What Does "Banal" Really Mean?(On Dealing Aesthetically with the All-Too-Familiar, andthe Richness It Holds – World-Content and AestheticExperience and Aesthetic Behavior)Clemens Gadenstätter

Conditional Listening, Conditional Experience, Or: We Learnto Perceive and Experience; Culturalization

I learn to hear, to see, and also to experience, to feel:both sensory perception and affective "inner" perceptionsare closely tied to the process of culturalization. I learnto distinguish an object from its surroundings because myenvironment suggests this to me. The simplest example isthe respective degree of differentiation of the object"snow" for an Inuit and for me: the former has well overtwenty distinctions applied to the general category, whileI have learned to distinguish between some six types ofsnow. It is not simply a matter of terminologicaldifferentiation, but also the sensitivity to particularcharacteristics and the possible dangers associated withthem that grows during the learning process.

Our body (our "biology") is one of the factors thatcondition our perceptions. At the same time, however, ourbody itself becomes perception (I observe myselfperceiving). The manner of this self-perception is in turnpart of the culture I have learned and in which I live.What my body is and how it should feel is thus a complex,perpetually recursive process between biology (or "nature")and culture. Biology fundamentally dictates therestrictions and possibilities as a condition. Culture, onthe other hand, interrogates this condition and attempts tode-restrict it. Culture thus manifests itself as an attemptto "exceed" nature (and also itself). Nature, for its part,directs these de-restriction attempts, as it lays down thebasic conditions. A de-restriction of the existing, then,is only possible within the conditionally possible.

This paradox of transgressions within fixed conditionsis one of the central preconditions for aesthetic action.Transformation comes about through action on objects; ittriggers a change of in the actor's attitude towards theobjects. The altered perception of the object in turnchanges the perceiving person.

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Perception as a Conscious Act

For the aesthetic process, this means that events must takeplace in such a way that the culturally coded, learnedbehavior does not take effect. The difficulty in this isthat if this other of my behavior is to be a condition ofaesthetic experience, the difference between my currentbehavior and the "old" behavior must become evident. Thisdifference can only be experienced if the events retain the"slipstream" of the time-honored connotation and mode ofexperience. Suitable events (and contexts) for this areones that are particularly clearly preformed, ones largelyconsidered "banal." If such "banalities" are re-associated,re-formed, re-contextualized and so on. In aesthetic work,they can gain an unimagined degree of energetics, such thatI – as a listener – must react to them in a new/differentway. It is now that I become aware of my listening: I hearthat I am hearing differently, that I am hearing otherthings in the events I already considered "banal."1

This Janus-faced character (the simultaneity of"familiar" and "differently understood") is the basicassumption for the form of aesthetic behavior I envisage.My concern is to provoke a mode of perception that, as wellas the act of listening, makes the listener aware ofsynaesthetic sensations – the processing brain, the bodyparts subjected to stimulation (by "stimulation" I mean themovements that take place as miniature mimeses of events:feeling the movements of the vocal muscles when hearingspeech, of the body muscles when hearing acoustic sequencesof motions, and also when seeing sequences of actions, orthe imaginative re-enactment of such movements or gestures,sonic tactilities and so on). What I consider desirable,then, are aesthetic events that call up stored memories, aswell as the accompanying behavioral patterns alreadyinscribed in the events, before accordingly throwing us offthe course of our usual reactions.

1 I would like to distance myself from a stance that classifiesinstrumental sounds per se as banal. I would define as "banal" – inthe sense discussed here – whatever is only used in a single fashion,is restricted to this particular usage, and has thus become"unlistenable," i.e. can no longer have an affect on the attention.

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This also outlines what "aesthetic work" must mean:working on a complex of event-perceptions that acts on manylevels, that is never complete and always mobile. This workmust address all perceptual layers simultaneously – afterall, these layers also address us simultaneously when welisten. Separating them by means of definition only servesa simplified presentation.

An arbitrarily chosen "banal" musical event – a simplefour-note group, for example, played on an instrument at aparticular speed, register and volume, perhaps with aparticular communicative "intention" such as an"espressivo" effect, is simultaneously taken up, enactedand classified on the different levels described. Theinstrument, with its particular sound, is given its placein the mode of listening we have learned, we compare whatis played and what is associated with the instrument,deviations are identified, similarities with familiarelements emerge, the sound is "intermedially" classified inits quality as "bright," "high" or "soft"… The pitchstructures are compared to familiar ones and classified.The pitch movement, once absorbed as a sonic impression, isretraced in mimetic transference by the body (or in theimagining of a bodily movement, a gesture). This gives thepitches a "gestural outline" that matches our learnedbodily gestures to a greater or lesser extent (a completenon-correspondence would make the "perceivingunderstanding" of a pitch sequence much more difficult).Similar processes occur with the other qualities of thechosen event; hence this simultaneously takes place at allqualitative levels of the chosen event.

