PhD Thesis - Folio of Compositions with Commentary

Chapter 2 - Tyalgum and Mabo Tango
by Robert Davidson

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Tyalgum [1] takes its title from a small village in New South Wales near the Queensland border; the piece was commissioned by the annual music festival which takes place there.  A condition of the commission was that the music would use the local landscape as a starting point.

The landscape informs the music on several levels, most pointedly on that of structure.  Tyalgum's environment is dominated by a mountain made significant by its being the first point on Australia's mainland to receive the sun's rays each day - Mount Warning, or Wollumbin.  The mountain was at one time the centre of an enormous volcano, the rim of which encircles the region.  Similarly, the composition is centred on its second movement - a piano solo that represents the mountain, or rather takes its creative impulse from the mountain.  This solo, Circumference, exists as an independent piano work and was the first music to be composed for Tyalgum.  Two surrounding movements, one fast and one slow, were composed to act as a frame around Circumference, as a parallel of how the valleys and hills surround Wollumbin.

Circumference had its beginnings in an imaginary scene in which an observer stands at the summit of Wollumbin, slowly turning through 360 degrees in order to view the entire panorama contained within the volcanic rim.  With each rotation, new detail emerges as the sun slowly rises and perception is sharpened.  Musically, this is represented by repetitions of a cycle, each more elaborate and texturally dense than the last.  The principle of repetition with elaboration is basic to each of the three movements of Tyalgum, and finds its clearest expression in Circumference.

Circumference is fundamentally static, as the musical motion is circular rather than linear.  The imagined observer doesn't go anywhere, but takes several views of an unchanging landscape.  Appearing three times, Circumference's cycle consists of a melody articulating a series of modes and associated chords, derived conceptually from the popular South Indian ragamalika technique, in which a variety of ragas are presented in quick succession.  This cycle uses seven modes, presented in a
stop-start sequence of 1212323434567 (fig. 2-1).

Figure 2-1 Sequence of modes and chords in Circumference

The harmonic cycle, in opposition to the fundamentally nonlinear nature of the work, is clearly a linear progression.  Smooth, directional voice leading links the four-note chords, which are placed in a sequence of increasing harmonic tension.  As tension increases, changes between modes become more frequent and the modes themselves depart from standard diatonic-based sets (phrygian, mixolydian and dorian) towards greater dissonance.  In the fourth mode, for example, an augmented second is introduced, followed in the fifth mode by an octotonic formation, in the sixth by a semitone cluster (A#, B, C), and in the seventh by a whole tone scale with a non-scalar bass note.  Tension reaches its highest point at the end of the cycle, ready for the release brought by the appearance of the new cycle.  This moment is reinforced by a very functional use of voice leading, as the right hand melody continues an upward moving scale, completing a voice exchange with the bass (from a major seventh to a minor ninth, a characteristic structural harmonic device of my music).  The left-hand chords similarly contain a stepwise contrary motion cadence (fig. 2-2).

Changes between the repetitions are brought about by introducing new layers of texture in the left hand, while the right hand repeats its melody, maintaining the same steady quaver texture throughout.  In the first appearance of the cycle, the bass is restricted to sustained notes at the beginning of each modal change.  On the second appearance, the bass establishes a steady minim motion and a clearly defined melodic part.  The left hand is as active as the right hand, moving in constant quavers, in the final cycle (fig. 2-3).

The static effect of Circumference, which portrays a still landscape, is largely the result of the unchanging texture of the right hand melody.  The melody was first composed as a single line, using additive rhythm with units of one to four quavers.  Next was applied an organum-like technique - doubling at the octave and fifth, and also at the fourth where the note durations are of more than two quavers.  The resulting chords are played in quaver arpeggios to produce a constant rhythmic texture.  Such a strict procedure creates, despite the non-repetitive melody, an effect of stasis (as expectations are continually fulfilled), again reflecting the impersonal landscape, and the fundamentally uniform solidity of the mountain, whatever variety there exists on its surface.  While the melody does not contain repetitions, it is however unified throughout by recurring motifs.

