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UNDERLYING
premise. This is the implicit belief that the knowledge that is
acquired as a result of analytical methods is and ought to be objective. The "ought to be" half of that belief is rooted in generations of
scientific methodology in which the a priori separation between subject and object was a tacit axiom. The method utilized by scientists
(and by musical analysts) is tacitly thought to cleanse the experiment (or analysis) of the confounding variables that a too involved
subject might cause. That knowledge is objective is of course a myth,
whether it refers to music, the other arts, or the sciences. The noted
physical chemist and philosopher, Michael Polanyi, demonstrated
that the scientist's "personal" participation is an indispensable
characteristic of scientific knowledge.1 The scientist is not only
involved in scientific conclusions but in "personal" decisions. There
is an implicit belief by the scientist that his view of the context
at hand or broadly speaking of the world is the most cogent. Polanyi
points out that the dogma which attempts to make knowledge impersonal in our culture has split science from humanity. Marjorie
Grene, with an overt debt to Polanyi's formulation, notes that since
the time of Plato Western man has endeavored to acquire objective,
certain, and impersonal knowledge.2 In Western man's zeal to obtain
objective knowledge, the "knower" has been lost. Polanyi and Grene
1
Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post Critical Philosophy (Chicago, 1962). Also see
Karl R. Popper, Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (Oxford, 1972); and
Jacob Bronowski, The Identity of Man, rev. ed. (New York, 1966).
2 The Knower and the Known (Berkeley, 1974).
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Phenomenology as a Tool
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Phenomenology as a Tool
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bell toll
three-note fragment
drills
three-note fr
electronic sou
high-speed ta
drills
electronic sounds
2
1
honking horns
sirens
drum roll
elevator
electronic sounds
heart beat
sine waves
taping device
ticking
bell tolls
3
silence
electronic sounds
rhythms
sine waves
snare drum
airplane
crash
birds in
chantin
male voices
sine waves
male voices
5
female voice
male voices
broken organ
forced air
three-note fragmen
electronic sounds
airplane
crashes
elevator
explosions
siren
timpani
airplane
10
Figure 1.
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Phenomenology as a Tool
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366
for a short time are sustained on a more open "eh" sound. Crisp,
percussive impacts capture the foreground. The section is now
marked by increased rhythmic complexity grounded in a syncopated
rhythmic pattern. A hard, crashing sound occurs with great volume.
This is succeeded by a steady, rubbing, scranching sound that becomes a continuous undercurrent. Above this are flurries of short,
erratic sounds of varying pitch levels. Low, sustained sounds that
are garbled or muffled fill out this unusual texture. Finally, quick
tapping sounds along with the scranching sounds diminish to a
silence.
Section 7: Pure, midrange sound waves open this section and
quickly begin a crescendo of volume. Hollow, wooden sounds
forming complex rhythms remind the listener of the syncopated
rhythmic patterns in Section 6. The texture of these wooden sounds
is close to those described in Section 5. However, they combine
hollowness and a deeper timbre with a higher and harder wooden
sound described in Section 3. Also, after several hits, a stringed instrument supports a few of the last strikes to produce a complex
combination of string plucking and a hollow, wooden impact that
issues sounds from the lowest timbre to very high. These characteristics are amplified by the rich use of echo and heavy overtones.
Long, sustained sounds emerge with no vibrato, embellished by
rapidly hitting percussive sounds. The pure sounds reach a climax of
volume. Quick tapping is now heard, this texture having a familiar
wooden timbre. The texture, though, is noticeably less hollow
than the timbres in Sections 5 and 3. There is some echo, but the
woodiness is more condensed. Short, airy sounds follow in a regular
rhythm. The pitches of these sounds are structured in perfect
fourths, B, F$, C$ and then to B again. Four ringing, metallic sounds,
rich in overtones, repeat the quartal sequence forming a symmetrical
phrase with the airy sounds previously heard.
Section 8: This brief and unique section is composed completely
of an unaccompanied melody line. A moderately high-pitched "ah"
vowel with vibrato becomes very angular as it ascends in increasing
intervals to a very high pitch. The line is always sustained but syncopated. The syncopation gives interest and movement to the sustained, legato, melodic line.
