for 2 violas, 'cello and piano
|
DESCRIPTION
Imbahl-1
is a composition structured by forms taken from Javanese gamelan music.
This music is characterised by the repeating rhythmic patterns
that are played on the gongs, important instruments in the gamelan ensemble.
Imbahl is actually the name for an Indonesian performing
technique. Before this composition can be
played some fundamental factors of an Indonesian understanding of music
must be understood. The most practical is
the fact that although the music seems to be traditionally notated in
common time, the sound is actually considerably different. The Javanese
structure their melodies in groups of four notes, but the accent is rather
on the second and fourth notes of the bar. As
such, the 'gongs' which help to structure the music fall always on the
last beat of the melody. This leads the melody
back to the beginning where it works its way again through the same note
series. Variation in gamelan music is brought
about through a gradual changing of the entire rhythmic macro-structure
rather than sudden changes and introduction of new material as is common
in Western music. When the melody slows, it
becomes possible for players to introduce new and more rhythmically complex
melodies or accompaniment passages. The original
melody, although usually unrecognisable when the composition has reached
its slowest point, remains always present structuring the music.
The entire first half of this composition is structured in this
way.
The
repeating gong patterns begin very fast with relatively simple accompaniment
passages from the other performers, and as it gradually slows and goes
through a number of different rhythmic levels, other instrumental layers
fade in and out as the slower tempo allows. The
reaching of a new tempo brings about sudden and surprising changes.
The illustration below demonstrates the gong pattern continuously
repeated by the piano player. Another
important common factor with Indonesian gamelan is the inclusion of an
improvisory element. Certain of the divisions
within the composition (specified by the letters from A-Z)
are repeated an unspecified number of times. Of
course, the performers are free to specify the number of repeats if necessary.
The number of repeats used in the first performance are listed
overleaf as part of a description of the entire structure of the work.
Once these simple conventions of Javanese music are understood
the first half of the composition can be played.
It is important to note that the second half of the composition
(from X) changes suddenly back to traditional Western rhythms,
although when the speed changes it is always a gradual process.
At the beginning of X the viola players are required to
clap the notated rhythms.
The
purpose of the following illustration is to demonstrate the rhythmic/melodic
structure adopted in the first half of the composition.
It can be seen that the notes accented by the second viola reflect
directly the 'gong' notes played on the piano, leading always to the final
gong on the last beat. The first viola plays
a more complicated rhythmic structure, where the notes are in groups of
four quavers rather than crotchets. When the
composition becomes more complicated, groups of semiquavers are played
(and even semidemiquavers through the imbahl).
Once it has been realized that the stress is always put on the
last of a group of four notes, these passages are easy to play.
The
imbahl form is adopted two times during the composition.
Imbahl is characterised by the fact that one of the players begins
to play a melody on the offbeat. Therefore
through the combination of the melody on the onbeat and the melody on
the offbeat, an entirely new melody is formed creating an unusual and
hypnotic sound texture. The first appearance
begins in L where Viola 1 elaborates the standard melody by playing
a different melody on the offbeat. The second
appearance is considerably more complicated. Its
presence is first felt when both viola players are playing different semiquaver
melodies but at the same time. At S the
rhythm slows considerably, and suddenly at the beginning of T Viola
jumps to the offbeat and a whole new melodic texture is created by the
combination of the two melodies, even though the two violas are essentially
playing the same music as they were previously. Below
is an illustration of the most complex appearance of imbahl:
STRUCTURE
The
entries below begin with first the letter group followed by the speed
at which the section is played. The numbers
within the [ ] brackets list first the number of bars within the section
and then the number of times the sections were repeated on the first performance. This repetition pattern does not need to be followed for future performances.
In fact the performers can choose the number of repetitions for
the following divisions: C, F, H, K, M,
P, R, T. Below the numbers
is a short description of what happens in the specified division.
A:
176 [25x1]
Cello solo.
B:
352 [35x1]
Viola 2, cello and piano develop gong pattern.
C:
352 [5x4]
Viola 1 enters.
D:
352-240 [5x1]
Viola 2 fades out, gradually slows.
E:
240 [5x1]
Viola 2 fades in with crotchet melody.
F:
240 [5x4]
G:
240-176
[5x1]
Both violas fade out, gradually slows.
H:
176 [5x4]
Viola 1 plays quaver melody.
Viola 2 plays crotchet melody but down an octave.
I:
176-100
[5x1]
Both violas fade out, gradually slows.