The term "qualities" has been carefully chosen:perception as understood here is not triggered by mereparameters. In the act of triggering, qualities aretransformed from "physical" data into complex propertiesconnected to other events not being heard at that moment.Many relationships are updated, all charged with specificcontent: every gesture, every integration into existingsystems triggers a reaction in me, in the body. I re-enactthe gesture and classify it, place it in relation to theother qualities, and experience it affectively as the"mimetic resonance" of a gesture associated with joy, forexample.

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Such an analysis of how we perceive a banal event(this could be an ascending triadic figure in the trumpet,or one on the same instrument already altered, as heardtwice at the beginning of Schönberg's A Survivor from Warsaw –or an "extra-musical" sonic event like a signal soundetc.). then becomes a guideline for the processing ofconscious events, extending to musical events.

Connection to myself thus becomes involved in theprocess of perception and processing where my threshold offamiliarity is overstepped, demanding my attention,processing and alteration of behavior. This also means,however, that if I wish to get to the bottom of mybehavioral automatisms, I virtually must start from thebanal event: that is where this behavior is at home. It isthe transformation of the familiar that draws me into thegame of the aesthetic processes: playing it meansexperiencing the transcendence of the familiar/banal as atransformation of the self. This experience would be theaesthetic experience that provokes a new aestheticbehavior.

The Richness

Once the banal, in the ways described above, has ceased tobe banal, the processes of change open up (in myself and myattitude, and thus in the event itself) a richness that isalways also counteracted by the "poverty" of the startingpoint: this rupture between the two situations offers apoint of engagement and treatment in aesthetic work, in thecompositional process. This richness is initially one ofactual materiality: what was concealed under the burden ofconventional listening now comes to light as a genuine"event" (in the emphatic sense). A richness ofsimultaneities also ensues: one element can simultaneouslybe understood in several ways. An event is at once raw (canbe heard, for example, as an untreated sound signal, anascending fourth, the alternating fourth of an ambulancesiren, and so on) AND contextualized within a harmonic field,and hence largely transformed in its mode of appearance.The richness is also one of possibilities, however, ofmovements still located on the horizon of the event, theplace to which an event can move depending on which

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contextualization will push into the foreground and whichmode of unfolding in time develops.

Now one must also develop a sense of possibility (witha nod to Musil) in terms of the temporal articulation:music articulates time as the quality of the possibilitiesthat are inscribed in the contexts and events. Time is aquality of potential changes in current experience. Thesepotencies are inscribed in what is to be heard through itsties to the collective and personal memory and the"expectations" derived therefrom, through the collision ofexpectations and current occurrence. Here we have the dramaof music, as it were, the intrigue that must be solved.Concretely articulated time becomes a possibility for aspecific mode of mobility. The quantitative parameters oftemporal experience (duration, event density, speed etc.)suddenly become qualities that are experienced as such andpotentially contain directions of change. The "security" ofa temporal disposition – a situation with a stable,familiar temporal dimension – is constantly questioned. Thefactor of time is thus a property of what is heard and ofhearing itself, but is also meant to be perceptible "foritself," so to speak. Time becomes a self-experience of thebody, which observes itself during this experience; in asense, sonic time and bodily time converge in this view ofthings.

But this also means that if every "banal" or "veryfamiliar" event has its "own" time (its duration, the innerarticulation of its form in time – following on fromStockhausen's Eigenzeit…) inscribed upon it, the manipulationof temporality causes a change in our understanding of theevent. The banal form in time, for example, is strained inthis manner. This is one possibility for it to become atrue "event" again, to leave the realm of banality. At thesame time, the event opens up a possibility for theexperience of temporality.