Figure 2-4 Stages of construction of right hand part, opening bars

Additive rhythm in the melody produces an uneven rhythmic flow that is reminiscent of the rocky contours of the landscape.  It also allows for some ambiguity of meter, made evident in the second part of the piece when the bass begins to become more active and to articulate a definite meter, altering the original metrical scheme defined by the melody.  At first, the bass moves mostly in minims, forming meters such as 4/4 and 3/2, gradually introducing dotted crotchets, crotchets and dotted minims.  The movement in the left hand in this second section is consistently one of alternating bass octave and high-pitched chord.  The right hand arpeggiations had reminded me of the piano style of artists such as Jelly Roll Morton or Scott Joplin, so a suggestion of ragtime or stride-style left hand playing was chosen.

In the third part, the original metrical scheme returns, but is reinterpreted by the left hand's melodic part (which appears in the same organum formation framing the right hand melody).  Rhythmic units - typically of two or three quavers - are combined in different orders between the two hands, creating a highly contrapuntal texture.

Figure 2-5 Opening of Circumference Part Three, showing rhythmic units in number of quavers

Tyalgum's two outer framing movements share with Circumference a preoccupation with cumulative repetition, and a structure based on bass movement.

The first movement comprises three sections (in addition to short transitional material), which may be labelled as A, B and C, so that the movement has the structure A A B C A B C D.  Similarly to Circumference, the first movement makes prominent use of repetition with elaboration.  As discussed in regard to Circumference, this procedure is attractive as a means of balancing familiarity and surprise, and as a means of economising content, directing the listener towards an engagement with the sound itself as a physical presence.  It is also analogous to an experience of the landscape, seen in more detail with each glance as the sun rises.

The first section, which may be labelled the A section, comprises a harmonic progression.  As it is repeated, two contrapuntal melodic lines are successively added.  Similarly in the C section, a drawn out harmonic progression is presented in the first appearance; on its return, this material becomes one strand in a complex contrapuntal texture made up of several simultaneous metrical systems.  Also repeated with modification is the material of the B section, but rather than gaining additional material as in the A and C sections, it is shortened and varied.

The harmonic progression which forms the foundation of the A section consists of a moving bass part doubled at the fifth, with an additional superimposed fifth in the final bars, all of it accompanied by an E-B drone.

The harmonic focus of the passage is clearly the tonal centre of E (strongly reinforced by the drone), with a back and forth switch between phrygian (bars 1-6, 21-24) and major (bars 7-20) modes, conveying an impression of light and shade.  The most prominent sonorities are those of I and IV and their relative minors (ii and vi) - there is no appearance of V, and the dominant function - the harmonic function of the polar opposite of I - is taken by IV. 

A strong sense of forward motion pervades the passage, though it is a spasmodic motion due to the partial repetition of cells, a characteristic which surfaces again in the B section.  The forward motion is reinforced in the repeat by the newly added melodic line.  It creates motion in a traditional way, using accented neighbour and passing notes to form dissonances and then resolving them.  This counterpoint - alluding clearly to the fourth species counterpoint of Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum [2] - is carried further by the third part, added when the A section returns after several other passages.  This new part also increases the linear sense by means of a strongly contoured melody.

A sharp contrast in texture is introduced with the first appearance of the B section.  The smooth flow of the A section's shifting harmonic progression and floating, intertwining contrapuntal lines give way to jagged, aggressive and angular unison utterances at low pitch, played by the bottom-heavy trio of baritone saxophone, double bass and piano in their lowest registers.  The entire passage is restricted to the pitches of the phrygian mode.  Contained in the stop-start motion is a reminder of the spasmodic direction of the A section's harmonic progression.  Here in the B section, this motion is intensified and greatly compressed, as the constant quavers stutter through asymmetrically repeated cells, constructing a highly linear background pitch framework.  This background harmony, like that of the A section, moves slowly.  Thus the busy surface rhythm does not bring so dramatic a change from section A as may first be thought.

