MILENA BOZHIKOVA - Books
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BOZHIKOVA, M. Vassil Kaznadjiev, Sofia, 1999, pp. 440.
Note: I express my special gratitude to:
- The “Pro Helvetia” Swiss Foundation for Culture and to its
representatives in Sofia and Zurich, owing to whose decisive and timely
assistance the present monograph is published.
- The Center for Music and Dance with the Ministry of Culture whose officers were the first to support the publication of the book.
- Gega New LTD and personally to its Managing Director, Mrs. Juliana Marinova, for the fine gesture to the artist to whom the present publication is dedicated.
SUMMARY
He has always been extremely precise. He chased and completed to the fullest extent his intentions. And with his intelligence and tenacity both as conductor and composer he worked out most precisely the details of a composition. And this is of great importance for me. Though only a detail, the detail is of great significance for the whole, which is but a collection of details. My works have been performed under the baton of many conductors, still I am most at ease when Vassil is conducting as, along with his other qualities, his life is very clear, very precise. To put it in a nutshell, Vassil is a vivid personality who has left and will continue to leave his trace in Bulgaria's art of composition and performing (Nikolov 1994).
In order to be an art, an art should possess motion, direction, trend;
it should contrast and include all these within itself. This is what he
was very successful in doing.
Vasko is expressive. He is able to understand those situations,
the late Romantic ones. (Silyanovski 1994)
I. SONORAL SYSTEM
Says Vassil Kazandjiev: “I do not work according a definite system.
I wouldn't limit myself to a given doctrine or a modal system. Especially
in the last 10-15 years. In no case do I aim at a specific tonal harmony.
On principle, in all my periods I have acted intuitively and have used
various devices, tonal included. According to the occasion and the situation.
I still consider that my most original work is "The Living Icons".
It is the most independent, the least influenced, the purest in terms of
style and ideas. My Third Symphony also contains a biographical moment,
but it is related to the contrast of states which I have in my mind, in
my psyche, rather than to my life in general. The movements of the symphony
show the final points of these states: the first movement is dynamic, the
second, static, the third is lively, with a tempestuous release of energy,
it took me the longest to write. I think that the three of them, independent
of each other both in terms of content and mood, characterize me as a personality.
When composing I have no specific idea about the intervals. I imagine
the music as a spatial idea. I can imagine a subito p, sforzando or crescendo
as an outburst of a super-nova star which shrinks after that but before
turning into a black hole gradually begins emitting radiance... I have
always imagined orchestral sonority as situated in space rather than in
time. Like different planes or geometrical figures, which meet, clash,
go astray and burst out.”
Kazandjiev’s sonoral system borrows forms from the precise serialization
and the principle of uniqueness and distinctiveness of the structural units,
on the one hand, and from the occasional search of equivalence in the tonal
correlation, on the other hand.
The participation of tones has not only a phonic meaning but also determines,
to some extent, the form and duration of the sonoral block (by including
all the twelve tones or part of them). This principle of construction of
the sonoral blocks is also repeated on a compositional level. His sonoral
system can be compared to the principle of entropy and independence of
the blocks. The principles of entropy and potential mobility (a possibility
to re-plan the blocks, typical of the serial organization) are a characteristic
feature of his style.
Kazandjiev’s sonoral technique (on textural and syntactical level,
as material) is considered according to the following parameters:
1. Sound
2. Horizontal and vertical complexes
3. Texture
4. Functionality and links.
Kazandjiev’s sonoral system is based on the following sound idiom:
1. The separate tone has a dual meaning. With its pitch position the
tone functions in the modal complexes or in the filling of the pointillist
field and the chromatic scale. In other cases, the tone has the meaning
of a specific color, with a register, timbre, articulation, stroke, dynamics
of its own - that is why complete tonal complexes are accepted with their
phonic and sound semantic meaning, rather than with their interval structure.
From them, we could mention the “bell sound” so frequently used by Kazandjiev,
one of the sound symbols of which are the fourth and fifth chords (possibly
with added tones).
2. “Organic colour”. This is the color incidental to each interval
and chord combination.
3. Reversed idiom - in order to expand the range of sound units, the
author utilizes different non idiomatic instrumental sounds parallel to
the chromatic scale: by means of specific techniques of sound production,
micro-chromaticism, non-specific registers, instrumental sounds.
4. The timbre imitations, adaptation of the instruments timbre and
the manner of sound production to the desired sound effect, are also a
non idiomatic device in the sonoral technique related to the specific characteristics
of the instruments.
5. The “color of movement” is also a device for sound transformation.
This is one of the devices Kazandjiev resorts to on very rare occasions
only. This timbre allusion denotes a specific imagery; it is associated
with the feeling of tragedy (used in separate episodes of “Apocalypse”,
“The Living Icons”, as well as in the beginning of “Poco a poco”)
6. Synthetic color, macro tones, “timbre sound” are generalizing definitions
of a sound unit which is a result of the fusion of all expressive parameters,
characterized by compactness and textural volume. The sound and timbre
homogeneity or heterogeneity can be completed by opposed alea and metrically
organized layers (Second Symphony, 3rd movement).
Complexes
A. Horizontal structures
The working out of the horizontal structures, except for the cases
when they do not determine the texture, takes them out of the context in
which their sound content has a meaning. And still, in order to clarify
their function in the sound block, their consideration on a morphological
level is necessary. The sonoral material can be reduced to the following
spatial forms (cf. Makligin 1985: 100):
ONE PART FORMS Point
Dispersion
Line
MANY PART FORMS Spot
Stream
Layer
Other criteria are introduced in the characterization of the forms:
in terms of articulation, melody, intervals. After planning the specific
material, its arrangement and the criteria for this are chosen according
to the sound and forms which the material offers.
