Waterman - Cassandra's Dream Song

Cassandra's Dream Song: A Literary Feminist Perspective
Author(s): Ellen Waterman

Source: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Summer, 1994), pp. 154-172
Published by: Perspectives of New Music
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CASSANDRA'S DREAM SONG:
A LITERARY
FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE
ELLEN WATERMAN
INTRODUCTION
COLLABORATION IS THE ESSENCE of the composer/performer relatio

ship. The composition of a piece of acoustic music may be the work o
single mind, but the realization of the piece necessitates an alliance w
at least one other person (unless, of course, the composer is the sole per-
former of his or her own music). Performers of music by living compos
ers often have the special opportunity of discussing the piece with t
person who created it, and in this way the composer may explicate his or
her vision of the piece. However, the very concept of collaboration p
supposes an independent vision on the part of the performer, which may
be at odds with that of the composer. For performers the interpretive a
is an assertion of their individual values and ideas, as well as a render
Cassandra's Dream Song: A Literary Feminist Perspective 155
of the composer's intentions. As a performer, who is also a feminist, I

cannot help but question elements of a piece of music, or of a composer's
ideas, which seem to be embedded in a paternalistic tradition. To play
such works while ignoring their sexist implications would be to deny my
voice in the collaboration. (Simply refusing to play them would be to dis-
pense with the greater part of the canon.) This paper describes how I
have dealt with one such piece of music, by reinterpreting it from a liter-
ary, feminist perspective.
In his solo flute piece Cassandra's Dream Song, Brian Ferneyhough
invites the performer to take a key role in defining structure. The per-
former is asked to make choices about the ordering of events, and tempi
which may radically alter the effect of the music. The piece itself deals
with issues raised by what the composer calls the "notation/realization
relationship,"' but which may also be seen as the composer/performer
relationship.
As Ferneyhough points out, the score is not meant to be a "blueprint
of a perfect performance."2 The dense notation taxes the physical and
mental abilities of the flutist, with constant, often conflicting, shifts of
dynamics, register, and texture. Some of the juxtapositions are deliber-
ately unrealizable on the flute. Yet the composer states that "a valid real-
ization will only result from a rigorous attempt to reproduce as many of
the textural details as possible," and warns the player against "compro-
mises and inexactitudes."3 Ferneyhough wrote Cassandra's Dream Song
flute in hand; he knows full well the technical demands of the piece (con-
sidered so formidable when it was written in 1970 that it was several
years before anyone performed it).4 His vision of the work includes the
performer's struggle to wrestle his music under control. Thus, while
inviting the performer to make fundamental creative choices, he has
invented materials which are designed to thwart the flutist at every turn.
Indeed, the notation/realization relationship is fraught with tension.
The score for Cassandra's Dream Song is a physical obstacle in the way of
producing the music. It is written in a tiny, cramped hand, on two pages
which seem almost too small to hold the amount of material on them.
There are many rhythmic and notational ambiguities, so that before
reaching the point of performance, the player must spend hours on head-
scratching deciphering of rhythms and gestures. On the other hand, this
cryptic quality invites the performer to think about the piece, to delve
into its structure, in a way that more obvious scores do not. This,
coupled with the structural choices offered the performer, provides an
opportunity for a rich involvement with the music.
After working with the score for a few weeks, I cornered Brian Ferney-
hough intending to ask several specific questions about notation. Instead
156 Perspectives of New Music
we talked about issues of rigor and compression, energy and explosion.5

