28 Tempo 5y ail) Z8-38 c 2005 Cambridge University PressDOi: IU.H}17.'S00402982n50flfll36 Printed in the United Kingdom

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE BASS!HARMONY AND TEXTURE INGEORGE BENJAMIN'S 'VIOLA , VIOLA '

Philip Rupprecht

The bass as harmonic and textural forceGeorge Benjamin's rich harmonic imagination was apparent from hisearliest published works. A distinctive chordal sensibility is alreadyevident in the 1978 Piano Sonata, with its glittering streams of five- orsix-pitch clusters; in the hollovi' bell-chords punctuating the 1979orchestral score, Ringed by the Flat Horizon; and in the supreme stasis ofthe A-minor pedal chord (a six-three triad) unveiled by the icy glissandilines opening A Mind of Winter f]981). All three pieces share a fascina-tion with degrees of chordal resonance - the interplay of upper partialsabove a fundamental - and a sensitivity to chords as sound objects.True, Benjamin's style, beginning at least with Antara (1987), has shownsigns of a more linear-contrapuntal orientation, and less reliance onwhat one critic terms 'purely coloristic phenomena'.' Yet one couldequally claim some continuity between the refined harmonic world ofthe early scores and the surprising richness of chordal sonority to beheard in a far more recent arrival, the 1997 duo Viola, Viola.

Viola, Viola draws one's attention to a central concern in Benjamin'smusic: the function of a bass, both in harmonic and textural senses.Harmonically, the traditional or 'classical' bass function evolves fromacoustic givens - the generation of upper partials. third, fifth, orseventh, above a fundamental. Considered texturally, the bass is a foun-dation, a guide for upper voices in a polyphonic texture, Benjaminhimself has spoken publicly about what he terms the 'problem' of thebass. He seeks to evade the rigid hierarchy in the texture that resultsfrom the 'classical' bass, where, as he anthropomorphically puts it.'Everything ahove looks down and says. "You are my master, I followyou". That severely limits the freedom of behaviour ahove. harmoni-cally and melodically'."

My interest here is in Benjamin's distinctive re-imagining of the roleof the bass within a musical texture in two roughly contemporaneousscores: Viola, Viola and in the Third of the Three Inventiom for ChamberOrchestra, completed in 1995. The two works stake out related but insome ways complementary visions of musical texture, tn Viola, Viola,we can hear the composer's conscious and willfu l desire to 'conjure analmost orchestral depth of sound' from the solo string duo.' Thecompositional argument at rimes favors a symmetrical polyphony ofvoices about a central axis pitch, rather than above a bass. As a piecefor two alto-register instruments. Viola, Viola necessarily eschews thebass as a harmonic-textural foundation. Invention 3, on the other hand,defines its textural space with the much more expansive resources of a

' Renaud Machart, 'Survey', in George Hcnjamin (Paris: EJititjns Ircani, ]9-^6, Etiglish trans.London: Faber, 1997), p. 50.

^ George Benjamin, 'Interview with Risto Nicniinen', GeoTgf Benjamin, p. Iii .' Viola, Vii'la. programme note pnnied with the study score (Londiin. Fabcr Music, 1997).

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE BASS: HARMONY AND TEXTURE IN GEORGE BENJAMIN'S 'VIOLA , VIOLA ' 29

Example 1:ViiWii , Viola: reaching tbefitial 'acoustic chorale'

chamber orchestra, albeit one whose distinctive sound-world includessuch exotic interlopers as euphonium and fliigelhorn. Here, the deep-bass register can sound, but it is largely devoid of resonant potential.This bass cannot guide upper voices from below; rather, the musicunfolds in curiously weightless upper-register layers, driven on by arelentless motivic determination. Such textures challenge traditionalconcepts of harmony; yet as 1 hope to show, Benjamin's harmonicuniverse has recognizable laws of its own for determining what shouldhappen above a bass.