B. Vertical structures
The harmonic combinations in Kazandjiev’s music arise as a result of
the following:
1. Establishing a synchrony between the parts;
2. Imitation of patterns, figures, timbres;
3. Participation in a common sonorous space;
4. Linear harmony;
5. Unification on the basis of twelve-tone field of chord.
Functionality and links
The new functionality in Kazandjiev’s music shows definitely an opposing
reconsideration of the main functions of the whole and the positioning
of opposite functional accents towards the supposed classical forms of
“stable” and “unstable”. The timbre and textural stasis which would suggest
stability in a traditional composition in Kazandjiev’s sonoral system can
express accumulated energy, stimulus for movement and, vice versa, the
finale - in ‘free improvisation’ so characteristic of him, the last stage
of aleatoric participation, of lack of synchrony, of definiteness, disagreement,
“over ensemble dissonance” - performs the function of conclusion.
In every composition of his Kazandjiev “encloses” specific sound
space and demonstrates both being into it and mental and sound nullification
of its boundaries. His leaving the limited space is stable and normative
and the static's is unstable and requires overcoming.
These functional relations are active in part of Kazandjiev’s
works. On rare occasions (“Apocalypse”, Piano Quintet) the quiet cadences,
also presented as a sort of half expressed statements on a different plane,
have final function.
In the conditions of the sonoral field even the consonance does
not bear the feeling of functionality. The C-major triad in the climax
of “Apocalypse” is perceived not as a “tonic solution” of the non tempered
instability but rather as the lowest degree of tension; it is perceived
with its colouristic value, rather than with its functional one.
Functional differentiation of main and secondary, leading line
and “bundle” or background, outlined timbre and uniform sound mass, etc.,
can arise on the textural level as well.
In “Dialogues” the function of a theme is acquired by a specific
motive which is not constant in sound content but is stable in its direction
of movement.
The role of a central element in the sonoral system is acquired
by completely different forms in comparison with other systems. As in every
sonoral composition the syntax has been individualized, the centering moment
can be found even outside the sound system. With Kazandjiev it is born
by an idea postulate for the organization of the material. The composer
starts from a specific idea, maintained throughout the complete work, adapting
the sound material according to the idea, e.g. illumination, impulse, bell
chime, poco a poco, reflections, dialogues, cases in which the central
element is a textural unit, a three-dimensional sign, a rhetoric figure.
On a compositional level in Kazandjiev’s works there are active
two hierarchical principles which observe a specific system of connection:
it can be performed through addition or mutation. In the first case forms
of static blocks of equal function are formed (“Impulses”, the second movement
of the Wind Quintet, Second Symphony, etc.), creating “plane hierarchy”
in which the organization of the whole “number of subsystems can be infinitely
big” (Meyer 1967: 310). (It should be noted that the variations from the
epochs of Baroque and early classicism as well as the rondo and the ritornello
forms are based on hierarchy of this type; this is a fact bringing evidence
to the closeness of the two epochs.) In the second case, modulating, continual
and directed forms are formed gradually (e.g. “Apocalypse”, “Illuminations”,
the first movement of Third Symphony, etc.) in which the tendency for differentiation
is weaker and is achieved mainly through textural means, through elimination
of caesuras concurrent in all parts (this type is defined by L. Meyer as
an “intricate” or spiral like” hierarchy).
II. MODALITY
1. Modality - organization and stylization
The inclusion of modality as one of the earliest modal forms completes
Kazandjiev’s compositional system. The existing link between the two types
of organization does not originate only from their parallel or close historical
direction but also from the functioning of the systems in Kazandjiev’s
music through one another. The modes are treated as an element of the sonoral
system and as a necessary color at a certain moment; they serve as an onomatopoeic
device, as a means for the creation and imitation of a type of imagery
(e.g. in the characteristic form of bell sonorities), for depicting a given
historical epoch through a sound atmosphere or of genres and techniques
of music making (e.g. reconstruction of the medieval or folk musical expression).
Together with this the modal organization is presented in specific forms
- poli-modality, modal variability, “mode without scale” (term of Alexiev,
1986), a whole tone trichord or tetrachord whose selection is grounded
on the sonoral moment. Both methods in Kazandjiev’s system of composition
are used as a means of stylistic presentation.
The types of modal technique are in close connection and relation
not only with the sonoral system but also with the twelve-tone technique:
the modal changeability and poli-modality determine a common twelve tonal
space.
The modal organization in Kazandjiev’s music is an important
component in his compositional system. It is directed to the recreation
and stylization of the Bulgarian musical tradition, of folk and church
Slavonic music, sound atmosphere, instrumental timbres, genres, melodic,
intonation, form determining, etc. This is carried out in the following
forms of the modal scale:
1. THEME - IMAGE -repeated several times (like the theme from
the first movement of “The Living Icons”).
2. SCALE - designed for textural complementarily in a texture
of melodies with a specific color, a component of an overall sound field
(e.g. parts I - IV of “The Living Icons”), or scales constructing a complete
twelve-tone field on the principle of complementing (3rd movement “C” of
Second Quartet).
3. MODE - which, together with its derivative variants, structures
the overall texture of the work (the whole tone tetrachord from “Psalms
and Rituals”).
