A) 'I'm going to a concert tonight.'
B) 'Who are you going to see?'

Why is it that we automatically preference sight above sound when we talk about going to a performance. Even if we are going to a musical performance? We commonly say that we are 'going to see' rather than 'going to hear' a particular artist in concert? There is an obvious answer to this, that it is simply a turn of phrase and it is implicit that we are going for a complete sensory experience. But the very fact that we preference sight above sound in such an activity does leave me curious. We might suggest that the word 'see' rather than 'hear' has a greater association with the process of going somewhere. However, we might go to see the dentist but of all the senses it is touch which has the most profound effect upon us whether it be the drill or the gritty mouth wash. Or it might be that our visual perception has more fields than our auditory perception and therefore takes precedence. In 1998, Adam Zeman (a consultant neurologist) published a paper in the BMJ (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1114484), and as part of the article he stated that there are at least 30 different areas of the brain where visual mapping takes place. Or it might be something deeper, something within our structure of consciousness (being careful not to say 'stream') that automatically defaults to sight before sound. Yet if we rely upon primal instincts, we often hear danger before we see it coming towards us. Hoomph, need to think about this... but I'm off to a concert at the Sage next week... I'm going to hear The Michael Nyman Band.

What are we going to do now... What are we going to do now...

After submitting my thesis, I am left with the Milligan inspired question in my head. Although there are several possibilities, I’ll just consider the first and most obvious extension to the theory - to continue analysing Busoni’s pieces - in this particular blog. Yet this most obvious task is not without problems. For example, how would one engage with larger compositions such as the Piano Concerto, Arlecchino and Doktor Faust? Would the analytical model stretch the length of these large scale pieces, which would imply that an active listener was capable of making such connections over a massive time period? Or, would we choose to ignore the abstract limits of this imaginary listener for the sake of the potential connections to be uncovered across the piece as a whole? And if so, how would such a model be practically realised both on the screen as an image to be constructed and on the page as an image to be viewed in detail? Or, would we subdivide the work into meaningful chunks and have an analytical model for each?
One idea would be to produce the model at different scales; in the same way that a 1:50,000 scale map can show a greater distance but with less detail than a 1:25,000 map. But this creates its own problems, as preference rules would then have to be considered for how, and indeed which, salient moments would be presented at this higher scale. If we consider the role of the active listener in such large works then the matter would not only raise questions within the field of phenomenology but it would also certainly encroach upon the related field of consciousness studies. Seems as if I need not have worried about wondering what to do next…

The illusive second book?

After Dent finished his biography on Busoni, it was his intention to write a second volume dealing with the composer’s music. But the book never materialised. This intention was held in check until Antony Beaumont picked up the challenge and began Busoni the Composer. However, the nature of the book changed during its writing and rather than analysing Busoni’s pieces in detail, the book became an invaluable starting point for further investigations. As I come to the close of my PhD, I find that the five pieces selected for a detailed investigation may have begun to inadvertently fill the space of the illusive second book.
The analyses begin with Nach der Wendung, a piece which tentatively moves away from tonal hierarchies. The next two pieces, the Fantasia nach J.S. Bach and the Berceuse Élégiaque, steadily develop their harmonic language and metatonal structures. The boundaries are pushed to their limit in the Sonatina Seconda and reach a comfortable but no less challenging space in the final piece, the Nocturne Symphonique. These analyses therefore come close to Dent’s and Beaumont’s original intentions: to provide a detailed account of his pieces and ground them within a possible trajectory of his music.

'Senza Tonalità'

In the concert programme for the first performance of the Second Sonatina, Busoni advised the audience that the piece was ‘senza tonalità’. But to what extent can his music be without tonality? For a self-confessed prophet of Young Classicism, the claim that the piece is without any sense of tonality and is totally free in its harmonic construction would surely be an over-reading. Is it more likely that his use of the term simply means that the piece is without prior tonal expectations and only operates within the harmonic parameters that it sets itself? The current analysis, through phenomenologically inspired models, will attempt to uncover the construction of the piece and discover to what extent the sonatina is ‘senza tonalità’.

Metatonality and Analytic Terminology

I am using the term metatonal to collectively refer to those pieces from the turn of the twentieth century which share a similarly styled musical language. This music does not employ chromatic elements as a colouration of erstwhile tonal harmony and it does not serve as a precursor to the Second Viennese School. Music that may be described as metatonal contains chromatic elements which do more than support tonal harmony, they are part of the harmony at an equal level and form definite structural links. The choice of prefix is intended to create a scholarly distance from other terms used to describe similar music. But more importantly, the Greek prefix encourages the idea that although such compositions have a filial relation towards tonality they are equally independent in their musical language and structure; they are both ‘with’ and ‘after’ tonality. A prime example of metatonal music are the compositions and transcriptions which represent Busoni’s idea of Young Classicism, as they embody the careful sifting and inclusion of previous music in new and unfettered forms. The question is therefore to what extent can one use the terminology that surrounds tonality if it is placed into a new environment? For example, can an audible movement which pulls a minor second upwards, away from the antecedent note, be referred to as a leading note motion if its only terms of reference are its immediate presentation? Yet, if we abandon such a terminology in favour of other descriptors are we denying our intuition of such pieces?

