Timbral vectoriality: some considerations in the context of post-tonal music

Abstract

This article addresses a number of issues concerning timbral vectoriality in post-tonal western art music.The fi rst part is devoted to theoretical considerations of timbral vectoriality as a key element in the perceptive experience of music, whereby vectoriality functions as a process encompassing succession, orientation, expectation, and tension. Such notions are taken to be beyond more purely aesthetic considerations, as evidenced by the notion of “time’s arrow”, and focus more on cognitive approaches to the real-time analysis of score-based music. To date, vectoriality has mainly focused on pitch analysis, but timbre has also given rise to studies about its role in both musical tension and musical closure. In non-tonal music, theoretical and experimental studies on timbral hierarchies and tension-release schemas have opened new paths for research into vectoriality without reference to the tonal system. The second part of the article focuses on the hierarchical analysis of timbre in Dutilleux’ Sur un meme accord, a short piano piece constructed on a basic “reference” chord. Using a method derived from Fred Lerdahl’s study on timbral hierarchies combined with sonogram analysis, the piece is divided into eight timbral units represented in the form of a syntactic tree. This analysis shows how the timbral tension at different structural levels can be represented, as well as the end-orientation of a piece in a post-tonal context. The last part of the article concerns the gestaltist analysis of timbre in Murail’sTerritoires de l’oubli, a piano piece based on gradual and highly nuanced timbral transformation. The method, derived from Stephane Roy’s gestaltist analysis, uses a graphic sonogram transcription. Sound resonance is used as a model for the elaboration of timbral patterns and sections of different temporal dimensions. This analysis reveals a spatial, fl exible, and – more importantly for the present study – vectorial conception of musical time in post-tonal music.