It is not only for experience-economical reasons (asit were), however, that a connection to the most familiar(banal) events is desirable. ("Economy" here means thataesthetic work which plays with the limits of theexperienceable must be meaningful in terms of humanperceptual capacity – whether at the maximum or theminimum): without a constant confrontation of the currentsituation with our constitution (culturally, biologically,

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personally, ideologically…), we remain observers. We flypast foreign planets, so to speak, observing them from theoutside without gaining the slightest sense of how thetemperature feels there, how they smell or sound – a senseof what characterizes these planets, or life on them. It isonly transformative work that situates us on the foreignplanet of our world in a state of experience, as paradoxicalas that may sound. And, as brain research suggests, evenour brain is designed to initiate actions merely to gainnew experiential fodder. Only through constant frictionbetween our "constitution" and the experiential world thatis taken off its course by our actions, then, can we obtainthis fodder. If the poles are too different or too similar,our attention turns away – either distancing itself fromthe shock or overlooking what is all too familiar.

The Question of Semantics

Every familiar event has meanings. The meanings we inscribeon it are our tools for the daily management of lifeprocesses (communication, goal-oriented action, "correct"reactions to external stimuli, and so on). As long as thesemeanings remain unquestioned, we simply use them; they haveno quality of their own. It is only with work on themeanings that the question of meaning arises. In theaesthetic context, these questions can be strained to thepoint of paradoxical exaggeration, to a multiplyruptured/shifted meaning. Meaning cannot be done away with,however (this is shown particularly by correspondingattempts of the classical avant-gardes of the previouscentury, which – though impressive nonetheless – failed inthis respect).

Meaning, then, remains "banal" as long as it goesunquestioned. Conversely, only the familiar meaning – as a"banality" – can be questioned. I will only experience themeaning of a red traffic light as current in the moment Idisregard it, or if it impedes me in my activity, mystriving and so on. Musical events only reveal theirmeanings openly, and open it up to change, if thesemeanings are insistently emphasized (the funeral marches ofBeethoven, Chopin, Mahler and also Webern insist on theirmeaning through the "transformative quotation" of all the"accessories" of the funeral march). At the same time,

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however, changes must be highlighted with equal insistenceto avoid merely placing the situation (the funeral) in theforeground when quoting music used in a particularsituation, rather than thematizing the "music" that isundoubtedly at issue in the aforementioned examples.

Though I am probably misusing Frege in anunphilosphical fashion, I would like to adapt hisdistinction between meaning [Bedeutung]2 and sense [Sinn] tomy own purposes: only a collective meaning that istransformed towards the specific can enable me to define aspecific sense. It is important, however, for the formermeaning not to be lost entirely. The slipstream ofinscribed meanings must still be evident in the mostspecific sense. A crude example would be the appearance ofa tonal relic in a piece of serial music: despite thecompletely redefined systematics and way of listening tothe pitches, the interval brings its former meaning with itas a shadow. What is perhaps more conspicuous, however, arethe semantic shadows of musical gestures: metric pulsation,even in the completely altered context of works by MathiasSpahlinger or N. A. Huber, for example, will always beaccompanied by a visible memory shadow. The music workswith this shadow as a – to adapt Laurence Sterne –"sentimental glow" in the best sense. Here the sense onlybecomes complete with this "shadow meaning."

In the examination of events and contexts with knownmeanings, the generation of sense also becomes anexamination of manipulation. Every meaning is manipulative(which is very useful in everyday life – for example thered light, which "manipulates" me to stop). Every use ofmeaning – the minor key of the funeral marches, thecollectively fixed rhythm – is manipulative: we are meantto receive an image of mourning and be animated to adopt asuitable pace in the funeral procession. The concern herecannot be personal mourning, but rather a protocol whoseobservance is demanded by the music.

If, on the other hand, this form of manipulation isopenly addressed in artistic work, if it is itselfsubjected to transformation, it no longer has this force

2 Translator's note: although the common translation of Bedeutung in thespecific case of Frege is "reference," the natural word to use wouldbe "meaning." To avoid such an academic restriction in the presentcontext, this convention has not been followed.

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that guides me unnoticed, and a regulation for behavior isno longer mistaken for music; instead, manipulation becomesan available property of all human activity.

Transformation

To summarize: new contexts leads to new materiality, whichleads to new musical material, new structure and newlistening, new behavior. Novelty is only "relativelydesirable" here. The completely new is not constructivelyconceivable or receptively comprehensible; it has no pointsof entry for our perception. Working on the familiar bringsthe human factor into aesthetic work: personal andcollective preformations, the body and so on. Similarly,examining the manipulative side of sounding events isimpossible without placing them in relation to pastexperiences, and transformation must take place throughthem.