4. MODAL FORMULAE - free and independent of one another or from
a common scale system which constantly metabolize (“Pictures from Bulgaria”,
parts 1 and 4).
The forms of modality determine its functions in Kazandjiev’s
compositional system: colouristic (as an element of his sonoral technique),
modal and form determining.
2. Sonoral function of the mode
The mode with Kazandjiev is a kind of sonoral substance which
can appear in three specific contents:
a) with tones from the tempered scale;
b) with the participation of micro-chromaticism;
c) with the participation of ecmelics (“mode without scale”).
The mode is “deindividualised” in the sonoral texture; it represents
a line without an independent melodic and modal meaning, a part of a sonoral
group, a kind of “modal imitation”. A specific type of sonority is stylized
through a modally organized group: of a folk instrument, chime of bells,
a song genre (e.g. No. 54 from part 1 of “The Living Icons”).
3. System determining modal function
“Psalms and Rituals” are written in this modal technique in which
the mode is the source of scale versions. The metabola is the main form
for expansion of the modi. The total organization on modi has subjected
to itself the initial sonoral block: it has been written in “mode without
scale” consisting of six sonoral articulation units, like models
in an aleatorically organized texture. Both the horizontal and vertical
modal organization of this ecmelic episode has been transferred to the
whole work. Through mutations (the first stage and addition of subtonic
tone) the whole tone tetrachord produces its variants - major, Eolian.
The following kinds of modal techniques are observed in Kazandjiev’s
work: a) change of modal position;
b) change of modes - gradual or abrupt
c) polimodality.
4. Modal formula and form determining modal function
The modal formula (a group of tones with a modal characteristics
of their own, performing a structural role in the musical form, Koutev,
1988:121) in Kazandjiev’s music is the main structural and textural
element. A criterion for the prevailing of one of the functions is not
only the tonal composition and the type of the formula, but mainly the
sound effect again. Thus, different functions are attributed to the modal
formula: of a basic material and sonorous background (as a complementary
unit); in the first case the form consists of modal entities and in the
second, of sonorous complexes. In the functional separation thus indicated,
there lies the similarity and difference between the sonoral technique
and the modal organization in folklore, between two improvisational types:
the modal formula and the aleatoric model. If we also add the early folklore
principles of intonation and the participation of non tonal material in
them, then the formula technique will be accomplished not only with tonal
material. One ecmelic configuration of “mode without sound arrangement”
could have the same function.
In such a case we can accept as modal formulae both the aleatoro-sonoral
models from the beginning of “Psalms and Rituals” and all similar sound
figures (e.g. the models from “In modo schezoso”, “Illuminations”, “Apocalypse”,
etc.).
In the sonoral whole the modal formula does not keep its modal
characteristic and is governed by the laws of sonoral harmony. With the
modal and form determining significance of the modal formula the choice
of intonations mainly due to the phonic effect is preserved. It is for
this reason, on the one hand, and the lack of temperation, modal and structural
mobility typical of Bulgarian music, on the other hand, that the tonal
content of the modal formulae varies within its limits.
Non-song elements, music-etymologically explained with earlier
forms of music-making, have also influenced the content of the modal formulae.
This explains the ecmelic deviation of tones, the inner changeability of
the modal formula, their ending in the form of “shouting out”, ascending
or descending glissando, the “circulation” in a small ambitus - reminiscent
of the recitative forms, mixture of the tonal content of the modal formulae
with the spoken nature - with touches, glissando, flageolets.
III. DODECAPHONIC TECHNIQUE
1. Dodecaphonic reflections
Kazandjiev's music which completely lacks the "Webernesque" type of
dodecaphonic and serial organization, uses the following two methods: of
"stylistic quotation" and of selection of separate characteristics in the
environment of another compositional technique. The introduction of twelve-tone
and serial forms is carried out in a way which depends on a central criterion
(and basic stylistic feature in his music), that of the sonoral effect.
The non serial dodecaphonism is part of a broader sonoral specter, and
hence it is treated as a timbre organization, as a means of creating a
specific phonic effect, rather than as sound pitch (although it is not
such on a morphological level). The participation of the twelve-tone scale
in Kazandjiev's sonoral system has the following characteristics:
1) out of the sequence he has chosen such a series which provides
“radical irreversibility” and “total unpredictability”. The two principles
of non repetition of a tone or a touch and their second arrangement have
a co-ordinating function in the use of the twelve-tone scale. At the same
time, the twelve-tone character as it is has no substantial significance,
that is why the vertical and horizontal complexes may consist of 8 to 11
tones, i.e. incomplete fields and consonances;
2) dodecaphonic technique, combined with ecmelic - in vertical
or horizontal position;
3) ‘alternated’ twelve-tone character with a relatively precisely
or imprecisely marked micro-chromaticism.
Parallel to that direct participation in Kazandjiev's sonoral
system, dodecaphony is indirectly reflected in it by determining the inner
structure of the form. Firstly, the sonoral blocks, vertically determined
sound sections, possess the same degree of independence as the tones from
the series, i.e. the sonoral composition can be interpreted as a series
of macro units. Secondly, the shifting of the static elements of the sonoral
block is similar to the various serial forms, i.e. shifting of textural
layers, intra-sectional permutations. Thirdly, in a serial composition
the separate parameters have "a life" of their own and thus are individually
organized into series; and this is analogic to the combination of different
in nature sounding units in the sonoral texture, in which each type of
sound production can have an order of organization of its own. For example,
the tonal sphere can have a principle of arrangement of its own and the
ecmelism, intermingled with it, another one (as it is in Movement 1 of
"Perspectives"). And fourthly, similar to the dodecaphonic form is the
stage like construction of the sonoral composition with the only difference
in the fact that the latter can demonstrate greater fluency in sound
and structure.
