Horaţiu Rădulescu, "Inner Time II"
-- Liner Notes --
Horatiu Radulescu
inner time II, op. 42
Homage to Calder
for 7 B Flat clarinets [1993]
armand angster clarinet systems
armand angster, jean-pierre peuvion, vincent jacquemin, laurent berthomier, jean-marc foltz, jean-louis bergerard, denis tempo
the inner life of sounds
by Richard Toop
Once described by Messiaen as "one of the most original young composers of our time", Horatiu Radulescu (b. 1942) remains one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic voices in new music. Born in Bucharest, he moved to Paris in 1969 and, partly inspired by Stockhausen's composition Stimmung, "concluded that it was necessary to 'enter into' the sound, to rediscover the ocean of vibrations that Pythagoras has scrutinised two thousand years ago". The result was the evolution of a technique of 'spectral composition', based on the idea of audibly projecting the activity and energy of the various partials (overtones) innate in a single instrumental pitch - an approach which became almost de rigueur for non-serialist Parisian composers in the seventies and eighties.
A sort of baroque extravagance presides over many aspects of Radulescu's music: it seems entirely appropriate that he has an address in Versailles. Titles both whimsical and apocalyptic - Flood for the Eternal's Origins, Incandescent Serene, A Cryptic Crystal Cuddles the Somnambulant Day - are matched by exotic instruments such as gold and silver cymbals, bowed monochords and sound icons, and lavish resources (e.g. Wild Incantesimo, with its nine orchestras, and a score consisting of 4400 slides projected on nineteen screens).
There are sound reasons for these large forces. The idea of spectral composition logically calls for large numbers of identical instruments or ensembles, like the thirty-four monochords in Do Emerge Ultimate Silence or the Byzantine Prayer, with its fourty flautists and seventy-two flutes. And as the latter title indicates, there is alos a pronounced religious, ritual dimension to Radulescu's music - "the music we are composing is, above all, the music of a special state of the soul, and not the music of action" - and much of the spectacle has its roots in an evocation of ancient Byzantine rites. Indeed, the sound icon - a grand piano laid on its side, the strings being bowed - intentionally presents the instrument "in a new light; it now resembles a religious object - a Byzantine icon. At a time when religion was only possible in Romania through music, I called this instrument a sound icon."
Outer Time and Inner Time, the two pieces which jointly comprise Radulescu's Op. 42, date back to the early eighties. The two works are inversely related: the composer refers to Outer time as a "mountain" (a huge registral sweep going from high to low), and Inner Time as a "valley" (high to low to hifh). For the composer, "the whole valley-like trajectory [built] according to Golden Section (sectio aurea) proportions, operates on our subconsciousness in the sense of a pure introspection of our selves' inner time, a kind of inner sight, of vécu intérieur (inner life)." Both pieces have undergone many transformations over the years. outer Time has appeared in versions for twenty-three flutes, for fourty-two Thai (or Java-nese) gongs, for two grand pianos (spectrally returned!), for trio (viola, cello, bass) and for brass ensemble. Inner Time first emerged in 1983 as a piece for solo clarinet, written for Roger Heaton, with an alternative version for seven wind trios (each comprising flute, oboe and clarinet). The next year it reappeared in Darmstadt as a piece for solo clarinet with four accompanying clarinets echoing orbits.
Inner Time II, Op. 42
Homage to Calder
for seven B flat clarinets [1993]
Inner Time II, the work heard on this recording, is a newly composed piece based on the same spectral scale material. It is for seven B flat clarinets, who in a live performance are placed in a large circle around the audience, and coordinated by a Light Quartz Timer (a kind of ultrastable, multicoloured visual click-track, invented by Radulescu some twenty years ago).
The pitch structure is based on a scale of 42 pitches (spectral scordatura) which are the partials 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and then every odd-numbered partial up to the 83rd of a low A; the emphasis on odd-number partials neatly matches the natural timbre of the clarinet, reinforcing as the composer puts it, "the sober and poetic unity of the score". The 6th partial is the bottom E on the clarinet; the 83rd lies just below the high D which marks the top of the conventional E flat clarinet range (though here, astonishingly, all the high partials are achieved on the normal B flat instrument!). Each clarinettist has a repertoire of just six steps of the scale (six frequency orbits), spread throughout the total range. However, since an enormous degree of accuracy of intonation is called for, especially in the highest register, where distinctions are notated to the nearest 64th of a tone, and then further inflected in cents (highly accurate tuning devices are used to find a basic fingering given for each note, and used again in rehearsal for verification), even the production of these six notes is a Herculean labour.
In both inner and outer forms, Radulescu's Op. 42 is a "Homage to [Alexander] Calder". The basic material is a single registral filter, a basic shape (mobile of distinctly Calder-like appearance laid over the spectral scordatura, which in its macro form provides the overall descent-ascent, and on a smaller scale furnishes 137 mobiles - derived from the basic one by the quasi-serial processes of inversion, retrograde and retrograde inversion, as well as contraction and expansion in space (pitch) and time.