Aesthetic work using banal events thus entails thefollowing:1.) Insistence on their presence (constantly recallingfamiliar events, patterns...)2.) Altered behavior at the different levels of qualitativeappearance (compositional erosion of the events' integrityand a straining of qualities)3.) Material context formations (acoustic contextformations) at and between different levels and betweenevents (giving rise to contextual fields that havedeveloped multi-dimensional networks that determine theprocessing of material and the way of listening)4.) Context formations that go beyond the materialfoundation: contexts of meaning become offers of sense.Contexts of a situative nature (events form situations)become "sensual" déjà-vu experiences. Mimetically producedcontexts (based on gestures, affective movements – even,and particularly, in "New Music"!) become the sense of apossible gesture, the sense of an unknown affect.5.) Context formations as bodily sensations ("embodiedperceptions of sounds"), as intermedially perceivedtactilities, gestures of motion etc.

Aesthetics of Transformation

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From this perspective, aesthetic experience defines itselfas an experience of transformation. This leads to aparticular aesthetic behavior that leads to a change in myself: listening has become different – not only listeningto particular acoustic events, but listening "itself," justas my body and my intermedial perception change. Thus Iperceive myself as an other. It is not simply beingdifferent that is of interest, however, but the path oftransformation experienced, the open confrontation with theconditions of experience extending to "aesthetic"experience. This transformation is always a critique: ofhabits, of rigidity, of unquestioned criteria andcategories of shaping – and thus also of experience. It isa critique not least of the brutal exploitation of ourmodes of perception for the maximization of profit, both inpurely commercial entertainment and art that poses as"pure," yet seeks to skim off the cream of our habits ofemphasis, thus reinforcing the very thing it claims tobreak down.

It is equally important to question the category ofthe personal in music: as noted in the funeral marchexample, the concern cannot be the direct communication ofsomething personal. I will never understand Chopin'sfuneral march as "his grief," nor will Ferneyhough'sespressivo structures ever give me "direct insight" into asubject that is foreign to me. The realization that I cangain something from music as a listener is not based onsomething that is "given" to me as the secret message ofthe music, only on what the music enables me to build up inthe process of listening: that recursive, many-twisted loopbetween myself and the aforementioned Schönberg fanfares,as one example, between my formed idea or knowledge offanfares and the deviations experienced, between thepossibilities projected by me and the listening experiencecurrently taking place. The constant comparison brings "me"into play: I become part of what I problematize, and thusalso part of the desired aesthetic solution.

This means that there is longer anything "banal." Themore banal the starting point, the richer the possibilitiesof overturning my categories of listening and experience; arich harvest, one might say.

What Does "Banal" Really Mean?

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Part 2: Practical Application

I will use the opening of Semantical Investigations 2 forensemble3 to demonstrate how the poetics described in thefirst part of this essay is applied in compositionalpractice.

Ordering of the Sonic Field

The entire sound material of the section under examination(mm. 1-7) deals with the sonic field of "ringing" as a poolof signal sounds that form the focus in the group of worksentitled Semantical Investigations. This sonic field acts as a"magnet" for the formation of both sonic and structuralcontexts. In the first compositional stage, the signalsounds to which the entire piece refers were graduated,differentiated and classified:

– Genuine signals: car horns, ambulance sirens,whistles, bells, buzzers, beepers, squeakers,fanfares, the crackling of traffic signals for theblind etc.

– Verbally transmitted signals: speaking as a signalgesture. Developed further into signal-like speechforms such as commands, exclamations, invocations

– "Social" signals: different forms of music ("quasi-quotations"), medially transmitted signal-like soundevents (radio, CD track as a documentary texture orfound footage layer); music as a signal: children'ssongs, music styles, also coded shapes such asfanfares, flourishes, march rhythms etc.

– Sounds as indicators of particular situations, e.g."nature sounds" (animal bells), "child's world,"different living environments (train station,restaurant…) etc.

Naturally the situations are always mediated: it is not amatter of representation, but of calling up a situation. Inthis sense, the sounds function as "signals."

3 Semantical Investigation 2 for 11 instruments. Edizioni Musicali Rai TradeMilano/Roma.

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Contextualization – Technique for Context Formation onDifferent Qualitative Levels of the Material

Acoustic context formation: the prearranging of sonicqualities according to acoustic similarity, both at theparametric and the morphological/tactile levels. In thesection in question, a ringing sound (a bicycle bell) formsthe starting point for a sonic contextual field, producedvia such acoustic similarities (see line 1a in the chartbelow).