The Coda of Viola, Viola offers a good vantage-point from which tosurvey Benjamin's polyphonic textures. It is reached by a climacticplateau, eight minutes into the piece, ruptured suddenly by silence, thestart of the Coda itself {see Example 1, third score system). Here beginsthe "acoustic chorale', a sequence of six- or seven-pitch chords imbuedwith intervallic allusions to the acoustic overtone series. The firstchorale chord, labelled O in Example 2, is a third-based structure deriv-able from an E fundamental. Chord O can be read upwards in stackedthirds. E - G# - B - D - F# - A#, giving a dominant ninth on E, plusA#, the sharp eleventh. Five of the six pitches in the score are stacked asthirds. The exception here is the E fundamental, which is shifted fromthe bass to descant. The next chorale chord, P, presents an identicalsharp-eleventh structure over an A fundamental. Here, though, the roleof the pitch A as theoretic root is more disguised: one must conceive ofthe uppermost trichord (A,C#,E) as somehow 'belonging' below thelower (G,B.D#), the A itself acring as a Rameauian 'supposed' root forthe other five chord tones,' Beyond its registral dislocation, the A pitch'sclaims as theoretic root or acoustic fundamental are complicatedfurther by Benjamin's actual pitch doublings, which reinforce the lowestsounding pitch, G3, with the only doubling in chord P.'

Hi TEMPO

In conventional terms, then, P's chordal bass note is G. while its theo-retic wot. A, is displaced by a process akin to 'chordal inversion'. In bothO and P, the sharp-eleventh complex evokes the eleventh degree (aquarter-tone sharp) of an acoustic overtone series. That perception is inour ears here following the build-up preceding the first acoustic choralechords (Example 1, top system). Listen in particular for the lowest andhighest pitches: the open C-string(C3) in Viola 2. and the high F# (F#6)pedal at the upper boundary of the texture. The final goal of thepassage (chord A in Examples 1 and 2) brings C and F# into close-posi-tion union as (C,E,B[,,F#). Chord A, unlike O and P. lacks fifth and ninth(G and D), but its fundamental, C, is anchored as the lowest-soundpitch. All three chords -O, P and A - have a dominant-seventh-eleventhprofile: a registrally compressed representation, as it were, of acousticpartials 1-11. It is in the "acoustic'profile of these chordal sound-objectsthat one senses both the heritage of Benjamin's early studies withMessiaen and his awareness of the world of French spcctralisme.^Meanwhile, amid this texture of frantic arpeggiation and isolatedchordal verticals, the low-register continuity of a sounding bass - anacoustic 'tundamental'- appears only marginal to polyphonic activity.Much of the aural emphasis has shifted now to a play of upper partials.̂

A:

I /b traie

PaHials

O: P:

Example 2:Acou-stk"' chords of the eleventhwith displaced fundamenlals c/iiasi A

In the acoustic chorale, then, Benjamin's chordal objects evokenatural resonance intervaliically, even while marginalizing traditionallower-register bass functions. Turning now to Benjamin's opening, oneis again aware of a texture lacking the traditional 'gravitational' pull ofa low-register bass. This is because harmonic activity is controlled nowas much from the center of the texture - by mirror-symmetric itiver-sion about a central pitch axis - as from the bass upwards." Parallels betwtm ihe acoustic elements of Benjamins style and those in the works of

Criscy, Murail, c-i at. are easiily overstated. Rir a judidou.s comment, see Graham Lack,'Objects of contemplation and artiticf of design: sonic structures in the music of GeorgeBenjjmm'. Tnnpc 215 (January 2001), pp. 10-14,As Uuk observes of Viola, ViiiJii . 'the voidng of the chords as well as sinjile motifs producesand stren^hens certain upper partials, helpinj; the listener to "home in" on sum and differ-ence tone.s ansing out of the interlocking harmony' ('Objects of contemplation', p. 13i, Suchacoustical L-rtects are maximized also by sheer volume: cf the .^^attacks delineating thedescending [••#-E-D#-C # figure that iiiterv/eaves the sonore verticals ot the chorale proper(after bar 162),