Ferneyhough likened the piece to the sharp pain of a paper cut, and, cit-
ing Roland Barthes, the erotic glimpses of flesh between a woman's gar-
ments.6 The analogy to the myth of Cassandra was irresistible. Without
carrying the analogy too far, he said, one could see the material on the
first page as relating to the god Apollo, and the material on the second
page as relating to Cassandra's prophesies.7 Ferneyhough seemed to be
talking about the piece as a sort of erotic fantasy, in which the interplay of
musical materials reflected the sado-masochistic relationship between
Apollo and Cassandra. Was Ferneyhough paraphrasing Barthes, saying
that the realm of musical pleasure is perversion?
In our conversation, Ferneyhough's main concern was that of form.
We talked about the structure of Cassandra's Dream Song, which can be
seen in three layers: the overall form, the fine detail, and the middle
ground. The overall form is easily grasped; it consists of interpolations
from page 2 into page 1. The fine details (of rhythm, dynamics and tex-
ture) must be sorted out by anyone who attempts to play the piece. It is
the middle ground, the relationships between gestures within each line,
that requires a close analysis.
In Ferneyhough's opinion, the lack of a consciously analytical
approach to the piece-the solving of this middle ground-is where
many performances, particularly by women, have been less than success-
ful in realizing the work's formal and expressive potential.8 As a personal
opinion, gained from the experience of hearing the piece many times, this
statement, while provocative, was unarguable. However, it remained
unclear just what did constitute a satisfactory performance. How might a
woman's interpretation of Cassandra's Dream Song differ from a man's?
To answer these questions, I determined to solve the "middle ground"
of Cassandra's Dream Song for myself. In doing so, I became immersed
in the story of Cassandra. However, before describing my own interpre-
tation of Cassandra's Dream Song, I will explain the overall structure of
the piece and describe a more conventional interpretation.
OVERALL STRUCTURE OF CASSANDRA'S DREAM SONG
Cassandra's Dream Song consists of two pages. Page 1 contains six lines
which are always to be played in the order written, while page 2 contains
five lines labelled A to E, which are to be interpolated by the performer
into the first page. These lines can be played in any order, and the result
is an alternation between page 1 and page 2. Each of the piece's eleven
lines is divided into segments defined by rests, which can be seen as
"statements." Example 1 shows the palindrome-like increase and

decrease of statements on page 1.
LINE: 1 2 3 4 5 6
STATEMENTS: 2 4 5 5 4 2
EXAMPLE 1: PAGE 1: NUMBER OF STATEMENTS IN EACH LINE
The music of page 1 is strictly rhythmic, linear, and organized

drone A4. In contrast, the music of page 2 is gestural, flambo
texturally layered with each line having a different number of s
Example 2 shows an ordering of the lines on page 2 as played by
known male flutists: Pierre-Yves Artaud (who premiered th
1974) and Harrie Starreveld. Done this way there is a logical b
materials to a climactic ending. (Indications in italics are the com
C 4 statements, interspersed with silence

E 6 statements, grazioso e rubato
D 8 statements, poco cantabile
A 9 statements, molto rigoroso
B 11 statements, ending on D7-tutta laforza
EXAMPLE 2: PAGE 2 AS PLAYED BY ARTAUD AND STARREVELD:

A PROGRESSION OF EVENTS TO A CLIMAX
With this ordering, not only do the lines become progre

but they also become more active, dramatic, and dense
line B which ends with a D7: the highest and loudest n
The structure then, becomes 1, C, 2, E, 3, D, 4, A, 5, B
acting as a summation of the materials presented on both
In this interpretation, the structure created by the perf
the time-honored, and definitively masculine, climax mode
orderings are of course possible, with any number of m
musical motivations. I have rejected the model described
of a deliberately feminine form.
In my analysis of Cassandra's Dream Song, I have been greatly inspired

by a novel called Cassandra by the East German feminist writer Christa
Wolf. Her exploration of the fall of Troy and Cassandra's role in it reso-
nated with the drama presented in Ferneyhough's music. Here, issues of
compression and explosion of energy mirror the great conflicts of classi-
cal epic and tragedy, and Cassandra's struggle to speak with her own
voice mirrors the struggle of the performer to internalize the notes on
the page and to transform them into sound. As I read Cassandra, I began
to conceive of a narrative structure in Cassandra's Dream Song, one
which could be achieved by mapping Wolf's feminist re-vision of the Cas-
sandra myth onto Ferneyhough's music.
CASSANDRA: A RE-VISION
The traditional view of Cassandra as an unfortunate victim (who never-

theless deserved what she got) is exemplified in the following description
from Dr. Vollmer's Dictionary of Mythology (1874), quoted in an essay of
Christa Wolf's:
Cassandra: the most unfortunate of the daughters of Priam and

