Wednesday, May 25, 2005
In Medias Res I: Back to Bach's Example
It seems to me that good solid thought-out contrapuntal writing is taking a back seat to the practice of the "prosodic line"; that is, a melodic line that flows more "naturally" or imitates speech patterns. When you have a counterpoint of two or more of these complex lines, they often seem to be thrown together with little regard for the counterpoint between them.
There is a lot of "contrapuntal" music being written today -- music made up of these lines written together -- but as a result not a lot of thoroughly thought-out counterpoint, because the prosodic lines tend to take precedence over the consistency of the harmonic content. In addition, the tendency towards "brilliant orchestration" leads to more and more of these lines being written together to show off instrumental colors -- once again, harmonic counterpoint tends to dissolve.
My recent music, for example, is rather clearcut in its parameters, in an attempt to highlight detailed melodic and contrapuntal combinations. At this point in my writing, using the complex "prosodic line" would obscure this level of contrapuntal logic. I genuinely appreciate Bach's consistency in both melodic and harmonic writing, as well as the originality of the modulations created out of his disciplined application of counterpoint, modulations that would not occur without such level of detail.
Here's a simple (perhaps trivial) example of consistent contemporary counterpoint,what I call a "counterpoint of 7th's and 9ths": merely move 18th century-type lines vertically in relation to one another, make a few appropriate changes,and counterpoint made up largely of thirds and sixths becomes predominantly a counterpoint of seconds, sevenths and ninths.
Thus "In Medias res" is born, writing lying somewhere between the prosodic line and good solid counterpoint.
QUESTION for the reader: where are the great contrapuntalists of the present day? More specifically, those working not only somewhere between the prosodic line and the simple line, but those working between atonality/aleatoric practices and the "New Tonality" which, more often than not, is the "old tonality". Most specifically, composers who are writing aurally logical music (music that actually considers the overtone series, circle of fifths, etc.) which perhaps involves a good deal of scalar dissonance (modal tone clusters) and tertian writing, both of which have a good deal of tonal logic but are not at all traditional tonality. Graham Fitkin and Louis Andriessen come to mind, but I want to get even more specific, more "Bach-like"...
posted by Gregory Hall
12:03 AM
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