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In Musical Form, we compared the
layout of a composition to the topography of a city. This
metaphor was helpful for illustrating such concepts as unity and
contrast and the boundary between sections. However, it has an
important limitation: You are free to enter a city from any
direction and explore it at will, exiting wherever and whenever
you choose. However, there is only one way to enter a
composition--the beginning--and one way to exit--the end. It is
music's time-dependent nature that enables it to be dramatic.
Now we will refine our conception of form to highlight this
time-dependent quality: We will do so by focusing on the work's
overall destiny. Just as in a narrative, such a novel or film,
the overall destiny of a composition--its progress from
beginning to end--is crucial to the music's dramatic and
expressive intent. In a narrative, we follow the twists and
turns of the plot as the story progresses to its ultimate
outcome. Similarly, all of the myriads of details in a
composition are in the service of a larger trajectory.
Both narratives and musical forms can be grouped according to
three basic destinies. The first is a strong
round-trip. In Dr. Seuss' famous children's story "The Cat in the Hat," a mother leaves
her children alone at home for the day. When she departs, the
house is clean and orderly. The Cat in the Hat shows up, and
proceeds to create an extravagant mess. Belongings and a particularly vocal fish are strewn madly all over the place. Then, just as the mother's feet are
visible walking down the path, the Cat in the Hat uses a magic
cleaner-up machine to restore the house to order. By the time
the mother walks in the door, the Cat-in-the-Hat has disappeared
and the house is exactly as it was, with nothing out of place.
No matter what has happened in the interim, the house has returned to its original state.
In musical terms, a strong round-trip describes a
piece that returns to its starting point with security and
confidence.
Aaron Copland’s setting of the hymn tune At the River is an example of a strong round-trip. It returns with unshakeable conviction to its starting point.
John Cheever's story The Swimmer tells of a
suburban man decides to return home from work by swimming
through all of his neighbors' pools along the way. He walks
from pool to pool, visiting a former mistress and other emblems
of a bitter, frustrated life. At each pool, he glides through
the water, has a brief encounter, and continues on his way. He
is a suburban Ulysses, completing his epic day's journey.
However, when he arrives home, there is a note pinned to the
door from his wife: She has taken the kids and furniture and
left him. The swimmer has made it home; but too much has
changed. His return is ambivalent and insecure. This is a
weak round-trip.
In musical terms, a weak round-trip returns to its
starting point, but in a way that is ambivalent, insecure or
incomplete.
Charles Ives also composed a setting of the hymn tune At the
River. However, unlike Copland, Ives adds a questioning
after-image, which is more open-ended and suspensive. The music has undeniably returned to its starting point; however, it is not completely stable, making it a weak round-trip. Whereas Copland ended with an affirmation, Ives ends with a question.
The "Sound of Music" is is a third type of
destiny. At the start of the story, the widowed Colonel Von
Trapp is a lonely and demanding father; subjecting his children
to a strict and joyless regimen. The threat of Nazi Germany
hovers over his village. Little by little, the Colonel falls
under the spell of the nanny, Maria, who brings joy back to the
household. Meanwhile, the Nazis move in. Finally, the Colonel
and Maria are married and the Von Trapp family makes a daring
escape into the Austrian Alps, never to return. This is a one-way
progression, in which the outcome of the plot is far
different from its starting point.
In musical terms, a one-way progression describes a
piece that ends in a significantly different place than it
began. A one-way progression may be achieved when the ending
seems to "forget" or contradict the opening. For instance,
consider the third movement of Webern's Drei Kleine
Stucke for cello and piano.
Most of this brief work is concentrated in the low register,
with the piano and cello alternating short gestures. At the
end, the piano stops playing, leaving the cello alone to play
three harmonics in a row--which it has never done before. For
the first time, the work ascends into a high register. The
ending is an unexpected apotheosis.
Gyorgy
Ligeti created a particularly extreme one-way progression out of a mechanical
process in his Poéme Symphonique. The piece is
scored for 100 metronomes, all wound up identically but set to different
speeds. Once all the metronomes are in motion, listeners are
invited into the hall.
Gradually, the metronomes wind down, the fastest ones first. The
texture gets thinner and thinner until finally only one
metronome is left. The piece ends when the last metronome
finally ceases beating.
Both narratives and musical forms often create suspense about
the outcome. Even when the outcome is not in doubt, suspense
may be created by delaying the destiny's fulfillment until
the last possible moment.
City on the Edge of the Forever, an episode of
the original Star Trek series, suspensefully
dramatizes the contrast between a round-trip and a one-way
progression. Because of an accident, the future is altered,
and the Starship Enterprise ceases to exist. Marooned, the
Enterprise's Captain Kirk and First Officer Spock travel
through time to try to return the future to its original form.
Drawn to 1930's Chicago, Kirk meets and falls in love with
Edith Keeler, a humanitarian leader. He and Spock ascertain
that the future hinges on Keeler's fate: If she were to die
in a car accident, everything would follow its intended
course. However, if she were to live, she would organize a
pacifist movement that will keep the United States out of
World War II, irrevocably changing history. The future would
no longer lead to intergalactic travel and the Enterprise
would vanish. At the story's climax, Keeler is crossing a
street with Kirk at her side when an on-rushing car swerves
towards her. Kirk must choose whether to save her--thereby
altering history--or to let her die. It is a potently
dramatic moment: Kirk is faced with the romantically
devastating consequences of a strong round-trip. He watches
helplessly as the car strikes her. At the story's end, the
Enterprise is restored intact.
Musically, composers may also withhold the ultimate arrival
until the last possible moment, making it more dramatic.
After a slow introduction, the main portion of the first
movement of Beethoven's Harp Quartet begins:
Later, the movement appears to draw to a peaceful close.
However, rather than ending as expected, Beethoven builds to
a passage of unparalleled intensity, featuring frenzied
passage-work by the first violin. It places the work's
outcome in doubt. Finally, at the crucial moment, the
work's main theme returns beneath the violin figuration,
and the work completes its strong round-trip.
Beginning with an awareness of the overall destiny has several
advantages: First, it encourages you to take in the entire "story" of the composition; second, you will begin to
evaluate how local events contribute to the overall destiny.
For instance, the suspensive ending of the Ives is foreshadowed earlier in the song:
At the opening of the Webern cello piece, there is a single
cello harmonic woven into the texture: This helps to prepare
the ending, in which the cello is left alone, playing a
group of harmonics.
In the narrative examples, the meaning and significance of the
story hinges greatly on the ultimate outcome. If the Cat-in-the-Hat were to leave the house in total disarray, Dr. Seuss' tale would have a different import. If the Van Trapp family were to be captured by the Nazis, the "Sound of Music" would take on a totally different emotional cast.
Similarly, the ultimate outcome of a composition is decisive
to its meaning and interpretation. If the work returns to its
starting point with strength and conviction, then the overall
outcome speaks to the music's underlying unity, continuity
and stability. If the work's return is more unsettled,
then ambiguity and instability have clouded the ending. If the piece ends in a significantly different place than it began, then impermanence and flux have had a decisive
impact. When you listen to a work, try to analyze its overall destiny by comparing the similarities and differences between
beginning and end. This will reveal the basic "story-line" of the composition. Next, study how local details contribute to
the work's overall destiny.
Public Radio Interview with Anthony Brandt
"Sound Reasoning has been updated (August 2010) with a new set of lessons on hearing harmonies. Here is how the author describes the new materials: "Hearing Harmony" is an introductory course on […]"