Figure 2-7 Foreground and middleground analysis of opening bars of section B (background notes shown as whole notes)

Section B's middleground and background are shown in fig. 2-8. The entire section may be seen as a very slow imperfect cadence (i-V), ushering in the dominant harmonic area of section C.

Figure 2-8 Middleground and background levels of section B

A similarly primary harmonic movement is traced in the C section.  There are three segments, each based on a single chord; the roots of the three chords placed together form a B minor triad, or chord v.

  Figure 2-9 Opening bars (piano only) of each segment of C section showing underlying harmony

Following the three segments is a brief return to the opening segment which leads with strongly directed motion back into the A section as a v-I cadence.  The linear sense of cadence is increased, as it is at each of the changes of harmony in the C section, by a rhythmic cadence.  In contrast to the constantly changing rhythm up to this point, regular crotchets appear, driving the resolution home.

  Figure 2-10 Cadence from section C to section A (piano only)

The first appearance of the C section is a unison texture.  When the section returns, the unison material becomes one part of a contrapuntal web comprising several simultaneous metrical systems, resulting in a buoyant, floating rhythmic texture.  At L (bar 253), for example, the piano reproduces the changing meters, dominated by seven-eight and five-eight, used in the first appearance of this material.  The double bass meter is based around four-four and three-four, and the violin is characterised by two-four and five-eight (though all share the same notated meters for convenience of performance).  Fig. 2-11 demonstrates the three independent strata.

Figure 2-11 Polyrhythmic strata

The final movement of Tyalgum is a response to my experience of intense silence while staying in the village.  Surrounded by the mountains, the valley is shielded from sound, and the lack of traffic noise made a dramatic contrast to my home on a busy city street.

A single sonority is used throughout the movement.  Consisting entirely of superimposed fifths, the sonority includes each of the twelve pitch classes, bounded on each side by Bb/A# at the extreme ends of the piano range, separated by seven octaves.  I was attracted to the chord's extreme consonance, due to its exclusive use of fifths, which seemed to be in strange opposition to its total chromaticism.

The chord is played as an arpeggio by the piano repeatedly, the recurrence coming one bar earlier each time until no gap remains.  This process of shrinking cycles maps out the structure of the movement and provides a horizontal space, well joined with the vertical space of superimposed fifths, for free instrumental play.  A range of allusions emerges from this instrumental articulation of the harmonic and temporal space, which includes suggestions of bird song in the piano, bright sunlight in the strings' harmonics, and resonant, lugubrious melody.  The gradual erasing of time by the process of shortening cycles, absorbing the horizontal structure into the vertical sonority, captures a sense of stillness I experienced in the landscape which inspired the piece, and resolves the unsettled energy of the earlier movements.

The whimsical miniature Mabo Tango: The Lizard of Oz functions as something of a companion piece to Tyalgum in many performances, occupying a similar aesthetic territory to that of the larger work.  The two-minute tango was composed for inclusion in a collection of tangos designed to illustrate the character of former Australian prime minister Paul Keating.  I chose to illustrate what I consider Keating's greatest achievement as prime minister: the overseeing of land rights legislation for indigenous Australians, popularly known as the "Mabo decision".  The title also refers to a famous series of headlines in British tabloid newspapers (during a prime-ministerial visit to Britain) in which Keating was repeatedly referred to as "The Lizard of Oz."

I studied a large number of Pitjantjarra songs with texts about the blue-tongued skink (given that Keating was also renowned for his vulgarities in Parliament, and could thus be described as having a "blue tongue") and, to avoid encroaching on indigenous territory, composed my own melody using aspects gleaned from this repertoire.  The requisite tango rhythm is played on the piano, alternating clusters of black and white keys (a crude analogy of race relations), and the melody is given a slight dose of Irish folk melody, reflecting Keating's ethnic background.

© 2003 Robert Davidson