Jonathan Harvey's ritual melodies

Abstract

Abstract In 1990 Jonathan Harvey finished “Ritual Melodies”, on which the author worked as an assistant. It is, after “Mortuos plango, vivos voco”, his second purely electronic piece composed at I.R.C.A.M. The piece, which was prepared in 1984, introduced in Harvey's oeuvre a new composition technique, based on a circular chain of melodies. At the same time it explores the hybridisation of instruments, based on interpolation between synthetic models that are made by signal processing methods. The paper is organised in a bottom up way. The modelling techniques and the hybridisation methods are explained before the precompositional choices regarding pitch system and melodic material are discussed. After giving some historical details about preliminary sketches and the construction of the final materials, an exhaustive analysis of the piece in chronological order is made, followed by general observations on how the piece functions formally. A discussion of the significance of “Ritual Melodies” in Harvey's pr...