inclusion of so many chromatic notes in its normal scale formations produces a vast array of chordal possibilities. The possibilities of a minor and a major subdominant and dominant chord is of special interest, since Purcell mixes these frequently. Note that the minor v chord is normally used when moving away from the tonic harmony and the major V chord is used to push towards the tonic. An important feature of the minor mode is the use of both the half-diminished and fully diminished seventh. The former occurs on the second scale degree in minor and the later occurs on the seventh scale degree" (: 217);
"The half-diminished-seventh chord normally appears on the second scale degree in minor, and on the seventh degree in major... The actual function of the ii and vii triads remains the same as before: the ii[dim]/7 will still resolve to V and the vii[dim]/7 will move to I" (: 219);
"... tonal progression in minor key: III VI iio (or iv) V (or viio) i" (: 221);
"This cadence [Neapolitan?] is similar to the Phrygian cadence found in the modal period, but the resolution is slightly different and its function is considerably changed" (: 223);
"... augmented-sixth chord, so named because of the interval of the augmented sixth between the outer voices... [Italian, German and French]"
"Neapolitan 6th chord: It moves directly to the V chord in the next measure. it always has a root of the lowered second scale degree, is usually found in the minor key in the first inversion, and is always a major chord" (: 240);
[hemiola, shifting from a two-beat meter to a three-beat meter, or vice-versa; “hemiola can add a strong rhythmic flavor, and can be quite effective in moving a phrase toward a strong cadence" (: 242);]
"The tonal design is actually very much like that seen in the Corelli suite: 1. establishment of the key, with motion to the dominant; 2. motion to more distant tonal areas, with development of various keys through diatonic modulation; 3. return to the tonic key to balance the motion away from the tonic. This basic tripartite design—stability, instability, and return to stability—was used by Bach and numerous other composers" (: 251);
[fugue; fugue subject; statement section; working-out section; restatement or stretto section; “As is normal, the first is in the tonic, the second in the dominant; the second entry, which is slightly altered intervallically, is generally referred to as the answer to the subject” (: 259); “In this fugue, and in many others as well, the counterpoint to the answering voice is repeated with every subject entry. This second voice, or continuation of the subject, is called the countersubject when it remains the same for each entry. In some fugues the counterpoint is different for each entry and therefore does not constitute a true countersubject” (: 260);][motivic material (: 9)]
[first and second theme in sonata-allegro form (: 13);]
[dominant ninth chord (: 26), the ninth is usually minor (: 28);]
[enharmonic modulation; “simply easier to write” (: 35);]
"An interesting feature of Beethoven’s style is his penchant for building his movements from short motives. The first twelve measures contain four motives that are used later, especially in the development section" (: 60);
"This configuration is then contracted to sixteenth notes and the harmonic alternation to every beat instead of every two. Finally the harmonic changes occur on every eighth note. The tension produced by this contraction of the harmonic/linear/rhythmic complex is overwhelming… to understand Beethoven’s achievement of musical momentum, it is vital to grasp the nature of his directional control at all levels. The motivic, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and phrasing aspects of the piece all unite in a dramatic and logical procession of events. This is a major reason for the strength of the forward motion in Beethoven’s works" (: 62);
[altered dominant chord: “a dominant chord which has been chromatically changed but retains its dominant function” (: 70);]
[chromatic modulation: “modulation to a key which does not have a common chord with the original key” (: 70);]
[third relation keys: “modulation from a key center to another a third away; the new key does not fit within the old, as in CM-am, but is a more distant relation, such as CM-AM” (: 70);]
"Schubert excelled all other song composers in the early nineteenth century. His melodies are clear, beautifully shaped, and free of excessive embellishment, while the accompaniments are both simple and subtly suggestive at the same time" (: 76);
[harmonic ambiguity (: 78);]
[substitute dominant (: 79);]
[evolution of the modern orchestra in the Classic era (: 100);]
[interchangeability of mode: “use of chords from both the major and the minor modes within the same key” (: 114);]