Semantic context formation: sound elements arecontextualized according to their possible meanings. Thesemantic fields inscribed in the (signal) sounds becomeordering criteria (a warning can appear in differentqualities, different warning sounds such as bells, horns,ambulance sirens, beeps and so on). Warning turns from anordering category into a differentiated phenomenon, and soit continues. The differentiation of sonic quality within aconstant semantic field enables differentiation within thesemantic field. The question to be investigated is how thecollision of largely congruent meaning and incongruentmanifestation can affect the process of perception.

"Semantic" context formation starting from ringing inthe section examined (as contextualization beyond theindividual lines, see "meta-context"):

– Ringing as summoning, or invitation and command: theringing of the bicycle bell is assigned a graduatedseries of sounds – hand bells, triangles, churchbells, altar boy bells, telephone ringing and others –that correspond to the aforementioned semantic fields.

– Ringing as warning: here ringing is connected towarning sounds such as alarm bells, ambulance sirens,car horns, sirens etc.

Situative context formation: generally familiar oreveryday situations are characterized by sounds that do nothave to enter relationships at acoustic or other levels.Hence these sounds, which are usually foreign to oneanother, are only connected via the memory. The sound ofthe bell will, however, zoom in on particular qualities inthe engine noise if the two become connected by a situativecontext. In such a case, the music will not attempt to

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represent a situation, but rather to transform the soundsthrough the levels of contextualization, to examine theirmanifestation through context formation.

In the section analyzed here, this situativecontextualization is developed according to the situations"road," "city" and "material from media" (see line 2a).

Mimetic Context Formation

As the signal sounds are primarily non-instrumental, andthe piece is situated within the field of (expanded)instrumental music, the question of imitation arises. Howis something imitated, how close is the imitation to theoriginal, which qualities of the original are imitated, andso on?

At the level of mimetic context formation, the mannerand degree of mimesis and the relation of the specific formof imitation to other sonic events are structured. Throughits musicalization, the original being imitated moves tothe background in favor of the sonic qualities arising fromthis contextualization. In our concrete example: how closeam I to the original "bell" with a sample, or with a strokeon the crotales? Gradations of such mimetic relationshipsare then arranged to form a field (almost a type of"scale") from which successive structures can be created.

In the section under discussion, the series ofgradations is as follows:

– "Genuine" bells: bicycle bells, small hand bells,larger bells (as percussion instruments)

– "Quasi-bells": crotales, triangle– "MIDI samples" of bells: different bicycle bells

("rrring" bells, bells with a single attack, both indifferent registers)

– Ringing in "instrumental projection": the ringing isprojected onto "ringing shapes" in the piano andguitar (very high, with bottleneck slide), continuinginto the strings, accordion and wind; realized in thepresent example as line 3a.

The development of musical contexts on the differentlevels described above removes the coded signal sounds fromtheir connection to reality. The ringing is no longer

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present in just one situation, one semantic meaning, onesonic quality or one form of imitative projection. Theexternal reference is not suspended, however, but taken assuch and treated, reflected upon and mirrored in multipleways.

The levels of context formation can never becompletely separated. On the contrary: in the compositionalprocess, the different levels are also used as treatedforms of one another. This "polyphony" of levels ofcontextualization is mirrored in the contrapuntalstructures that define the piece technically (see below,"Polyphony").

The Successive Structures

The models for moving through the contextual fields, whichI call "successive structures," are derived from thephysiognomy and inner character of the sonic elements.Back-and-forth movements, for example, are derived bothfrom ringing and from the typical sound shape of the siren.The siren also provides the basic model for evasivemovements with or without return (and also for linearprogressions). Ornaments such as the turn are also based onthe ringing patterns. Linear or "sequential" progressionsare derived, among other things, from the Doppler effect ofambulance sirens and sirens.

The aim of this is to map the material and itsdisposition onto each other – to create a reciprocalmirroring of sound and arrangement. This serves the purposeof working against contingency in the dispositions. Inpractice, it means that 1) the contextual fields arearranged into series of gradations and 2) that theprogression models/subsequent structures are applied tothese. This results in sequences of material that are inturn preordered in their inner "density" through thewideness or narrowness of the extract from the contextualfield.

Types of Sonic Disposition

The structure of the sounds (extension, duration, number,direction etc.) is shaped using disposition types based ona small number of models. One is thus no longer dealing

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with "progressions": the sounds refer to one another, react("quasi-chemically") to one another, mirror one another inparticular ways. This contextualization is an attempt toelaborate "melodic" elements from a genuinely non-tonalcontext: the progression structure leads to a form ofmorphological formation through sounds being heard asfollowing one another, yet simultaneously taken together –joined by an overarching bracket, as it were – into aformation, a shape.

