Published in Les Cahiers de la Guitare n 12 / 1984 "TELLUR", an analysis By Rafael Andia A NEW WAY OF WRITING FOR THE GUITAR?

WHO IS TRISTAN MURAIL? FORM TECHNIQUES USED IN PERFORMANCE CONCLUSION

OPINION IN THE PRESS

A NEW WAY OF WRITING FOR THE GUITAR? Rare, very rare even, are the works intended for the guitar which one can say are really part of the evolution of the musical writing of their time. It is necessary to go back to the ancient times of John DOWLAND and of A. M. BARTOLOTTI to find examples in our literature of participation in the investigations and concerns distinctive to their epoque whereas these abound in the domain of other instruments. More recently, Manuel de FALLA, with his Homage, similarly showed the path to following generations. In general, the composers of the 20th century have written for the guitar with the intention of trying to find a compromise between their musical ideas and the arsenal of possible techniques that the performer could put at their disposal. This ensemble of means was evidently limited by the routine and playing habits of guitarists and a direct function of the classical or modern repertoire they practised. In the best case, the composer pushed this technique to the limits, but it was not generally a question of a change of nature or radical renewal. In TELLUR, the development of the composition, the language and the entirely new musical focus ends up such that it could qualify as a revolution in writing for the guitar.

Who is TRISTAN MURAIL? Born in 1947 in Havre, he completed several university studies: (degrees in Sciences Economiques, Diplmes d'Arabe Maghrbin de l'Ecole Nationale des Langues Orientales, Diplme de l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques); he obtained the first prize in the composition class of Olivier MESSIAEN at the Conservatoire de Paris (1971); then was artist in residence at

Acadmie de France in Rome (Villa Mdicis 1971-1973); he is one of the founders and directors of the compemporary music ensemble ITINERAIRE (created in 1973); he plays different types of electronic keyboards (Ondes Martenot, electronic organs, synthesisers) as a soloist and in L'Ensemble d'Instruments Electroniques de L'ITINERAIRE". His principal works are:: Couleur de Mer (1969), for 15 instruments; Territoires de l'Oubli, for piano; Tellur (1977) for guitar; 13 Couleurs du Soleil Couchant, for 5 instruments; Sables, for orchestra; Gondwana for orchestra; Les Courants de l'Espace, for Ondes Martenot, synthesiser and small orchestra; Mmoire-Erosion, for horn and ensemble; Ethers (1978) for flute and 5 instruments (Discs SAPPHO). To try and delimit the musical and aesthetic conception of Tristan MURAIL we quote the composer : "The sudden widening of our horizon of sound opened by non-European music, the appearance of electronics has drastically changed the givens presented to composers, throwing into question the very foundations of our music. Impossible today to take pleasure in the systems of writing inherited from the past, and resting above all on a combination of note symbols making a screen in front of the sound phenomena. On the other hand, from new propositions inspired by acoustic observations and methods of synthesising sound, a systematic reconstruction of the world of sound seems possible. Acoustic observation which has revealed the internal composition of sound and the nature of interactions between sound phenomena, permits us to capture sounds in all their depth, and in this way to work sounds directly with their components, instead of being content with combining the SYMBOLS of sounds (the notes and the signs of a score). Electroacoustic practice, mixes, echoes, re-injections, filters, synthesis of new complex sounds, proposed new forms to instrumental music. The influence of electronic techniques will be felt on musical writing and also on the way of playing required of musicians (sounds without attack, continuous transformation of sounds, from "pure" sound to sounds charged with harmonics, sounds carrying controlled noise). But the sheet of paper offers the advantage, contrary to the studio, of posing no practical limit to the imagination. One can by writing strive to extend, deform, exceed electroacoustic techniques considered then as models serving the organisation of new forms." ANALYSIS OF "TELLUR" FORM TELLUR rests on a play on the phenomenon of "entropy" and of reconstruction of sound: disaggregation and incorporation of "atmospherics" which give birth to new layers of sounds. Entropy is an important basic idea taken from thermodynamics and describes the degradation of energy in a system. MURAIL himself gives us a definition of it in another of his works, "Mmoire-Erosion": "Entropy tends to return the music to a state of noise as the breath and the atmospherics accumulate on a track recopied several times." TELLUR plays therefore on the fundamental ambiguity of instrumental sound (whatever that might be): in effect, this is never acoustically "pure"; it is always accompanied by a certain proportion of "atmospherics", of noise. It's a matter therefore for the composer to master this parameter, to integrate the sound with a vocabulary and finally to make it an element in the construction of the work, the other element being the rhythm. "Equally, in the ryhthmical order, the piece is crossed by a quasi-regular pulse but always unstable in tempo which can

