I colori di silenzio

by Anders Flodin

I colori di silenzio

¹ Att göra en exakt gradering av ett ackords konsonans/dissonans och stabilitet/labilitet i förhållande till ett annat är praktiskt omöjligt. 

² What were the circumstances leading to these episodes and how did these phenomena apply to music?

³ Varierande och processuella idéer är öppna, de tillåter modifikationer, avvikelser, infall och subjektivitet. Statiska idéer är mer eller mindre slutna: inom ramen för idéen kan det förekomma olika alternativ för realiserandet av utgångspunkten men också total förutbestämd kontroll (via serier eller andra system) över varje detalj.

⁴ As a composer, I regard myself as a pair of ears on legs. The act of listening, whether to music or to natural sounds, is for me a constant adventure. The relationship between natural sounds and the more processed and “willed” sounds that we hear in music is a subtle and complex one which results in cultural codes of meanings. It is quite evident that at a certain level, musical objects are concerned with imitating and stylizing natural objects.

⁵ Ur det slumpmässiga bruset kunde jag skulptera ljud vars spektrums variationer över tid var deterministiskt betingade.

⁶ To analyze means to reflect, and to reflect is a complex process that both articulates the perception of music into more details, and seeks to integrate the details into a comprehension of the greater whole. Since the analytic process of reflection evolves over time, it presumes that the object of reflection remains static. Thus the object must be contained in an extra-temporal, stable, material medium permitting identical repetition of the object researched. Moreover, the object under study should be represented in such a way that it can be shared with others. For centuries, musical notation has provided such a representation of the musical work in the Western context, and has been a prerequisite for reflection and analysis. Therefore it has been accorded the status of a kind of neutral, objective reality to which the community of researchers could return in order to check one another’s conclusions.

⁷ If the number of tones is increased or decreased, some will be preferred to the others, and the statistical balance will be violated. Surely, in some constellations that can be redeemed by suitably chosen transpositions. If we use a series, which is a multiple of a 12-tone one, then we will satisfy this condition. The quaternion (or matrix) serves as an example. When I arrived at the product 7 × 12, where e.g. 7 instruments play in varied order all chromatic tones, it appeared to me that I could reverse this dodecaphonic principle. 

⁸ in memory of your stay in Prague

Footnotes

1. Smedeby, S. 1978. Harmonilära, Stockholm: Eriksförlaget, p. 22. ↩︎
2. Bouij, C. 1998. Music Caught Between a Grandiose Plan and Captious Pedantry – Ideology and Music in the Soviet Union. In Crosscurrents and Counterpoints, ed. Per F. Broman, pp. 39–61, Göteborg: Skrifter från Avdelningen för musikvetenskap, nr. 51. ↩︎
3. Morthenson, J. W. 1986. Komponerandets grunder, Rikskonserter/Regionmusiken, p. 64. ↩︎
4. Thommessen, O. A. 1996. Innate functions in sound and module composition. In Olav Anton Thommessen Inspirator – Tradisjonsbærer – Rabulist , ed. H. Holbæk-Hanssen, pp. 27–38. Oslo: Norsk Musikforlag A/S . ↩︎
5. Enström, R. Observatoriemusik – en komposition till ett jubileum, Populär astronomi september 2003, Årgång 4, p.  49. Web site: <http://www.enström.se> [12 June 2017] ↩︎
6. Thoresen, L. Form-building transformations an approach to the aural analysis of emergent musical forms. Web site:  <http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/showArticle.php?artID=4.3> [12 June 2017] ↩︎
7. Bokes, V.  Being a composer, Web site:  <http://www.vladimir.bokes.org/pdfs/beingcomposer.pdf > [12 June 2017] ↩︎
8. Havelka, S. Personal communication 25 May 1993 ↩︎

References

Bokes, V.  Being a composer, Web site:  <http://www.vladimir.bokes.org/pdfs/beingcomposer.pdf > [12 June 2017]

Bouij, C. 1998. Music Caught Between a Grandiose Plan and Captious Pedantry – Ideology and Music in the Soviet Union. In Crosscurrents and Counterpoints, ed. Per F. Broman, pp. 39–61, Göteborg: Skrifter från Avdelningen för musikvetenskap, nr. 51.

Enström, R. Observatoriemusik – en komposition till ett jubileum, Populär astronomi september 2003, Årgång 4, p.  49. Web site: <http://www.enström.se> [12 June 2017]

Havelka, S. Personal communication 25 May 1993

Morthenson, J. W. 1986. Komponerandets grunder, Rikskonserter/Regionmusiken, p. 64.

Smedeby, S. 1978. Harmonilära, Stockholm: Eriksförlaget, p. 22.

Thommessen, O. A. 1996. Innate functions in sound and module composition. In Olav Anton Thommessen Inspirator – Tradisjonsbærer – Rabulist , ed. H. Holbæk-Hanssen, pp. 27–38. Oslo: Norsk Musikforlag A/S .

Thoresen, L. Form-building transformations an approach to the aural analysis of emergent musical forms. Web site <http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/showArticle.php?artID=4.3> [12 June 2017]