fascinating reading of the history of harmony - in addition, the harmonic series is also a stack of polyrhythms exactly as Stockhausen demonstrates in Gruppen. This was also I think Schoenberg's explanation of the history of harmony from perfect intervals to semitones. Something else to consider as well is the overtone series rendered in 12TET is roughly: C1 C2 G2 C3 E3 G3 A#3 C4 D4 E4 F#4 G4 G#4 A#4 B4 C5 C#5 D5 etc. So from left to right in that sequence we have C1 as plainchant, C2 + G2 as fauxbourdon, C3 E3 G3 Bflat3 C4 as the "home" of major/minor tonality, my favorite area is C4 D4 E4 F#4 G4 G#4 A#4 B4 C5 which contains the whole tone scale and prominent tritone relations as well, the scale sounds like Messiaen or Debussy to my ear in 12TET, then the rest of the series is the chromatic scale shading into narrower intervals than the semitone. it seems entirely logical then that a piece like In Vain by Haas finishes the century by exploring the conflict between tempered and natural representations of the overtone series. i think we have hearing orientated to the harmonic series because of our need to distinguish vowel sounds in listening to speech - music beautifully hijacks this wired-in "instinctual" sense of precise harmonic/temporal ratios (rhythm goes through exactly this evolution as well!) as a vehicle for communication without speech, but as a kind of formalised vocalisation, even when there are no voices used, music speaks.
and to think that underneath it all it is ratios of time that distinguish harmony and colour and pitch: all is rhythm, material unfolding in time at a certain rate, in fact if you speed up stacks of rhythms on a sampler, above a certain limit the rhythm becomes a pitched timbral single note (this is how Stockhausen made sounds for Kontakte). Spectralism is in some ways a way of working with a very "French phenomenology" sense of listening and of musical sound: it makes sense to the ear (for me at least) because our ears are already attuned to these relationships. I find Murail's work lushly beautiful, same with the late Saariaho, I adore Haas and Grisey as well, Haas probably most of all. really great video
Dear Kemal, I very much enjoyed your presentation of spectralism and what you said about the spectrum. However, you have confined your presentation only to European music, whereas spectrum exist in every music. I dare to say the all music is spectral music. Humans have used the spectrum from the beginning of time and spectrum is found in all music around the world, from Tibetan chants, to Mongolian throat singing to the sound of Japanese Shakuhachi, to the sound of Persian Ney, they are all "spectral music". What you are describing is the European form of spectral music which, as you rightly explained, evolved as a reaction to the European serialist music of mid to late 20th century.
fascinating reading of the history of harmony - in addition, the harmonic series is also a stack of polyrhythms exactly as Stockhausen demonstrates in Gruppen. This was also I think Schoenberg's explanation of the history of harmony from perfect intervals to semitones. Something else to consider as well is the overtone series rendered in 12TET is roughly: C1 C2 G2 C3 E3 G3 A#3 C4 D4 E4 F#4 G4 G#4 A#4 B4 C5 C#5 D5 etc. So from left to right in that sequence we have C1 as plainchant, C2 + G2 as fauxbourdon, C3 E3 G3 Bflat3 C4 as the "home" of major/minor tonality, my favorite area is C4 D4 E4 F#4 G4 G#4 A#4 B4 C5 which contains the whole tone scale and prominent tritone relations as well, the scale sounds like Messiaen or Debussy to my ear in 12TET, then the rest of the series is the chromatic scale shading into narrower intervals than the semitone. it seems entirely logical then that a piece like In Vain by Haas finishes the century by exploring the conflict between tempered and natural representations of the overtone series. i think we have hearing orientated to the harmonic series because of our need to distinguish vowel sounds in listening to speech - music beautifully hijacks this wired-in "instinctual" sense of precise harmonic/temporal ratios (rhythm goes through exactly this evolution as well!) as a vehicle for communication without speech, but as a kind of formalised vocalisation, even when there are no voices used, music speaks.
and to think that underneath it all it is ratios of time that distinguish harmony and colour and pitch: all is rhythm, material unfolding in time at a certain rate, in fact if you speed up stacks of rhythms on a sampler, above a certain limit the rhythm becomes a pitched timbral single note (this is how Stockhausen made sounds for Kontakte). Spectralism is in some ways a way of working with a very "French phenomenology" sense of listening and of musical sound: it makes sense to the ear (for me at least) because our ears are already attuned to these relationships. I find Murail's work lushly beautiful, same with the late Saariaho, I adore Haas and Grisey as well, Haas probably most of all. really great video
A very interesting video. X
Thank you 🙏🏼
Dear Kemal,
I very much enjoyed your presentation of spectralism and what you said about the spectrum. However, you have confined your presentation only to European music, whereas spectrum exist in every music. I dare to say the all music is spectral music.
Humans have used the spectrum from the beginning of time and spectrum is found in all music around the world, from Tibetan chants, to Mongolian throat singing to the sound of Japanese Shakuhachi, to the sound of Persian Ney, they are all "spectral music". What you are describing is the European form of spectral music which, as you rightly explained, evolved as a reaction to the European serialist music of mid to late 20th century.