The creation of structural hierarchies in the orchestral music of Tristan Murail

The spectralist style was notable among the post-war avant-garde for its focus on techniques
capable of producing forms and structures that were clearly, audibly perceptible; while
acknowledging its influence, Tristan Murail complained of serialisms refusal to make even the
slightest concessions to the phenomena of auditory perception. 1
Though spectralisms harmony has received much analytical attention, its innovations in the
temporal/formal realm are the more significant achievement. Structures arise not solely through
harmonic progression, but via texture, timbre, surface motivic material, and especially, control of
formal proportions. Here I challenge the notion that a non-tonal harmonic scheme and intricate
surface textures prevent modernist repertoires from articulating complex but perceptible largescale foreground-middleground-background hierarchic structures. 2 This paper examines three
Murail piecesDsintgrations, Gondwana, and Time and againthat do this to varying
degrees.
Each piece opens with bell-like orchestral attacks, with the space between attacks in unmetered
durational time. 3 These establish the notion of directed process as central to the spectral
soundworld (Fig. 1). They also pull our time-sense up beyond the level of localized meter where
it would generally rest in a metered piece. Because no foreground rhythmic pulse is established,
our perception focuses on a middleground meter in which we perceive timespans of 10-30
seconds as a single beat; the successive attacks, each evolving perceptibly from the previous
one, weld the beats into a unified bar lasting several minutes.
Dsintgrations (1982) is best heard as an example of Jonathan Kramers moment form, in
which each bar/section is self-contained and isolated from the others. 4 Its many sections do
not overlap and each sections process is internal and completed before it moves on to the next.
Gondwana (1980) contains fewer discrete sections. Its climactic moment is accomplished by
fiat, discernible more by surface salience factors (maximum textural density, extreme dynamics)
than by deep structure; but the piece nevertheless more nearly approaches a form in which each
section is heard as discrete but integrated with the others.
Time and again (1985) contains the most convincing use of foreground and background activity
to complement the middleground temporal strata that characterizes all three pieces (Fig. 2). Its
foreground is rich in thematic elements which, as they recur in shifting contexts, unify our
hearing as an unfolding totality. At the deepest level, A.1-G.1 serve as structural upbeat, and
timbre, texture, and formal proportions unite with harmonya dramatic statement of the pure
overtone series, previously withheldto articulate the structural downbeat at G.1.
The identification of structure at deep levels is a subjective art. This paper offers new strategies
for hearing the structures of spectral and post-spectral pieces. In doing so, it argues for the
possibility of complex relationships and hierarchy in the postwar avant-garde repertoire; but it
argues, too, that analysis need not rely too heavily on patterns found more in the score than the
aural experience of the piece for such structures to emerge.
1

Murail, 2000
Glaser, 2000, Kramer, 1988
3
Cornicello, 2000
4
Kramer, 1988
2

Fig. 3. Spectralists, post-spectralists, proto-spectralists, quasi-spectralists.

Proto-spectralists (cited as influential by spectralists)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Edgard Varse (1883-1965)
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Spectralists
Grard Grisey (1946-1998)
Tristan Murail (b. 1947)
Hugues Dufourt (b. 1943)
Michal Lvinas (b. 1949)
Quasi-spectralists (contemporaries not directly associated
with the spectralists whose work shows aspects of spectral
thought)
Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012)
Per Nrgrd (b. 1932)
Horaiu Rdulescu (1942-2008)
Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953)
Post-spectralists (studied with or
influenced by spectralists)
Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952)
Philippe Hurel (b. 1955)
Marc-Andr Dalbavie (b. 1961)

Bibliography
Anderson, Julian and Tristan Murail. In Harmony. Julian Anderson Introduces the Music and
Ideas of Tristan Murail. The Musical Times, vol. 134, no. 1804 (June, 1993): 321-323
Castanet, P. A. 2000. Grard Grisey and the Foliation of Time. Translated by Joshua Fineberg.
Contemporary Music Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 29-40
Cornicello, Anthony. 2000. Timbral Organization in Tristan Murails Dsintgrations and
Rituals by Anthony Cornicello. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation.) Brandeis University, MA
Fineberg, Joshua. 2000. Spectral music. Contemporary Music Review, vol. 19, no. 2 (2000): 15
Glaser, Susan. 2000. The Missing Link: Connections Between Musical and Linguistic
Prosody. Contemporary Music Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 131-154
Grisey, Grard. 2000. Did You Say Spectral? Translated by Joshua Fineberg. Contemporary
Music Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 1-3

Harvey, Jonathan. 2000. Spectralism. Contemporary Music Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 1114
Hepokoski, James. Formulaic Openings in Debussy. 19th-Century Music, vol. 8, no. 1
(Summer, 1984): 44-59
Jameson, Frederic. The End of Temporality. Critical Inquiry, vol. 29, no. 4 (Summer, 2003):
695-718
Kramer, Jonathan. 1988. The time of music: new meanings, new temporalities, new listening
strategies. New York: Schirmer Books.
Ledoux, Claude. 2000. From the Philosophical to the Practical: An Imaginary Proposition
Concerning the Music of Tristan Murail. Translated by Joshua Fineberg. Contemporary Music
Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 41-65
Lehman, Stephen H. 2012. Liminality as a Framework for Composition: Rhythmic Thresholds,
Spectral Harmonies, and Afrological Improvisation. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation.)
Columbia University, New York, NY
Malherbe, Claudy. Seeing Light as Color; Hearing Sound as Timbre. Translated by Joshua
Fineberg and Berry Hayward. Contemporary Music Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 15-27
Murail, Tristan. 2000. After-thoughts. Contemporary Music Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 5-9
Murail, Tristan. 2005. The Revolution of Complex Sounds. Translated by Joshua Cody.
Contemporary Music Review, vol. 24, no. 2/3 (2005): 121-135
Pousset, Damien. 2000. The Works of Kaija Saariaho, Philippe Hurel and Marc-Andr
DalbavieStile Concertato, Stile Concitato, Stile Rappresentativo. Translated by Joshua
Fineberg and Ronan Hyacinthe. Contemporary Music Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (2000): 67-110
Rose, Franois. 1996. Introduction to the Pitch Organization of French Spectral Music.
Perspectives of New Music, vol. 34, no. 2 (Summer, 1996): 6-39
Warnaby, John. 1989. Tristan Murail: Gondwana, Destintegrations; Time and again by
Orchestre National de France; Ensemble LItineraire; Yves Prin; Bonn Beethovenhalle
Orchester; Karl-Anton Rickenbacker; Tristan Murail. Tempo, New Series, no. 171 (1989): 3334