Considering Kazandjiev's twelve-tone technique as an element
of his sonoral system it becomes necessary for it to be artificially separated
from the non tempered sounds and noises equal to it in the context.
The only composition in which the twelve-tone technique is leading,
rather than complementing the sonoral system and the scale of sonorities,
is Sonata for Piano (1959). For it Kazandjiev has always used terms like
“strict dodecaphony” or “strict serialism”. The defining term “strict”,
however, can be considered true and appropriate only if it has been the
result of comparison with other composition of Kazandjiev's, i.e. it is
only indicative of a method and dependence on grammatical rules.
2. Group composition
Compared with some forms of dodecaphony, the group method is
the closest to the twelve-tone fields but the specific type of relations
between them gives us grounds to determine this method namely as a group
method and the structural units, as groups. In the theoretical explanation
of the method made by Stockhausen (Stockhausen 1963:218) the group may
function as a structural unit not only of a tonal sequence but can also
mark a rhythmical sequence or a sonoral field.
After the relatively strict handling of the twelve tones - according
to Kazandjiev’s words and demonstrated in his Piano Sonata - has found
its continuation as a component in the sonoral system in a freer aspect,
yet without a change in the method, the general definition as “group” will
not contradict either the approach itself or the system in which it appears
as a unit.
3. “Sonoral twelve-tone character” (“tempered sonority”)
To one extent or another, in all of Kazandjiev’s compositions
without exception dodecaphony is an additional rather than a basic factor,
complementing the sonoral system. That is why the extra contextual separation
of tones from ecmelic aims at observing the treatment of the twelve-tone
fields and groups in a wide range of sounds. The composer's First String
Quartet is an example of this. In it the tempered scale is part of a far
broader gradation (discernible by the ear or not) of sonorities which,
like the dodecaphonic method, sticks to the principle of gradual enumeration
and non repetition. Kazandjiev’s dodecaphonic organization has been reduced
to the two main functions of the tonal harmony: sonoral and centering.
In the first case the objective is to make a contrast to the ecmelic episodes
with a tonally organized field in a specific register; in the second, the
temperated scale with its contrasting sonority is a stabilizing factor
in the system of sonoral articulation.
3.1. “Circular field” and “sonant chromaticism”
The principle of hemitonic has been observed as semi tonality
without exceptions in some cases and as second in general, in others, and
creates a phenomenon which can be defined as “circular field” or “circular
chain of seconds”. The movement is carried out as a second enumeration
in a chosen tonal field until the circle is closed. The distances between
the tones are gradual (with some exceptions), without taking into consideration
the difference in the registers.
Kazandjiev does not require melodic, “linear’ expressiveness
but rather aims at vivid sonority through “the organic coloring” of the
second seventh and ninth intervals which are combined with the specific
timbres from the non-traditional sound formation of the string instruments.
What is meant by speaking about a total second character in a system non-functional
for the interval is a sequence in degree of sonant characteristics, features
close or remote to the sonant.
The second part of the quartet has been written completely in
such chromatic intervals (on the principle of hemitonic).
3.2. Tonal segments and sonoral complexes
In all cases Kazandjiev separates the dodecaphonic fields in
segments consisting of two or three tones. This fact, taken separately
from the remaining conditions of dodecaphonic realization, repeats the
segmentation of the series in the new-Vienna and post-Webern serialism.
Without making parallels with the strictness of the method with composers
like Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, Babitt, etc. the common moment in the
separation of the twelve-tone scale is sought for. The two- or three-tone
groups in Kazandjiev do not impose limitations like these of the segments
in a serial composition. In fact one can go further to compare the
role of invariant for motive development with the growth of thematicism
from a motive kernel (in Beethoven, for example). There is such grouping
of tones in all of Kazandjiev’s works and in the considered First Concerto.
It is only due to the “rule” of linking of neighboring tones or semi-tones,
i.e. the cohesion of seconds as a constantly acting principle. An interesting
example of symmetry of two-tone and three-tone segments is the coda of
the third movement of the Quartet: the symmetry is obtained between four
twelve-tone strings in different meter. The viola and violoncello parts
are reminiscent of the perfect forms of this technique in musical literature,
in Webern of the polyphony of the rigid style.
And finally, one can summarize the forms of the twelve-tone technique
in Kazandjiev's music. As a means of consecutive converting of space, as
an ingredient component in the sonoral texture, the twelve-tone scale is
organized in the following:
1. The twelve-tone field, combining the three dimensions of the
tonal transportation (horizontal, vertical, diametrical); it can be complete
and incomplete (Quartet No. 2, 2nd movement; Sonata for Piano, Virtuoso
Studies, 3rd movement) it is possible also to form parallel tonal fields
("Dialogues”, X).
2. Twelve-tone aggregate, achieved through vertical combination
of several patterns (Quartet No. 1, 3rd movement - Coda, Quartet
No. 2, E).
3. Twelve-tone sequence with the function of sonoral line, rather
than of melodic structure (variations for Orchestra, Sonata for Piano,
Quartet No. 2, 4th movement).