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE BASS: HARMONY AND TEXTURE IN GEORGE BENJAMIN'S 'VIOLA , VIOLA ' 31

Example i:Tuning A, triads, scurrying, anddrone events at the opening

Mirro r symmetry and guiding tritonesFour events at the opening of Viola, Viola (Example 3) collide with oneanother in dizzying succession: a soft 'tuning' A played on threedifferent strings;*̂ C-major triads, triple stopped and suddenly fortis-simo; a ponticello scurrying motive, still prolonging the A pedal; and,last, a harrowing drone, 'rooted' (so to speak) on a low Ep, with a highC#6 above. Four ideas, ten pitch classes (the missing B and G# wiilarrive soon), but one is hard put to ascribe mucb functionality to a'classical' bass, wbetber considering the initial tuning A, or the low El,drone. Is tbis a case of Benjamin's expressed intent to 'get away fromtbe quasi-functionality of the bass line' to a greater 'freedom of behav-iour above','' and if so, wbat are tbe laws governing such bebaviour?

Benjamin s opening controls harmonic and polyphonic progressionnot from below, but instead by reference to a central pitcb axis. Pitcbsymmetries govern all four events of the opening. The scurryingshapes, for instance, trace pitches in mirror-like symmetry about a D4pitcb axis (Example 4(l). Tbese glittering cascades twist back and forthbetween tbe two players, but always tbe patb is from tbe inital A downa fifth to tbe axial D, and then down a mirroring fifth to G.'" The otberevents of tbe opening - the tuning A, triad, and drone - reveal compa-rable pitch-symmetries (Example 4b). Tbe C major triad, added to tbetuning A, pairs two fiftbs (C-G) and (A-E) about an absent G#4 axis.Tbe same axis bisects tbe force field tbat keeps tbe drone pitches E\,and G# in magnetic opposition. In context, then, the music movesfrom the C-major triad to the drone pitches by simple outward expan-sion (arrows mark tbis on the example): up from E5 to C#6 in tbedescant, down from C4 to E|,3 below. These opening symmetriesalways involve tbe same two axes, [!)4 and G#4. Every motion in thepassage result.s from tbe same pairing of pitches about one or otberaxis of inversion."

I DRONE I" Viola I alternates two M pitihi^s, th jt <jf' tht open A-siring, and a stopped A from the D siring;

Viola I presents a third A4 pitch, this one a third partial over D3. stopped on the low C string." Benjamin.'Interview', p. 16.

p p p pp gBenjamin.'Interview', p. 16.The new modal fragment at hars 24 tf. continues to stress D4 as focal pitch. The role ot D4ascentralpitchaxisisgesturally salient later in the opening (at har.W), when the open stringD has a metrical accenl.

'' Symmetry about D and G# pitches can he imagined as A wedgt pattern of pc pairingsBl./F#, B /F. etc.) whose inde.v number (sum) is 4.

6S{A/G.

32 TEMPO

Example 4:Symmecries at the upeninj;.(a) Scurry motive:

mirrdr-symmetryabout axi.s pitch D4;

(b) syniTTii'tdcal outward e.'ipansioncif the pitL"h spaiT betweenthe triads and the drone

(G#4l

AS

IDKdNKI

A sceptic might say Benjamin has replaced one master - the func-tional bass - with a more stringent lawgiver, the central axis pitch.Locked around an immobile G#/D pitch axis, the two violas mightseem like twins inextricably bound,'- But we can hardly restrict ourharmonic analysis to these few bars alone. Benjamin himself, more-over, often stresses his concern with harmonic movement, rather thanstasis. His critique of Messiaen's music is revealing of his own aestheticpriorities: 'the sound is extraordinary - each chord resonates with itsown individuality ... yet the composition remains generally staric in itsmosaic-like ritual."