Hecuba. Apollo loved her and promised that if she would give him
her love in return, he would teach her to see the future. Cassandra
consented but did not keep her word once the god had granted her
the gift. In return, he took away people's belief in her utterances and
made her a laughingstock. Now Cassandra was regarded as mad, and
because she prophesied nothing but misfortune, people soon grew
fed up with her disruption of all their enjoyments and confined her
in a dungeon.9
Note the main ideas in this telling of the myth: Cassandra is a greedy, dis-
honest schemer (she fails to keep her word to Apollo); the god justly
punishes her for this and so she becomes a "laughingstock"-the arche-
typical madwoman, fit only to be locked away.
Wolf's novel paints a very different picture. She was interested in
retracing "the path out of the myth, into its (supposed) social and histor-
ical coordinates."10 This led her to envision the patriarchal society of
Troy, on the brink of war with the Greeks. In this context Cassandra
becomes a "vivacious person interested in society and politics, (who)
does not want to be confined to the house, to get married, like her
mother Hecuba, like her sisters. She wants to learn a profession. For a
woman of rank, the only possible profession is that of priestess, seeress.
,11
? . o
Cassandra's dilemma is the dichotomy between her pride in her family

and its place within the Trojan hierarchy, and her increasing realization
that this hierarchy is unjust. As the war with the Greeks advances, her
father, Priam, becomes a puppet of military agents who view any opposi-
tion to the war as treasonous. Her mother, Hecuba, who used to sit in
council with the King, is banished from the political arena. It becomes
obvious that the Trojans will sacrifice all moral ground in order to win
the war-even to offering Cassandra's sister, Polyxena, as bait to catch
the Greek hero Achilles.
Wolf's Cassandra is an allegory of everywoman's struggle for self-
knowledge and a measure of autonomy. When Cassandra's father has her
thrown into prison for refusing to sanction the sacrifice of Polyxena, she
finally realizes her strength. In her prison, she reflects on her position:
Ten times, a hundred times I stood before Priam, a hundred times I

tried to agree with him, to answer yes at his command. A hundred
times I said no again. My life, my voice, my body would produce no
other answer. "You don't agree?" No. "But you will keep silent?"
No. No. No. No.12
It is Cassandra's relentless struggle to speak with her own voice, her

refusal to keep silent, that leads her to the realization and acceptance of
herself as a person. As Wolf writes, "she 'sees' the future because she has
the courage to see things as they really are in the present."'3
CASSANDRA'S DREAM SONG: A PERFORMER'S ANALYSIS
My interpretation of Cassandra's Dream Song was much influenced by

my reading of Wolf's novel. Ferneyhough had told me that the rhythmic
rigor and strict organization of page 1 could be seen as "masculine"
(Apollo), and that the gestural and passionate music of page 2 could be
seen as "feminine" (Cassandra). However, I found myself disagreeing
with the idea that these "feminine" statements were the erotic "staging
of an appearance-as-disappearance" (to complete the quotation from
Barthes).14
For me, it is the story of Cassandra's struggle to speak with her own
voice that resonates throughout the music of page 2, while the music of
page 1 is a metaphor for the breakdown of the patriarchal system which
held her captive. To put it another way, page 1 represents Cassandra's
relation to the male-dominated world in which she lives, and page 2
represents Cassandra herself.
Seen in this light, there are two levels of discourse in the piece, spun
out on each page. When the music of page 2 is interpolated into the
music of page I the conflicts between oppressor and oppressed, hubris
and humility, self-deception and self-knowledge are played out in an
organic web of discursive relationships. Thus, my ordering of Cassandra's
Dream Song diverges from the familiar climax model discussed earlier.
For me it is the feminine narrative of struggle, growth, and redemption
that is the key to solving the puzzle of the piece's "middle ground." In
the following analysis, I will discuss my interpretation of the materials of
Cassandra's Dream Song as they are presented on each page.
PAGE 1
In this analysis we will consider the materials of page 1 in terms of the

