Freitag, 11. Dezember 2020, 20:00
Although by the late '60s James Tenney had established himself as a pioneer in the arena of electronic music and algorithmic composition, For Ann (rising), composed in December 1969, seems to have ended this phase in his career; over the subsequent three decades, Tenney would avoid electronic music almost completely (save a few instrumental pieces utilizing electronic effects such as digital delay). In many ways, the piece can be considered the zenith of Tenney's conceptual and technical experiments -- in fact, its extreme austerity of directness of purpose are reflected in the work's overall shape: as suggested by the piece's parenthetical subtitle, the piece is entirely made up of continuously and consistently rising lines. Acoustically, the piece somewhat resembles a manifestation of a principle known as a "Shepard tone," in which harmonic relationships between moving pitches create the illusion of an ever-sliding pitch. (Not coincidentally, this phenomenon is named for Roger Shepard, alongside whom Tenney worked at Bell Laboratories in the early '60s). In For Ann (rising), Tenney creates the aural illusion of a forever-ascending line by layering a number of sliding sine waves on top of each other. Each of these begins below the range of human hearing and fades gradually into audibility; it then continues to rise through the entire span of human hearing, fading out as it approaches the highest frequencies registered by the listener's ears. The multiple glissandos are introduced at close (and almost, but deliberately not quite, consistent) intervals of only a few moments, so that at any given time a number of lines can be heard moving upward in parallel motion. As the glissandos multiply and ascend, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to follow any particular line from its emergence to its disappearance. The ear continually shifts attention from one place to another, as if trying to swim opposite to the flow of a relentless acoustical current. Likewise, once the pattern is established and a consistent number of parallel voices is in place, there emerges at the upper frequency threshold a crystalline conglomeration of extremely high pitches, which glimmer as an indistinguishable mass even as glissandi continually enter the top range and fade. Despite the sheer procedural rigor and acoustical intrigue, there still seems to be an essence of emotional content to the piece. Certainly it demonstrates a most elementary arc of auspiciousness; as Tenney's friend Philip Corner has observed, "[It] must be optimistic! (Imagine the depressing effectiveness of it -- he could never be so cruel -- downward)...." Ultimately, the work strives to fulfill one of Tenney's greatest career-long goals, to teach our ears to perceive not individual elements of music (for subsequent aesthetic reassembly), but musical wholes. [J. Grimshaw, https://www.allmusic.com/composition/for-ann-rising-mc0002499379] James Tenney James Tenney (* 10. 8. 1934 in Silver City/New Mexico; † 24. 8. 2006 in Valencia / Kalifornien), US-amerikanischer Komponist und Musiktheoretiker. Tenney studierte in New York, Vermont und Illinois unter anderem an der Juilliard School of Music und dem Bennington College. Von Eduard Steuermann wurde er am Klavier ausgebildet. Kompositionsunterricht erhielt er bei Edgard Varèse und John Cage. Tenney war ein Pionier auf dem Gebiet der elektronischen und der Computer-Musik und arbeitete in den frühen 1960er Jahren in den Bell Telephone Laboratories an der Entwicklung von Programmen zur computergesteuerten Klangsynthese und Kompositionen. Tenney komponierte sowohl für Instrumente als auch für elektronische Klangerzeuger, häufig unter Verwendung alternativer Stimmungssysteme. In seiner viel beachteten theoretischen Schrift Meta/Hodos (1961) entwickelte er eine neue Methode der musikalischen Analyse. Tenney war zuletzt Professor an der York University in Toronto und lebte in Valencia/Kalifornien, wo er im Alter von 72 Jahren starb. [ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst, 2012] |
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![[James Tenney: For Ann (rising) -> Shepard-Skala]](tenney-shepard-tones_250px_w.jpg)