J:
100
[5x1]
Both violas play quaver melody.
Piano fades in with the semiquaver melody.
K:
100
[5x4]
L:
100
[10x1]
Viola 1 fades out and
fades back with Imbahl melody 1.
M:
100 [5x3]
N:
100-72
[5x1]
Viola 2 fades out, gradually
slows.
O:
72 [5x1]
Viola 2 fades back with imbahl melody 2(a).
P:
72 [5x3]
Q:
72
[10x1]
Viola 1 fades out, and
fades back with the Imbahl melody 2(b), but this
time on the count.
R:
72
[5x3]
S:
72-40
[5x1]
Both violas fade out, gradually slows.
T:
40
[5x4]
Viola 1 jumps to the off count with the semiquaver melody, creating
a
new 'Imbahl' melody with Viola 2.
Piano begins to play high note accompaniment.
Cello begins quaver accompaniment.
U:
40
[5x1]
Piano high note accompaniment fades out.
V:
40-100
[5x1]
Viola 1 fades out, speeds up.
W:
100-132-176-240-152 [60x1]
5 - Viola 2 fades out,
viola 1 plays crotchet melody, speeds up.
5 - Viola 2 plays crotchet
melody, Viola 1 the simplest pattern.
Piano fades out on the semiquaver melody, speeds up.
5 - Viola 1+2 play the
simplest pattern, speeds up.
10 - Viola one fades out, then viola
2.
Cello changes to crotchet melody, speeds up.
35 - Development of chord sequence reflecting the opening, but
here
with the cello accompanying, speeds up towards the end.
X:
[152]
1 - All instruments playing, violas clapping rhythms
13 - Viola 1 clapping fades out (over 2 sequences).
21 - Piano extends chord sequence in bass.
25 - Viola 2 clapping fades out (over 2 sequences).
29 - Piano + cello dim.
Viola 1 fades in
with new melody.
33 - Piano extends sequence.
53 - Viola 2 fades in with new melody.
61 - Piano extends sequence.
101 - All instruments crescendo.
109 - Climactic crescendo with new melody from the violas.
Y:
[76] 1
- Cello plays note sequence, piano accompanies with a new pattern.
9 - Viola 1 plays 5 bar melodic sequence.
17 - Melodic sequence is extended into 8 bars.
29 - Viola 2 begins to play melodic sequence, but in canon with
viola 1.
49 - Gradually speeds up, both violas develop a slightly simpler
melody.
[152]
65 - Melodies become still simpler.
81 - Gradually speeds up, both violas crescendo.
[216]
93 - Violas melodies become even simpler.
101 - Gradually speeds up, both violas playing simple crotchet
melodies.
Z:
[304] 3
bar finale
BACKGROUND
I
first encountered Indonesian gamelan in the music department of the university
in which I studied. Feeling stifled by the
conservative Western musical traditions that were being forced upon me
at the time, traditions that seemed to have nothing to do with my own
musical life in Australia, I was longing to try something new.
Despite the attraction and a great desire to learn, it was no easy
task to enter a completely different musical world, different on almost
every musical level - from notation through performance methods to the
underlying musical philosophy. After travelling
a number of times to Indonesia (which lies fairly close to the coast of
Western Australia) I had the possibility of seeing the full picture: The
notion of a 'musical culture' is largely alien, and the gamelan forms
a part every everyday Indonesian life, inseparable from theatre, dance,
and puppetry. The music which I had grappled
for so long to understand did not actually exist on its own but as an
essential part of the culture that surrounded it.
This was very important for me as I could finally find a connection
between my theatre work and the attraction to Indonesian music, a music
that existed as an essential part of all performance.
With such an attraction to the music, I have tried a number of
times to write musical pieces that adopt structures taken from the Javanese
gamelan. In relation to this work, however,
the influences go a little deeper. This composition
was initially composed as a part of a larger theatre composition for the
same ensemble. This composition would have
adopted a new attitude to the use of language in performance and the rhythms
in the second section were designed to be used in combination with Russian
futurist rhythmic texts. In this type of work
I wanted to create a total concept of composition that went beyond simply
the combination of sounds. It was composed
for a first performance in Moscow, but because of time difficulties the
complete conception of the theatre work was never completed.
In any case, this is possible the last time that I will produce
a completely 'musical' composition in the traditional Western sense of
this concept.
Send mail to zachar@nachtschimmen.eu with questions or comments about this website.
Last modified: May 30, 2008
COMPOSITION LIST