The following types of disposition are distinguishedin the present work:

4-part types:– "Negation succession": a – non-a. The working term

"negation" her means "as far as possible apart in thecontextual gradation."

– "Analytical succession": a (viewed as a compoundevent) – analysis of a. A compound event is "analyzed"into its component parts via a melodic formation type.

– "Resynthesis succession": corresponds to the"retrograde" of the analysis succession

– "Continuation succession": a becomes a multi-partsuccession through the addition of other elements orparameters.

3-part types:– "Synthesis succession": a – non-a – synthesis of a and

non-a. The encounter of maximally distant sonicelements gives rise to a mediating "synthesiselement."

– "Conjunction succession": a – conjunction of a and b –b (also: expansion into multi-art successions = "chainconjunctions").

A sonic element that joins two distinct elements toform one is flanked by its component parts. The conjunctiondiffers from the synthesis in the additive creation of theconjunction element (qualities of a plus those of b), asopposed to an artificial synthesis through mediationbetween the two elements.

Succession Structure and Contextual Fields

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In addition, there is a division into two distinctsuccession structures according to how many levels ofcontext formation there are within a linear structure.a) Succession structures with a constant contextual type:here the formation of shapes occurs only at one level ofcontext formation.b) Succession structures with a changing contextual type:here the level of context formation changes within asuccession structure. This type will lead to considerablystronger transformations, sudden shifts and unpredictableevents in the linear development. The material is heardfrom different "points of view."

Ex. 1: Semantical Investigations II, mm. 1-6

(Gadenstätter 1 und 2)

In mm. 1-7 the structuring methods discussed above areapplied to three lines in the following ways:

Line 1 (see Ex. 1: acoustic sound context formation [mm. 1-7])Three sections with three different structural types;retaining the respective contextual level, however, createdconnections from one section to others, so that the threestructural types contain further ones (back-and-forth type:mm. 2-4b; progression reduction m. 4b/Shape 3 to m. 6/7Shape 4).

1.) "Synthesissuccession"

Mm. 2 + 3

M. 1"a" Non-"a" becomes

"Shape I"Synth. "a/non-a"

Bicycle bell. Altar boy bell Pf. + guit. (2 instr./ 2 soundforms in succession)

(Perc.2) Interval size 3Single sound 3/4-sound (major 3/4

chord)Impulse – tremolo, size 3

Rh. Trem.-ten. Rh in repetition

2.) "Analysis succesion structure"M4 M. 4b"non-a1" becomes "a2" – cf. "a" "non-a2" becomes

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"Shape 2" "Shape 3"Rep. in 16ths Perc. guit. pf. Str. rep. in sonic

transitionAggregate complexPf.-guit.

3.) "Negation succession"M. 5 M. 6/7"a3" "non-a3" becomes "Shape 4"Hand bell in back-and-forth movt. Doorbell ten. (sample)Transformed return to "genuine" ringing sounds

Shapes 1-4 create an overarching sound form placed over thethree subsidiary sections as a bracket, a "meta-successionstructure." The movement model through the acousticcontextual gradation is that of a "turn figure withdisplacement." Further "meta-contexts" are also developedvia the lines, e.g. in mm. 4-5: the strings, whose verysimilar sound forms non-a2 and b7 belong structurally totwo different lines, but can therefore also be heard asderived from each other.

Line 2 (see Ex. 1: layer 2a)"Contradiction"/deviation in relation to 1a as a "functionof the line" (see below under "Polyphony"); situativecontext formation in "instrumental projection" as a shapethrough mm. 1-6. Contrapuntal axis to 1a: sound material(in parts), harmony/register (identical pitches andregisters (cf. "c4"), thirds or triads), convergence of thesound forms in different lines (e.g. guitar: impulsetremolo sequence in m. 1 and congruent shapes in m. 2,which derive structurally from line 1a; this is also anexample of a "meta-context" extending over differentlines); rhythmic-metric congruences.

M. 1 2 3 4 5 6Series of elements from the "road" situation as "progressive distance"(linear progression)b b1 b2+3+4 b5 b6 b7 b8LittlebellBicycle Signal horn +

engingMusic snatches

Converstionsnatches

Ringing

Steps

Str. pizz Arco+salt

Sample, tr.,acc.

Radio Megaphone Str. Perc.

