Time, and The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X:

a theory of temporality in twentieth-century opera

by

Robert A. Baker

SCHULICH SCHOOL OF MUSIC

McGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL

AUGUST 2008

A thesis submitted to McGill University

in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

2008 Robert A. Baker

 ABSTRACT

This study investigates the particular integration of drama and music into the

unique genre of opera through the common element of time. Its aim is to offer new

conceptualisations of time in opera that will provide composers with tools to

understand and control various aspects of the temporal dimension within the genre, as

well as expand my own techniques and facility to compose music-dramatic works. To

this end, this document is in two parts; the first, a research text; the second, an original

monodrama composition.

In Part I, Temporality in Twentieth-Century Opera, four types of artistic time

are proposed, which form the basis of this dissertations arguments. Issues related to

formal organisation, continuity, discontinuity, and the perception of temporal

proportions are discussed in relation to music, while the nature of narrative and

temporal representation are considered in the realm of drama. This text shows how the

temporal multiplicities inherent in both music and drama occur simultaneously and

often in apparent conflict with one another. When combined, music and dramas

individual temporal properties create Operatic Time, and in order to account for the

various resulting possible combinations I offer categorical systems based upon

historical references, and issues of temporal unity. Lastly, I propose a particular

conceptualisation of how time advances in opera based upon the temporal function of

text, and present an original analytical system that I call Text Index Series Analysis.

With it, several opera excerpts from the last century are analysed and the results

ii
demonstrate various approaches to pacing and their effect on music-dramatic temporal

meanings within any given work.

The monodrama in Part II, entitled The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X is

scored for tenor, flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola and cello, and is approximately

eighteen minutes in duration. Its conception and creation were significantly informed

by the theories discussed in Part I, and it is in light of them that the various temporal

peculiarities and multiplicities within my composition are contextualised and clarified.

iii
 RSUM

La thse fait une enqute sur lintgration particulire, au domaine inimitable

de lopra, de lart dramatique avec la musique travers un lment en commun au

deux, le temps. Elle vise de nouvelles conceptualisations du temps dans lopra en

fournissant des outils aux compositeurs pour quils puissent comprendre et rgir divers

aspects de la dimension temporelle ; elle vise aussi largir mes propres techniques et

moyens dans la facture duvres musico-dramatiques. Dans ce but, le document est

divis en deux parties : un mmoire de recherche ; un monodrame, uvre lyrique

originale.

la partie I, Temporalit dans lopra au vingtime sicle , je propose

quatre types de temps artistique qui constitue la base de discussion. Relativement la

musique, les questions examines sont lies lorganisation formelle, ainsi qu la

continuit et la discontinuit et la perception de proportions temporelles, tandis que

la nature de la reprsentation narrative et temporelle est examine en ce qui concerne le

thtre. Ce texte dmontre comment les multiplicits temporelles propres la musique

et au thtre se produisent simultanment et comment elles entrent souvent en conflit

apparent. Une fois fusionns, les composants temporels propres aux deux arts crent le

Temps opratique. Afin dexpliquer les combinaisons possibles qui en rsultent, je

propose un systme de catgories fondes sur de repres historiques et de lunit

temporelle. Finalement, je propose une conceptualisation particulire de la manire

dont, fond sur un fonctionnement temporel du texte, le temps avance dans lopra ; je

iv
propose aussi un systme analytique original appel Text Index Series Analysis .

Grce cet outil, plusieurs extraits dopra du sicle dernier sont analyss ; les rsultats

dmontrent maintes approches la mise des mots en musique ainsi que leur effet sur la

signification temporelle et musico-dramatique de n'importe quelle uvre.

Le monodrame la partie II, The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X ( Les trois

dernires minutes de la vie de X ), crit pour voix de tnor, avec flte, clarinette,

piano, violon, alto et violoncelle, a une dure de dix-huit minutes approximativement.

Sa conception et sa ralisation bnficient normment des thories de la partie I. la

lumire de ces thories, les diverses particularits temporelles et les multiplicits au

sein de ma composition deviennent contextualises et clarifies.

v
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would first like to express my sincere thanks to my advisor, Professor John

Rea. Our countless discussions throughout my doctoral studies, weekly composition

tutorials, and frequent correspondence throughout the writing of this dissertation,

played an immeasurable role in shaping my conceptions, raising essential questions

and arriving at the various conclusions and creative solutions that form this manuscript.

His wealth of experience and insight in the realm of composition and in particular

opera was constantly inspiring and challenging. I am also very thankful to Professors

Eleanor Stubley and Christoph Neidhfer for their encouragement and helpful

comments during my lengthy research process.

I also wish to express my profound gratitude to my wife, whose constancy,

love, humour and support throughout the past four years provided me with the strength

and belief to complete this dissertation project, and with it bring this chapter in my life

to a close.

vi
 LIST OF DIAGRAMS

Diagram 1: Gary Schmidgalls diagram of Rising Emotional Intensity ..... 2

Diagram 2: Musical Time .... 40

Diagram 3: Dramatic Aesthetic Time as a function of narrativity .. 49

Diagram 4: Overlapping temporal strands in King Richard III, Act IV, scene ii,
line 49 to scene iii, line 46 ...... 52

Diagram 5: The three offstage clocks according to Actual versus Dramatic Clock
Times of the four strands throughout King Richard III, Act IV, scene ii,
line 49 to scene iii, line 46 ...... 54

Diagram 6: Dramatic Time ...... 58

Diagram 7: The five possible types of Operatic Referential Time ..... 64

Diagram 8: Words per minute sung in E Susanna non vien! and Dove sono i bei
momenti, number 19, from Act III of Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro... 77

Diagram 9: Operatic Time ...... 80

Diagram 10: TI Series Analysis #1: Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer?
(from Wozzeck: A. Berg; Act III, scene iv, mm. 222-284) ..... 85

Diagram 11: TI Series Analysis #2: Je sais bien quil le faut, mais cest
atroce (from La voix humaine: F. Poulenc; rehearsal 100 the end) .... 88

Diagram 12: TI Series Analysis #3: Jespre encore, mon Dieu

(from Lamour de loin: K. Saariaho; Act V, scene iii, mm. 470-634) ... 92

Diagram 13: Dramatic Aesthetic Time as a function of narrativity in

The Three Last Minutes ...... 100

Diagram 14: TI Series Analysis #4: O God, O God, which this blood madest
(from The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X: R. A. Baker; Section 5,
mm. 308-390) ..... 102

vii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ ii
RSUM.................................................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... vi
LIST OF DIAGRAMS .............................................................................................................. vii
INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1
On the Need for Operatic Temporal Research ........................................................................ 1
Dissertation Outline ................................................................................................................ 6

PART I:

TEMPORALITY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY OPERA

CHAPTER 1: Time and Art ............................................................................................... 11

1.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 11
1.2 Understandings of Time........................................................................................... 12
1.3 The Relationship of Time and Art ........................................................................... 14
Reminiscence and Prophecy ......................................................................... 14
Order and Continuity .................................................................................... 15
Temporal Modes ........................................................................................... 16
1.4 Four Types of Artistic Time..................................................................................... 18
Clock Time ................................................................................................... 18
Historical Time ............................................................................................. 18
Referential Time ........................................................................................... 18
Aesthetic Time .............................................................................................. 19
1.5 Musical and Dramatic Clock Time .......................................................................... 19
1.6 Musical and Dramatic Historical Time .................................................................... 20
1.7 Musical and Dramatic Referential Time .................................................................. 21

CHAPTER 2: Musical Aesthetic Time .............................................................................. 24

2.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 24
2.2 A Definition of Musical Aesthetic Time.................................................................. 24
2.3 Directionality and Multiplicity................................................................................. 27
Mobile Forms................................................................................................ 28
Non-Mobile and Moment Forms .................................................................. 29
Continuity and Discontinuity........................................................................ 31
2.4 Temporal Proportions............................................................................................... 35
Kramer on Temporal Proportions ................................................................. 36
Stockhausen on Perceiving Musical Time .................................................... 37
2.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 39

viii
CHAPTER 3: Dramatic Aesthetic Time ........................................................................... 41
3.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 41
3.2 A Definition of Dramatic Aesthetic Time................................................................ 42
3.3 Story, Narrative and Non-Narrative ......................................................................... 42
3.4 Types of Narrativity ................................................................................................. 44
Linear and Non-Linear Narrative.................................................................. 45
Multi-Linear Narrative.................................................................................. 46
Narrative Multiplicity ................................................................................... 48
3.5 Dramatic Pacing and the Clock................................................................................ 50
Perceiving Dramatic Pacing.......................................................................... 55
3.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 57

CHAPTER 4: Operatic Time ............................................................................................. 59

4.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 59
4.2 The Time Created by the Composer ........................................................................ 60
4.3 Operatic Clock and Historical Time ........................................................................ 61
4.4 Operatic Referential Time........................................................................................ 62
Congruous Referential Temporalities ........................................................... 62
Incongruous Referential Temporalities......................................................... 63
4.5 Examples of the Five Types of Operatic Referential Time...................................... 65
Fixed Congruous........................................................................................... 65
Corresponding Multiple Congruous ............................................................. 65
Autonomous Multiple Congruous................................................................. 66
Incongruous via Fixed Dramatic / Multiple Musical Referential
Times ....................................................................................................... 67
Incongruous via Multiple Dramatic / Fixed Musical Referential
Times ....................................................................................................... 68
4.6 The Four Unities of Opera ....................................................................................... 68
4.7 Operatic Aesthetic Time .......................................................................................... 73
Operatic Temporal Progress ......................................................................... 74
Operatic Clock Time Proportions ................................................................. 75
4.8 Text Index Series ..................................................................................................... 78
4.9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 79

CHAPTER 5: Three Text Index Series Analyses ............................................................. 81

5.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 81
5.2 Note on Text Index Series accuracy......................................................................... 82
The Ten-Second Segment ............................................................................. 82
Score or Recorded Performance?.................................................................. 83
5.3 TI Analysis #1: Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer?................................................ 84
Wozzeck: Alban Berg; Act III, scene iv, mm. 222-284 .......................................... 84
5.4 TI Series Analysis #2: Je sais bien quil le faut, mais cest atroce ....................... 87
La voix humaine: Francis Poulenc; 100 END ..................................................... 87
5.5 TI Series Analysis #3: Jespre encore, mon Dieu ............................................... 91
Lamour de loin: Kaija Saariaho; Act 5, scene iii, mm. 470-634........................... 91
5.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 95

ix
CHAPTER 6: Theory and Practice ................................................................................... 96
6.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 96
6.2 An Original Music-Drama Composition.................................................................. 96
Text, Voice, and Form .................................................................................. 97
Dramatic Aesthetic Time and Xs Clock....................................................... 99
Operatic Referential Time of The Three Last Minutes ........................... 100
6.3 Operatic Aesthetic Time in The Three Last Minutes ........................................ 101
6.4 Afterthought ........................................................................................................... 104

APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 106

BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 110

PART II:

THE THREE LAST MINUTES IN THE LIFE OF X

An Original Monodrama Composition for Tenor, Three Actors and Six Instruments

Music by Robert A. Baker

Libretto comprised of selections from works by William Shakespeare
and original text by the composer

DRAMATIS PERSONAE ... ii

STAGING .... ii
PRODUCTION NOTES ...... ii
SYNOPSIS ... iii
INSTRUMENTATION ... iv
NOTES TO PERFORMERS ... v
FULL SCORE . 1
Introduction ... 1
Part 1 .. 3
Part 2 .. 10
Part 3 ... 28
Part 4 ... 44
Part 5 ... 55
LIBRETTO ... 73

x
 INTRODUCTION

On the Need for Operatic Temporal Research

For composers interested in writing new operas in the Western tradition today, there is

an absolute wealth of resources available for consultation. A great many texts of both

musicological and music-theoretical approaches to the form exist on the topic, whether

dealing with the genre in general, or with particular composers or specific works.

