Sound series

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As sound series as part of the will sound music series a chord progression referred to in terms of harmonic forms and voting guides the basis of musical composition. As a working tool for composers, sound series form the music-theoretical core of sound series music, which they also gave the name.

definition

A series of sounds is a sequence of chords that regulates the vertical ( harmonic ) and horizontal (voice guidance, chord progression) interval relationships and serves as the basis of a musical composition. Usually a series of sounds is created before or at the same time as the actual composition act. The basis for a series of sounds is usually a twelve-tone series , but sometimes also a series of sounds in the sense of tropical theory or complementary harmony .

The compositional work with series of sounds is based on the idea of ​​a fundamental harmonic and voice-leading order in music outside of tonality . With this she positions herself clearly outside the musical avant-garde . In addition to maintaining the logic of progression and a harmonic order, series of sounds offer the special possibility that, similar to figured bass , u. a. have certain chord progressions, cantus firmi or symmetries “built into” the chord band and consequently also into the resulting composition.

The freedom in the construction and compositional use of sound series does not require the necessary use of twelve-tone series in a certain way (e.g. as a theme ). Furthermore, the term "series of sounds" expressly does not regulate the exact way in which a series of sounds is used as the basis for the composition, e.g. B. whether only one series of sounds applies to a few bars of a piece of music and then z. B. is repeated or replaced by another series of sounds. In addition, it is stylistically unbound, from which it follows that sound series in different musical styles, with minimal changes, can even be used in tonal music.

Historical development

The idea on which the sound series is based, to fall back on given harmony sequences and then to make music on their basis, be it in the form of improvisation or composition , goes back to the early ostinato forms of the Renaissance and brings z. B. with the Chaconne or the Passacaglia prominent forms in the 16th century. Especially in the middle and late figured bass age , composition techniques in advanced contrapuntal forms such as canon , fugue or chorale arrangement show numerous parallels to composition with series of sounds.

However, sound series in the real sense are an invention of the 20th century and go back to a development by the twelve-tone composer Josef Matthias Hauer , who systematized work with sound series (he himself used the term "harmonic band") for the first time in 1926, after having already done several Had worked with the principle of "reverberation" for years. The development of polyphony in a composition is achieved by leaving and repeating tones that have already been heard (also in other voices and octaves) as harmony tones. Step-by-step voice guides then arise through the progression between neighboring tones, whose joint reverberation would result in a sharp dissonance. Especially in Hauer's late work, the twelve-tone play , the schematic harmonization method based on the vocal layer model [3-3-3-3] is used.

Hauer's students made use of this echo technique (including Hermann Heiss , Heinrich Simbriger and Victor Sokolowski ) and used their own terms for the "harmonic band" such as B. "Sound band", "(sound) continuum" or "(twelve-tone) cycle". In particular, however, the reverberation technique was adopted by Othmar Steinbauer , who was a student of Hauer for a few months in 1930, and was greatly expanded and systematized. The term "series of sounds" also comes from him. The methods and newly developed composition techniques using sound series, which were expanded into a separate twelve-tone set theory , were summarized in the late 1950s under the umbrella term " sound series theory ".

Types

Example 1: Hauer's aftertaste technique

A number of different harmonization forms are distinguished in the field of sound series music .

  • Free harmonization :
    Example 2: Freely used Hauer reverberation technique
    This corresponds to the original reverberation technique of Hauer, as he used it in his works between 1920 and 1926. In example 1, this method is shown using the three-part harmonization of a twelve-tone series. Contrary to the schematic change shown in this example of only one tone per chord, several new series tones can also appear at the same time (see example 2). While Hauer's free sound series treatment was less and less used after 1926 and no longer used at all from 1940, Steinbauer attached importance to it due to the primacy of "conscious free musical design" over stubborn adherence to schematic rules.
  • Schematic harmonization according to defined voice layers : In the strict and most widespread four-part form, the twelve notes of a series are distributed over four voices so that three chromatically adjacent notes of the series appear in each voice. Due to the distribution of three tones over four chromatic “voice layers” each, this harmonization model is identified with the number sequence [3-3-3-3] (see example 3). In his textbook, however, Steinbauer suggests a large number of other harmonization methods according to voice layers, for example [4-3-2-3], [4-5-3] or [3-2-2-3-2].
  • Harmonization according to tropes :
    Example of a strict series of sounds according to the harmonization scheme [3-3-3-3].
    Here, specific tropical properties are specifically built into the series of sounds, e.g. B. a mirror symmetry in the chord field (see. Example 3: the chords of the second half of the sound series are the inversion of the chords of the first half). However, series of sounds from individual tropes can also be unfolded independently of a twelve-tone series. In this case, the sounds themselves form the source material.
  • Use of sound groups : Here, complementary chord groups are used whose sound material contains all twelve tones in total. With such "sound groups" both a twelve-tone row can be harmonized and sound rows can be freely formed.
  • Parallel series of sounds : In this process developed by Johann Sengstschmid , the same chord structure is built up over every note of the harmonized twelve-tone series.
  • Twelve-tone cadence series of sounds : Here, special cadenzas are used in a twelve-tone series to create a targeted focus. The dominant formation happens on the basis of whole tone chords. This process goes back to Helmut Neumann .

There are still variants and mixed forms of these methods, especially with regard to the last four methods mentioned, the detailed description of which is forbidden by the framework provided here.

See also

literature

  • Josef Matthias Hauer: twelve-tone technique. The doctrine of the tropics . Universal Edition, Vienna 1926.
  • Hermann Hot: Elements of the musical composition . Hochstein & Co, Heidelberg 1949.
  • Helmut Neumann (Hrsg.): The sound series - Composition theory after Othmar Steinbauer , 2 volumes. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 2001.
  • Dominik Sedivy: Serial Composition and Tonality. An Introduction to the Music of Hauer and Steinbauer . Edition Mono / monochrom, Vienna 2011.
  • Johann Sengstschmid: Basics of the theory of sound series (typescript). Self-published, St. Pölten 1968.
  • Heinrich Simbriger: The sound guidance in twelve-tone music. Peritoneal harmony . The artists' guild, Esslingen 1991.
  • Heinrich Simbriger: Complementary Harmonics . The artists' guild, Esslingen 1980.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Hauer (1926).
  2. ↑ The reason for the rejection of this term may be that it was taken from Arnold Schönberg's theory of harmony, where it has a completely different meaning and describes the connection between two chords based on the same notes. Compare Arnold Schönberg: Harmonielehre . Universal Edition Vienna, 1922, p. 44.
  3. ↑ after Hauer (1926), p. 16.
  4. ↑ after Hauer (1926), p. 22.
  5. ^ Neumann (2001), p. 156.
  6. ^ Neumann (2001), p. 159.
  7. ^ Neumann (2001), pp. 200–2012.
  8. ↑ Sengstschmid (1968), pp. 51-61.
  9. ↑ cf. on this Arnold Schönberg: Harmonielehre . Universal Edition Vienna, 1922, p. 469f. and Othmar Steinbauer: The essence of tonality , ed. v. G. Friesinger et al. a., Edition Mono / monochrom, Vienna 2006, p. 52ff.