"masculine" elements of the Cassandra myth as presented in Wolf's
novel. These include not only the divine revenge of Apollo, but also the
society which worships him, the patriarchal structure of Troy, a "uto-
pian" society which in reality is breaking apart. As Wolf puts it, "The self-
destruction of Troy met halfway the destruction inflicted by the enemy
outside."15
All materials on this page are centered on a rigid drone A4 which I
associate with the insistence of male domination in Troy both through
Cassandra's father, Priam, and through Apollo. This A is constantly
reiterated, first with percussive effects, then color changes, fast staccato,
and trills. It is as though the A is attempting to hold the anger and pas-
sion of the piece at bay. However, as each successive line is played other
materials break out more and more dramatically. Chief among them are
the notes F#,Eb, D#, and Bb, each used in a variety of registers. Together
these notes form a dissenting voice which contributes to the ultimate
breakdown of the dictatorial drone. The voice is, of course, Cassandra's.
Another "masculine" quality of this page is the strict rhythmic organi-
zation-even fast grace notes usually have a specific duration assigned to
them. These events are compressed in line 1 to a limited range of a
twelfth, which slowly opens out in each line until it reaches three octaves
in line 6. If we examine each of these lines successively, in a narrative con-
text, we can see the breakdown of musical materials, from moments of
absurdity (as the illusion of the drone persists against all disruptions), to
the final shattering of the A4's authority.
Line 1 begins with percussive A4s which erupt out of silence. The spit-
ting lip pizzicato used is a nice counterpart to the scene in Wolf's novel in
which Cassandra dreams that she has obtained the power of sight.
I saw Apollo bathed in radiant light.... The sun god with his lyre,
his blue although cruel eyes, his bronzed skin. Apollo, the god of
the seers. Who knew what I ardently desired: the gift of prophecy,
and conferred it on me with a casual gesture which I did not dare to
feel was disappointing; whereupon he approached me as a man. I
believed it was only due to my awful terror that he transformed him-
self into a wolf surrounded by mice and spat furiously into my
mouth when he was unable to overpower me.16
Later Cassandra learns the meaning of this dream: "if Apollo spits into
your mouth ... that means that you have the gift to predict the future.
But no one will believe you."'7 Wolf's view of Cassandra as a victim of
the male need to dominate is set against the traditional view of Cassandra
as a schemer who reneged on her part of a sexual bargain. Likewise, in
Cassandra's Dream Song, the A can be seen as a controlling force which,
from the beginning of the piece, is perverted.
The second statement of line 1 illustrates this central conflict with pre-
cise rhythmic material caught within an accelerando/ritardando, as can
be seen in Example 3. It is here that we have the first, faint iterations of
F#, El (D#) and B -the "voice of dissent." The line ends with a hissing
A4 which is clipped by a faint B harmonic.
In line 2, the hegemony of the A4 is further established, but the first
two statements are loud trumpet calls which trail off into faint confused
mutterings. The third statement ends with an eruptive F#4/B b5-heard
very loud as a clear objection to the dominance of the A4. The fourth
statement hastens to suppress the rebellion with a militaristic clattering of
key clicks over the A4 drone.
The drone becomes an echo in line 3-constantly interrupted by ner-
vous staccato repetitions of itself five, six, seven times. In between each of
the three drone sections we hear the apprehensive crying of F#5 as a har-
monic of B. The F# can be seen as a desperate exhortation by Cassandra,
instantly overridden by the reiteration of the patriarchal status quo.
Out of the fifth statement in line 3 erupts a terrific shriek. This is the
first occurrence of singing used in my ordering of Cassandra's Dream
Song, and it represents all that is human, suffering and oppressed. The
people of Troy are being destroyed by the King's ten-year obsession with
a war he clearly cannot win. The cry is repeated, but fainter. It breaks
down into nervous, futile punctuations of the increasingly shaky drone A
(pianissimo, molto vibrato). Human pain cannot be ignored, as the last
note of the line, a faint F#5 harmonic, attests.
ino
ait-
A
>fg
4;. 1t I
mf f- 9
-,P 0) mf,
? 1975 by Hinrichsen Edi