4. Alternative dodecaphony (expanded micro-chromaticism) - "The
Living Icons", Crucifixion, No. 70, Quartet No. 2, 3rd movement - solo
cello.
5. Twelve-tone vertical - stable (Illuminations", O, No. 2),
migrating ("Festive Music", end of Section 2 - ascending shift of several
octaves).
6. Tonal-sonoral aggregate (Piano Quintet, Nos. 28, 30, 31).
The principles of serial organization find their place in Kazandjiev's
technique without being connected/related to dodecaphony (in European tradition
at the beginning of the 1950s existed the practice of relating the principles
of serial composition to the interval system - micro intervals, irregular
intervals, complex sounds; this is what Paul Griffiths wrote about the
music of Boulez and Pousseur (Griffiths 1981:46).
Examples of non tonal serialism with Kazandjiev are:
- ecmelic sequences from the beginning of "Festive Music";
- free principle of transportation of various interval groups
(Sonata for Piano, 2nd movement);
- permutation of tones and groups ("Illuminations", "Poco a poco"),
as well as of timbres (Symphony No. 2, 3rd movement).
FORMS
Interpreting Kazandjiev’s forms as a logic of development, as expressive
devices, as organization on a factural, syntactic and compositional level
one can define the generalizing category of “open forms”. Kazandjiev’s
forms are not abstracted from the processes of the 20th century; doubtlessly,
they are a product of these trends, that is why their interpretation as
such makes possible to explain them in a stylistic unity.
Kazandjiev’s open system, which after the 1960s meant aleatoric
treatment of all parameters, is inevitable and is a result of a characteristic
of his musical perception - his thinking in terms of colors, in sonoral
entities, spots, blocks, and “tuning” his expressive means in synchrony
with the color nuances.
Apart from the mobile forms - in “The Triumph of the Bells”,
“In modo scherzoso”, “Complexi sonori”, which are open in a sense “less
metaphorical and more concrete” (in Eco’s words about works of this kind,
Eco 1979: 17) - polysemy and openness unequivocally exist both with respect
to the forms structures and the compositional elements. In Kazandjiev the
choice and positioning of the material are determined by the logic of open
flow:
1. As early as the level of the sound selection there is a clear-cut
mark between tone and noise, between strictly determined and non determined
sound matter, between fixed and free forms between single and complex sounds.
2. Kazandjiev organizes the tone material in two ways - in specific
tonal groups-modi and in twelve-tone groups and fields, i.e. in non-centred
systems. Thus the existing separate units, outside the familiar principles
of order are freely positioned in all spatial dimensions, without being
limited by cause-result relations. The dynamic principle assists in “opening”
the pitch space aiming at the establishment of a harmonic system which
is neither strictly observed twelve-tone organization, nor strictly organized
modal system. It all depends on the sonoral context.
3. From the sounds which cannot be graded by stage there appear
complex forms - sonoral, tonal, mixed, the difference among which exist
due to the numerous possibilities for choosing and combining the elements.
4. The freedom of structuring is achieved in the aleatoric technique.
It provides a constant flexibility of the sound flow.
5. Kazandjiev interprets individually the open form: he treats
all his sound subjects as part of the whole eventful space from which he
“draws” the necessary material and to which he comes back at a point. The
“open” cadences and finales are indicative of this. The principle of mono
dramaturgy determines the forms in Kazandjiev’s works, The forms are like
vector constructs, synchronized in their direction, without reprise. The
two main types of forms are developed as open structures: in the first
case these are the dynamic crescendo forms and in the other case, forms
on the principle of addition or, to put it in another way, these are the
asymmetrical and endless forms.
Influenced by the nature of the material, by the direction of
the form to ascending contour are even the cases when Kazandjiev purposefully
sticks to the dialectics of some traditional forms. The result is a dynamisation
of the reverse and leading to symmetry classical logic, to “quasi” type
forms, called so, as in some cases symbols, defined by the composer, create
association for the type form (e.g. the sonata form in the 1st movement
of Second Symphony or the rondo form in “Dialogues”.
6. The stylistic closeness with the folk music making, with every
traditional collective work - poli-variant and expressed in open constructions,
does not contradict Kazandjiev’s system of expressive means and perhaps
has, to some extent, influenced his choice (the language harmony, on its
part, would adapt contrasting forms too).
The question about the form, about the architectonic of the work is
for me of utmost importance. You cannot give a recipe for that; every composer
constructs his/her music in a unique manner. I regard the form as a process:
it can not be static or represent and abstraction. In fact, it is a development.
In my music its determining is parallel to the idea about sonority. And
the idea of the sound picture is connected with the movement, the development.
Still, I have an initial idea as to what the work as a whole
would look like: as a moos, as a sound picture, as movement and development
of the music. I cannot speak of dramaturgy in the truest sense, as it offers
an action of a certain type with an inner interaction. In my music it is
a different principle - of comparing the episodes instead of counterpoising
them.
Some external conditions or instructions do far not guide the perfection
of the form. It can be frightfully non proportional, “crooked”, and still
it can convey precisely the required expressiveness. This is valid not
only of the second half of the 20th century. As early as in Mozart all
constructions are asymmetrical
Similar constructions are not rare for the first half of the
20th century as well. The music of Shostakovich is utterly asymmetrical,
yet is seems that it has been constructed “in the German manner”
and is classically harmonious.
The modern composer is faced by an ocean of different means and techniques
and has to find the true path. And the true part is sincerity. This is
the feeling the modern composer senses as true and that has to be reincarnated
in sounds and notes. Still I think that it is high time we stop experimenting
as everything has already been discovered; and at a moment we should start
writing music for the people as it is meant for them, not for the Martians.