How then does Benjamin avoid stasis to generate longer-rangeharmotiic movement, if not by traditional bass progression? Simplyput, the answer is: by the guiding movement of tritones in parallelchromatic motion. One more look at the early scurrynig phraseconfirms its foundation in a sequence of parallel tritones (see Example5, letter a). To be more precise, the motive uses three different tritonedyads: dyads (iii ) and (i) here pivot about the D4 axis; dyad (i) thenslides down a half-step to (vi), C/F#. (There are only six possibletritone dyads in equal tempered harmony, as Example 5b displays!. Bytritones, the entire scurrying gesture prolongs the upper tuning A.against which the low E|, drone will emerge as a tritone counterpole.

These early parallel-tritone moves predict the course the music willsoon take, and one might summarize the entire first section of thepiece as a journey between aurally prominent tritone dyads (Example5c). Such a summary makes clear that parallel motion by tritonesgoverns the outer voices of the texture at all key moments. Take theTritone Chords (shown in the score relating to the summarizedpassage, Example 6), for instance. They braid together four dyads - (i),(ii), (iv) and (v) - so exhausting the six-dyad repertory activated previ-ously in the Scurrying motive. As the climax approaches, there is muchinterplay of tritones. but conspicuous avoidance of dyad (vi), C/F#,and the end-goal (at bar 46) is dyad (i). C#/G. Benjamin has in effect'modulated', by parallel tritones. without any traditional bass-articu-lated cadence. In Viola, Viola, parallel chromatic motion amongtritones sustains an exquisite harmonic tension over long stretches ofmusical time.

'^ This interpretation of the duo is legible in the runic lettering ot ihe cover design to the 1WHFaber Musk score, by their frequent designer, S & M Tucker.

'' Benjamin elaborates the point by contrasting his former teacher's music with that of anoth-er Modernist of the same generation, Elliott Carter; 'Carter's music ,.. bears witness to anextraordinary power of continuity and of complex development.̂ - while the sound is oftendry. What is important for Messiaen is what is: for Carter, it's whai iiiip(icu.s' GeorgeBenjamin, Quelques reflexion.s sur le son musical', in Jean Baptistc Barriere. compiler. Leiimbrf. meidptwre poui- Ul comfw^ttion (Paris: Christian Bourgois Editeur/IRCAM, 19911, pp.397-W; my translation.

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE BASS: HARMONY AND TEXTURE IN GEORGE BENJAMIN'S 'VIOLA , VIOLA '

b . in 13 ff.

1

m(iii) ( v i )

( v i ) ( V ) ( i v ) ( i i i ) ( i i ) ( i )

Example 5:Tri tone-gene rated harmonies,III ) Triione dyads in the

Scurrying motive;(b) Ptx'i.'iiblc tritciii e dyad.';

in a 12-pc space;(f) Long-range 'guiding'

critones. Section i

We might pause here to take stock. Benjamin's language evades afunctional bass at the opening by mirror inversion about an axis, andby a guiding progresson of tritone dyads in parallel chromatic morion.The tritone. the archetypal intervallic dissonance in traditionalcadences, is for Benjamin the main harmonic building block. Its 'will toresolve' is not exactly abandoned, but largely evaded: tritones stillsound 'dissonant', but they progress to other tritones. And there is asecond extension of traditional rules: pamlld motion by tritone domi-nates the voice leading, Benjamin has all but banished contrary motionfrom his counterpoint.'''

'•* Trilone-rich harmony might well further sujngeM (he importance of Bcn|atiiin's contactswith Messiden, yet there are notable tnid-2()th-century theoretic precedents; see, e,g,,remarks on progression among tritone chords' in Hindemith's The Craft of MusicalComposmon. Book I iMainz: Schott. 1942, trans. Arthur Mendel), pp. 126- 3t.