[isolation of dissonance; appoggiatura (: 117);]
[fast passing dissonance (surface dissonances above a solid harmonic basis in the left hand) (: 118);]
[planning: parallel motion of chords (used non-functionally) (: 121);]
[expansion of inside the pulse (: 122);]
[rubato, “the expressive fluctuation of tempo in the right hand with a steady left hand” (: 123);]
"In Wagner’s music the functional attributes of chords are stretched, expanded, obscured, and embellished, but rarely destroyed" (: 148);
… modulatory motion is both fast and surprising… (: 148);
… dissonance is… the backbone of Wagner’s style… (: 149);
"The general feeling evoked is one of constant evolution, with no solid key center on which to depend. This feeling is produced not only by the fast harmonic rhythm but also by the avoidance of strong cadences as a result of deceptive motion or quick modulation to a new key center" (: 152);
[leitmotivs (: 159);]
"… spacing of the notes within the cords. In many cases Brahms uses spacing as part of the musical projection of the phrase…" (: 180);
[planning; “sonority and line, rather than specific tonal function, are the important ideas” (Debussy) (: 195);]
"Intervallic consistency is one of the hallmarks of the twentieth century…" (: 196);
[explorations of various kinds of scale (: 201);]
[added tones, determining the color of a chord (: 201);]
[bitonality: “juxtaposition of two distinct tonal areas, either melodically or harmonically; pandiatonicism: “the the free use of the diatonic scale in a nonfunctional way” (Stravinsky) (: 229);]
[synthetic scale (Bartok) (: 235);]
[variation of gesture (Schoenberg) (: 246);]
"Schoenberg usually avoids triadic figures and the resolution of triton constructions, both melodic and harmonic. His preference is for chords based on fourths and tritons, often vertically alternating in appearance. However, equally important sounds are the major seventh and minor ninth" (: 252);
"Another harmonic sound is used almost in opposition to the triton/fourth. It is based on the third, but usually outlines an augmented triad with one addition. The augmented triad is perhaps the least-used third-based triad in previous centuries, possibly contributing to its appeal to early-twentieth-century composers" (: 253);
"[Messiaen] strong interest in the Catholic liturgy has resulted in his quoting of chant and use of modal references; a knowledge of early music has given him a battery of compositional procedures; his long-held interest in transcribing birdsong adds an element both natural and fantastic to his melodic writing; and interest in Indian music has added rhythmic subtlety... The Quartet for the End of Time was written while Messiaen was in a Nazi prison camp in the early 1940’s, and was dedicated to the three fellow prisoners with whom he performed the work" (: 275);
"Penderecki’s approach to sound involves large clusters rather than traditional melody, harmony and counterpoint. Penderecki gradually builds up a sound and then spatially moves it" (: 308);
*****John Baur, Music Theory Through Literature. Vols. 1 & 2 (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1985);
More:
- intervals: 2nd (M, m), 3rd (M & m), 4th (P, Aug {5th dim, tritone}), 5th (P, dim {4th Aug, tritone), Aug {6th m}), 6th (M, m {5th Aug}), 7th (M, m, dim), tritone (4th Aug, 5th dim);
- triads: M, m, Aug {3rd M, 5th Aug}, dim {3rd m, 5th dim};
- chords with 7th: 7M (7th m), V7 (7th M), 7m, 7dim;
- inversions (what matters is in the bottom of the chord);
- non-chord tones (can be diatonic or chromatic): passing tones, neighbor tones, appoggiatura (strong beat, approached by leap and resolved by step in the opposite direction), scape tone (opposite of appoggiatura), double neighbor, suspensions (use a common tone), retardation (with leading tone {?}), anticipation;
- pedal: suspended or repeated note over a chord progression (build tension);
- grace notes (ornaments): acciaccaturas (not in time), appoggiaturas (in time) (common in blues and boogie-woogie);
- chromatic chords (different from diatonic chords, that is, from chords within the given key): more atmospheres than chords (include the chords below);
- Neapolitan 6th (not the chord of the 6th degree) (generally appears in first inversion) (pre-dominant chord) (lowered 2nd degree, supertonic, frygian mode) (≠ from Italian 6th chord);
- augmented 6th chords (intervals of augmented 6th, first inversion, resolution outwards) (pre-dominant chords) (odd accidentals: mix of raised and lowered chords, since the 4th degree is raised and, if you are not in a minor key, the sixth is lowered; these alterations make explicit the outward resolution by semitones) (Italian, German {with a 7th}, French {with a 4th} {two tritones} {will become a common chord in Jazz});
