4

Musical Languages
Multiplicity of Styles

The musical language that best expresses your musical persona is often
intertwined with the concept and structure of a particular composition.
No longer is there a lingua franca such as existed in the era of Western
tonality. There appears to be a bewildering multiplicity of choices of
musical language, ranging from the conservative to the exploratory.
Nevertheless, viewed from the perspective of the twenty-first century,
the styles that occupied composers in the twentieth century might fall
into two broad camps: either tonal or non-tonal.
The essence of world music, folk music, and popular music is an
emphasis on rhythm. The supremacy of melody is also a characteris-
tic of all these styles. The unique contribution of Western Europe to
the development of classical music has been that of harmony, which
resulted from the contrapuntal combination of melodic lines. To this,

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44 Creative Music Composition

recent Western composers have added the exploration of timbre, tex-

ture, and spectral music (which involves the use of microtones).
The various schools of thought that emerged and developed during
the twentieth century may be broadly summarized as follows:

Twelve-tone (Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern)

Avant garde (Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen)
Post-serial techniques (Harrison Birtwistle)
Post-modernism (Henryk Grecki, Galina Ulstvolskaya)
Experimental (John Cage, Pauline Oliveros)
Minimalism (Steve Reich, John Adams, Louis Andriessen)
The new tonality (Judith Weir)
Polystylicity (Alfred Schnittke)
Spectralism (Tristan Murail, Livia Teodorescu)
Gesture (Sofia Gubaidulina)
Spatialization (Thea Musgrave)
Microtonality (Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi)
The new complexity (Brian Ferneyhough)
Sonic composition (Rebecca Saunders)

Just one or two composers have been suggested to represent each aes-
thetic school, although, in each category, there are many others. Some
of these composers worked in more than one area. Xenakiss music, for
example, embraces gesture and sonic composition as well as microto-
nality; and Gubaidulinas broad approach uses the new tonality and
polystylicity in addition to gesture. As well as the composers men-
tioned, there are hundreds of other composers who work within a more
conservative tradition, based on tonality or modality. Stravinsky, Pro-
kofiev, Shostakovitch, and Messiaen are just four composers whose
music has mass appeal, possibly because of their more traditional musi-
cal aesthetic.
Developing composers might choose to experiment with various
styles before finding their true voice. Natural inclination will lead
you to the musical style that eventually marks your identity. Indeed,
some composers have developed more than one style. Igor Stravinskys
musical oeuvre can be divided into three distinct phases: Russian; neo-
classic; and serial works. Arvo Prt and Grecki are two composers
 Musical Languages 45

whose early music was serial and avant garde, but whose later music
adopted simpler styles based on Orthodox Christian music and East
European folk music, respectively.
Apart from aesthetic considerations, composers need to take account
of the particular performers of their work. Normally, amateur and
young musicians will not be able to perform the technically demanding
music of the avant garde, which is composed with specialist virtuoso
performers in mind. Thus, it is prudent for composers to build styles
that are appropriate to the capacities of the intended performers.

Parameters
The components, or parameters, of a musical style comprise the follow-
ing elements:

Rhythm (pulse)
Pitch (line, melody; horizontal)
Counterpoint (addition of horizontal lines, creating verticals)
Harmony (conglomerate of vertical pitches)
Timbre (individual sounds)
Texture (counterpoint, combination of timbres)

At the same time that one is considering each parameter independently,

it has to be borne in mind that each note, or group of notes, contains
combinations of several components. Pitch, for example, cannot exist
without rhythm and timbre. Counterpoint will involve rhythm, pitch,
harmony, texture, and timbre.

Rhythm
Rhythm is music. It is the most fundamental element, yet it is often the
least controlled parameter in the composing of music. Rhythm can fall
into one of three categories: intuitive, functional, or constructed.
Intuitive Rhythm. A rhythm may be arrived at intuitively, that is,
by accepting whatever floats into the mind at the moment of composing.
In this instance, it will probably be the case that the rhythm itself is a
reflection of one that is stored in the memory from hearing other pieces