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| His favourite image for explaning how his pieces work is that of a walk through a town, especially the sort of small town more common in continental Europe than Great Britain. Such a walk might start in the town square. Having explored its main features we would set off down one of the side streets. As the walk continues we might glimpse the town square down different streets, sometime a long way off, other times quite close. We may never return to the square in the rest of the walk, or we may visit a new part of it that was not explored initially. Birtwistle suggests that this experience is akin to what he does in the music. He is ''not'' suggesting that we imagine this is a literal process; he does not 'recreate' the effect in the music (as ] does in some of his orchestral pieces. Rather, Birtwistle's image conveys the way that a core musical idea is altered, varied and distorted as the piece of music progresses. The core music forms a reference point to which everything else is directed, even when we are walking in a completely different direction. Sometimes we will be less aware that it is the same musical material we are hearing; sometimes we may have been listening for a while before realising that we have heard this music before (just as one might have been looking up the street before realising that it is the town square that can be glimpsed through the traffic). | His favourite image for explaning how his pieces work is that of a walk through a town, especially the sort of small town more common in continental Europe than Great Britain. Such a walk might start in the town square. Having explored its main features we would set off down one of the side streets. As the walk continues we might glimpse the town square down different streets, sometime a long way off, other times quite close. We may never return to the square in the rest of the walk, or we may visit a new part of it that was not explored initially. Birtwistle suggests that this experience is akin to what he does in the music. He is ''not'' suggesting that we imagine this is a literal process; he does not 'recreate' the effect in the music (as ] does in some of his orchestral pieces. Rather, Birtwistle's image conveys the way that a core musical idea is altered, varied and distorted as the piece of music progresses. The core music forms a reference point to which everything else is directed, even when we are walking in a completely different direction. Sometimes we will be less aware that it is the same musical material we are hearing; sometimes we may have been listening for a while before realising that we have heard this music before (just as one might have been looking up the street before realising that it is the town square that can be glimpsed through the traffic). | ||
| An early variant of this technique involved |
An early variant of this technique involved literally cutting up the music. Having composed a portion of music, Birtwistle would then cut it arbitrarily into a number of sections. These might be randomly rearranged, and new introductions and epilogues composed before further composing music to link them together. This method was intended to give the whole piece unity, by having musical material with its own inner coherence scattered amoungst musical material that related to the core material rather than to itself. | ||
| ⚫ | Another image for what Birtwistle frequently does in his abstract music can be seen in the events of the first Act of his opera ''Gawain''. The action has proceeded in a mainly chronolgical order to the point where the Green Knight is knelt in front of Gawain awaiting the axe blow that will cut off his head. With Gawain holding the axe aloft, the stage is suddenly blacked out and within a minute the action has rewound to the point preceding the Green Knight's entry to the Court of Arthur. Events are played through again, though compressed and with various small alterations, through the beheading and into the subsequent events. The events on stage are not randomly ordered, but the one event portrayed from more than one perspective. For the opera ''The Mask of Opheus'' this entailed two sets of singer/actors performing contradictory but overlapping events from the Orpheus myths. This non-linear portrayal of events on stage gives the listener a means of approach to the abstract compositions, with the same musical ideas being seen from different angles and perspectives. The result is music that is often very episodic in structure. A readily identifiable music motif - in ''Silbury Air'', for example, a blow from the tom-toms, followed by scurrying figures from the strings and woodwind - is elaborated in a number of different ways as the piece progresses. | ||
| Even when he is not writing a visual piece involving stage action, Birstwistle's music is normally described as dramatic in construction. | |||
| As a result, even when he is not writing a visual piece involving stage action, Birstwistle's music is normally described as dramatic in construction. The music is not following the logic and rules of classic music forms such as ] but the structures of a drama. Furthermore, different musical instruments can be seen to take the part of different characters in the drama, most obviously seen in a performance of ''Secret Theatre''. For various parts of the piece, a number of the instrumentalists perform in a 'soloists' capacity. For this they leave their normal seat in the orchestral group, and stand in a typical concerto soloists' position, returning to the orchestra when they are no longer given that priority. Related to this would be the use of geological imagery to explain the structre of his 1986 orchestral piece ''Earth Dances''. A number of different layers of musical material are used, sometimes to the fore, sometimes buried deep under the other layers and no longer so apparent. | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| Related to this would be the use of geological imagery to explain the structre of his 1986 orchestral piece ''Earth Dances''. A number of different layers of musical material are used, sometimes to the fore, sometimes buried deep under the other layers and no longer so apparent. | |||
Revision as of 13:17, 13 March 2006
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH (born July 15, 1934) is one of Britain's most significant contemporary composers.
Birtwistle was born in Accrington in Lancashire and in 1952 entered the Royal Manchester College of Music in Manchester on a clarinet scholarship. While there he met fellow composers Peter Maxwell Davies and Alexander Goehr, who together with pianist John Ogdon and conductor Elgar Howarth formed the New Music Manchester group, dedicated to the performances of serial and other modern works.
Birtwistle left the college in 1955, then studied at the Royal Academy of Music and afterward made a living as a schoolteacher. In 1965 a Harkness Fellowship gave him the opportunity to continue his studies in the United States and he decided to dedicated himself to composition.