Busoni Scholarship

Since his death, Busoni has undergone and is undergoing musicological reconstructions. Whilst we cannot deny the changing face of musicology since the 1920s, this is only partially responsible for the differing trajectories which Busoni scholarship has taken. What has been a significant factor in contributing to the changing style of Busoni scholarship is the dissemination and appraisal of his written works. The underlying question in this situation is to what extent should the composer’s beliefs influence the work of the musicologist? For example, if we consider the differing characters of Birtwistle (who chooses to remain quite silent on the aesthetics of his compositions) and Stockhausen (who is more than keen to share his thoughts) then how should we alter our style and method of inquiry, if at all?

Time Consciousness

Busoni held the belief that music existed in a ‘cosmic atmosphere’, an atmosphere which is projected by the interaction of the listener and performer. Ferruccio Busoni, The Essence of Music and Other Papers, translated by Rosamond Ley (London: Rockliff Publishing, 1957). We can read this cosmic atmosphere as the Husserlian space in which the interconnections conditioned by the ‘now, past, future, phantasy and reproductive memory’ (or to use Husserl’s later terminology primal impression, retention, protention, recollection and anticipation) are formed. If the time we are conscious of when listening to a piece of music is no longer conditioned as a temporal line moving forwards then how would we chart the connection of events? Also, should such a reading factor into graphically based analyses, such as the goal direction of a Schenkerian analysis?

Intentionality

‘Notation, the writing of compositions, is primarily an ingenious expedient for catching inspiration, with the purpose of exploiting it later. But notation is to improvisation as the portrait to the living model. It is for the interpreter to resolve the rigidity of the signs into the primitive emotion.’ Ferruccio Busoni (Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music, 1907)
The question then presents itself as to where the musical art work exists for Busoni. Are we justified in believing that the composer held a view of intentionality similar to Roman Ingarden? Put simply, the artwork exists once it is realised by a performer(s) and the written score is simply an inanimate object. There would be little objection to this statement but how far can we take the concept? If we consider the art of transcription, which was an important part of Busoni's oeuvre, to what extent should the score for one instrument be realised into another? Do we take the intentional sound world of the composition as the ‘living model’ or should we be true to the 'portrait'?

Philosophic Connections

We have no evidence that Busoni and Husserl ever met, communicated by letter or were even aware of each other. The philosophic connection then has to be made on a history of collective ideas. Although both had a quite different educational backgrounds, with Busoni gaining his whilst on the road as a travelling virtuoso across Europe and Husserl receiving his instruction in mathematics at Leipzig and Berlin, they were influenced in their aesthetic and philosophic outlook by the same modes of thought. Both sought primary influences from the Cartesian models of philosophy; had engaged with the three main Kantian texts; and intellectually occupied the same philosophic space in early twentieth century philosophy, particularly the philosophy that was authored in Germany in the late nineteenth century. Therefore the question presents itself as whether there is enough of a starting point for claiming a shared philosophic ground between the two men and whether there are any other examples, throughout history, of contemporary figures who can be seen to occupy a similar space yet never knew each other?

The challenge set by Busoni at the end of Dr Faust

At the end of the work the poet, who opened the opera, speaks to the audience. His text is as follows:

A history of man and his desire
This night to sound of music has been told
The tragedy of Faustus did inspire
The tale of doom before your eyes unroll’d
So many metals cast into the fire,
Does my alloy contain sufficient gold?
If so, then seek it out for your own hoard;
The poet’s travail is his sole reward.
Still unexhausted all the symbols wait
That it in work are hidden and conceal’d;
Their germs a later school shall procreate
Whose fruits to those unborn shall be reveal’d
Let each take what he finds appropriate;
The seed is sown, others may reap the field.
So, rising on the shoulders of the past,
The soul of man shall reach his heaven at last.

This is most definitely a challenge set by Busoni to his audience and given that Busoni was a 'magpie of knowledge' there are several levels of meaning and borrowed quotes within this text. Some are obvious (the Newtonian 'standing on the shoulders of giants' reference), whilst some recall his own writings ('the soul of man' in his epilogue to the Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music).

Does any of the text connect with something you have read or encountered?

Busoni's use of the word Einheit (oneness)

The idea behind this page is to open for discussion the current area of research in my PhD. Whilst reading through Busoni’s literary output I find he uses the term Einheit (oneness) with great frequency. There are several readings for this:

The German Idealist connotation.
The idea of the coherent self from psychology.
The political unity that was occurring across Germany and Austria.
Bohemian Unity in the authors of Hanslick, Hortinsky and Zimmermann.
The eastern philosophic connection.
A biographical position of Busoni trying to locate his identity against the nature of his life as a travelling performer.

Each of these areas has a resonance with the term Einheit and whilst I am researching this topic I would be grateful for any comments, ideas or elaborations you may have: from directing me towards a particular text you may think is useful or to actually opening a discussion on one of these areas in which you have knowledge.

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