- diminished 7th chords (appears diatonically only in the 7th degree, and also in the 2nd degree of minor modes) (half-diminished {5th, not so much used (?)}, fully diminished {5th and 7th}, ≠ from V7) (very complex chord) (when fully diminished can be thought as "coming" from the relative minor key of the tone they are resolving to) (can lead {and modulate} to any chord by ascending semitone, or by descending a tone {like ii-I} {are like a tritone substitution from V [?]}) (can be used as a chromatic passage between diatonic chords separated by a tone {eg.: IV-V, I-ii, V-vi}) (can be used to distort a tonic chord) (can alternate with the tonic chord when constructed upon the very tonic) (morphologically speaking, there are only three groups of it, and any note of each could be a tonic) [?];
- V/V (five of five) (V7) chords and (other) secondary dominants chords (which can be used to arrive at any diatonic chord other than the tonic) (its tritone, inverted, occurs in a diminished chord of the 2nd degree, which can lead equally to a 1st degree, substituting it);
- augmented 5th chords: can be used, for instance, to substitute a V7, can be used on the tonic to go to the 6th degree (the risen 5th working as a leading tone), to the 4th degree (in second inversion) and to the 2nd degree;
- tritone substitution (tritone: "three tones", augmented 4th, diminished 5th, half-octave) (tritones appear usually at V7 chords {between the 3rd and the 7th}, which can thus be substituted for a chord having the same tritone below or above it, such as 2nd dim {and 7th dim, only?});
- modulation: use of a pivot (diatonic common or chromatic chord {in relation to one or both keys}) (depends on establishing the keys {I/i, ii/iv, V/vii, I/i}); very common ones are the ones going from the tonic to the dominant, or from the minor to the relative major (?); a moving from major to minor or vice-versa, when the tonic remains the same, is not called a modulation (exactly because the tonic remains the same);
- "standard" length of musical melody: 8 bars (1 period, 2 phrases/question & answer, antecedent & consequent) (made of steps & leaps; motives {small rhythmic unities} & themes; repetition & contrast {& variation}) (has a framework, such as I-V: V-I);
- classical cadences (occur normally each four measures, the average size of a phrase, rhythm slows down): authentic perfect (V-I, both chords in root position, soprano 7-1 or 2-1), authentic imperfect (V-I) (vii-I), plagal (IV-I), half-cadence (?-V) (phrygian, iv in 1st inversiont to V) (augmented 6th chords, Neapolitan ?), deceptive (V-vi, V-VI {?});
- polyrhythm (inside a single bar, common pulse not explicit), polymetry, hemiola (originaly expressed the 3:2 or 2:3 relation, thought of horizontally);
- kommakol;
- samba, bossa nova (2/4), jazz (4/4 but the pulse is ternary) (?), syncopes;
- cycle of 5ths: F, C, G, D, A, E, B...
- aligning these 5ths as white notes in a keybord: F, G, A, B, C, D, E;
- relation to modes: Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian (natural minor), Locrian, Ionian (major), Dorian, Frygian (there are also other modes, such as melodic and harmonic minor);
- bepop (jazz) scale: one extra tone (which enables, while using the scale, the tones of the main chords to fall in strong beats) (create textures with block chords {normally the tonic chord with a 6th degree note [could be thought of as the relative minor] inter-layered with a 7th diminished chords [ii and vii, sometimes seem to be called V9 (extended) chords without the root (?)]});
***To raise the dead— &/or evidence for the villainous affair, the tale of family disonour, Romish church's pact with the devil (considered the greatest outrage against sense and decency, to be plagued and pestered, though solemnly ratified, à Dieu rien n'est impossible, menteur avéré, nom d'un chien):
"Although Greek names were sometimes applied to the church modes and the principle of diatonic octave scales is found in both systems, certain significant discrepancies seem to belie any direct historical connection. Most conspicuous is the different meaning attributed to the names of the Greek octave species and of the church modes. Comparing the two systems provides a plausible explanation: medieval theorists apparently assumed wrongly that the Greek octave species were named in ascending rather than descending order. The Greek octave species Dorian (E–E), Phrygian (D–D), Lydian (C–C), and Mixolydian (B–B) thus appeared in the church modes as Dorian (D–D), Phrygian (E–E), Lydian (F–F), and Mixolydian (G–G)," (from "Mode," entry in Brittanica, by Mieczyslaw Kolinski);
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