Guit. Trem. Woodwind, tr.16

gliss

As in the first line, the disposition of material in b7returns to the central sonic element of ringing. b7 doesnot form the end of the chain, however, but is continued ina mimetic projection of "steps," with elements b7 and b8connected via rhythmic-metric similarities. Element b8 isalso a bridging element to what follows.

Line 3 (see Ex. 1: layer 3)Mimetic context formation starting from the bicycle bell(which is placed in the middle of the progression, as acenter that is reached from the sound furthest away fromit, the piano). Context-defining function in relation tolines 1 and 2: series of ringing gradations, fixed as thecentre of sonic events, a form of ringing ostinato,reinforced by its registral isolation, "simple" pitchstructure and (statistical) regularity of appearance (as asort of "formal pulsation").

Mimesis sequence of "high bell" (mm. 1-6)

3a1 3a2 3a3 3a4 3a5 3a6 3a7Pf c4 Keyboard

bells +str.

Crot. Bicyclebell

Crot. Keyb.bells

Pf

Polyphony

The three lines are polyphonically intertwined, based on atemporal structure that codes and processes durations,rhythms and metric shapes as signs/signals as describedabove with the sonic shapes. The basic shape is the short-long sequence of the central ringing sounds, the bicyclebell. This is projected from the level of rhythmic shapingto the forms of phrases and sections. There are severalreasons for the polyphony: consistently enough, the multi-perspectival nature of the material that the differentlinear context formations seek to achieve also continues inthe simultaneity of different lines.

All three lines are based on the same startingmaterial. This is simultaneously examined and processed onthree different qualitative levels. At the same time, allsounds are treated, developed and individuated through the

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succession structure and simultaneous structuring, whichare in turn based on transferable criteria and categories.The music strives for a form of complexity that I wouldterm "precise ambiguity." The central aesthetic goal is de-hierarchization and de-teleologization, both at thematerial and the structural level. The structure of thepolyphony unfolds in the course of the piece through avariable number and quality of voices. From three-part toone-part textures in the most diverse combinations ofsuccession structures, the polyphony is stretched fromalmost "chaotic" density to monody.

The charts above show that the polyphony of the linesleads to an intensification of the examination carried outon the materials. The central sonic aspect of ringing(starting from the bicycle bell) is contextualized in threeseparate threads. The sonic aspects thus gained interactwith one another, forming "coincidences" that lie outsidethe contextual fields. The polyphony, as it were, enables"meta-contexts" to come about. Polyphonic axes organize thesimultaneity of sounds (remotely comparable to the sequenceof harmonic events).

Example in m. 3: in the context of "snatches fromCD/radio" (2a and b5), the bell then appears as an actualquotation (3a3), and a major triad in the piano and guitar(non-a1/m. 4) as a possible musical quotation. The samesounds are simultaneously variants of small bells (as amimetic projection) and parts of the "situative" soundworld "road." What is described here is the constructivelevel of the structuring of sonic events in the scoreexample. The other elements contained in the sounds arecomposed on a level that I would compare to the fine motorskills involved in walking or speaking: the constructiondetermines the specific nature of these compositional "finemotor actions." The precise coordination, however, takesplace at a level of complexity that largely eludes conceptsor precompositional structures. It is not, therefore, amatter of simple "musical instinct."

"Polyphonic Axes"

I refer to relationships between the lines, verticalcontextual axes, as polyphonic axes. The first axis, ofcourse, is the ringing material common to all the lines.

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1) The "polyphonic axis" is defined as therelationships/functions of the lines described above, whichdefine and develop encounters between materials as"contradictory," "heterophonic" and so on.2) There is a temporal structure derived from the signalforms. "Polyphonic axis" here means that the differentlines take their (different) temporal structure from thesame signal forms.3) There is frequently a "lowest common denominator" ofrhythmic values for all the lines. Thus overarching "meta-voices" are developed at the rhythmic level (example: therepetition elements in sixteenths and eighths in mm. 3-7.This polyphonic axis increasingly takes control towards theend of this first sub-phrase. All material, then, convergesonto this level of shaping before a new structure begins inm. 8. These forms of repetition can also be heard as a lineof their own on the basis of their repetitiveness insixteenths/eighths). 4) The "harmonic level": simultaneous combinations ofdifferent pitches are also treated as signs and signals. Inthe present example, the thirds and triads are derived fromthe pitch structure of the altar boy bell. The singlesounds are reactions to the one-note bicycle bell from thebeginning. In this way, "meta-voices" develop also at thislistening level. Furthermore, pitch progressions indifferent lines are taken from a predefined pitch whoseinternal structure is highly qualitative. This leads to"imitative" relationships at the intervallic level.Convergence between different materials in different lineson a single note is also controlled in this way (see in theexample C7 as the reference pitch in different instrumentsand material elements, and also in different qualities: asa unison, octave, sixth with E, part of a fourth that –heard as a suspension – is only resolved as such in m. 8.Hence C7 can only be heard as a suspended fourth at thatpoint).5) The polyphonic axis as a fine dynamic gradation ofindividual sonic events: the dynamic level, like the otherparameters in the sequences of successions (back-and-forth,progression forms etc.) is correspondingly structured, andhence subject to that specific structure in each line – andhence not a gestural superstructure.