Those of a predominantly musicological perspective tend to offer rich insights into

historical, social, political, philosophical, and aesthetic aspects related to the Western

opera canon. For example, Robert Donington writes of the unconscious and conscious

causes of symbolism within operatic works, due to both the innately image-forming

disposition of the human psyche1, and the special effort on the part of the composer or

librettist. He points out a particular deftness of compositional craft in Stravinskys The

Rakes Progress by noting the climax of the graveyard scene where Annes voice part

enters at the [octave-] unison [G] to cap Toms agonized appeal, so that on the word

love they coincide a beautiful and traditional operatic stroke.2 And a beautiful

insight.

Gary Schmidgall offers many emotionally charged statements on the nature of

opera that also carry great potential to inspire the interested composer. He writes, The

world of opera is one of high relief, magnification, escalation.3, but above all it is an

1
Robert Donington, Opera and its Symbols: The Unity of Words, Music, and Staging (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1990): 5.
2
Ibid., 172.
3
Gary Schmidgall, Literature as Opera (New York. Oxford University Press, 1977): 10.

1
epiphanic art-form4. With further observations that an aspiring opera composer might

take to heart, Schmidgall provides a diagram (reproduced in Diagram 1) of what he

calls Rising Emotional Intensity as conveyed through a particular use of the voice;

from normal speech to coloratura soprano, Schmidgall proposes a continuum that

represents what are the least operatic features to what are the most.5

OPERATIC COLORATURA and HIGH NOTES

ARIA

ARIOSO

ACCOMPANIED RECITATIVE
RISING
EMOTIONAL UNACCOMPANIED RECITATIVE
INTENSITY
MUSICAL DECLAMATION
(SPRECHGESANG or
SPRECHSTIMME)

HEIGHTENED INFLECTION/
DECLAMATION

REALISTIC NORMAL SPEECH

Diagram 1: Gary Schmidgalls diagram of Rising Emotional Intensity

The main thrust of his book however considers the appropriateness of a text and its

capacity to serve as the dramatic basis for an opera. He writes that the composer and

librettist must, in short, think primarily as artist[s] willing to forgo prosaic or

4
Ibid., 11.
5
Ibid.

2
rhetorical niceties as well as the values of realism in order to seek moments of

expressive crisis nuclear moments in which potential musical and dramatic energy is

locked.6 Composers and librettists are offered a great deal of advice on the

appropriateness of a text, as he argues that dense and heavily rhetorical prose works are

typically unsuitable literary sources, and that One can often say of seemingly

unoperatic literary works that theirs is a theater of words, whereas opera requires a

theater of action, emotion, engagement, movement, and spectacle.7

In the field of music-theoretical research, Perle8 and Osmond-Smith9 are two

noteworthy authors who have provided highly in depth analyses of the stage works of

Berg and Berio respectively. Raymond Fearn also provides detailed theoretical

analyses of several of Berios music-theatre works, as well as other twentieth-century

Italian operas by Dallapiccola, Nono and Maderna.10 Carl Leafstedt connects

theoretical insight to dramatic metaphor in his analysis of Bartks Bluebeards Castle.

Leafstedt draws a connection between the large-scale pitch structure of the work,

articulated by the tonalities F# - C - F#, correlating to the beginning, middle and end of

the opera, with literal and psychological dramatic aspects. He writes: By choosing

keys that lie the farthest possible distance from each other in traditional harmonic

terms, Bartk gives musical expression to the symbolic opposition of darkness and

light.11

6
Ibid.
7
Ibid., 14.
8
George Perle, The operas of Alban Berg (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
9
David Osmond-Smith, Berio. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
10
Raymond Fearn, Italian Opera Since 1945. (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997).
11
Carl S. Leafstedt, Inside Bluebeards Castle: Music and Drama in Bla Bartks Opera. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1999): 58.

3
 In addition to these musicological and music-theoretical discussions and

analyses, the composer may also consult the vast array of texts devoted to the craft of

concert music composition, with both non-tonal and tonal focus. Schnbergs

Fundamentals of Musical Composition presents analyses of common-practice musical

examples designed to offer students the tools with which to imitate classical musical

discourse, such as the construction of antecedent-consequent phrases, and the use of

motivic fragmentation, extension and development12. Of a somewhat more personal

nature, Hindemith13 and Messiaen14 offered extensive insight into their own aesthetics

with regard to pitch and rhythmic language, as well as aesthetic rationale behind their

respective beliefs. Other texts with somewhat broader scope exist, of course. Extensive

exercises in serial techniques are found in Smith-Brindles Serial Composition15, while

various non-tonal harmonic-based approaches characterise Persichettis Twentieth

Century Harmony16. More recently, substantial texts by David Cope17 and Stefan

Kostka18 provide ample analyses and practical exercises for composers to practice

techniques in an array of twentieth-century styles. And when it comes to the subject of

orchestration, texts by Adler, Piston and Rimsky-Korsakov are eminent examples that

provide comprehensive instruction in scoring for orchestral instruments as well as

individual instrument idiosyncrasies. All of these texts lie most appropriately within

12
Arnold Schnberg, Fundamentals of Musical Composition. (London: Faber and Faber, 1967).
13
Paul Hindemith, The Craft of Musical Composition Book II (New York: Associated Music Publishers,
Inc., 1945).
14
Olivier Messiaen, The Technique of my Musical Language (Trans. J. Satterfield) (Paris: A. Leduc,
1956).
15
Reginald Smith-Brindle, Serial Composition (London: Oxford University Press, 1966).
16
Vincent Persichetti, Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice. New York: W. W.
Norton, 1961.
17
David Cope, New Directions in Music. 7th Ed. (Prospect Heights, Ill.: Waveland Press, 2001).
18
Stefan M. Kostka, Materials and Techniques of Twentieth-Century Music (Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006).

4
the broad field of the theory of music composition rather than within any specific one,

say, like the discipline of writing operas. They are concerned only with compositional

techniques relevant to concert music. There is no such body of research and writing

dedicated specifically to the craft of opera composition, and the current dissertation

attempts to address this absence within the literature.

On what grounds should a resource designed to specifically facilitate the

composing of operas be founded? Such a resource must consider what all of the above-

mentioned texts on concert music do not: the special integration of music and drama

into the unique genre of opera. Since music and drama are of course distinct art forms,

any investigation designed to encompass both forms and to discuss their integration

must be founded in a common element; I believe such an element is time. Both music

and drama require time for their observation and comprehension, as both unfold or

reveal themselves throughout the entire duration of their performance. Given this

fundamental commonality, this dissertation examines the temporal nature of music,

drama and opera with the aim of offering the opera composer insights that will

augment the wide variety of various musicological and music-theoretical intuitions,

together with the numerous principles of orchestration and concert music

compositional techniques gained from such sources and from studying scores.

The objective of this dissertation is twofold: (1) to deepen my own

understanding of composing a music-dramatic work, developing various techniques

that will enable me to approach the genre in the future as a composer with greater

confidence and facility; (2) to propose new conceptualisations for the unique nature of

5
the temporal dimension within opera, in order to offer particular insight into aspects of

the craft of opera composition.

Dissertation Outline

This dissertation is in two parts. Part I is a research text that investigates temporalities

in relation to the genre of opera. I propose numerous conceptualisations of time in art,

music, drama, and opera, as well as offering a global charting of operatic time, and an

original temporal-analytical system. Part II is an original music-drama composition in

which numerous temporal peculiarities occur throughout the course of a single

continuous act. Although the composition is independent from the research in Part I,

the origins and creation of the two parts are indebted to one another; each informed the

other on matters of historical reference, dramatic structure, and musical discourse.

Entitled Temporality in Twentieth-Century Opera, Part I consists of six

chapters. The first chapter, Time and Art, addresses various ways in which time bears

upon the act of observing an artwork. After brief mention of significant scientific,

spiritual and philosophical notions on time, the human experience with art is dealt with

in detail. In light of various views including those from William Fleming, Philip

Alperson, Susanne Langer, and in particular the discussion of temporal modes in art by

Micheline Sauvage, four types of artistic time are proposed: clock, historical,

referential and aesthetic. The first three types are discussed in relation to music and

drama, and various examples are included. The fourth type of artistic time is discussed

separately in relation to music and drama in Chapters 2 and 3 respectively.

Chapter 2, Musical Aesthetic Time, offers a brief review of selected writings

from several main figures in composition of the last century and illustrates how the

6
fourth type of artistic time, Aesthetic Time, is manifested in music. With reference to

composers Boulez, Stockhausen and theorist Kramer, particular issues related to formal

organisation, continuity, discontinuity, and perceiving music-temporal proportions are

discussed. The various views considered may provide a composer insight into ways in

which the listeners music-temporal experience can be influenced through the control

of particular musical parameters and compositional approaches.

Aesthetic Time in relation to drama is discussed in Chapter 3, under the title

Dramatic Aesthetic Time, and two main ideas are addressed: firstly, issues of

directionality and continuity with regard to narrative structure are considered, leading

to the formulation of a charting of categories that accounts for the various types and

possible permutations of each; secondly, a discussion of temporal proportions reveals

extensive discrepancies between that which is presented and represented within a

drama, illustrating temporal complexes of a highly distorted and multiple nature.

Ultimately, the chapter reveals fundamental ways in which dramatic temporal structure

operates, and questions are raised toward the cognitive mechanism that enables the

spectator to comprehend and accept those structures.

Chapter 4, Operatic Time, explores numerous temporal consequences that result from

the integration of music and drama into the genre of opera, and considers the role of the

composer in the creation of an operas temporal dimension. When applied to opera, the

third type of artistic time (Referential Time) requires further discussion since two new

issues are encountered. Firstly, the integration of music and drama creates a particular

relationship between their respective Referential Times, producing a unique combined

operatic form of Referential Time. Original categories are proposed to account for each

7
of the various possible combinations, supported with examples from the twentieth-

century. Secondly, the operatic context throws into question the Classical tenet of the

Three Unities (of action, time and place) and consequently a Fourth Unity (music) is

proposed.

The fourth type of artistic time, Aesthetic Time, is also considered anew in

relation to opera. The dramatic-temporal implications created by the recitative-aria

convention are tested, and a particular conceptualisation of Operatic Aesthetic Time is

proposed, which I refer to as temporal progress. However, due to the avoidance of

this convention by many opera composers of the last century, an original analytical

method that I call Text Index Series Analysis is proposed in order to quantify the

structure and fluctuations in temporal progress of non-recit-aria operatic works. Lastly,

a global Operatic Time chart is included to recap the various categories proposed

throughout Part I, and gathers them into a singular inclusive system.

Chapter 5, Three Text Index Series Analyses, demonstrates my analytical

system first with a brief discussion on issues of accuracy and the various decisions

regarding procedural choices. The system is then applied to an excerpt from each of the

following three works: Alban Bergs Wozzeck (1922), Francis Poulencs La voix

humaine (1958), and Kaija Saariahos Lamour de loin (2000). The results reveal each

composers particular approach to pacing, illustrating various ways in which temporal

structures can be integrated with music-formal characteristics, as well as long term and

local-level dramatic situations and meanings. The analyses ultimately serve to

exemplify ways in which composers can control the pacing of an operatic work

through the structure of its temporal progress.

