“Your Soul is the Whole World”: The Spaces of Claude Vivier’s Siddhartha

Abstract

At 28’ duration and scored for a massive orchestra of eighty-nine players, Siddhartha (1976) eclipses all other works in Claude Vivier’s catalogue in dramatic scope and sonic grandeur. The composition dates from soon after Vivier returned to Canada following his studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne from 1972–74, which left a lasting impact on the young composer. Siddhartha showcases the extent of that influence in its diligent use of “formula technique” and its unconventional distribution of the orchestra into smaller groups on stage. In this article, I outline how the work’s principal melody transforms across contrasting spatial domains: in “acoustic space,” expressed in physical location on stage, and in “metaphorical space,” expressed in pitches-in-register. Using Hesse’s novel as a hermeneutic model, I then consider alternate poetic readings of the work vis-à-vis its interaction of spatial properties in the large-scale form. Ultimately, I argue that Siddhartha is a deeply personal piece that communicates, through the medium of musical structure, feelings of alienation and connection during an unsettled time in Vivier’s life.