In this respect the example set by the masterpieces is the most instructive.
If we can get closer to Vivaldi's simplicity and clarity, for example,
or
to the masterful creations of the pre classics or of Mozart and Haydn,
that would be the best. I do not think that it was easy for them to fulfill
the three functions. Quite the contrary, this is even more difficult as
these three functions restrict the author's mind and imagination. But in
one case or another, these are achievements at which each creative artist
should aim. “ (Kazandjiev)
The forms in Kazandjiev’s works can be grouped in the following
manner with the basis of the pyramid being the traditional types:
- moment forms
- mobile forms
- sonoral forms by the methods of stratification and polarization
- forms created by analogy of the traditional types (called renewed
traditional forms).
1. MOMENT FORMS
All works by Kazandjiev directly or indirectly, on a syntactic or compositional
level, acquire the specific features of this form. It characterizes not
only the compositions which, similar to pointillism in the sound-pitch
organization with its separate points, contrasting and unlinked in space,
consist of the alternation of equal sound complexes. Aphoristically said,
paraphrasing an idea of Cage regarding the behavior of sounds, “the sound
moments live within and for themselves”. Such moment forms “of a pure kind”
(as clearly articulated sections) are the Wind Quintet, 1st movement, the
First String Quartet, 2nd movement, Symphony of Timbres, “Impulses”, “Strophes”,
“Episodes”, “Illuminations”.
Even in the “non-moment” architectonic of the form one can discover
traces of the moment form with respect to the sound uniformity of the music
flow. In these cases (represented by “Poco a poco”, Piano Quintet, “Apocalypse”,
“Reflections”, “Silhouettes”, Sonata for Violoncello, etc.) it is a method
of organization of the music material on the syntactic level while on the
compositional level, in conformity with the distribution and relation of
the moments, there appears another form: two-part, pyramid like, moving
in crescendo, sonata, rondo. This fact bears witness to the fact that complete
equality, static of the movements and full discontinuity are not possible
to exist. The moment form is exhausted on the image structural level as
an organization of the musical flow in the form of “non-linear progression”
(term of Kramer, Kramer 1978:189).
Generally speaking, the total participation of the moment-form
in Kazandjiev’s works has two spheres of action: as form and as method.
The titles of the compositions give the beat orientation; they create associations
with the form built of fragments.
According to the differentiation of moments and moment-groups in "Poco
a poco" there form a moment-form on a syntactic level and two-section form,
on compositional level. The form of the work is organically fused with
the instrumental composition, with the idea and the model. This "two section
moment form" consists of a phase of rhythmical moments and a phase of sonorous
moments: the one is built by the percussion instruments with varied rhythmical
effects and clear-cut articulation, the other, by the sound, the technical
and timbre resources of the organ which influence the fusion, the integrity
of the block, or the perfect continuum. The specific characteristic of
the instrumental composition influences the form (as dia-synchronic congruence
and unity). And this proves the already pointed out link of the timbre
with the construction in this type of form-moments.
The "poco a poco" principle is represented in the wave-dynamic
construction (sonoral accumulation in the first stage and rhythmical accellerando
in the second stage) like a transition of the static of the sonoral spot
in dynamics of the rhythmical acceleration. Even the distribution in moment-groups
takes place on the basis of the sonoral accumulation or rhythmical acceleration
of fragments of similar outline. "Poco a poco" is also present in the very
idea for drawing the rhythmical out of the sonoral, of the movement out
of the outline. The arrangement of the moments according this criterion
creates and ascending "chromaticism of sonoral and rhythmical intensities
in a range from the single sound to the tone cloud, to the vertical and
diagonal clusters.
”I am not aiming at general dramaturgy, this is my objective - the lack
of dramaturgy. The episodes are to be independently constructed, each of
them should be followed by a new one, differently constructed. What is
interesting, according to me, is their comparison. There should be logic
in the linking of the constructs. I am not looking for an extensive development.
Only “Apocalypse” has been conceived as a uniform structure. The work is
like a permanent crescendo, a condensation of sound, inner motion. With
the others this occurs very rarely.
Undoubtedly, I am interested in the flow of time, yet I think
that the juxtaposing rather than the counterpoising is what matters more
for me. It is like the Mozart’s principle. It can also lead to development,
not in the familiar dramatic way but rather in a more static, more sublime,
emotional, sentimental approach. Not through a dramatic clash but rather
through juxtaposing different states”.
2. MOBILE FORMS
Three of Kazandjiev’s works - “The Triumph of the Bells”, “In
modo scherzoso” for wind quintet and “Complexi sonori” for string orchestra
are written as mobile forms. In the three works the degree of “non-definedness”
of the form and the unexpectedness of the sound material is different.
It is dependent on the author's text liberated to a different extent and
on the composition of performers.
If on the basis of practice we try to find a gradation of the
factors "composed - improvised - sound result", these three works by Kazandjiev
will be placed differently. Konrad Boehmer's five variants can be used
for orientation (Boehmer 1966:128).
Kazandjiev's compositions of aleatoric form can be related to
the last three stages.
In "The Triumph of the Bells" the mobile form is restricted within
its end points while the arrangement of models in the set frame is free.