also be disaggregated by acceleration, by deceleration, infinitely. It is necessary to study carefully all the phenomena of progression in the timbres, the intensities, the accelerations and the slowings, which spread sometimes over quite long periods", the author advises.1 "The score plays equally strongly on the effects of continuity and ambiguity: the aggregations evolve slowly, the techniques of performance substitute themselves one to another in an indiscernable manner." he clarifies. The timbres, the dynamic and the tempo are then models such that: "these permit obtainment of a smooth form, constituted of a series of "climbs"(letters ACEG) and "descents" (BDP)". Understood by smooth form a conception uneventful of the time in which all musical parameters (timbre, pulse, dynamic) are interwoven in a process of evolution (or involution) continuous and predetermined, and no more subject to the caprice (inspiration) of the composer or simply to chance! It lives its own parallel life throughout the score: It breaks down by rarefaction or escape towards the infinitely small; it is reborn and grows in the reverse manner. As an example, the following graphic gives a visual account of this notion of smooth form by the internal organisation of the sound/noise relationship throughout TELLUR: Fig.1

Figure 1

TELLUR therefore deals with the continuous phenomena which emerge logically from the problem of maintenance of sound on the guitar, on the problem of the mastery of timbre and especially on the sound/noise duality. TECHNIQUES USED IN PERFORMANCE The flamenco reasgueado, in its continuous form e,a,m,i permits simultaneous resolution of the problems of maintenance of sound and the sound/noise balance. In effect, the impact of the nails on the strings determines the segments of string between the impact and the bridge. The tone of the vibration is very high (a strong component of noise) which gives rasgueado its rattle. These notes generally superimpose themselves on the principal note whose pitch is given by the position of the left hand on the fretboard. If one muffles these notes one obtains, alone, the very rapid rattle of atmospherics whose pitch is uniquely determined by the distance between the fingers of the right hand and the bridge. This is, the way TELLUR commences: 2

Figure 2 Here the rasgueado is realised on a single string, the 6th, betwee the rosette and the bridge, about 9.5 cms from it. One can there superimpose a natural or even an harmonic sound producing in this way two distinct voices on the same string.(the 6th)

Figure 3 The rasgueado on one string can be executed on any string on the condition that neighbouring strings are damped by the left hand. By shifting the right hand towards the bridge, one obtains at the same time a lighter roll of percussions on the bridge (page2, 6th system). Later, the rasgueado is extended to the 6 strings, creating a breathtaking deluge of sounds of uncertain pitch and difficult to perceive.

Figure 4 The rasgueado strumming "across and back" as executed by jazz guitarists with a plectrum is symmetrical from the point of view of timbre and cannot be rendered by the index finger because of the nail/flesh dissymetry. One will obtain it if one unites the nails of the index finger and the thumb at their tip to form an obtuse angle. To this sort of very metallic tremolo of three sounds it adds a percussion effect of the left hand which violently slaps the strings on the fretboard accelerating it, during which the right hand continues its rasgueado strumming.

Figure 5

One introduces in this way a "layer of sounds" completely independent of the first, particularly on the rhythmic plan. In the same spirit, one finds an effect known in the folk music of Latin America: the muffled percussion, realised by the shock of the palm on the strings superimposed on rasgueados.

Figure 6 These same effects of superimposition on rasgueados are equally applicable in TELLUR to the trills. It is the right hand which comes to the aid of the left which already executes two simltaneous trills.