8
 Chapter 6, Theory and Practice, presents a brief discussion of issues related to

the original monodrama composition found in Part II entitled The Three Last Minutes

in the Life of X, on a libretto consisting of original text by the composer and excerpts

from selected works of Shakespeare. Following a brief comment on its relation to the

research of Part I, the particular approach to composing for voice is discussed, and its

role in the articulation of the overall form is revealed. Concepts from the preceding

chapters are applied to the composition, and values are proposed for Dramatic

Aesthetic, Operatic Referential, and Operatic Aesthetic Times. A Text Index Series

Analysis of the final portion of the work is included, offering insight into the particular

integration of music-dramatic meanings within the final passage. Lastly, suggestions

are made as to where the work is situated within the repertoire of modern opera.

Part II contains the full score of the monodrama composition, which is scored

for tenor, flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola and cello, and is approximately eighteen

minutes in duration. Production notes and a synopsis are included, followed by the

complete libretto with endnotes identifying the sources for the portions of text drawn

from various works of Shakespeare.

9
 PART I:

TEMPORALITY IN
TWENTIETH-CENTURY OPERA

10
 CHAPTER 1:
Time and Art

The study of time is perhaps the ultimate interdisciplinary field.19

J. D. Kramer

1.1 Introduction

This chapter addresses various ways in which time is conceptualised in relation to art.

Brief mention is made of scientific, spiritual and philosophical notions on time, which

leads to a more detailed discussion on the human experience with art. Perspectives

from William Fleming, Philip Alperson, Susanne Langer and Micheline Sauvage are

included, and based upon the latters theories of temporal modes in art, I offer my own

proposal for the categorisation of artistic time into four types: clock, historical,

referential and aesthetic. These distinctions of artistic time are in turn applied to music

and drama individually, the first three of which are dealt with in detail, accompanied

by examples to illustrate specific distinctions and relationships. However, due to the

larger scope of the fourth type, aesthetic time, its discussion in relation to music and

drama appears separately in Chapters 2 and 3 respectively.

19
Jonathan D. Kramer, Studies of Time and Music: A Bibliography, Music Theory Spectrum, volume
7, Time and Rhythm in Music (Spring, 1985): 72

11
1.2 Understandings of Time

The human relationship with the concept of time is twofold: it is on the one hand

shared, and on the other completely individual. As humans, we rely on synchronous

time-keeping devices (i.e. the common clock) to coordinate daily life and interaction,

yet we are also inescapably subject to the mental phenomenon of an illusory and

individual sense of time lived through according to our own experiences and existence.

Therefore, our relationship to time is both quantifiable and unquantifiable; it is both

objective and subjective, conditional upon our concerns and expectations.

For Isaac Newton, time represented a fundamental notion of the perseverance

of existence, and for this concept Newton invoked the term absolute time. However, he

also understood time to be a measurement whose increments are man-made and

arbitrary, having no relation to times true nature, since they were objective and

practical representations. Newton wrote:

Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature flows equably
without regard to anything external, and by another name is called duration: relative,
apparent, and common time, is some sensible and external (whether accurate or
unequable) measure of duration by the means of motion, which is commonly used
instead of true time; such as an hour, a day, a month, a year.20

Although Newtons theory as such no longer prevails in the world of physics, it is a

useful starting point since the common global acceptance of a singular reference to the

twenty-four hour clock (e.g., Greenwich Mean Time) surely reflects upon a further

concept: that time can be objectively measured by considering two particular moments

that constitute a beginning and an ending (i.e. representing duration) of some period of

20
Isaac Newton, The Principia, 3rd edition (1726) (I. B. Cohen & A. Whitman, Trans.), (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1999), 77.

12
concern, which is a segment within a larger period of concern, itself a segment of a

larger period, and so on, stretching out into infinity. The representation of duration by

means of the common clock is certainly a concept upon which most will agree,

affording us simply the measurement of change. Yet in regard to common human

experiences, time is so much more; it is a matter of coordination, age, experience, and

readiness. The word itself is commonly used in verbal expressions such as: it is time;

do you have the time; from time to time; etc. There are also far more mysterious

usages, such as: how time flies, or Ive lost track of time, which point to ones

experience of time based upon factors of excitement or boredom. Such expressions of

sentiment address the subjectivity of time and the problems encountered in attempting

to define human temporal experiences. On the experiential nature of time, Thomas J.

Cottle asks Is there really a phenomenon of time that exists apart from any individual,

or does the concept of time reside only in ones perception of it?21 On this same

dilemma St. Augustine wrote:

For what is time? Who is able easily and briefly to explain that? Who is able so much
as in thought to comprehend it, so as to express himself concerning it? And yet what in
our usual discourse do we more familiarly and knowingly make mention of than time?
(237) What is time then? If nobody asks me, I know: but if I were desirous to
explain it to one that should ask me, plainly I know not. Boldly for all this dare I affirm
myself to know this much; that if nothing were passing, there would be no past time:
and if nothing were coming, there should be no time to come: and if nothing were,
there should now be no present time. (239)22

Therefore, in attempting any study of time, one must acknowledge both the

problematic and vastly multi-disciplinary nature of such an endeavour. Since

21
Thomas J. Cottle, Perceiving Time: A Psychological Investigation with Men and Women (New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 1976), 8.
22
St. Augustine. Confessions (Vol. II) (W. Watts, Trans., T. E. Page, E. Capps, W. H. D. Rouse, L. A.
Post, and E. H. Warmington, Ed.s), (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961) 237 and 239.

13
Augustine and Newton, the body of writing on the nature of time in relation to human

experience is enormous and spans many fields of expertise, from science to spirituality,

philosophy and psychology, as well as art.

By no means therefore does my opening discussion attempt a comprehensive

survey on the subject of time; such an endeavour would extend far beyond the scope of

this study. Rather, the ensuing section will be confined to times relationship to art,

music, drama, and finally to opera.

1.3 The Relationship of Time and Art

Reminiscence and Prophecy

In 1945 William Fleming wrote of the simultaneously reminiscent and prophetic nature

of the experience of art. He believed that artworks are understood in such a way that

their relatedness in time allow us to perceive present objects mirrored on the past and

shaping the future.23 Fleming derived his idea from Henri Bergsons broader notion of

the human experience of time: to anticipate is to grasp the future in the present, by

experiencing the present with the memory of the past.24

In both Fleming and Bergson, the assertion of the simultaneity of past-present-

future in a single concept reflects St. Augustines statement mentioned above: by

believing that things have indeed passed (therefore there is something called past time),

and that things are forthcoming (therefore there is future time), the belief itself makes

23
William Fleming, The Newer Concepts of Time and Their Relation to the Temporal Arts, The
Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, volume 4, number 2 (December 1945): 105.
24
Ibid., 104.

14
those ideas present, and therefore produces a sense of simultaneity of past, present and

future. Fleming appears to believe that this state of mind is active when contemplating

a work of art, making of ones experience with an artwork a richly multi-temporal one.

Order and Continuity

Philip Alperson writes of the artistic experience as a matter of attention, memory,

expectation and assimilation.25 The elements of memory and expectation directly relate

to Bergsons conception of grasping the future in the present through anticipation, in

relation to ones memory of the past. However, rather than the simultaneous past-

present-future implications of Bergson and Fleming (rooted in St. Augustine),

Alpersons particular belief about music as an art of time appears to be based upon a

more linear temporal conception, one that he describes with the image of the

composers choice of tones presented in a particular sequence for the observer/listener

to perceive thanks to a sense of forward temporal motion. The temporal continuity and

directedness with which one experiences musical art is reflected in Alpersons

invocation of Susanne Langers famous statement that music creates an order of

virtual time in which its sonorous forms move in relation to each other always and

only to each other, for nothing else exists thereMusic makes time audible, and its

form and continuity sensible.26

25
Philip Alperson, Musical Time and Music as an Art of Time, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism, volume 38, number 4 (Summer 1980): 407.
26
Susanne Langer, Feeling and Form (New York: Scribner, 1953), 109-110.

15
Temporal Modes

Similarly, Micheline Sauvage states that every work of art constructs in actual time its

own special artistic time, musical, dramatic or narrative.27 Most interestingly and

relevant to my study, Sauvage goes on to suggest particular modes in which arts

relationship to time can be conceptualised, referred to by her with a notation, T1

through T4. Straight forward descriptions are offered for modes T1 and T2. First, that

an artwork is in time, subject to time, with all that this involves in the way of history,

of change and of adventures, for the physical work itself as well as for its message28;

and second, a work of art uses time as one of its working elements.29 Both

modes/concepts acknowledge temporal associations to human history, and the amount

of elapsed time for the performance and/or contemplation of an artwork respectively.

The third and fourth modes are more problematic and Sauvage discusses their

relationship and possible overlapping at great length. The third mode, T3, is described

as consisting of the temporal significations implied by the thing represented; or

that it is time evoked.30 The fourth mode however is less clearly defined. Sauvage

implies that it may be realised depending upon the extent to which an observer

contemplates and extrapolates upon the temporal implications perceived within an

artwork. Sauvage, for example, through an extended contemplation of Poussins

painting, The Shepherds in Arcadia, arrives at the following interrogatives:

Have we not here a time intention, or somehow an exhibited as opposed to implied time
(time evoked [referring to T3] now begins to appear ambiguous)? Or, perhaps even

27
Micheline Sauvage, Notes on the Superposition of Temporal Modes in the Works of Art, in
Reflections on Art, S. Langer, Ed., (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1958), 162.
28
Ibid., 161.
29
Ibid., 162.
30
Ibid., 163.

16
 better, a time represented over and above the time of what is represented? In short, a
time of level T4?31

Sauvage wrestles to identify T4 more precisely and tries to distinguish it from that of

T3. Furthermore, the possibility of superposition (as her articles title addresses) of the

various modes is discussed, even to the point of the negation of one mode by another.

Unfortunately, in choosing to raise more questions than in providing clear delineations

and definitions of her temporal modes, Sauvage concludes her study by suggesting that

the rich ambiguities that lie within her line of enquiry might better be left to those in

the field of psychology and aesthetics.

Despite Sauvages deferral to experts in fields other than her own, she has laid

important foundations for the understanding of art-time relations. The following

section (2.4) of my discussion attempts to continue and categorise more definitively

what Sauvage began. Like her, I suggest four types of artistic time, however I define

them (particularly the third and fourth type) more distinctly in order to afford a more

focussed and individual discussion of each, and to avoid any notion of overlapping or

negation of one type by another. In fact, I have reversed Sauvages first and second

modes so that the most objective type appears first. Moreover, I have recast her fourth

mode so that it may exhibit a more independent nature, rather than extending from the

third.

31
Ibid., 166.

17
1.4 Four Types of Artistic Time

Time and art are related in four ways: a work of art requires time; it is of time; it may

be about time(s); and it certainly evokes time(s). In other words, art entails clock,

historical, referential and aesthetic time.

Clock Time

That art requires time is immediately evident in the temporal arts (i.e. music, drama,

dance, literature) where the common clock provides an objective measurement of

duration. This temporal characteristic may also apply to the spatial arts as well (i.e.

painting, sculpture, architecture, etc.) where the duration spent by an observer in the

contemplation of art/artworks can be understood in this sense. I call this first type of

artistic time, Clock Time.

Historical Time

Art is always bound to a certain point in human history. Although the date or exact era

of creation may neither be known nor particularly evident within the fabric of an

artwork, the fact that a work exists signifies that it came to be at some particular time

in human history and, therefore, that it is bound to the common understanding of the

measurement of human time on earth. Art always springs from or is said to be of a

Historical Time.

Referential Time

An artwork may associate itself with, or make reference to some notion of time itself.

