Music 680, Fall 2005: Special Topics in Music Theory - Algorithmic Composition Lecture 14: December 12, 2005 - making connections: Ligeti, Boulez, Holliger Nancarrow's canons as an important influence on Ligeti's Piano Etudes but also Mandelbrot/fractals, Escher, Arom/African Polyphony and Polyrhythm, Shepard tones, etc. not to mention Debussy and Ligeti's earlier essays in constructivism... Holliger and canon in the Scardanelli-Zyklus a highly rationalized form used to irrational ends (as a reflection of Hšlderlin's "Scardanelli" persona) Sommer III: three statements of a seven-voice prolation canon (where the tempi are defined by the singer's individual heart rates) staccato / semitones non staccato / quarter-tones tenuto / eighth-tones - Sommer I: similar prolation technique (six to eight voices) pitches eliminated gradually, leaving only silent lip motions - Sommer II: similar pitch compression (triple canon repeated as quarter- and then eighth-tones) Winter I: "tonal negative" of Komm, o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder notes of the original piece become rests (filled in by spoken recitations of the Scardanelli text) - Winter III: four-voice canon built on overtones of a "C" harmonic series each canonic part consists of close-position triads (= a deliberately perverse clash between the spectral and the tonal) Frühling I: root-position triads with unusual vocal techniques singing with near-empty lungs inhaled singing declamation through closed mouths singing with a "tight throat" late Boulez and "organized delirium" the Sacher chord: Es-A-C-H-E-Re (E-flat, A, C, B, E, D) as a presence in Repons etc. and its hexachordal permutations