Section 9:
Phenomenologyas a Tool
367
inception of this section.The soundsaresustainedand featureslightly syncopated rhythmic activity. The texture varies from two- to
four-partharmony.The pitch activity on this "ah" vowel is mostly
stepwise. This gives way to cutting, highly pressured,forced-air
sounds in a syncopated and irregularrhythm. Less biting sounds
emergewith a syncopatedand angularsix-notemelody (see Figure2,
first measure).The six-note melodic line is regularlyfragmentedand
is reduced to a repetitionof its first two notes (see the subsequent
four measuresin Figure 2). Underneaththe fragmentationare fast,
thumpingsounds that enter and stop intermittently.Just before the
last fragmentationof the six-note melody line in Figure 2, highFigure2.
-
F: 1 F l"F:
Ai
Ai
I!
F 1 F:MF--"
IFRHi IFIFH
F II
368
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
bell tolling
drills and an elevator
honking car horns, sirens, an elevator (becoming) a siren
clock ticking and bell tolling
men's voices
chewing, animals roaring in a jungle, and sounds made
by birds of the jungle
7: airplane
8: woman's voice
9: men's voices and broken organ
10: elevator (becomes) a siren (then becomes) an airplane
Phenomenology as a Tool
369
Section 7: The electronic sounds, sine waves, and airplane symbolize technology.
Section 8: The woman's voice symbolizes human existence.
Section 9: The men's voices (singing a quasi Gregorianchant) combined with the broken organ symbolize the church and more broadly, religion.
Section 10: The electronic sounds, airplane, elevator, and siren all
symbolize technology.
Reflection 12: A description of a listening for ontological meaning
It is important to note that the concepts "time," "technology,"
"human existence," "primitivism," and "religion" that are referred
to in Poeme e'lectronique grow out of the syntactical sounds themselves. In intuiting a gestalt of this piece, at the syntactical level the
work functions like a textural collage of sounds thrown or shot into
space. At the semantic level it functions like a conceptual collage.
A fundamental insight into both of these levels (syntactical and
semantic) can be clarified at the ontological level.
During an earlier listening to the work, I found myself randomly
cataloguing concepts on a sheet of paper (see Fig. 3). This quasi
conceptual collage points to the work's ontological meaning. PoBme
e'lectronique crystallizes what it means to be in the modem era.
In our actual lives, technology (computers, automobiles, or electric
can openers) surrounds our existence.
existence
;tecanologY
primitivism
(13~~~~
reigionan
~c~Ogy
uman
eigon
primitivism
Figure 3.
Figureho3
Figure3.
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Phenomenologyas a Tool
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our existence in no regularorder,often together,embellishing,dominating, and alteringeach other and affectingour existence.And so
in this music we hear a collageof texturalsoundsthat appearsto be
thrown out at us without any vivid cogency or logic. It is only after
movinginto the work and beingmovedby it that we understandthe
structure.The changingsyntacticaltexturesalong with their semantic and ontological referents are freely and sporadicallyplaced
throughoutthe work. This is closer to the reality of the mannerin
which they come to our consciousand unconsciousawarenessin our
actuallife. Thus, by being moved by Poeme e'lectroniquewe let the
worldof this epoch we live in be throughthis musicalwork.
Reflection 13: A descriptionof listening"openly"
Throughoutthis last listeningI consistentlyknew exactly whereI
was in the piece in terms of the whole. Thisis differentfrom knowing, for example,that you are in measure52 of piece X. Therewas
an intuitive sense of the whole that made each section appearin a
larger perspective.Yet, by havinglistened specificallymany times
for syntactical meaning earlier, the sounds were always fresh and
seemed to emergeinto the whole. The formnow seemseasilyidentifiable but not in any traditional setting. CertainlyPoeme electronique is different;its form is free. Textures are placed in anything but an implacablemanner.For example,Section 3 could have
been placedafterSection 8 without disturbingany of the dimensions
of meaning. Also, there is no strong teleological direction. The
sounds do not move toward the stretto-likeclimax in Section 10;
the stretto just happens.Yet, no section could be deleted from the
work without seriouslyaffectingthe gestalt.Whilethere is no strict
form or teleologicalimpulse,concomitantlythere is a definitesense
that all the sectionsare organicandvital to the work.
The character of each section as an amalgamof syntactical,
semantic, and ontological meaningsbecame more easily discernible
in this listening.The men'svoices and the woman'svoice seem to be
more human. This living quality made ever more poignant the
contrast between the human element and that of a cold, lifeless
technologythat consistentlysurroundedit. One passagein particular
stands out reflectivelyconcerningthat contrast.Whenthe heartbeat
stopped, technologicalsine waves respondedwith a loud, shrillseries
of sounds. It was an unfeeling reaction of the machineto human
temporality.
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