Figure 7 Here, it is the index finger of the right hand which introduces the third trill by hitting the fret board at the fourth fret. Or alternatively, the index finger of the right hand presses on a note (the B of the 2nd string) and it is the thumb which realises a tremolo (E,F) above the fret board.

Figure 8 The "scordatura" employed permits some harmonic trills in unusual tones (the F is on the 6th string, case IV). As a result one can there superimpose self-accelerating layers of chords of four sounds.

Figure 9 The combination of rasgueado and double trills allows harmonic aggregations of eight sounds to be obtained.

Figure 10 A simple means of progressing from sound to noise is to relax the pressure of the fingers on the strings. This is "play above the frets" which "dematerialises" the sound. In reality this noise is composed of harmonics of very high pitch (2nd string, case XVII). To partially "re-materialise" this noise, it suffices to slide, little by little along the string towards a harmonic of lower pitch (case XVI - D sharp).

Figure 11 Finally, on isolated notes, one finds in TELLUR subtle differences in some of the attacks; for example some slurs of the left hand effectuated in reverse, that is to say by pushing the string towards the outside of the hand (instead of pulling) which gives a softer timbre than the ordinary slur (page 6, letter E): also the play of the thumb "rest-stroke" can use the back of the thumb nail, an effect which approaches the classical "pizz. la Bartok" (page 6). etc.

CONCLUSION As a conclusion to this brief analysis, one can note that the problem of maintenance of sound and investigation of timbres is not new in the history of the guitar. In the 17th century, ornaments and "batteries" (a French name for a type of rasgueado) are some of the original solutions for the baroque guitar. The guitarists of the 19th century, with their imitations of instruments and the process of tremolo also bear witness to the preoccupation. With TURINA

and other composers of the 20th century, the rasgueados is employed especially for these connotations. But what one can consider as new that TELLUR brings to the guitar is the assimilation of these techniques in the construction of a rigorous form without precedent in our literature. 1 To effectively render these effects to the ear, the durations have been calculated to the average curves of acceleration, in general of logarithmic type ( the instinctive accelerations of musicians are always of this type). 2 The tuning of the guitar is, from bass to treble: F, A, E flat, G, B, E; and later it becomes: C sharp, A, E flat, G, B, E.

SEEN IN THE PRESS: Tristan Murail's Tellur (1978) contains some of the most elaborate and extended uses of rasgueado techniques of any contemporary piece (see Ex. 8.9). The composer has written that the instrument should sound more like a flamenco guitar than a classical one. Another substantial addition to the modern repertoire, which the advanced player should become familiar with, is Michael Tippett's The Blue Guitar (1984), an impressionistic work full of subtle images and an echo-like resonance, for this is music about a poem about a painting. Reading the poem, The Man with the Blue Guitar by Wallace Stevens. Michael Stimpson, The Guitar, a guide for students and teachers, 1988,Oxford University Press Il brano chitarristico pi straordinariamente efficace della nuova musica francese senza dubbio Tellur (1977) di Tristan Murail (1947). Costruito sull'alternanza conflittuale tra opposte tendenze timbricodinamiche, Tellur si modella sul progetto di un suono "racl", duro e scavato nel "forte", che deriva dal gioco dei chitarristi di "flamenco" pi che da quello levigato dei chitarristi "classici"; la forma della composizione quella di un continuo articolato, nel quale il compositore introduce, in corrispondenza ai cambi di tensione dinamica (contrassegnati dalle lettere dell'alfabeto), sempre nuovi modelli di suono, derivanti da tecniche originali, con effetti timbrici altrettanto originali; i passaggi modulari non danno tuttavia luogo ad una strutturazione episodica, ma a mutazioni d'ambiente sonoro e a cambi di "direzione", che il compositore suggerisce con le metafore della "salita" e della "discesa". Tellur ha indubbiamente le carte in regola per rappresentare con forza emblematica la nuova musica francese (e segnatamente il gruppo Itinraire, di cui Murail stato cofondatore) in campo chitarristico. Angelo Gilardino, Manuale di Storia della Chitarra (ad uso dei conservatori e delle scuole di musica), 1988, Berben