As indicated already, the principal formal tool at many levels is the Golden Section (sectio aurea - 1:0.618), and its rationalisation in the so-called Fibonacci Series (1 2 3 4 8 13 21 34 55 89 etc...). The basic filter is iteslf the product of four intersecting layers of Golden Section proportions. These proportions also determine the work's time structure at the upper two of the four distinct levels - "four layers of psych-acoustical Wahrnehmung [perception]" -, which the composer defines as Macro-Macro Time (MMT), micro-Macro Time (mMT), Macro-micro Time (MmT), and micro-micro Time (mmT). In the first instance (MMT), the Golden Section determines the relative lengths of the downstream (long) and the upstream (short); the turning point is a massively protracted (89 seconds) version of the basic shape which begins during the 34th minute, rising from the lowest spectral orbit. At the next level (mMT), the Fibonacci series (in effect, a 'pragmatic' expansion of Golden Section ratios) is used to regulate the lengths - in seconds - of each of the 137 mobiles (5 seconds, 8 seconds, 13 seconds, 21 seconds etc...). Within each mobile, the exact rhythm (MmT) is determined by 81 rhythmic models which regulate whether an instrument enters on, just before or just after the quaver pulse (an approach which Radulescu likens to the notes inegales of baroque performance practice). The final level (mmT) is that of the sound's inner life: "the fastest aural information - up to +/- 333 informations/changes per second in spectrum/timbre."
accroche note
is an ensemble of soloists which was formed in 1981 around Francoise Kubler and Armand Angster. The character of each programme determines the choice of musicians, according to their musical personality. In number, the group can vary from soloist through to chamber ensemble, and they take advantage of this flexibility to tackle a spectrum of repertoires ranging from vocal and instrumental music of yesterday and today [passing from the Vienna School to Kagel, by Stravinsky, Dallapicoola, Boulez and Berio] to jazz, improvised music and music-theatre. More and more, Accroche Note is attracting composers by the originality of its sound range. it has been actively engaged for several years in the commissioning of works, encouraging the creation of new scores, a new repertoire, always working closely with the composers. Among recent first performances figure notably music by Georges Aperghis, James Dillon, Pascal Dusapin, Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, Philippe Manoury and Marc Monnet.
further reading...
Haratiu Radulescu: Sound plasma - music of the future sign
Modern Verlag, Munich, 1973
Horatiu Radulescu: Musiques de mes univers
Silences no. 1 - Editions de la Difference, Paris, 1985
Horatiu Radulescu
inner time II, op. 42
Homage to Calder
for 7 B Flat clarinets [1993]
armand angster clarinet systems
armand angster, jean-pierre peuvion, vincent jacquemin, laurent berthomier, jean-marc foltz, jean-louis bergerard, denis tempo
the inner life of sounds
by Richard Toop
Once described by Messiaen as "one of the most original young composers of our time", Horatiu Radulescu (b. 1942) remains one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic voices in new music. Born in Bucharest, he moved to Paris in 1969 and, partly inspired by Stockhausen's composition Stimmung, "concluded that it was necessary to 'enter into' the sound, to rediscover the ocean of vibrations that Pythagoras has scrutinised two thousand years ago". The result was the evolution of a technique of 'spectral composition', based on the idea of audibly projecting the activity and energy of the various partials (overtones) innate in a single instrumental pitch - an approach which became almost de rigueur for non-serialist Parisian composers in the seventies and eighties.A sort of baroque extravagance presides over many aspects of Radulescu's music: it seems entirely appropriate that he has an address in Versailles. Titles both whimsical and apocalyptic - Flood for the Eternal's Origins, Incandescent Serene, A Cryptic Crystal Cuddles the Somnambulant Day - are matched by exotic instruments such as gold and silver cymbals, bowed monochords and sound icons, and lavish resources (e.g. Wild Incantesimo, with its nine orchestras, and a score consisting of 4400 slides projected on nineteen screens).
There are sound reasons for these large forces. The idea of spectral composition logically calls for large numbers of identical instruments or ensembles, like the thirty-four monochords in Do Emerge Ultimate Silence or the Byzantine Prayer, with its fourty flautists and seventy-two flutes. And as the latter title indicates, there is alos a pronounced religious, ritual dimension to Radulescu's music - "the music we are composing is, above all, the music of a special state of the soul, and not the music of action" - and much of the spectacle has its roots in an evocation of ancient Byzantine rites. Indeed, the sound icon - a grand piano laid on its side, the strings being bowed - intentionally presents the instrument "in a new light; it now resembles a religious object - a Byzantine icon. At a time when religion was only possible in Romania through music, I called this instrument a sound icon."