.54 TEMPO

CLIMA X

Example 6:The Tritone chords' and thefirst climax (bans 33-46)

Resonance and arrival in the 'acoustic chorale'For much of Viola, Viola, Benjamin minimizes the resonance ofchordal pedals, so maximizing the 'freedom' of upper voices. The aimis dramatic: a tension-hound journey finds repose only in the closing'acoustic chorale' (shown in short score as Example 7), where chordalharmonies arc finally captured, we shall see. as resonant partials over abass voice with the status of an acoustic fundamental.

As I suggested earlier, the first two chorale chords, O and P. disguisethe presence of a root-fundamental by relocating it away from itsexpected hass-register textural position. The work of the remainder ofthe chorale is to achieve harmonic stability and long-range closure byreinstating the functional bass. The ultimate cadence chord, X(repeated twice at chorale's end), is a richly voiced dominant scvcnth-ninth-thirteenth structure over C. Its stability derives from outer-voiceconsonance; a major tenth achieved finally between its bass C3 and theupper-edge E5. How Benjamin reaches this close is quite intricate. Thechorale's work of closure is a necessarily protracted unfolding - anunravelling, even - of tensions familiar in Viola. Viola's much fasterearlier phase. The slow harmonic rhythm is a recognizably spcctralistconcept: as Benjamin himself remarks, speaking of the music of hisfriend Tristan Murail. 'the stranger and more complex a sonority orharmony becomes, the longer the ear needs to hear tt properly'.''

'" Benjamiti, 'Interview, p. 21, The most direct evidence ol' lienjamin'.s spectrahsi interestoccurs in the micnjtonal tunings demanded of acoustic instruments in ^iilara (]yM7), d workwhose electronic segments were realized at IRCAM; cf his remarks in the same interview,pp, in li.

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE BASS! HARMONY AND TEXTURE IN GEORGE BENJAMIN'S 'VIOLA , VIOLA ' 35

Example 7:A closer look at the twelve 'acousiicchorale' chords,(a) The acoustii: chorale': short

score ol' the end of V'uiiii , V'u'/dlomictingtneKidic interpoldtions);

ib) Outer voice mocion in ihcchorale:

U"! Tritone dyads.

hi57 =, O P Q R S T U V W X Y {X) Z (X)

^ — , L 4 B t l . -" LB — ll« , *" i' it • ,.»^ .- p - ..U-. r a-

M l

O P

( I v ) ( i v ) ( iv ) ( Iv

lu j * ' >.

first thing to notice about Benjamin's twelve thoraie chords isthe importance of common tones (shown as open note-heads inExample 7a} for smooth chord progression. Chord ti shares five pcswith T, for instance. Most significant for the ultimate feeling of cadenceis the final X chord: here, for the first time, the low C and high E3 outervoices are at last sounding as common tones in relation to thepreceding chord. Chord X's bass-governed closure also entails a returnof traditional intervallic counterpoint (see level I? in Example 7). Absentnow are the parallel outer-voice motions by 'guiding' tntonc heard inthe opening. Otily once (chord 7̂ do outer voices even sound atritone,'** What is striking about the chorale's outer-voice frame is itsmotion from initial imperfect consonance (the sixths in O and P) togreater dissonance (S-T-U-V). reaching an alternation of consonances,perfect fifth and major tenth, from Wto the end. The bass line from Wto Z alternates C's and F#'s, so reintroducing what was earlier banishedfrom this music: outer-voice counterpoint in contrary motion,

Tritones still dominate this harmony, as earlier in Viola, Viola, butthey no'w move in new ways {Example 7c). Cadence chord X containsthe E/Bj, tritone dyad (iv), also the most frequently represented in thechorale. Chord W, just before, is the only vertical lacking tritones alto-gether in its intervallic makeup; Chord Z, on the other hand, maxi-mizes representation of tritones, three, within its six pitches.'̂ In apiece where tritones saturate the chordal vocabulary, it is fitting thatW, in its role as proto-dominant cadential chord, should exclude thetritone. The textural position of tritone dyads is equally imporcant forhow the chords strike the listener. T, we noted, is the only chord to puta tritone in outer voices. In the majority of verticals, tritones arebraided together, as at P, in registral overlap (in O and Y they remaindiscrete). In the opening of Viola, Viola, we recall, 'guiding tritones'

