Forming a musical language: Compositional research on notions of structure and material and on associations between music, poetry and film

Abstract

The objective in this compositional research has been to arrive at a state in which a compositional language is, to some extent, formed through a process of challenging personal perceptions and investigating the application of extra­-musical art forms. An initial concern with structure led to a study of the use of duality and the notion of indeterminacy. Subsequently, a partially self-referential system for deriving musical material was developed, in which the elements of pitch and rhythm are directly related through particular ratios. The apparent associations between poetry and music and a personal interest in Surrealism as a movement, led the course of research to a detailed exploration of Greek poet A. Embiricos' prose poem Many Times in The Night (1980). The poem's structural matrix was applied upon independently derived musical material and, through a series of analogies, a complex matrix for a time structure was established. A turn towards free improvisation and an interest in film language introduced new ideas on the temporal and sequential manipulation of structure and perception. The film-editing process as a sequence of events in time, and the layering of visual and temporal activity as a technique of creating an evolving density of sensory events provided the basis for expanding the compositional concern with duality and indeterminacy. The research process, as a mutable investigation of possible associations between music, poetry and film, appears to be itself an inevitably inconclusive form of compositional language, defined by the ideas of Surrealism, Serialism, indeterminacy, chance and improvisation.