JAVS Fall 2024

In the score, a harmonic is a pitch represented with diamond noteheads for which the viola player lightly touches the string with their left hand. With this technique, only the pitches that belong to the string’s harmonic spectra will sound. Because the placement of the left hand is vital to producing the harmonic, performers will use hardly any vibrato, if at all. The effect is a crystalline sound. A stopped pitch , on the other hand, is a pitch played with normal left-hand pressure and can produce any chromatic or microtonal pitch. Stopped pitches are easier to produce, and thus players can vary vibrato and bow technique for different sound colors. Density refers to the relationship between space and pitches or attack points, as well as the number of pitches or attacks occurring simultaneously: less space between pitches or attack points means denser sound, and vice versa. Similarly, two or more simultaneous pitches means denser sound. Attack refers to a “momentary energetic impulse,” or the noise at the beginning of a sound and is a result of a “hard attack:” a consonant “k” sound is produced by added bow pressure from the performer, whereas a “soft attack” blends with the core of the sound before its decay. 11 While timbre is the primary deciding factor for the microform delineations, the frequencies of the pitches are not a consideration. Unlike much of the music by his contemporary Gérard Grisey (1946-1998), C’est un jardin secret does not make use of microtonality, nor is it based on a singular harmonic series. This is because Murail’s music often uses traditional compositional techniques in addition to the spectral idiom. In C’est un jardin secret , this takes the form of traditional tuning, idiomatic double stops, and clear and approachable notation. Evident in this piece, composer Julian Anderson states that Murail’s first mature works are “composed around recurring harmonic spectra whose simple consonances provide easily recognizable beacons for the listener in the constant flux of music.” 12 Therefore, the form of this piece is determined by timbre and sonic manipulation, with pitch serving as a secondary parameter. In this case, a sound analysis software, such as SPEAR, is useful for analyzing the timbral changes in each microform and for identifying noise as a filter or consequence of bow technique, shape of attacks, and amplitude.

Transition 1: Inharmonicity to Harmonicity The first microformal transformation on page 1 of the score represents a long transition from inharmonicity to harmonicity. This is depicted with yellow and pink colors, indicating “harmonic sounds” to “dense stopped pitches.” This first transition is based on an F harmonic series, as determined by SPEAR and Michael Norris Harmonic Calculator. 15 The pitch content stays consistent throughout the entire transition amidst its sonic manipulation. One way in which the sound is modified during this transition is through the increase in spectral density, which is a “fog, curtain, or wall… that allows sound to penetrate or not.” 16 In other words, as the music transitions towards harmonicity, the sound becomes more concentrated. Composer Denis Smalley’s density diagram is shown below, with arrows pointing towards the result of the music by the end of page 1.

Figure 3: Smalley diagram, purple annotations my own. To achieve the increase in spectral density, the music decreases its noise, increases amplitude (loudness), and gradually introduces stopped pitches. While harmonics are “natural pitches,” meaning they are unaffected by vibrato and are whole-number ratios to the viola strings (5:1 for B vs. G; 3:1 for A vs D, 2:1 for C vs C), the harmonics in the opening of C’est un jardin secret are inextricably linked to noise. As Figure 1 shows, the first few harmonics are not colored yellow. This is because the sound is so soft that audible pitch does not even come through until at least seven iterations of the opening harmonic. In the score, Murail indicated “sp,” meaning sul ponticello , as well as a pppp dynamic marking. 17 These performance directions instruct the violist to play close

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Journal of the American Viola Society / Vol. 40, No. 2, Fall 2024