Most simply, a work of art may make reference to another artwork, or to other works

18
of art, whose Historical Times are different from that of its own. A work may bear a

style that is understood to be referencing an earlier historical era, or may point to a

known event in history, directly or indirectly; thus to some degree, it is about time.

However, the potential for subjectivity in the consideration of such a type of artistic

time makes its presence felt. One observers perception of references may differ

significantly (or completely) to that of another observer. Depending upon familiarity

with, and knowledge of, the artwork and the various associations and references stored

within (real or imagined), Referential Time may be thus recognised.

Aesthetic Time

During the contemplation of an artwork, one is subject to a temporal experience that is

evoked by the artwork itself. One experiences the works very own temporal laws

through the consideration of the works constituent parts, their inter-relationships,

implications, and meanings, without relation to concepts of measurement or relatedness

drawn from our collective reality. Therefore, Aesthetic Time is the temporal

relationship between observer and artwork, distinct from anything outside of the work,

or any objective measurement.

1.5 Musical and Dramatic Clock Time

Music and drama require time to be observed, and the objective measurement of this

temporal requirement is the most common and undisputed type. In music analytic texts

19
various names have been attributed to it; for Stravinsky it was ontological time,32 while

Jonathan D. Kramer preferred absolute time.33 Other common terms are real time,

ordinary time, normal time, or chronometric time. Within the scope of this study the

definition of Musical or Dramatic Clock Time is: the objective measurement of

elapsed time of the performance of any musical or dramatic work, in whole or in part,

by way of the common clock.

It must be noted however, that although this measurement is indeed objective

and exact, discrepancies exist between Clock Time values of the same work from

performance to performance. The psychological and physiological states, as well as the

particular aesthetic choices on the part of the musician, conductor, actor, or director

(not to mention dramatic spatial issues, such as stage dimensions differing from theatre

to theatre, etc.), combine to render a particular Clock Time value of a particular

performance. While this measurement is objective and exact, it is also uniquely

individual, eternally tied to that single respective performance.

1.6 Musical and Dramatic Historical Time

The most specific human historical time that can be identified denoting the origins of a

musical or dramatic work (i.e. the date(s) or era of composition) is its Musical or

Dramatic Historical Time. Most commonly this value is expressed as the date of

32
Igor Stravinsky, The Poetics of Music: in the form of six lessons (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1995), 30.
33
Jonathan D. Kramer, The Time of Music: new meanings, new temporalities, new listening strategies
(New York: Schirmer Books, 1988), 3.

20
composition; however, in many cases, precise dates may not be known and

approximations, or estimations based on scholarly research, must be relied upon.34

1.7 Musical and Dramatic Referential Time

Musical or Dramatic Referential Time accounts for the date(s) or era in human

history to which a piece of music or drama refers, either through the use of quotation or

association to pre-existing artistic works, languages, styles, aesthetics, etc.

For example, Stravinskys Symphony of Psalms has a Musical Historical Time

of 1930; however, since this is an example of Stravinskys Neo-Classical style, its

Musical Referential Time recalls the early to mid-eighteenth-century. In some cases

Musical Referential Time may be a compound indicator. For example, Schnittkes

String Quartet No. 3 (Musical Historical Time of 1983) contains quotations from a

Stabat Mater of Orlando di Lasso, Beethovens Groe Fuge, Op. 133, and the four-

note signature motive of Shostakovich, D-S-C-H (in German nomenclature), or D-E

flat-C-B (in English). While the date of composition for the Lasso Stabat Mater is

approximately 1585, the composition date for the Beethoven fugue is known to be

1825, and although the Shostakovich motive occurs in several of his works, perhaps the

most extensive and striking use appears within the autobiographical String Quartet

No. 8 of 1960. Therefore, the Musical Referential Time of Schnittkes String Quartet

No. 3 is ca.1585/1825/1960.

34
For example, in the case of Shakespeares Othello, the first performance is thought to have been in
1604. Since no compelling evidence suggests that the work was written significantly earlier than that
year, this year may suffice to represent Othellos Dramatic Historical Time. (The Complete Works of
Shakespeare (Glasgow: HarperCollins Publisher, 1994), xiii)

21
 In the realm of drama, the simplest interpretation of this type of time is the

setting of the play. For example, The Plough and the Stars, written in 1926 by Sean

OCasey states: TIME. ACTS I and II, November 1915; Acts III and IV, Easter

Week, 1916.35 Thus, the Dramatic Referential Time can be expressed as 1915-1916.

As is the case with music, Dramatic Referential Time can also be compound in nature.

While the Dramatic Historical Time of Peter Shaffers Amadeus is 1979, Shaffer

indicates that The action of the play takes place in Vienna in November 1823, and, in

recall, the decade 1781-1791.36 Therefore, the setting of the work is a reference to a

time in the distant past far from the auditors in the theatre, and further reference is

made within the work itself to an even earlier period, some forty years prior, i.e., 1781-

1791. Thus, the Dramatic Referential Time of Shaffers Amadeus is the compound

value of 1823/1781-1791.

Lastly, there are many examples of works that exhibit a general equivalency

between their respective Historical and Referential Times. The Sean OCasey play

mentioned above is a good example, only ten years separate the Dramatic Historical

and Referential Times, yet George Bernard Shaws Major Barbara is much closer to a

true equivalence; its Dramatic Historical Time is 1907, whilst its Dramatic Referential

Time is January 1906.37 Likewise, the Paris Symphonies of 1785 by Haydn are

generally considered to be models of the High Classical style, and therefore

representational of the period in which they were composed; therefore the Musical

Historical and Referential Times for these works can be considered equivalent.

35
Sean OCasey, The Plough and the Stars, in Three Plays (London: Pan Books, 1980), 133.
36
Peter Shaffer, Amadeus (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1984), 8.
37
George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1986), 51.

22
 Due to the extensive scope of the fourth type of artistic time, Aesthetic Time, it

will be discussed separately in the following two chapters, devoted to its relation to

music and drama respectively.

23
 CHAPTER 2:
Musical Aesthetic Time

2.1 Introduction

The current chapter reviews selected writings from several main figures in composition

of the last century to provide a foundation for the upcoming discussion of Operatic

Time and the analyses in Chapters 4 and 5. Rather than making appeals to purely

philosophically based views, I search for insights more closely related to the craft of

composition and provided from perspectives on philosophies of perception and formal

organisation drawn from composers Igor Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz

Stockhausen, including theorist Jonathan D. Kramers discussion of continuity,

discontinuity and the perception of music-temporal proportions. When considered in

combination, all of these views will serve to remind the reader of the multiplicity of

conceptualisations of Musical Aesthetic Time, and potentially offer insight into how a

composer might control certain parameters of a composition in order to shape the

world of possibilities in a listeners music-temporal experience.

2.2 A Definition of Musical Aesthetic Time

In section 1.4 above, Aesthetic Time was defined as the temporal relationship between

observer and artwork, distinct from anything outside of the work, or any objective

measurement. With respect to music, this type of time is by far the broadest, most

24
obscure and subjective category of musical time. It is the sort of time that Susanne

Langer called virtual time,38 or the particular way in which we relate to time (and time

to us) during the musical experience. The reader will recall Langers famous statement

that music makes time audible39; in other words, listening to music is analogous to

listening to time itself.40 With statements such as this, one is plunged into the highly

subjective study of the music-temporal experience, and must begin to imagine and

confront the multiple (if not infinite) mental states in which one listens to music.

Igor Stravinskys distinction between ontological and psychological time with

respect to the music-listening experience is broadly related to the Four Types of

Artistic Time proposed in Chapter 1.4.41 While ontological time most closely relates to

Musical Clock Time as discussed above, it must also include the objective Musical

Historical type as well; and although psychological time appears to involve what I

describe as Musical Referential Time, it most certainly embodies the subjective

category of Musical Aesthetic Time the personal experience between listener and

musical work. Since Stravinsky does not provide detailed clarification on these

distinctions, it will be helpful to consider another perspective. B. M. Williams offered

his interpretation of what Stravinsky meant with the following:

Stravinsky means that psychological time can be invoked if the composer has
techniques at his command which entice the listener to lose his awareness (or the force
of his awareness) of time as measured in some regular and neutral way. Apart from

38
Langer (1953), 109.
39
Ibid., 110.
40
See Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Intervall und Zeit (Christof Bitter, Ed. (Mainz: Schott, 1974), 11-14)
for a conception of musical time that reflects this analogy. Zimmermann considers St. Augustines idea
of the simultaneity of past, present and future, in conjunction with the perception of sound, and, by
extension, music. The perception of music as the combination of all constituent members (independent
and simultaneous notes and rhythms, tempi, structural proportions, etc.) is, Zimmermann believes,
afforded by the interaction of two mutually dependent concepts: interval and time.
41
See Stravinsky (1995)

25
 emotional conditions already present in the listener the composer must create events
which sweep the listener along with the course of the music.42

There are two important points to be noted from Williams comment. Firstly, the

distinction Stravinsky makes between psychological and ontological times is

recognised; that the listener may be enticed to lose his awareness speaks of the

psychological aspect, while the latter part of the same sentence, of time as

measured in some regular and neutral way, points to the ontological aspect. Secondly,

and of far greater importance, Williams implies that there is a certain power that may

potentially be exercised on the part of the composer in order to directly influence the

listeners experience of musical time; that the composer must create events which

sweep the listener along with the course of the music suggests that the listeners

experience of psychological time is somehow, if only in part, in the hands of the

composer. This comment is in accord with Jonathan Kramers view that If we believe

in the time that exists uniquely in music, then we begin to glimpse the power of music

to create, alter, distort, or even destroy time itself, not simply our experience of it.43

Although Kramers power of music does not bestow power directly upon a composer

as Williams suggests, Kramer does acknowledge a remarkably similar type of force at

work upon the listeners perceptive faculties. It is the time created by the composer,

conveyed by the performer, and experienced by the listener that defines Musical

Aesthetic Time. This is not to say that the precise nature of temporal experience is

passed along from composer through performer to listener. Yet, each participant will

indeed experience this type of musical time in their own personal way, one that is

42
B. M. Williams, Time and the Structure of Stravinskys Symphony in C, The Musical Quarterly,
volume 59, number 3 (July 1973): 355.
43
Kramer (1988), 5.

26
neither defined by a clock measurement, nor by a particular calendar date or era in

human history.

2.3 Directionality and Multiplicity

Typically, due to the customs and requirements of human existence, one often attempts

to conceptualise a musical experience in a before-and-after, cause-and-effect, or in

other words, in a linear progressive manner. Any interpretation of the Western

European Classical canon, from its beginnings up to the twentieth century, lends itself

in almost every case to this cause-and-effect paradigm of musical-temporal thinking.

But, ones experience of time as prompted by the experience of music can also be quite

contrary to this before-and-after notion by which our daily lives function. For

example, Robert P. Morgan suggests that such compositional techniques as

palindromic or retrograde structures present a forceful image for the negation, by

reversal, of the flow of musical time.44 That a portion of music reverts back on itself

causes a potential sense of temporal rewind, a sort of motion backwards in time to the

point at which the reversed musical structure began. On a larger formal level, mobile

forms (works whose structure is determined by the performer or by chance operations)

subvert the conventional notion of forward linear discourse. Their impact on the

experience of musical time is immense.