In 1975 Birtwistle became musical director of the newly-established Royal National Theatre in London, a post he held until 1988. From 1994 to 2001 he was Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King's College London.
Birtwistle's music
Birtwistle's pieces are in a complex, modernistic style. His early work is sometimes evocative of Igor Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen (composers he has acknowledged as influences) and his technique of juxtaposing blocks of sound is sometimes compared to Edgard Varèse. His music makes frequent use of ostinatos and often has a ritualistic feel.
His favourite image for explaning how his pieces work is that of a walk through a town, especially the sort of small town more common in continental Europe than Great Britain. Such a walk might start in the town square. Having explored its main features we would set off down one of the side streets. As the walk continues we might glimpse the town square down different streets, sometime a long way off, other times quite close. We may never return to the square in the rest of the walk, or we may visit a new part of it that was not explored initially. Birtwistle suggests that this experience is akin to what he does in the music. He is not suggesting that we imagine this is a literal process; he does not 'recreate' the effect in the music (as Charles Ives does in some of his orchestral pieces. Rather, Birtwistle's image conveys the way that a core musical idea is altered, varied and distorted as the piece of music progresses. The core music forms a reference point to which everything else is directed, even when we are walking in a completely different direction. Sometimes we will be less aware that it is the same musical material we are hearing; sometimes we may have been listening for a while before realising that we have heard this music before (just as one might have been looking up the street before realising that it is the town square that can be glimpsed through the traffic).
An early variant of this technique involved literally cutting up the music. Having composed a portion of music, Birtwistle would then cut it arbitrarily into a number of sections. These might be randomly rearranged, and new introductions and epilogues composed before further composing music to link them together. This method was intended to give the whole piece unity, by having musical material with its own inner coherence scattered amoungst musical material that related to the core material rather than to itself.
Another image for what Birtwistle frequently does in his abstract music can be seen in the events of the first Act of his opera Gawain. The action has proceeded in a mainly chronolgical order to the point where the Green Knight is knelt in front of Gawain awaiting the axe blow that will cut off his head. With Gawain holding the axe aloft, the stage is suddenly blacked out and within a minute the action has rewound to the point preceding the Green Knight's entry to the Court of Arthur. Events are played through again, though compressed and with various small alterations, through the beheading and into the subsequent events. The events on stage are not randomly ordered, but the one event portrayed from more than one perspective. For the opera The Mask of Opheus this entailed two sets of singer/actors performing contradictory but overlapping events from the Orpheus myths. This non-linear portrayal of events on stage gives the listener a means of approach to the abstract compositions, with the same musical ideas being seen from different angles and perspectives. The result is music that is often very episodic in structure. A readily identifiable music motif - in Silbury Air, for example, a blow from the tom-toms, followed by scurrying figures from the strings and woodwind - is elaborated in a number of different ways as the piece progresses.
As a result, even when he is not writing a visual piece involving stage action, Birstwistle's music is normally described as dramatic in construction. The music is not following the logic and rules of classic music forms such as Sonata form but the structures of a drama. Furthermore, different musical instruments can be seen to take the part of different characters in the drama, most obviously seen in a performance of Secret Theatre. For various parts of the piece, a number of the instrumentalists perform in a 'soloists' capacity. For this they leave their normal seat in the orchestral group, and stand in a typical concerto soloists' position, returning to the orchestra when they are no longer given that priority. Related to this would be the use of geological imagery to explain the structre of his 1986 orchestral piece Earth Dances. A number of different layers of musical material are used, sometimes to the fore, sometimes buried deep under the other layers and no longer so apparent.
Among Birtwistle's better-known pieces is the first work he is happy to acknowledge, the wind quintet Refrains and Choruses (1957); the piano pieces Harrison's Clocks (1998); the orchestral works The Triumph of Time (1971) and Earth Dances (1986); and the operas Punch and Judy (1967), The Mask of Orpheus (1984, for which Birtwistle won the 1987 Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition), Gawain (1990), The Second Mrs Kong (1994) and The Last Supper (2000).
Popular perception of Birtwistle
Though well established and widely respected in the classical music world - modules on his music feature in many University undergraduate music courses - Birtwistle was relatively unknown in the general public until the mid 1990s. Though he had been honoured with a knighthood in 1988, two events brought him to public attention.
A group of anti-modernist musicians calling themselves 'The Hecklers', led by Fredric Stocken, stunned the audience at the 1994 revivial of Gawain at the Royal Opera House, London. They disrupted the performance, drawing attention to their campaign to rid contemporary music of anything post-Romantic.
Birtwistle gained some notoriety in 1995 when his piece Panic for drum kit, alto saxophone and orchestra, was premièred at that year's Last Night of the Proms. His music had not previously been heard in so public a forum and most of the press did not hold back its negative criticism of the piece; traditionally the second half of the concert features mainstream, popular and patriotic music. Though the first half will often incoporate pieces that reflect the overall theme of each year's season, and modern works, such an uncompromising piece had not previously been programmed.
See also List of compositions by Harrison Birtwistle.
Reading
- Adlington, R., The Music of Harrison Birtwistle (CUP, 2000)
- Cross, J., Harrison Birtwistle: Man, Mind, Music (Faber & Faber, 2000)
- Hall, M., Harrison Birtwistle (Robson Books, 1984)
- Hall, M., Harrison Birtwistle in Recent Years (Robson Books, 1998)