Cassandra's Dream Song r
EXAMPLE 3: SECOND STATEMENT OF LINE ONE
Within the first gesture of line 4, we hear all the important notes of
page 1, as shown in Example 4. Cassandra's "voice of dissent" is becom-
ing stronger.
rrrlF 4W U 4W 3 j ,
p- poco - f mf __-
mp
EXAMPLE 4: "VOICE OF DISSENT" IN LINE FOUR
There is a point in the Trojan war, as depicted by Wolf, in which words

cease to have any meaning. For instance, while it is evident that the war is
not going well for Troy, it is considered treasonous to say so. By decree
King Priam is called by increasingly magniloquent titles even as his power
crumbles.
Likewise, line 4 is a mass of paradox. After the opening statement, the
rest of the line dances all around the A4 with a nonsensical chattering of
key clicks. These are given detailed dynamic indications-but the flutist
knows that they will be for the most part unintelligible to the listener. In
fact, in one place the fingering assigned to a fortississimo key click will
produce almost no sound. The following key clicks, marked diminuendo,
have fingerings which are successively louder. Throughout the line there
is an ambiguity between the fingerings given and the notes meant to be
produced. These contradictory indications are not errors on the part of
the composer. They are intentionally ironic (one could compare the
effort to make a sound that won't be heard with Cassandra's effort to say
something that won't be believed), and are designed to give rise to the
final gesture of the line-a frustrated sputter of air.
It is in line 5 that all hell breaks loose. Very soft trills on A4 are tossed
aside by vicious grace note passages, which constantly remind us of F#,
B 6 and E . There is a mad flurry of sotto voce staccato and insanely fast lip
pizzicato, interrupted by a series of increasingly louder and higher notes
culminating in a piercing C7. The chimeric hegemony of the A4 has been
completely overturned; the self-destruction of the drone is complete.
The line ends with the first gesture of line 4 turned upside-down, a con-
temptuous comment by the "voice of dissent." Imagine the folly of the
Trojans' decision to open their gates to the Greek "horse." Indeed, as
Wolf suggests, Troy was the author of its own defeat.
furloso >
t _ < St_ a t I
p_ ---? 3 c
fposs.
EXAMPLE 5: "VOICE OF DISSENT" IN LINE FIVE
Line 6 represents a summation of the various discursive elements in

Cassandra's Dream Song. Marked lento analitico, the first statement con-
tains all notes of the chromatic scale, with the notable exception of A.
The statement is made up of a succession of long tones, starkly presented,
with subtle changes of timbre. The distant, sparse quality of this state-
ment seems to point to the futility of such dramatic conflicts as have been
fought in the rest of the piece. Given the choice to flee Troy with her
lover Aeneas, and help in the founding of Rome, Cassandra decides to
stay, knowing full well that her fate is capture and death. With its mood
of resignation, the first statement of line 6 seems to underline this fatalis-
tic decision.
The second statement presents the "moral" of the piece-we hear a
version of Cassandra's melody, which culminates in a final cry of the
human voice on E66. (We first meet this melody in line D of page 2, as
will be seen.) The last note of the piece is a final A4, which seems to point
to the circularity of events. Why does Cassandra choose death? Because
she knows that the patriarchal cycle of rigid structure, oppression, rebel-
lion, and breakdown will, inevitably, occur all over again.
PAGE 2
Page 2 of Cassandra's Dream Song can be seen as a portrait of Wolf's

Cassandra. If page 1 is a narrative, each line of page 2 reveals a different
facet of the conflicting elements within a complex personality. The order
which I have chosen reflects a progression from desire and delusion

