Static Structure, Dynamic Form: An Analysis of Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra

STATIC STRUCTURE, DYNAMIC FORM: AN ANALYSIS OF ELLIOTT CARTER’S CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA KLAAS COULEMBIER INTRODUCTION LLIOTT CARTER’S CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA is one of his most intriguing, complex, and fascinating compositions. It is a tour de force in the organization and arrangement of different musical materials, in the domains of both pitch and rhythm. Several authors have expressed their admiration for the composition, while acknowledging that it is very difficult to penetrate. In 1989, David Harvey opened his chapter on Carter’s Concerto for Orchestra with the following statement: The Concerto for Orchestra is Carter’s richest and most complex work to date in every respect. A complete account of its material, techniques, and their realisation in the textures of the work is beyond the scope of the present study; indeed, it may be doubted that such a project is at all feasible, given the size of the work, the density of the orchestral writing, the richness of the harmonic elaborations generated by Carter’s intervallic techniques of composition , and the limitations of analysis at the present time.1 E 98 Perspectives of New Music That this work is attractive to analysts is beyond question; the trepidation with which they have approached is, however, not only the result of its multi-layered musical surface, but also, no doubt, stems from the startling number of sketches Carter generated in producing it, conveying the impression that the construction of the composition may be even more puzzling than its form. Nevertheless, to gain a deeper insight into the workings of this music, the sketches appear to be as necessary as they are daunting. Jonathan Bernard concluded his 1983 article in Music Analysis with the remark that it would be impossible to make a fully comprehensive analysis of this composition. Dealing with the huge expanses of Carter’s scores . . . is still not easy. To retrace the steps of a composer who produces thousands of pages of sketches and works for thousands of hours in the course of writing a piece is likely to be a formidable undertaking, to say the least. . . . The prospect of reading, much less writing, a so-called “complete analysis” carried out according to the methods presented here is truly fearsome to contemplate. Eventually, perhaps, someone will have a bright idea that will make everything seem much simpler. Until then we can only have faith in the music, continue to analyse, and hope for the best.2 Rather than try to be that person with the bright idea, I want to contribute to the understanding of this composition by focusing on its overall temporal and dramatic organization. Therefore, in dealing with the more than 3000 pages of sketches that I studied during a weeklong stay at the Paul Sacher Foundation, I have kept my focus here exclusively on rhythmic sketches and temporal calculations. In that respect the following analysis complements existing literature in which pitch organization has often been the focal point. Despite the dependence on sketches, this analysis is not aimed at a mere reconstruction of the compositional process.3 By revealing the intricate relation between the rigid and static background structures and their more supple and subtle surface manifestations, this analysis tries to show which strategies and methods Carter applied to achieve such a compelling dramatic and dynamic musical discourse. THE CONCERTO FOR ORCHESTRA IN LITERATURE: AN OVERVIEW Apart from a chapter in David Harvey’s dissertation,4 there are no exhaustive, start-to-finish analyses of the Concerto for Orchestra. Static Structure, Dynamic Form 99 David Schiff gives a comprehensible overview of the composition in The Music of Elliott Carter.5 Jonathan Bernard has returned to the composition on several occasions, dealing with pitch structures in his article on “spatial sets,”6 or with the relationship between the literary source of the composition in “Poem as Non-Verbal Text.”7 Several publications of the Paul Sacher Foundation also include descriptions of the composition’s elaborate sketch resources available in their collection.8 Scholarly literature on Carter’s music in general has regained new energy in the last decade, particularly since the composer’s centennial celebration in 2008. Recent publications often consolidate important studies (such as Jonathan Bernard...