44
Robert P. Morgan, Musical Time/Musical Space, Critical Inquiry, volume 6, number 3 (Spring
1980): 535.

27
Mobile Forms

Many composers of the latter part of the twentieth century have written works

employing mobile form; two famous examples are John Cages Concert for Piano and

Orchestra, and Karlheinz Stockhausens Klavierstuck XI. Another such work is Pierre

Boulez Third Piano Sonata, Formant 2, in which the performance order of prescribed

sections (or tropes, as Boulez writes) is determined by the performers choices

according to some restrictions set out in the score; from performance to performance,

the form of the work varies. Ligeti described the effect of the multiple formal

possibilities of this work as one which offer[s] constantly new views of the same

landscape,45 while the composer himself likened the work to a maze, a spiral in

time.46 Whatever his intentions in composing this work, it is clear that Boulez sought

to avoid the conventional Western attitude towards form, that is, towards a singular

forward-developed process from departure to arrival (or from beginning to end), and in

so doing he offers a listening experience with fascinating implications. In accord with

Boulez and Ligetis analogies, I suggest that a listeners memory (upon hearing

multiple performances, and thus hearing the work performed in different event

orderings) can only construct a labyrinthine sense of the work as a whole. Upon

hearing multiple performances, ones conception of the work becomes a collection of

musical passages with neither consistent linear connections nor any sense of overall

linear temporal progress. The listeners memory becomes subverted and is thrust into

45
Gyrgy Ligeti, Some Remarks on Boulez 3rd Piano Sonata, Die Reihe, volume 5, Reports Analyses
(1961): 58.
46
Pierre Boulez, Sonate, que me veux-tu? in Orientations, M. Cooper, Trans., J. J. Nattiez, Ed.,
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986), 148.

28
an unordered maze in time where each portion of music somehow exists both before

and after every other.

Non-Mobile and Moment Forms

The subverted sense of musical direction afforded by mobile forms can also be created

in non-mobile, or fixed form compositions. In a conventional fixed manner, many

composers have attempted to compose the sort of surprise, disconnectedness or

arbitrariness made available by mobile form works. By removing the element of choice

from the performer, composers must construct their chosen form in such a way that

they believe a similar sense of unpredictability will be perceived. A recent example of

such an approach may be seen in Benedict Masons String Quartet no. 1 of 1987, the

formal principal of which he explains as follows:

The first part is built from small units that are not ostensibly related, and are
ordered rather in the way a visitor might spontaneously come across them. But as the
observer is tempted to continue the exploration of his new surroundings these units
tend simply to follow on from one another and not be allowed to develop.47

Mason goes on further to speak of a play on memory, afforded by the presentation of

half-remembered music being constantly reassembled.48 Overall, the composer

sought to create for the listener the potential experience of a traveller who is

continually examining the same place or situation49 (closely reflecting Ligetis

comments above on Boulez mobile work).

The seeds of this compositional approach can be traced back to the early

twentieth century where many examples exist of works that ignore the conventional

47
Benedict Mason, String Quartet no. 1, in accompanying booklet, Benedict Mason: String Quartet
no. 1 performed by the Arditti Quartet, Bridge Records, Inc., BCD 9045, 1994, compact disc.
48
Ibid.
49
Ibid.

29
approach to directed musical discourse, such as Debussys Jeux, or as in his prelude for

piano, des pas sur la neige, or as with Symphonies of Winds by Stravinsky. The

continuation of a non-directional approach to form, several decades later, can be found

in works by Messiaen (for example Couleurs de la cit cleste, or Chronochromie),

and Stockhausen (such as Kontakte), and it is the latter composers writing on moment

form that is of most interest for our study.

Works in moment form are those in which discontinuity rather than continuity

prevails, in which musical ideas (or moments) are presented in what seem to be an

arbitrary succession, where any relatedness between adjacent moments may not be

readily apparent. Stockhausen wrote:

In the genesis of moment forms, I was trying to compose states and processes in which
every moment is something personal and centered; something that can exist on its own,
which as something individual always can be related to its surroundings and to the
entire work.50

With regard to the meaning of moment in this context, Stockhausen continued:

a given moment is not merely regarded as the consequence of the previous one and
the prelude to the coming one, but as something individual, independent and centered
in itself, capable of existing on its own This concentration on the present moment
can make a vertical cut, as it were, across horizontal time perception, extending out
into a timelessness I call eternity.51

The combination of states and processes that constitute works of this type creates a rich

type of musical non-discourse, heavily affecting ones perception of musical time. That

such moment forms are by their nature discontinuous appears to function due to the

seeming arbitrariness in the succession of moments, yet embedded within the

discontinuous form there are moments, some of which are processes and contain a

50
Kramer (1988), 207.
51
Seppo Heikinheimo, The electronic music of Karlheinz Stockhausen (Helsinki: Suomen
Musiikkitieteellinen Seura, 1972): 120.

30
progressive linear sense of goal orientation and possible conclusion. Therefore, a

multiplicity in the formal nature of such compositions is inherent; moment forms

simultaneously project discontinuity and continuity on macro- and micro-levels

respectively.

Continuity and Discontinuity

Jonathan D. Kramer wrote, Western composers have believed for centuries in the

metaphor of musical motion., and, To remove continuity is to question the very

meaning of time in our culture and hence human existence.52 A removal of continuity

in Western music, of which Kramer speaks, began with the departure from tonality and

tonal forms, the most serious side effect of which was that the forward-directed

implications and consequences of syntax no longer applied. However, composers of

early non-tonal music sought to create a sense of connectedness and global context

through means other than those informed by harmony and voice-leading principles,

such as consistencies in rhythm, articulation and dynamics, as well as conventional

gestures of phrase and cadence. In short, through gestures supported by parameters

other than tonal syntax, composers were still able to evoke a sense of continuity and

forward motion. One need only consider the classical formal structures, local level

phrasing, and use of motive in the String Quartets of Bartk, in Schnbergs

Kammersymphonie no. 1, Op. 9, or in many of Stravinskys neo-Classical works such

as Concerto for Piano and Winds, all of which function with a sense of continuity and

cohesion indebted to tonal practice. However, Stravinsky and Schnberg can also be

cited for producing highly discontinuous music as well; Stravinskys Symphonies of

31
Winds, and Schnbergs Sechs kleine Klavierstucke, Op. 19. The influence of these and

other anti-teleological works on future generations was so great that the latter half of

the twentieth-century saw many monuments of discontinuity realised. For example,

many works by Feldman, Cage, and Berio subvert the notion of continuous forward

motion and celebrate the experience of discontinuity, focusing upon fixed moments of

sound rather than upon sound with long term directed motion.

The opposition between continuity and discontinuity is the basis for music-

temporal thinking in Kramers writings. Continuity, he writes, has become but one

possibility within a large universe; [it] is no longer part of musical syntax, but rather it

is an optional procedure. It must be created or denied anew in each piece, and thus it is

the material and not the language of the music.53 Since Kramer deems continuity to be

material, one must assume that its antithesis, discontinuity, is also or partakes of

material. A composers decision whether to use one or both of the materials (in

whatever proportions) plays a role in how time might be experienced whilst listening to

music. Following his introductory chapter on general music-temporal concepts in his

seminal text The Time of Music, Kramer presents his first important categorical

distinction: Linearity and Nonlinearity. This pair of oppositions, which correlate

precisely to continuity and discontinuity, forms the basis of Kramers text from which

all of his subsequent theories and observations depart.

The bulk of Kramers theories informs a significant list of musical time

characterisations in order to account for various ways in which a listener might

52
Jonathan Kramer, Moment Form in Twentieth Century Music, The Musical Quarterly volume 64,
number 2 (April 1978): 178.
53
Ibid., 179.

32
perceive a piece of music in relation to time. For example, his linearity is based upon a

principle under which events are understood as outgrowths or consequences of earlier

events54, and examples of various types of outgrowths are shown in highly

quantifiable terms (see Kramers many music-theoretical analyses that address specific

pitch relationships and voice leading principles). Other conceptualisations of musical

time that Kramer proposes are: goal-directed time, multiply-directed linear time,

nondirected linear time, nonlinear time, and vertical time, just to name a few.55

However, Kramer is careful to stress that these types of musical time are not exclusive

in any one listening experience, and this is the fundamental point that runs throughout

Kramers book: that ones experience of time whilst listening to a piece of music is

multiple, and therefore conflicting conceptualisations of time often (if not always)

occur within the music listening experience. The following example is such a case.

Harrison Birtwistles 1972 orchestral work The Triumph of Time, according to

Jonathan Cross, presents in allegorical form the distinction between foreground

and background, between a linear procession (cantus) and circular repetition

(continuum).56 The 1574 etching by Pieter Bruegel the Elder provided the title for

Birtwistles composition, and although the entire musical project was conceived before

learning of Bruegels etching, Birtwistles intentions to explore relationships between

musical materials of differing rhythmic patterns and tempi, would ally beautifully with

the layered effect of processes of motion suggested in Bruegels work. The etching

54
Kramer (1988), 453.
55
See Kramers Glossary in The Time of Music on page 452 for a concise list of temporal types and
definitions.
56
Jonathan Cross, Harrison Birtwistle: Man, Mind, Music (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press,
2000): 214.

33
depicts a procession in the foreground, and eternally recurring events in the

background. The foreground procession is led by two horses pulling a cart on which

rests the personification of Time, followed by Death and Fame, the former on a horse,

the latter on an elephant. The background contains the earthly elements of wind and

sea, as well as a maypole around which anonymous people are dancing. Birtwistles

music reflects this duality through the use of various repeated ostinato patterns as

background, and melodic materials that recur in varied form throughout the piece

serving as foreground features. Jonathan Cross argues that the repetition of foreground

melodic materials reflects the procession of Bruegels work. Since the melodies are

repeatedly varied over ostinati figures, their context changes with each repetition.

Therefore, each melodic figure moves, as it were, to different positions in the

landscape.57 The ostinato figures on the other hand reflect the unchanging, static

nature of the elements (the wind and sea), as well as the continuance of life itself

represented by the circular nature of dancing round a maypole. Cross concludes with

the notion that Birtwistles music suggests something simultaneously timeless and

progressive (stasis in progress).58 This paradox of the simultaneity of two opposing

natures, stasis and progress, is corroborated when we apply Kramers terminologies to

the same piece.

The melodic yet atonal nature of Birtwistles work suggests that it best be

described as an example of Kramers nondirected linearity; that is, the presence of

melodies suggests movement, progression, or procession, hence the designation of

linearity, yet the atonal and harmonically unpredictable environment demands the

57
Ibid.
58
Ibid.

34
designation of nondirected. However, the persistent presence of ostinati, their

regularity and perpetual motion, all work to defy any sense of motion whatsoever, and

this aspect of the music would suggest vertical time, in Kramers terms, an unchanging

sense of the eternal present.

That we may simultaneously identify both linearity (evoking motion) and cyclic

procedure (evoking stasis) suggests that, within the complex of a musical texture, some

constituent elements may evoke one type of musical time, while different constituents

evoke another. The understanding, therefore, of Musical Aesthetic Time, is not singular

or exclusive. On the contrary, it is multiple and we must contemplate the combined

nature of the various Musical Aesthetic Times evoked in all their complexity and

paradoxical beauty. Thus, we are reminded of Kramers insistence on accepting

multiplicities in understandings of time based upon the perceived degrees of

directionality, non-directionality, continuity, and discontinuity for any given musical

work.

2.4 Temporal Proportions

One of the fundamental aspects of the perception of musical time is that of perceiving

proportions in music. That we must perceive music which is projected in the present,

and remember that which was projected in the past, points to a cognitive balancing act

in which every active listener must participate. To consider proportion is to compare

durations. However, durations are of course considered without use of a stopwatch;

rather they are estimated by the listener and stored in his or her memory. Perceiving

proportion is therefore a matter of accuracy of both memory and powers of estimation.