through madness to self-knowledge. It encompasses the "feminine" as
well as the "feminist."
This spectrum of qualities can be seen in the very style of page 2. In
contrast to the rigorous and highly compressed music of page 1, the
material of page 2 is gestural, showing wide contrasts in range and tex-
ture, often written as grace notes which are to be played as fast as pos-
sible, or even ad libitum. This expressivity can clearly be interpreted as
"feminine," as Ferneyhough hiniself implies.
The fact that the order of the lines is left up to the performer parallels
the challenge which Cassandra faces. Cassandra, as Wolf sees her, must
make choices in order to find her own voice within the patriarchal society
of Troy. This extends to her final rejection of her beloved Aeneas: "Per-
haps he will understand even without my help what it was that I had to
reject at the cost of my life: submission to a role contrary to my
nature."18
When Cassandra descends into the "madness" of her prophetic
dreams, she does so knowingly-with great courage. It takes even more
courage to return out of the abyss and resume responsibility for her
actions. "In some way I had control of the rising and sinking of this hard,
heavy structure, my consciousness. The undecided part was: Would I-
who, I?-rise to the surface again."19 She does, and it is this choice which
leads her away from her attachment to the illusory greatness of her family
into self-knowledge.
Wolf rejects the traditional view of Cassandra as a madwoman. Rather,
she maintains that Cassandra's prophesies are less the insights of a pos-
sessed medium than those of an intelligent person. The unwillingness of
the male-dominated society in which she lives to take her seriously is the
fate accorded to many women.
Furthermore, Cassandra's dilemma parallels the relationship between
composer and performer. The performer is in the anomalous position of
interpreting someone else's ideas. There is always the possibility that she
will fail to convince-get it wrong. But is she a creative artist, or merely a
medium for the expression of the composer's ideas? While she certainly
owes a debt to the composer, she must also retain her own integrity, if
only to justify the enormous time and effort necessary to realize the
score. Ferneyhough's inclusion of choice as a structural element in Cas-
sandra's Dream Song acknowledges the collaborative nature of the com-
poser/performer relationship.
Unlike the climactic ordering shown in Example 2, my ordering of the
lines of page 2 traces a dramatic evolution which can be seen as Cassan-
dra's progression from blind ambition to clear-sightedness. Example 6
presents my ordering. (Indications in italics are the composer's.)
A blind ambition-molto rigoroso

E beginnings of an individual voice-grazioso e rubato
C choice
B madness-ending on D7, the highest and lo
D resolution, self knowledge-poco cantabile
EXAMPLE 6: ORDERING OF PAGE 2 AS A DRAMATIC EVOLUTION
Line A is marked molto rigoroso. It is highly percussive, has a linear

cession of events (with very little textural layering), and hamme
repeated notes (especially A6). In these ways it is close in style
material of page 1. The repeated notes of line A are an attempt to
to the drone A4 of page 1, but the final statement of the line, a conf
interpolation of very soft and very loud notes in wildly varying reg
indicates that the material simply doesn't have a place in that rigid s
ture. We can view this in terms of Cassandra's position within T
society. She describes it like this:
I saw nothing. Overtaxed by the gift of sight, I was blind. I saw on

what was there, next to nothing. The course of the god's year
the demands of the palace determined my life. You could also s
they weighed it down. I did not know it could be different.20
In sharp contrast to line A, line E is marked grazioso e rubato

music embraces rich colors and textures. There is a certain freedom of
time and the use of multiphonics, present only in this line, points to a
truly individual voice. "To speak with my own voice: the ultimate. I did
not want anything more, anything different."21 The statement is con-
cluded by a loud cry (jfff!) and an agonizingly long trill on C5 with a
downward glissando, which leads us inexorably back to the rigidity of
page 1 (Example 7).
~iFfffE.
Sfff! w ?
EXAMPLE 7: END OF LINE E
Line C is made up of four fast grace-note gestures followed by pauses

of varying lengths. The ordering of these gestures is left up to the per-
former, as is the use of dynamics. I find it interesting that Artaud and
Starreveld do not attempt to reorder this material. Both play it simply as
written, 1 to 4. I have not made any decisions about the order of these
events, letting them come out differently in each performance. This is a
symbolic act reflecting Cassandra's (and the performer's) power of choice
and ability to change.
Line B is the most potent expression of Cassandra's turmoil. It begins
with a halting attempt to reestablish the material of line A (one last bid
for acceptance within Trojan society). The same set of microtonal A6s is
repeated, but much faster. These are followed by a series of staccato D4s
which stutter into silence. Example 8 shows how this material appears in
the two lines.
Next a whimpering of very soft notes is followed by a long G4 which
undergoes a series of textural transformations to be played almost imper-
ceptibly-tongue flutter to throat flutter to heavy vibrato to gasping
smorzetto. I see this as the turning point of Cassandra's Dream Song-
the final transition away from ego and pride towards self-realization.
After witnessing the slaughter of a group of women by the Greek hero
Achilles, the wounded Cassandra is taken to a secret haven of Trojan
women who worship the ancient goddess, Cybele. There she mourns the
consequences of the war. "All of a sudden I noticed that my heart was in
great pain. Tomorrow I would get up with a reanimated heart that was
no longer beyond the reach of pain."22
The rest of the line is pure rage. But at last, the defeated gesture from
the end of line E-the downward spiralling trill-is reversed. Here the
trill glissandos upward into a triumphant cry of grace notes to D7-the
highest note in the piece played tutta laforza (Example 9).
As I see it, line D signals Cassandra's acceptance of herself as a person.
Awaiting death, she examines the key to her new freedom:
Yes it's true fear too can be set free, and that shows that it belongs to
everything and everyone who is oppressed. The king's daughter is
not afraid, for fear is weakness and weakness can be mended by iron
discipline. The madwoman is afraid, she is mad with fear. The cap-
tive is supposed to be afraid. The free woman learns to lay aside her
unimportant fears and not to fear the one big important fear because
she is no longer too proud to share it with others.23
The line is marked poco cantabile, perhaps because the expression of

