Anonymous Sources: Finnissy Analysis and the Opening of Chapter Eight of "The History of Photography in Sound"

Anonymous Sources: Finnissy Analysis and the Opening of Chapter Eight of The History of Photography in Sound letTb i-.-.___* Richard Beaudoin Much of the nascent scholarship on British composer Michael Finnissy focuses on his musical and philosophical thought, addressing ways inwhich his cultural and political outlook have found voice through his pieces. There are comparatively few analyses of Finnis sy's music itself, if one discounts articles inwhich obligatory musical examples are accompanied by references to their source material and almighty complexity.1 My assumption is that ifFinnissy's music is to be of interest to futuremusicians itwill be at least in part because of themusic itself, alongside its connections to source materials, politics, 6 PerspectivesofNew Music sexuality, or philosophy. It isfrom this vantage point that I consider the opening of Finnissy's Kapitalistisch Realisme (met Sizilianische Mdnner akte en Bachsche Nachdichtungen), Chapter 8 of The History of Photography in Sound (1995-2001). After acknowledging the difficulties in "analyzing" Finnissy, I offer a discussion of theway themusic unfolds in time\a catalogue ofwhere I as an early twenty-first-century composer hear cadences, and why. Notably absent from my analysis is the issue most closely associated with Finnissy's technique?his collaged transcription of pre-existing music. The collage aspect of the History means that there is almost always some source for Finnissy's contrapuntal lines (in the case ofKap italistischRealisme, primarily from the German canon). While I believe that knowledge of the source material can profoundly influence the per former or score reader, I also believe that if we are drawn to thiswork it is not solely because of itshidden quotations from the old masters, but at least inpart because we are engaged by itshandling ofmusical materi als on its own terms. In fact there is the very real danger that as Finnissy's music becomes more widely known itwill be valued only in reference to its inclusion?via transcription?of acknowledged masterpieces from the Western canon and theworld's folkmusics.2 Therefore, within my closer analysis I assume that both the performer and listener are unaware of all original source material, or at least are unable to link the two in real time when encountering theHistory. Without devaluing the philosophi cal issues of the collage technique, I wish to investigate the piece without overemphasizing the cultural importance of its source material. After analyzing the opening page of themovement, I turn to Finnis sy's sketches for the passage, recording the composer's ear actively shaping all the materials?transcribed or otherwise composed?toward their final vivid form. I close by revisiting the issue of quotation and musical meaning; specifically, the way in which a hitherto undocu mented Wagner reference is used to signal the opening of this "German chapter" of TheHistory ofPhotography in Sound? The Problem of Finnissy Analysis While the size and scope of his oeuvre is formidable?a colleague of mine likened hearing a single piece of Finnissy to being one of the blind men in theHindi folk talewho are asked to describe what part of an ele phant they are touching?a characteristic of his technique is a near constant avoidance of regularity. Patterns of regularity,whether audible or embedded, are often the anchors of analysis within Western music, Finnissy Analysis 7 and their general absence here requires a rathermore creative approach to understanding and describing thematerial. Attempting to analyze Finnissy, we are forced by the often slippery and irregular surface to construct ways of hearing that exist outside the domains of other twentieth-century harmonic/rhythmic environments (e.g., serial, centrist, octatonic, minimalist, spectral, etc). Finnissy finds himself outside those compositional camps precisely because, measure by measure, themusical elements of his work resist a retracing of older har monic and melodic habits. And so in most cases we are leftwith apparendy non-tonal, non-centric, non-motivic, non-repetitive, often audaciously complex music. In short,we should expect Finnissy analysis to be a tall order, and assume that because the density of information it will be impossible to offer a coherent reading of this entire 75-minute chapter in the context of a single article. Instead, I focus on a single pas sage...