35
Moreover, estimating clock time proportions in music is highly problematic, and to

consider this topic, a paradox ensues. While composers have devoted much thought

and energy to the calculation of proportions to provide formal balance and coherence

within a composition, the question of the perceptibility of these proportions remains a

difficult one to answer.

Kramer on Temporal Proportions

Kramers choice to analyse selected works by Stravinsky is based upon the fact that he

believed that this composers music lends itself best to the concept of proportion

estimation. Since non-tonal music, particularly that which is discontinuous or presented

in moment form like much of Stravinskys, often bears a clarity of vertical cuts or

sectionalising more so than tonal music, and therefore the listener is (1) more likely to

gain clearer distinctions between adjacent contrasting sections and (2) react quicker to

consider section durations; whereas in tonal music, despite structural clarities of

phrase, cadence, modulation, etc., the constant evocation of forward motion afforded

by syntax encourages a listener to consider adjacent sections to be connected far more

often than in non-tonal music. With this reasoning, Kramer considered issues of

proportion estimation to be less problematic in non-tonal discontinuous music than in

tonal compositions, and carries out persuasive analyses of several of Stravinskys

works including Symphonies of Winds, Les Noces, and Agon. In the case of Symphonies

of Winds, after a motivic and sectional analysis of the work, Kramer shows clock time

durations of the various sections (or moments and submoments) and comments on the

high consistency of a 3:2 relationship between adjacent and nearby sections. Kramer

36
writes: The impressive pervasiveness of this ratio helps to account for the formal

balance in this music59, a balance realised by what he refers to throughout his text as

cumulative listening.

However, Kramer was quite mindful of the subjectivity of this topic, as he

states that there are two cognitive processes at work with regard to the perception of

proportions through estimation of duration. The first is an estimate of duration while

the music is still happening; the second is an estimate of duration of a passage retained

(such as it can be) in ones memory. This overall process is potentially complicated

much further by the fact that the musical passage, in ones memory, occurred at one

time in the present; however, the listener may not have thought to estimate its duration

at the time it was happening since it was not known that it would later be compared

with an upcoming passage. It seems Stravinsky was well aware of this problem as he

himself observed, music is based on temporal succession and requires alertness of

memory60, and perhaps it is in light of this that Stravinsky believed so strongly in a

language that relied heavily upon repetition, thus explaining his attraction to the

Baroque and Classical aesthetic of musical discourse and style. Nevertheless, the

question remains of the perceptibility of durational proportions in music.

Stockhausen on Perceiving Musical Time

In Structure and Experiential Time, Stockhausen writes of the psychological aspects of

experiencing musical time in relation to a discussion of the second movement from

59
Kramer (1988), 284.
60
Stravinsky (1995), 28.

37
Weberns String Quartet, Op. 28.61 He considers how one perceives the rate in the

passage of time according to the nature or density of the music at any given moment.

He writes, the more surprising events take place, the quicker time passes; the more

repetitions there are, the slower time passes.62 Stockhausen explains his position by

arguing:

the greater the temporal density of unexpected alterations the information content
the more time we need to grasp events, and the less time we have for reflection, the
quicker time passes; the lower the effective density of alteration (not reduced by
recollection or the fact that the alterations coincide with our expectations), the less time
the senses need to react, so that greater intervals of experiential time lie between the
processes, and the slower time passes.63

Although founded on intuition rather than any scientific or experimental data,

Stockhausens argument nevertheless presents a fascinating theory on how a listener

experiences the rate at which musical time passes. But Stockhausen does not stop here;

he continues with the paradoxical statement that, If we realise, at the end of a piece of

music that we have lost all sense of time, then we have in fact been experiencing

time most strongly.64 The idea that to lose time is to experience it to the fullest speaks

to the heart of my concept, Musical Aesthetic Time. Stockhausen recognises the need

for the listener to disconnect with all things outside of the music being contemplated,

and in so doing lose him/herself to the unique music-temporal experience.

Such theories become highly relevant when questions are raised with regard to

the perception of temporal proportions in the listening experience, and Stockhausens

understanding has been included here not only for its composition-historical

61
Karlheinz Stockhausen, Structure and Experiential Time, Die Reihe, volume 2, Volume dedicated
to Webern (1958): 64-74.
62
Ibid., 64.
63
Ibid., 64.
64
Ibid., 65.

38
importance, but also to join in the discussion of perceptibility of the ensuing analyses

in Chapter 5.

2.5 Conclusion

If we consider collectively the comments by Sauvage, Stravinsky, Williams, Kramer

and Stockhausen (that art constructs its own special artistic time; that music requires

alertness of memory; that a listener may be enticed to lose his awareness of time

and be swept along with the course of the music; that music has the power to create,

alter, distort or even destroy time itself; and that when we have lost all sense of time,

we have experienced time most strongly), then we might at first feel that any

comparison of estimated durations to actual clock timings might be a useless

endeavour, in short, an irrelevant undertaking, since, from the perspective of the

listener who has lost his awareness of time, Musical Clock Time has ceased to exist!

However, the importance of doing such comparisons may rest in the fact that a

composer learns more about his/her technique and ability to create, alter, distort, or

sweep the listener along, with a deeper understanding (albeit approximate and

subjective) of what and how much to compose in order to satisfy ones desired effect

upon musical proportions.

Diagram 2 illustrates the four types of Musical Time. Any musical work can

have no fewer than these four types, and it is the combination of values for each that

constitutes a works Musical Time.

39
 MUSICAL WORK

MUSICAL MUSICAL MUSICAL MUSICAL

CLOCK HISTORICAL REFERENTIAL AESTHETIC
TIME TIME TIME TIME

The objective The most specific The date(s) or era in The subjective
measurement of human historical human history to which a sense of time
elapsed time of the time that can be piece of music refers created by the
performance of any identified denoting (through quotation or composer, conveyed
musical work, in when a musical association to pre- by the performer,
whole or in part, work was written. existing artistic works, and experienced by
by way of the (i.e. the date(s) languages, styles, the listener.
common clock. or era of aesthetics, etc.)
(i.e. the duration) composition)

The combined values of these four types constitute

the MUSICAL TIME for any musical work.
(No piece of music can have fewer than these four types)

Diagram 2: Musical Time

40
 CHAPTER 3:
Dramatic Aesthetic Time

3.1 Introduction

The language of words provides for a discursive form of communication, as opposed to

the more intuitive and emotional nature of the language of music. Given this inherent

distinction between music and words, a discussion of Aesthetic Time in relation to

drama is necessarily quite different to one that concerns music. Issues of directionality

and continuity as discussed in Chapter 2 with respect to music, are less abstract and

problematic in the realm of drama, making possible to establish clear categorisations.

Similar to music, and unlike the plastic arts, drama requires Clock Time in

order for it to communicate its sequence of events. Like music, drama can also be

subjected to a discussion that deals with temporal proportions. However, due to the

more direct communication of meaning and human truth in drama, principally through

words, factors other than the comparison of Clock Time durations of sections must be

considered.

The discussion in this chapter explores the various types of dramatic narratives

and their possible permutations, and it offers a categorical chart in order to account for

each (more about this below). In addition, similarly to the discussion of Musical

Aesthetic Time, issues that concern proportion are also considered, illustrating

fundamental ways in which a dramatist can stretch, distort and overlap time.

41
3.2 A Definition of Dramatic Aesthetic Time

As Musical Time is evoked by the musical experience, the theatre likewise produces its

own type of time. Dramatists often refer to this feature of their work simply as

dramatic time. However, to avoid confusion with the various types of time discussed

thus far, I shall designate with the term Dramatic Aesthetic Time those features that

represent the time created by the dramatist, conveyed by the actors, director and

production team, and experienced by the spectator.

Unlike for music, however, questions that concern directionality and continuity

(and their opposites) can more definitively be categorised in the realm of drama. The

following two sections of my discussion propose a categorical structuring of these

issues based upon three dramatic elements: story, narrative and non-narrative.

3.3 Story, Narrative and Non-Narrative

A story is the collection of distinguishable events that are understood in a particular

order based upon cause-and-effect, or before-and-after relationships. A story bears a

sense of progression and consequently exists as a function of time. Narrative is the

telling or presentation of events that can be understood in a particular order based upon

cause-and-effect, or before-and-after relationships. A narrative, therefore, conveys a

story. Non-Narrative is the presentation of either a singular event or image, or group

of events or images that do not convey a story, and therefore do not function within a

hierarchical temporal frame. Meir Sternberg captures these distinctions with the

following:

42
 if the events composing [a narrative] do not fall into some line of world-time,
however problematic their alignment and however appealing their alternative
arrangement, then narrativity itself disappears. From early to late is, moreover, not
only the order of nature but also the order of causality, hence of plot coherence. Being
chronological, the sequence of events is followable, intelligible, memorable, indeed
chrono-logical.65

While narrative presents events that relate to one another with a before-and-after sense

of progress, the combined effect of distinguishable events in non-narrative produces a

singular individual image or frame of mind; non-narrative is thus timeless. Narrative

conveys story, non-narrative conveys idea.66 If, in the history of Western music, the

transition from Romantic conventions to Modernist practices may be characterised as a

breaking up of the exclusivity of the diatonic system which in turn produced a

movement from tonality to atonality (broadly speaking), the parallel transition in drama

can be described as a breaking away from the linear temporal nature of story telling,

that is, moving from narrativity to non-narrativity. Of this phenomenon, Marvin

Rosenberg writes that Modern drama [has] been trying to escape the tyranny of

time progression, to catch the myriad dimensions of the present. He continues his

argument by observing that modern drama often attempts to recognize the ambiguity

of all human behaviour, rather than the chain-link effects of isolated acts.67 This

movement is widely evident in dramatic works of the mid- twentieth century, and

65
Meir Sternberg, Telling in Time (I): Chronology and Narrative Theory, Poetics Today, volume 11,
number 4, Narratology Revisited II (Winter 1990): 903.
66
It should be acknowledged that Paul Ricoeur extends this discussion by not only considering the
concepts of story and narrative, but also that of plot. By plot, Ricoeur means the intelligible whole that
governs a succession of events in any story., and A story is made out of events to the extent that plot
makes events into a story. The plot, therefore, places us at the crossing point of temporality and
narrativity. (Paul Ricoeur, Narrative Time, Critical Inquiry, volume 7, number 1, On Narrative
(Autumn 1980): 171.) Ricoeur addresses what he felt to be a lack of attention by many literary theorists
to the temporal complexities inherent in the relationship between narrative and plot. For the purposes of
this enquiry however, a more generalised (perhaps, simpler) foundation of literary terms will suffice.
67
Marvin Rosenberg, A Metaphor for Dramatic Form, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism,
volume 17, number 2 (December 1958): 176.

43
perhaps the most famous example of the tilt to the presentation of idea rather than to

story is Samuel Becketts seminal play, Waiting for Godot (1949).

Thus far Dramatic Aesthetic Time has been categorised into two main types:

narrative (presenting story) and non-narrative (presenting idea). Since non-narrative

does not function according to any temporal hierarchy governed by story, its structure

(its order of presentation of events or ideas, should there be more than one) is

determined according to the aesthetic decisions of the dramatist. Since in a non-

narrative one cannot compare the order of presentation of events or ideas to anything

other than the order itself, non-narratives structure is only important in so far as it

conforms to the dramatists wishes that the audience be witness to this event or idea

followed by that event or idea, etc.; consequently, no further structural distinctions

need necessarily be made.68 However, since narrative presents a story, which is a

function of temporal hierarchy, the structure of that narrative must be considered in

relation to the story it is presenting.

3.4 Types of Narrativity

A narrative can be linear, multi-linear, non-linear, or a combination of the three.