Chord T of the chorale re-states the third of the Tritone Chords (see hars ?6-371, adding alift h inner-voice pitch, H.1. This subtle btit pitch speciIV return accounts, in part, for thechorale's sense of synoptic recall and formal inevitability.To vcriiy tbese observatiun.s, eiich chord lO / t can be considered as a set of pitch-classes ofdistinctive incervallic content. Such an analysis reveals Benjamin's favouring of 'almost-whole-tone' hexachords, pnme form (013579), within the sequence at chords 0, P, and T.and at Z, of another near identical .set-form. (013679). The first chord type is contained inthe two larger .sonorities of 7 pitches, chords S and L', both forms of 10134579}.

.16 TEMPO

m

Example SJ:T\iT€e Invention!, for Chamher a. tit: bars 117-19;

ABOVE AND BEYOND THE BASS! HARMONY AND TEXTURB IN GEORGE BENJAMIN'S 'VIOLA , VIOLA ' 37

dramatically dominate the texture's outer voices. In the acousticchorale, the all-important E/B[, dyad of chord Vis reached hy a chro-matic convergence of dyads moving (J-to-V; but hraiding-together anda static hass pitch, D#-E{,, deprive these tritone dyads of a palpahle'guiding' role within the polyphony. Whether Benjamin works outsuch intervallic and registral details systematically or arrives at themintuitively by trial and error, the results are chordal sonorities with anunusually rich inner life.

'Curtailin g resonance': a glimpse of Invention 3

More could be said about the chorale in Viola, Viola, especially as aculmination of earlier events. But I want to conclude this discussion hylooking briefly at a rather different musical texture, that of the Thirdof the Three Inventions for Chamber Orchestra (see Example 8),composed just two years before Viola, Viola, in 1995. Here, theharmonic and textural features already mentioned - motion byparallel tritones, the evasion of a functional low-register bass - arereworked in the wider pitch-registral gamut of a chamber-orchestraltexture. Benjamin himself instances Invention 3 as a work in which hesought to 'curtail the resonance' of a traditional functional bass,producing 'a harmonic texture where the higher registers are freer'.''*Even just glancing at the score, evidence of this non-resonant bass isnot hard to discover. In a passage building towards the work's violenthighpoint (Example 8fl) the activity clusters toward the upper reachesof the texture: in the trumpet-woodwind melody, rich in abrasivesemitonal doublings, in the relentless triplet-filigree that is its back-drop: and in the strings' natural harmonics.

118

Pice. I

114

—• Mm

I l l | 4 | | t n | | i o |

| 4 | 1

= f e ^

Example 8b:Details of interval doublings

Notice that the glassy upper partials in viola and cello offer the onlyprominent perfect-fifbh dyads to be heard. Perusal of doubling inter-vals elsewhere in the texture (Example 8b) shows an unpredictablebevy of mostly chromatic rising lines. The descending tritones familiarfrom Viola, Viola here trace a ghostly middleground, accented dynam-ically. Bass events here - in euphonium, harp, celesta, pizzicato strings- do not act as a foundations for upper voices.

'Interview', pp, 16. 18.

38 TEMPO

Messiaen once critiqued Benjamin's harmony for being too 'diffusedin the music', a comment his former pupil felt to be accurate, but odd:'For me the harmony must be lost inside the form, inside the argumentand texture of the music','" Analysis of those harmonic arguments,and particularly of their weightless, nearly 'bass-less' textures, mayhelp one grasp just what the two composers had in mind.

Mu.sical examples from Viola. Viola and TJirtv Imvnion.i i; l'J'J7 by l-'aber Music Ltd,