The tonal composition, touch, tempo, dynamics and imagery order are determined
to a considerable degree while the aleatoric moments are limited; they
refer to the approximate number of repetitions of the melodic figures,
to the clusters within a given volume and register, to the rhythmical accelerandos
and diminuendos and to the caesuras.
"Complexi sonori" belongs to the following stage although only
five out of the total twenty-five models are undetermined in terms of sound-pitch.
With the freedom of choice given to every performer the ensemble result
makes the piece unique in sounding. When the form is too far away from
the author's text and the author's requirements are simply its construction
material, Earl Brown uses the term "conceptual mobility". With it the form
can be very unsimilar to the original and may lead to another individual
and original composition.
With some reservation "In modo scherzoso" falls in the last group
as it can include and far more abstract musical propositions as, for example
Stockhausen's compositions the main condition in which is the "impetuous,
instinctive performance". In Kazandjiev's work six out of the total thirty
models are with a specific pitch. The remaining models contain approximate
instructions for the register, the rhythm and dynamic while all the other
parameters are left to the performers' judgment. As in the other works,
the author has not limited either the form or the duration so that they
can be freely chosen.
3. SONORAL COMPOSITIONS
STRATIFIIED AND INTERPOLATED FORMS
Two factors act on the composition of the form in the sonoral
compositions to which the greater part of Kazandjiev's works belong, especially
in the period from the beginning of the 60s to his latest work "Mirages"
(1997): the quality of the sound material and the distribution of the timbre
structural units in space and time. While the moment forms and the mobile
forms include constructions which underline the isolation and the poli-functionality
of the sonoral moments ignoring the links and the cause-result relations
as preliminarily invented, in the other works of this or other manner of
construction or organization of the material in time there act specific
segmenting and uniting factors. For the mobile and moment forms there exist
criteria with respect to the sounding material and the harmonic system
organizing it: the sonoral technique is not a condition for them, they
can also be written as non sonoral. That is why prototypes of the moment
forms can be discovered with Debussy, Stravinsky, Webern, and with Boulez
and Stockhausen one can find prototypes of the mobile forms written in
serial technique.
Stockhausen's classification of forms in which they figure under
the term "statistical", i. e. collective, complex, quantitatively organized
forms and method (Stockhausen 1963:198) gives us ground to differentiate
a category of sonoral compositions for some of Kazandjiev's works. It is
not impossible, however, some works to combine the form defining principles
of the sonoral compositions which are determined by the concepts of stratification
and interpolation, fragmentation, separation, independence of structures
or with the principles of mobility. In the sonoral compositions the main
form defining factor is the timbre-sound change: the formation of sonoral
entities, their combination and juxtaposition, the changes and the sonoral
flows from which the form acquires its individual, non typical "diagram".
The “moving” of the material determining the specific kind of
the sonoral compositions is carried out through the two structural approaches
- stratification and interpolation. These are the markings for the forms
layers (the type of crescendo constructions) and forms with sudden changes
which still preserve the initial idea in them suggested by Mary Wennerstron
about the 20th century music (Wennerstrom 1975:47). The indicated principles
of arrangement can bring contradictory results: from the known types to
such which are not associated with the traditional models.
Kazandjiev’s forms prove to be dependent on the compositional
technique, on whether the dodecaphonic or modal techniques influences the
sonoral organization. Kazandjiev’s compositional methods which bring different
formal result become of general value for his overall work: they lead
to the crescendo constructions which are characteristic of him or to constant
division into sections as a result of the change of the sonoral material.
That is why, accepting the constant functioning of both principles, separately
or in combination, the forms can be grouped in the following manner:
crescendo two stage three stage
Second Quartet, 2nd mov. “Poco a poco” “Apocalypse”
First Quartet, 1st mov. Piano Quintet “Festive Music”
“Silhouettes” Second Quartet, 1st mov. “Reflections”
“Reflections” “Silhouettes” “Catharsis”
“Illuminations”
Second Symphony, 1st mov.
“Poco a poco”
What is essential for the concrete composer's decision are the
starting idea and the dramaturgic solution.
The crescendo forms which in reality are reminiscent of the familiar
linguistic stylistic figure can be determined in a similar manner as “climax
process” or “climax form”. The way of achieving it is individual, yet there
exist two main methods: the first is when a “harmony” grows into another
with a gradual transition to a new sonoral field and a prevailing method
of stratification (in “Apocalypse”, “The Living Icons”, etc.) and the second,
when the two methods act in parallel, in dynamic development and the climax
process of static sonoral sections (“in “Poco a poco”, “Illuminations”).
The “climax process” influences the smallest figures, as it is
in “Illuminations” for example, as a result of the uniform organizing idea
defined by the author as “striving for the space”. The specific musical
symbol of the fireworks, on its behalf, brings us back to an earlier practice
of the composer's in which the linear movements have been loaded with specific
semantics. This gives us some grounds to compare the “illumination” with
its similar rhetorical figure “anabasis” which is everywhere: from the
structure of the motive to the structure of the complete form. This manner
of deriving the structure of the sound texture and of the form from the
idea of ascending motions also close to the way in which the material is
drawn from the invariant form in the serial compositions. The unity achieved
through the figure of the “firework” (in “Illuminations”) or of the “impulse”
(in “impulses” on all levels) - textural, syntactic and compositional,
gives us ground to present this form also as “integral variant form” (term
of Chigareva 1973:54).
4. RENEWED TRADITIONAL FORMS
What causes the deviations from the typical forms with Kazandjiev is,
before all, the treatment of the reprise. The deviations in the segment
of the form is a natural consequence of the contradiction between the two
trends - stabilizing and dynamizing, attacking mainly the final sections.