68
An analyst may endeavour to comment on the effectiveness, or symbolic implications that may be
present due to a particular ordering of presentation of events or ideas in a non-narrative work. Thus,
events or ideas not governed by the linear temporal nature of story might be understood in terms of the
order in which they are presented. This consideration is reminiscent of what Kramer refers to as time-
order error, the cognitive tendency to estimate that one period of elapsed time was longer (or shorter)
than another due to the order in which they were experienced (i.e. presented). Although largely
concerned with estimation of temporal durations, these studies do address the idea of one event effecting
our perception of another based upon its order of presentation, the only type of order that exists in non-
narrativity.

44
Linear and Non-Linear Narrative

Linear Narrative is the narrative structure whose order of events corresponds to that

of its story. Or, as Sternberg writes, its discourse as well as its action adheres to the

line of chronology.69 Conversely, Non-Linear Narrative is the narrative structure

whose order of events does not correspond with that of its story. For example, consider

a story whose progress is understood by events A-B-C-D-E. If a narrative that

represents this story, presents these events in the same order (i.e. A-B-C-D-E), the

narrative is said to be linear. Any divergence in the presentation of this order (e.g. B-C-

D-A-E; A-E-C-B-D; etc.) produces a narrative that is non-linear. It should be noted

however that although one may be compelled to consider a particular narrative as

linear, some deviations from the strict forward-moving temporal structure may occur.

Marvin Rosenberg argues that virtually all apparent linear narratives contain some

degree of divergence from the forward direction, thanks to the use of recollections or

flashbacks, but such techniques are considered to bear insufficient weight or proportion

to detract from the linear correspondence between narrative and story. In fact,

Rosenberg suggests that a linear narrative is strengthened by such disturbances in the

linear flow. He believes that For purposes of tension, the flow of the line will be

interrupted by titillating reversals, but the momentary blocks will only increase the

force by which the audience is rushed toward the predestined stop.70

The structure of linear narrative has but one possibility (congruity of

presentation event order with story event order), however, since any (significant)

deviation produces aspects of non-linear narrative, many possible permutations of non-

69
Sternberg (1990), 912.
70
Rosenberg (1958), 174.

45
linear structure are possible. In some cases recognisable patterns within the narratives

event-order structure may demand particular identification of a non-linear type. If a

story represented by events A through H is presented as H through A, the structure may

be deemed to be Reverse Non-Linear. Alternatively, if the narrative is structured by

some other consistent and regularly occurring permutation (e.g. A-C-B-D-E-G-F-H),

the narrative may be described as Regular Non-Linear. Should there be no

recognisable pattern in order of presentation of events (e.g. E-G-D-A-H-C-F-B), and if

the analyst feels the distinction is relevant, the designation of Irregular Non-Linear

may be applied.

Lastly, a narrative may involve repeated presentations of events, altered or

unaltered. For example, two possible presentations of a story represented by events A

through F might be:

ABCDBCEBCF
A B C D B C E B C F

In either case, the repetition of B C, or the varied repetition indicated by B C and

B C, can best be described as Cyclic Non-Linear Narrative.

Multi-Linear Narrative

In some cases the nature of a story may prevent a direct correspondence between the

presented (narrative) and represented (story). If for example a story involves events

which are understood to occur simultaneously, the dramatist is faced with the following

dilemma: either the simultaneous events are presented simultaneously on stage, or they

are presented individually in some prescribed order deemed satisfactory by the

dramatist. The former option is by far a less conventional strategy than the latter.

46
Simultaneous presentation of distinct spheres of action, especially those which require

spoken words, is problematic from the points of view of both stage direction and

audience comprehension. However, that this problem is resolved to some degree

(indeed exploited!) by the medium of opera is very well known. The individual

presentation of events that are to be understood as simultaneous (in the second option

above) illustrates the basic distinction between that which is presented and that which

is represented. Simultaneity may be represented through a one-at-a-time presentation

creating a sense of meanwhile-ness; the audience thus accepts the existence of parallel

strands of events to be understood within the overall temporal linearity of the story. For

example, a story may proceed with events A-B-C, the last of which (C) may beget

simultaneous events D, E and F, and after each there occurs the series G-H-I. A

pictorial representation of this story is shown here:

D
ABC E GHI
F

If the dramatist opts for the individual presentation of these simultaneous events,

he/she must decide in which order the audience will experience events D, E and F. For

example, the order A-B-C-F-E-D-G-H-I may appear non-linear, however, since

simultaneity is understood to be a group of out-of-order events, the forward-moving

correspondence with story is maintained. This would remain as such whatever the

ordering of events D, E and F were to be, so long as the events collectively occur after

event C and before event G. Whether the dramatist opts for the less commonly chosen

option of simultaneous presentation, or the more theatrically suited one-at-a-time

approach, the structure of presentation is Multi-Linear Narrative.

47
Narrative Multiplicity

Similar to Musical Aesthetic Time, multiplicity is also possible in the realm of

Dramatic Aesthetic Time. Earlier in our discussion it was mentioned that cases exist

where linear narratives contain relatively small disruptions to the forward temporal

flow, yet without significant weight or proportion to deny a linear designation.

However, a narrative may be multiple when narrative types that contrast with each

other are deemed to hold sufficient significance, such that each demands structural

recognition. For example, in the case noted above of multi-linear narrative, the

simultaneous events D, E and F were framed within the linear presentation of the

preceding and succeeding events. If another ordering is chosen, the dramatist may

enrich the narrative structure and produce a type that is considered multiple. For

example, an order of G-H-I-F-E-D-A-B-C contains two approaches that involve

approximately the same number of events. That is, the sequence G-H-I (the last three

events of the story) is presented first, followed by the simultaneous events D-E-F, and

then concludes with A-B-C (the first three events of the story). The three parts of the

narrative structure are labelled x, y and z in the figure below. The reader will notice that

the presentation order of x preceding z is of a non-linear structure, while the

simultaneous events contained in y demand multi-linear designation. Therefore, this

narrative structure is multiple and must be considered Multi-/Non-Linear Narrative.

GHIFEDABC

x y z

One can similarly imagine a structure combination of both linear and non-linear types,

where significant strands of dramatic events, adjudged to be of relative proportion with

48
respect to each other, are presented in both congruous and incongruous relationships to

the event order of the story. For example, a story represented by events A through K

may be presented as: F-C-D-B-A-E-G-H-I-J-K. The presentation of events A-F is of

the non-linear type, while the presentation of G-K is linear, hence the designation

Linear/Non-Linear Narrative.71

Based upon the above distinctions, Dramatic Aesthetic Time as a function of

narrativity can be understood according to Diagram 3 below.

DRAMATIC WORK

Story present No story present

Non-Narrative
Dramatic Aesthetic
Time

Narrative of singular nature Narrative of multiple nature

Linear Non-Linear Multi-Linear Multi-/Non-Linear Linear-/Non-Linear

Dramatic Dramatic Dramatic Dramatic Dramatic
Aesthetic Aesthetic Aesthetic Aesthetic Aesthetic
Time Time Time Time Time
(if appropriate)

Reverse Regular Irregular Cyclic

Non-Linear Non-Linear Non-Linear Non-Linear
Dramatic Dramatic Dramatic Dramatic
Aesthetic Aesthetic Aesthetic Aesthetic
Time Time Time Time

Diagram 3: Dramatic Aesthetic Time as a function of narrativity

71
The third possible combination, Linear/Multi-Linear, is considered to be redundant since Multi-Linear
is viewed as a species of Linear, therefore the combined designation is unnecessary.

49
3.5 Dramatic Pacing and the Clock

The categories discussed above have illustrated many ways in which presentation

(narrative) may differ from that which is being represented (story) through an

understanding of the ordering of events or actions in relation to a forward-moving

linear conception of time. However, the measurement of elapsed time of those events

or actions must also be compared between the presented and the represented. From

antiquity to today, it is the nature of dramatic art that Dramatic Clock Time is, in

almost every case, unequal to a reasonable expectation of clock time required of human

reality in order to execute the actions or events presented within the drama. This

incongruity between presented and represented is further distorted by the forced (yet,

often unnoticed) simultaneity of multiple events or actions which receive the same or

similar amount of Dramatic Clock Time, yet differ significantly in terms of their

reasonably expected clock time values for execution in the real world.

Irwin Smith discusses these types of temporal discrepancies in relation to

selected works of Shakespeare by comparing what he refers to as dramatic time (my

Dramatic Clock Time) with actual time (the expected clock time required in order to

execute an action in the real world). By making this type of comparison Smith shows

how the spectator witnesses actions or events whose dramatic presentations are

temporally accelerated. For example, he points out that In Othello II.i, three ships

come into view, dock, and discharge their passengers, in the space of about 180 lines or

50
nine minutes [Dramatic Clock Time], and that in a raging storm.72 Clearly this chain

of events would in reality require a great deal more time than the nine minutes of

Dramatic Clock Time that Smith calculates for this scene, and yet, this temporal

phenomenon very often goes unnoticed by the spectator in the theatre. Of this temporal

discrepancy Smith writes: Some acceleration of time is, of course, an inevitable and

desirable attribute of theatrical presentation, even in the most realistic of modern plays;

it is a necessary consequence of the intensified response to action on the stage.73

The second and more intriguing point is that not only do dramatists present

events with conflicting dramatic and actual times (Smiths terms), but they can also

create multiple rates of accelerated time in different strands of simultaneous and

overlapping actions. To illustrate these temporal phenomena, Smith compares the four

strands of offstage-actions that span the second and third scenes from Act IV of

Shakespeares King Richard III. These two scenes are considered to run in a

continuous temporal flow since the place remains the same (the palace in London)

from the one act to the next, and King Richard is the only character onstage

throughout. The narrative is Multi-Linear since throughout these two scenes, and in

varying degrees of simultaneous overlapping, the following four independent strands of

action are understood to take place offstage: (1) the preparation for and murder of

Queen Anne; (2) the marriage arrangements and ceremony of Clarences daughter; (3)

the murder of the princes in the tower; and (4) the fleeing of Buckingham from London

to amass an army in Wales. All four strands are initiated in scene ii, the first three of

72
Irwin Smith, Dramatic Time versus Clock Time in Shakespeare, Shakespeare Quarterly, volume 20,
number 1 (Winter, 1969): 66.
73
Ibid., 65.

51
which are set into motion upon King Richards orders and the characters charged with

their respective tasks exit. The initiation of the last strand is conveyed by

Buckinghams exit as he utters his intention to flee. The conclusions of each of the four

strands are announced at various points in scene iii.

Diagram 4 below shows the points at which each dramatic strand is initiated

and concluded, marked by their respective line numbers in the text. The number of

lines spoken onstage for the duration of each strand is indicated, and estimates of

Dramatic Clock Time are given based upon Smiths equation that suggests that twenty

lines of text render an average of one minute of clock time. The selected passage

begins with the initiation of the first strand at line 49 of scene ii, and ends with the

ACT IV

Scene ii Scene iii

line
49 52 81 121 1 37 39 46

Murdered Princes strand

41 lines / 2 min.
Buckinghams strand
47 lines / 2 min. 20 sec.
Clarences daughters marriage strand
107 lines / 5 min. 20 sec.

Queen Annes murder strand

112 lines / 5 min. 35 sec.

119 lines / 6 min.