her voice is tempered with resignation. Notes from page 1 resonate here:
l!'
XI W +r
l !lit, . -' a t
-^"A , I . zv
...,. :qsa l ,,,tt1^ ~
1-' 51 I
<+ 4I J\
::air"i A rA
II, . ^4? W/
1- 5-- on '-'r . I.ribrW -I J
._ 5 .-_3 - J non libr. viibr, lJ *.tcca
A- pppn molto - .tto t.Ute lfoza
subito -
EXAMPLE 9: END OF LINE B
a long glissando overlaid with smorzetto and vibrato on F#, a melody

which juxtaposes B with A. (As has already been stated, a version of this
melody, which I see as peculiarly Cassandra's, returns in the concluding
statement of the piece, in line 6.) Within the haunting flow of this mel-
ody comes a final cry against the inhumanity of man-our B t overblown
to F6 in a long tense crescendo which taxes the player's breath capacity
more than any other gesture in the piece. Finally, we hear Cassandra's
melody a second time, interwoven with the performer's voice (Example
10).
CONCLUSION
My literary feminist reading of Brian Ferneyhough's piece, Cassandra's

Dream Song, may seem to point to an agonistic collaboration between
performer and composer, given the composer's sentiments about the
piece. However, mapping an external narrative onto Cassandra's Dream
Song was my way of "attempting to realize the work's formal and expres-
sive potential," thus fulfilling my responsibility as a performer. My explo-
ration of a "feminine form" has at least provided another way of looking
at this complex work. Although the materials of Cassandra's Dream Song
can be seen as metaphors for "masculine" and "feminine" qualities, the
brilliance of the piece lies in the interpolation of these aspects to form a
united whole. Likewise, what attracts me to Wolf's novel, Cassandra, is
the manner in which she develops Cassandra's character as a whole per-
son, one who is capable of both good and evil, egoism and self-sacrifice,
bravery and rationalization. Cassandra's search for an individual voice
became synonymous with the expression of my own voice as a performer.
In the end the notation/realization relationship is a realm not only of
problems, but of possibilities.
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NOTES
This paper was originally read at the conference "Darmstadt: New Fron-
tiers" at the University of California, San Diego, 14 May 1993. I am
indebted to Brian Ferneyhough, John Fonville, Charles Kronengold,
Mitchell Morris, Jane Stevens, and Indira Suganda for their valuable aid.
1. Brian Ferneyhough, Cassandra's Dream Song, notes to the score

(London: Peters Edition, 1970).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ferneyhough's catalogue includes far more complex and difficult

pieces than Cassandra's Dream Song, but it seems that in this early
piece he was specially interested in exploring the performer's struggle
with materials that are deliberately antithetical to the flute. His notes
to the score state that "the audible (and visual) degree of difficulty is
to be drawn as an integral structural element into the fabric of the
composition itself."
5. Interview with Brian Ferneyhough, 23 February 1993.
6. Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text, trans. by Richard Miller

(New York: Hill and Wang, 1975), 9-10. "Is not the most erotic
portion of the body where the garment gapes? In perversion (which is
the realm of textual pleasure) there are no 'erogenous zones' (a fool-
ish expression, besides); it is intermittence, as psychoanalysis has so
rightly stated, which is erotic: the intermittence of skin flashing
between two articles of clothing (trousers and sweater), between two
edges (the open-necked shirt, the glove and the sleeve); it is this flash
itself which seduces, or rather: the staging of an appearance-as-
disappearance."
7. Interview, 23 February 1993.