The very principle of repetition and reprise is universal (Nazaikinsky
presents it in a generalized form as “principle of preservation”, Nazaikinsky
1982:251) and is active on whatever level and in whatever form. That is
why the reprise forms can be extremely expanded and transformed: from the
“sound scale reprise” and “idea fixe” to the hyperbolized reprise” with
Webern.
The forms of traditional origin, met in Kazandjiev’s music require
three kinds of reprise: reprise of the three-part form, sonata reprise
and reprise refrain. The works written respectively in three-part, sonata
and rondo forms show a very different treatment of the reprise with every
kind and in every composition. We define the kinds of reprise in the following
manner:
A-B-A - synthetic reprise (Second Quartet, 3rd movement, Capriccio)
SONATA FORM - anti reprise (Second Symphony, 1st movement)
- dynamized - open (Third Symphony, 1st movement)
- “replacing reprise” (Sonata for Violoncello, 1st movement)
RONDO - register-articulation (“Dialogues” for flute and harp)
- “refrain-intervention”, “migrating refrain”
(Third Symphony, 3rd movement)
- “rondo without reprise” (Second Symphony, 3rd movement)
Each of these types has been explained in detail.
5. BALANCE AND PROPORTIONS
Kazandjiev is firm about two things: firstly, he rejects the deliberate
“computation” in his work and secondly, he admits that the proportions
and the subordination's are the ones which mark the distinction between
the genuine and the trivial. Therefore, there exist criteria for that,
there exist symbols of perfection. By no means does Kazandjiev deny the
significance of the “number”; he even confirms its interference as a guarantee
for perfection. What he rejects is the “computation” as an artificial and
senseless act.
The opinion of another of his contemporaries, Edison Denisov,
that in pointillism the sound is even more “calculated” and that every
living music is based on an absolute, excellent inner calculation (Denisov
1993:123) does not contradict either Kazandjiev’s words or his work.
To discuss "the number" as a parameter in Kazandjiev's music is possible
only in the sense Stravinsky puts in it - as an expression of relations.
In Fibonaci's sense, the number proportions reflecting these proportions
are closer to Bartok's approach towards them rather than to the extreme
rationalism and number dependence on the series with other composers.
With Kazandjiev the relations in this string are in interval,
rhythmical structures with respect to the overall form.
An example which can best illustrate the pitch structure as expressed
predominantly with tonal relations in Fibonaci's values are the Variations
for String Orchestra. From three intervals, numerically presented with
three of Fibonaci's numbers - tone, semi-tone and a small third, 1-2-3
respectively, Kazandjiev has achieved different scales - from a trichord
to nine-, even ten-tone scales.
Uniform with respect to this belonging to the numerical values
is the interval structure of the Variations: it consists mainly of the
1-2-3-5-8-13 intervals. There exists a literal similarity between the initial
six intervals of the theme and one of the models from the introduction
(in the double basses). An exception of the Fibonaci's values are the three
intervals - 4, 9, 11.
Most consistently in Kazandjiev's works acts this characteristic
of the series which determines the point of the golden section. It is observed
in two types, "positive" and "negative", are ratios 3:2 and 2:3, respectively.
The exact accentuation of the golden section in one way or another is separation
of the form which does not prevent the climax to be reached in another
moment of the whole. The primary or secondary separations lay the boundary
between the form's stages; they underline a given contrasting episode (in
the continual forms) or the moment of pre climax whose role for the preparation
of the main climax and for the whole is substantial. In the clearly
expressed two stage forms, like "Poco a poco" and Piano Quintet, the boundary
between the stages is in absolutely precise proportions of an inverted
golden section in "Poco a poco", i.e. 2:3 ration, and of positive one,
in the Piano Quintet, 3:2. In "Poco a poco", despite the general caesura
separating the sonoral from the rhythmical stage in a ratio 2:3, the point
of the golden section is also marked in the climax of local increment before
the preparation of the main culmination general for the form. The moment
indicted by the point of golden section represents a pre climax which grows
in a repeated rhythmical increment.
In the end parts of Third Symphony the point of golden section
is represented in a different manner. In the first movement Kazandjiev
positions the point of golden section where it usually was to be found
in the classical sonata forms, in the predicate to the reprise. And in
the third part the more expressed is the backward point of the golden section
which introduces the only authentic folk quotation.
In the prevailing part of Kazandjiev's forms the line of development
is ascending, i.e. culmination of the form in the very finale, as an open,
progressing, growing form. Still, regardless of the inner outline of the
form there also exists and inner process of exact proportional division
at the point of golden section, realized in a different manner - through
a caesura, through an ascending or descending pre culmination, through
the introduction of contrasting material or texture. Moreover, even in
the cases of aleatoric of the form (with the multiform forms), of aleatoric
of the texture (with the variable forms), in the forms constructed of uniform
timbre blocks and with the "moment forms" the whole is balanced in exact
proportions. Even such "non compound" form as the form in "Complexi sonori"
(with aleatoric of the texture and the form) the version Kazandjiev proposes
as an example of performer's composing of the work is also with two climaxes
- one of the "development" in the end of the form and one of the "proportions
and balance" in the second half.
In all these examples it is impossible to speak about accidents
or a schematic approach, untypical of Kazandjiev's music. We interpret
it rather as a demonstration of insight, intuition, artistic imitation
of the organic symmetries, as a precise artistic instinct.
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