Outer Time and Inner Time, the two pieces which jointly comprise Radulescu's Op. 42, date back to the early eighties. The two works are inversely related: the composer refers to Outer time as a "mountain" (a huge registral sweep going from high to low), and Inner Time as a "valley" (high to low to hifh). For the composer, "the whole valley-like trajectory [built] according to Golden Section (sectio aurea) proportions, operates on our subconsciousness in the sense of a pure introspection of our selves' inner time, a kind of inner sight, of vécu intérieur (inner life)." Both pieces have undergone many transformations over the years. outer Time has appeared in versions for twenty-three flutes, for fourty-two Thai (or Java-nese) gongs, for two grand pianos (spectrally returned!), for trio (viola, cello, bass) and for brass ensemble. Inner Time first emerged in 1983 as a piece for solo clarinet, written for Roger Heaton, with an alternative version for seven wind trios (each comprising flute, oboe and clarinet). The next year it reappeared in Darmstadt as a piece for solo clarinet with four accompanying clarinets echoing orbits.
Inner Time II, Op. 42
Homage to Calder
for seven B flat clarinets [1993]
Inner Time II, the work heard on this recording, is a newly composed piece based on the same spectral scale material. It is for seven B flat clarinets, who in a live performance are placed in a large circle around the audience, and coordinated by a Light Quartz Timer (a kind of ultrastable, multicoloured visual click-track, invented by Radulescu some twenty years ago).
The pitch structure is based on a scale of 42 pitches (spectral scordatura) which are the partials 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and then every odd-numbered partial up to the 83rd of a low A; the emphasis on odd-number partials neatly matches the natural timbre of the clarinet, reinforcing as the composer puts it, "the sober and poetic unity of the score". The 6th partial is the bottom E on the clarinet; the 83rd lies just below the high D which marks the top of the conventional E flat clarinet range (though here, astonishingly, all the high partials are achieved on the normal B flat instrument!). Each clarinettist has a repertoire of just six steps of the scale (six frequency orbits), spread throughout the total range. However, since an enormous degree of accuracy of intonation is called for, especially in the highest register, where distinctions are notated to the nearest 64th of a tone, and then further inflected in cents (highly accurate tuning devices are used to find a basic fingering given for each note, and used again in rehearsal for verification), even the production of these six notes is a Herculean labour.
In both inner and outer forms, Radulescu's Op. 42 is a "Homage to [Alexander] Calder". The basic material is a single registral filter, a basic shape (mobile of distinctly Calder-like appearance laid over the spectral scordatura, which in its macro form provides the overall descent-ascent, and on a smaller scale furnishes 137 mobiles - derived from the basic one by the quasi-serial processes of inversion, retrograde and retrograde inversion, as well as contraction and expansion in space (pitch) and time.
As indicated already, the principal formal tool at many levels is the Golden Section (sectio aurea - 1:0.618), and its rationalisation in the so-called Fibonacci Series (1 2 3 4 8 13 21 34 55 89 etc...). The basic filter is iteslf the product of four intersecting layers of Golden Section proportions. These proportions also determine the work's time structure at the upper two of the four distinct levels - "four layers of psych-acoustical Wahrnehmung [perception]" -, which the composer defines as Macro-Macro Time (MMT), micro-Macro Time (mMT), Macro-micro Time (MmT), and micro-micro Time (mmT). In the first instance (MMT), the Golden Section determines the relative lengths of the downstream (long) and the upstream (short); the turning point is a massively protracted (89 seconds) version of the basic shape which begins during the 34th minute, rising from the lowest spectral orbit. At the next level (mMT), the Fibonacci series (in effect, a 'pragmatic' expansion of Golden Section ratios) is used to regulate the lengths - in seconds - of each of the 137 mobiles (5 seconds, 8 seconds, 13 seconds, 21 seconds etc...). Within each mobile, the exact rhythm (MmT) is determined by 81 rhythmic models which regulate whether an instrument enters on, just before or just after the quaver pulse (an approach which Radulescu likens to the notes inegales of baroque performance practice). The final level (mmT) is that of the sound's inner life: "the fastest aural information - up to +/- 333 informations/changes per second in spectrum/timbre."
accroche note
is an ensemble of soloists which was formed in 1981 around Francoise Kubler and Armand Angster. The character of each programme determines the choice of musicians, according to their musical personality. In number, the group can vary from soloist through to chamber ensemble, and they take advantage of this flexibility to tackle a spectrum of repertoires ranging from vocal and instrumental music of yesterday and today [passing from the Vienna School to Kagel, by Stravinsky, Dallapicoola, Boulez and Berio] to jazz, improvised music and music-theatre. More and more, Accroche Note is attracting composers by the originality of its sound range. it has been actively engaged for several years in the commissioning of works, encouraging the creation of new scores, a new repertoire, always working closely with the composers. Among recent first performances figure notably music by Georges Aperghis, James Dillon, Pascal Dusapin, Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, Philippe Manoury and Marc Monnet.
further reading...
Haratiu Radulescu: Sound plasma - music of the future sign
Modern Verlag, Munich, 1973
Horatiu Radulescu: Musiques de mes univers
Silences no. 1 - Editions de la Difference, Paris, 1985
Labels: accroche note, Avant Garde Project, Horatiu Radulescu, jodru, Richard Toop
posted by jodru at 19:45
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