8. Ibid.
9. Christa Wolf, Cassandra, a Novel and Four Essays, trans. Jan van
Heurck (New York: Farrar-Straus-Giroux, 1984), 227.
10. Ibid, 256.
11. Ibid, 238.
12. Ibid, 131.
13. Ibid, 238.

14. Barthes, 9-10.
15. Wolf, Cassandra, 239.

16. Ibid, 15.
17. Ibid, 23.
18. Ibid, 9.
19. Ibid, 39.
20. Ibid, 27.
21. Ibid, 4.
22. Ibid, 124.
23. Ibid, 35.

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Cassandra's Dream Song: A Literary Feminist Perspective

Author(s): Ellen Waterman

COLLABORATION IS THE ESSENCE of the composer/performer relatio

of the composer's intentions. As a performer, who is also a feminist, I

we talked about issues of rigor and compression, energy and explosion.5

OVERALL STRUCTURE OF CASSANDRA'S DREAM SONG

"statements." Example 1 shows the palindrome-like increase and

EXAMPLE 1: PAGE 1: NUMBER OF STATEMENTS IN EACH LINE

The music of page 1 is strictly rhythmic, linear, and organized

C 4 statements, interspersed with silence

EXAMPLE 2: PAGE 2 AS PLAYED BY ARTAUD AND STARREVELD:

With this ordering, not only do the lines become progre

In my analysis of Cassandra's Dream Song, I have been greatly inspired

The traditional view of Cassandra as an unfortunate victim (who never-

Cassandra: the most unfortunate of the daughters of Priam and

Cassandra's dilemma is the dichotomy between her pride in her family

Ten times, a hundred times I stood before Priam, a hundred times I

It is Cassandra's relentless struggle to speak with her own voice, her

CASSANDRA'S DREAM SONG: A PERFORMER'S ANALYSIS

My interpretation of Cassandra's Dream Song was much influenced by

In this analysis we will consider the materials of page 1 in terms of the

? 1975 by Hinrichsen Edi

EXAMPLE 3: SECOND STATEMENT OF LINE ONE

EXAMPLE 4: "VOICE OF DISSENT" IN LINE FOUR

There is a point in the Trojan war, as depicted by Wolf, in which words

EXAMPLE 5: "VOICE OF DISSENT" IN LINE FIVE

Line 6 represents a summation of the various discursive elements in

Page 2 of Cassandra's Dream Song can be seen as a portrait of Wolf's

which I have chosen reflects a progression from desire and delusion

A blind ambition-molto rigoroso

EXAMPLE 6: ORDERING OF PAGE 2 AS A DRAMATIC EVOLUTION

Line A is marked molto rigoroso. It is highly percussive, has a linear

I saw nothing. Overtaxed by the gift of sight, I was blind. I saw on

In sharp contrast to line A, line E is marked grazioso e rubato

EXAMPLE 7: END OF LINE E

Line C is made up of four fast grace-note gestures followed by pauses

The line is marked poco cantabile, perhaps because the expression of

EXAMPLE 9: END OF LINE B

a long glissando overlaid with smorzetto and vibrato on F#, a melody

My literary feminist reading of Brian Ferneyhough's piece, Cassandra's

1. Brian Ferneyhough, Cassandra's Dream Song, notes to the score

4. Ferneyhough's catalogue includes far more complex and difficult

5. Interview with Brian Ferneyhough, 23 February 1993.

6. Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text, trans. by Richard Miller

7. Interview, 23 February 1993.

11. Ibid, 238.

12. Ibid, 131.

13. Ibid, 238.

15. Wolf, Cassandra, 239.

17. Ibid, 23.

19. Ibid, 39.

20. Ibid, 27.

22. Ibid, 124.

23. Ibid, 35.

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