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Pitch Organization

Harmonic qualities are signals, and are processed as suchthrough the structuring and transforming techniquesdescribed above. The appearance of the altar boy bells inm. 1 is, harmonically speaking, a "ringing triad" resultingfrom the idiomatic nature of the "instrument"; varying andmodifying this further leads to the guitar triad (m. 1),further modified as two layered triads in the piano andguitar in m. 4, before which it is reduced as the additionof two thirds in the piano and guitar (viewed separately),which then combine to form the expanded triad as a seventhchord. All these harmonic situations "signal" tonal relics,but also act as degrees of brightness, set apart from thelow, narrow layer comprising bass clarinet, contrabassoonand accordion in m. 2. The variation in the clarity of thesignal character is one aspect of the harmonic approach,and the change in the "signal level" is another. This isdemonstrated by the trumpet, which plays G5 as part of theemerging seventh chord in m. 1/2, then takes G5 as thestarting point for a signal fourth, which is then no longerpart of the harmonic activity that has meanwhileestablished itself in the piano and guitar.

These "ambulance siren" fourths are sound signals onthe one hand, but at the same time form a partial harmonicaspect of the "ringing triad" in the altar boy bells. Thusthe fourths "analyze" the triad and continue to processthis component independently. The fourth becomes anorganizational principle for intervallic structures, amelodic quality – in m. 4 a fourth dyad that is "resolved"as a suspended fourth in m. 8, and so on.

Subsequently, graduated pitch qualities are organized foreach instrument. Qualitative distinctions: single noteevent, qualitatively different intervals, aggregates/chordswith varying tactility (based on the number of pitches,intervall9ic structure, manner of synchronicity – as atonal relic, an abstract/constructed aggregate, anaggregate through concentration, as cluster forms varied inregistral breadth, etc.). corresponding to the successionstructures, harmonic processes are either organizedcongruently with the sonic succession structures areassigned polyphonically to a sonic succession structure asan independent layer. The latter means that a sonic

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succession is written over by a harmonic succession:harmony processes the sonic succession – a form ofparametric polyphony between the lines. Through harmonicwork on a qualitative basis, sonic events become mutuallypermeable. In the most extreme case, signal sounds aresynthesized through the harmony, for example in mm. 371ff.as "ambulance sirens" (present in shape, instruments andinterval of the fourth) in bell spectrum harmony (bellspresent as chords and sonic form).

Temporal Organization

Like the pitch organization, the work's temporality isitself a signal. I turned signal rhythms into proportionmodels, which were applied through projection to alltemporal levels (that is, from the rhythmic details tomacro-formal sequences of durations). From simplerepetition to complex temporal counterpoints, then, I wasable to relate every detail of temporal shaping to "signal-like" elements at the same time as treating it as work onthe piece's temporality. Signal rhythms were pushed toextremes, strained, stretched, distorted, and so on. Thuswhat began as adoption becomes a differentiation oftemporal experience. Here too, it is possible to"overwrite" a succession of sounds through the temporality.Furthermore, the temporality is correspondingly organizedat all levels of the succession structures.

Summary

The lines, which constitute the linear forms oforganization for the material, converge in such a way thatthey form – in an "actually audible" fashion – a polyphonicstructure. A larger overall "sound" becomes audible. Beyondthis, however, a structure – now musically composed – ofextra-musical references in the sonic events is alsocreated. This results in a multi-dimensional referentialityfor every event that appears, and for every detail quality.The aim of so consistent a musical "development" is thetransformation of the "banal" events into unknowns thatseem peculiarly known, or into unknown knowns. To adaptValery, music is when one listens to oneself listening.

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Translation: Wieland Hoban

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