Diagram 4: Overlapping temporal strands in King Richard III, Act IV, scene ii,
line 49 to scene iii, line 46

52
conclusion of the fourth strand at line 46 of scene iii. A total of 119 lines are spoken,

which for the entire passage renders a Dramatic Clock Time (by way of Smiths

equation, ca. 120 lines divided by 20) of almost six minutes. For each strand, Smith

suggests actual times (durations representing what he feels are reasonable clock time

values for these actions to take place in reality), and argues that three different speeds

of accelerated time are in effect simultaneously. He suggests that several days would

be necessary for the first two strands (the spreading of false rumours of illness in

preparation for the murder of Queen Anne, as well as the wedding preparations and

ceremony of Clarences daughter), four hours for the third strand (the murder of the

princes in the tower and the disposing of their bodies), and no less than two weeks for

the fourth (the action surrounding Buckingham); thus three periods of actual time are

proposed.

Diagram 5 below is a revised version of the previous diagram, and represents

these three periods with unique clocks for each, which are travelling at different speeds

to one another according to the degree of difference between Smiths actual and

Dramatic Clock Times. By dividing the actual times by their respective Dramatic

Clock Times, we see how much faster each clock is running compared to our own. The

first two strands occur in a temporal dimension that is measured by a clock (labelled

The Queens Clock) running approximately 790 times faster than the conventional

clock (of our reality) that measures Dramatic Clock Time.74 The third strands clock

(labelled The Princes Clock) runs at only 120 times faster than Dramatic Clock

74
For my calculation, I take Smiths several days actual time to be three days, or 259,200 seconds, and
calculated the average Dramatic Clock Time between strands one and two, rendering 327.5 seconds. The
increased rate of The Queens Clock is therefore: 259,200 / 327.5 = 791.45

53
Time,75 while the clock in the temporal world of the fourth strand (labelled

Buckinghams Clock) runs at a staggering 8,640 times faster than Dramatic Clock

THE PRINCES
CLOCK

3rd Strand

41 lines / 2 min. Dram. Clock Time

4 hours Actual Time

BUCKINGHAMS
CLOCK

4th Strand

47 lines / 2 min. 20 sec.

2 weeks Actual Time

THE QUEENS
CLOCK

2nd Strand
107 lines / 5 min. 20 sec.

1st Strand
112 lines / 5 min. 35 sec.
Several days Actual Time
(for both strands 1 and 2)

6 min. Dramatic Clock Time

Diagram 5: The three offstage clocks according to Actual versus Dramatic Clock Time of the
four strands throughout King Richard III, Act IV, scene ii, line 49 to scene iii, line 46

75
4 hours, or 240 minutes actual time divided by 2 minutes Dramatic Clock Time = 120

54
Time;76 thus Smiths assertion of three clocks simultaneously running at unique speeds

is illustrated.

Perceiving Dramatic Pacing

To understand how one experiences the structure of this scene with respect to Dramatic

Aesthetic Time, further discussion is needed. The most significant discrepancy in time

proportion exists between the third and fourth strands. When we compare the Dramatic

Clock Times of the Princes and Buckinghams strands, we find a ratio of 6:7 (120:140

seconds); whereas the proposed actual times show a ratio of 1:84 (4 hours: 2 weeks; or,

14,400 : 1,209,600 seconds). That two strands, overlapping by one line of text and

therefore in virtually sequential position, should bear such immense contrast in time

represented (1:84!) with nearly equivalent Dramatic Clock Times (6:7), poses an

intriguing question with respect to how a spectator perceives this temporal imbalance.

Is it possible that Stockhausens theory of experiential time based upon the

relative density of information is at work here? And, that it functions to elongate the

compressed clock time of the fourth strand in the mind of a spectator? One possibility

exists: that the amount of information a spectator receives up to the point of the fourth

strands conclusion might be sufficiently abundant within the nearly six minutes of

Dramatic Clock Time to obscure the temporal discrepancy. However, the effect of the

nature of the information must also be considered. Prior to the conclusion of

Buckinghams strand the audience is made aware of three murders: Queen Anne, and

the two Princes. I consider the dramatic and psychological weight of these events to be

76
Two weeks (or 1,209,600 seconds) actual time divided by 2 minutes 20 seconds (or 140 seconds)
Dramatic Clock Time = 8,640

55
so great that they work to produce an effect similar to one described in my discussion

of discontinuities in Musical Aesthetic Time in Chapter 2.3. To wit, in the same way

that the pervasive discontinuities found in moment and mobile forms can cause the

listener to focus on the single moment, experiencing time as vertical states, and thereby

causing the listener to lose his awareness of time, the dramatist articulates a similar

sense of cutting across horizontal time with events of such power and meaning that

they persuade the spectator to focus very intently on that moment, with all of its

meanings and implications, and in a similar way lose their awareness of time. Any

consciously noticeable discrepancies in Dramatic Clock Time are similarly lost on the

spectator.

That distinct events or actions in drama are often accelerated in relation to

Dramatic Clock Time is one important aspect of the nature of Dramatic Aesthetic

Time. Simultaneous overlapping of varied rates of accelerated times provides a highly

complex texture of dramatic temporality. The fact that spectators accept dramatic-

temporal distortions such as these (unnoticed, or not) is a most telling feature of how

we experience Dramatic Aesthetic Time in the theatre. In reference to similar temporal

characteristics in ancient Greek tragedy, Richard T. Urban writes:

Wholeness and representative-ness of action were the great unifying canons of the
tragedy, not brevity of dramatic time. Thus dramatic time is a secondary consideration.
Time as an element in the performance, however, did matter a great deal. For one
thing, a play too long could destroy the pattern of the play by rendering it
indiscernible; thus the element of aesthetic beauty would be lost. Further, and more to
the point here, the emotional response to tragedy can be achieved only through a
concentration of emotional stimulus during a relatively brief interval of time; too long
a period will either blunt or dissipate it.77

77
Richard T. Urban, All or Nothing at All: Another Look at the Unity of Time in Aristotle, The
Classical Journal, volume 61, number 6 (March 1966): 264.

56
3.6 Conclusion

Given the many possibilities of linear and non-linear narratives, as well as the

particularities in temporal proportions and compression, time in the theatre is anything

but absolute. In light of the dynamic variability of the temporal dimension within

drama, I do not subcategorise Dramatic Aesthetic Time any further. Rather I attribute

the particular way in which dramatic times are distorted and exploited to the individual

dramatists creative decisions; the result of those decisions produces the pacing of the

work. In the context of opera as we shall see, pacing (or sometimes simply called

timing) is one of the most critical matters with which a composer must be concerned,

and this will be discussed in detail in the following chapter on Operatic Time. This

chapter is also intended to provide a composer with an understanding of possibilities in

dramatic structure and their potential for temporal meanings and implications. Whether

or not the opera-composer is also the librettist, such insights may help guide music-

compositional decisions in order to create a music-dramatic work at once highly

integrated and cohesive in its nature.

Diagram 6 illustrates the four types of Dramatic Time. Any dramatic work can

have no fewer than these four types, and it is the combination of values for each that

constitutes a works Dramatic Time.

57
 DRAMATIC WORK

DRAMATIC DRAMATIC DRAMATIC DRAMATIC

CLOCK HISTORICAL REFERENTIAL AESTHETIC
TIME TIME TIME TIME

The objective The most specific The date(s) or era in The subjective
measurement of human historical human history to sense of time
elapsed time of the time that can be which a piece of created by the
performance of any identified denoting music refers (either dramatist, conveyed
dramatic work, in when a dramatic dramatic setting, or by the actors,
whole or in part, work was written. through quotation or director and
by way of the (i.e. the date(s) association to pre- production team,
common clock. or era of existing works, and experienced by
(i.e. performance composition) languages, styles, the spectator.
duration) aesthetics, etc.)

The combined values of these four types constitute

the DRAMATIC TIME for any dramatic work.
(No drama can have fewer than these four types)

Diagram 6: Dramatic Time

58
 CHAPTER 4:
Operatic Time

4.1 Introduction

Here the discussion centres upon the temporal consequences of the integration of music

with drama into the genre of opera. After a brief consideration of the role of composer

in the creation of Operatic Time, the four types of time established in Chapter 1 are re-

examined within the framework of opera. The first two (Clock and Historical Times)

remain virtually unchanged from their original independent musical and dramatic

contexts. However, the third type, Referential Time, reveals a new level of complexity

by rendering several new concepts: first, the particular relationship between musical

and dramatic temporal references is considered, producing five possible combinations;

secondly, the Classical dramatic tradition of the Three Unities (of action, time and

place) are recalled, and the concept of a fourth unity, music, is proposed and compared.

Lastly, a discussion of Operatic Aesthetic Time follows based upon the operatic

convention of recitative-aria alternation. A particular conceptualisation is proposed

that I will refer to as temporal progress. In view of the virtual abandonment of the

recitative-aria convention by many twentieth century opera composers, I propose an

original analytical method in order to quantify fluctuations in temporal progress,

referred to as Text Index Series Analysis. This analytical system is explained and the

implications of which prepare for the analyses presented in the subsequent chapter.

59
4.2 The Time Created by the Composer

Lawrence Moss writes: When [musical time] is counterpointed with visual time the

tension-release of characters moving on stage or images flickering across a screen we

have operatic time.78 Although Moss refers to the relationship between what he calls

musical time and visual time, it would appear that the latter embodies the dramatic

element in opera. He writes, for words and stage action have become intensified

through the music, resulting in a synthesis more powerful than either art could have

achieved on its own,79 thus he acknowledges the marriage between musical and

dramatic art forms, despite his emphasis on the visual. However, his theory does offer

an attractive polarity between that which is unseen and seen (i.e. music and drama).

Therefore, for the purpose of this study, I slightly amend Moss definition as follows:

Operatic Time is the temporal dimension created by the combination and integration

of the various Musical and Dramatic Times within a music-dramatic work.

Operatic Time is analogous to the sense of time a filmmaker creates when

making the definitive version of his/her film, often referred to as the directors cut. It is

this word cut that is most important: just as the director of a film decides on the precise

length of shots and scenes during the final editing process, a composer through his/her

compositional choices similarly shapes the final temporal nature of lines, stanzas,

passages, scenes, interludes, and acts, despite whatever temporal qualities the librettist

embedded within the libretto before it was set to music. The finished operatic score

78
Lawrence Moss, Towards a New Theater, Perspectives of New Music, volume 8, number 1
(Autumn Winter, 1969): 103.
79
Ibid.

60
belongs to the composer as the directors cut belongs to the filmmaker; as such,

Operatic Time is solely created by the composer.

4.3 Operatic Clock and Historical Time

As with music and drama independently, any operatic work exhibits a temporal

property that can be measured objectively, and is most often referred to as the duration

of a work. Operatic Clock Time is the objective measurement of elapsed time by

way of the common clock of the performance of any operatic work, in whole or in

part.

Deriving directly from the terminology of Chapter 1, the most specific human

historical time that can be identified that denotes when an operatic work was written

(i.e. the date(s) or era of composition of text and music) is its Operatic Historical

Time. Both musical and dramatic factors must be considered and, as a result, Operatic

Historical Time may bear either a singular or compound value.

Let us first consider Stravinskys The Rakes Progress. In 1947 the libretto was

conceived and begun jointly by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallmann (with conceptual

assistance and collaboration of the composer),80 and Stravinsky completed his score in

1951. Given the relatively short period from conception to completion, the Operatic

Historical Time of The Rakes Progress can be considered to be the year 1951.

A libretto, of course, may also be an adaptation of an existing dramatic work

whose historical time differs from that of the adaptation, and Alban Bergs Wozzeck is

80
Although heavily inspired by the 1735 etchings of the same name by William Hogarth, the libretto
will be considered to be original (i.e. not adapted from a pre-existing dramatic work).

61
just such an example. Georg Bchners Woyzeck existed only in draft form at the time

of his death in 1837, but thirty years later was published and so began its acceptance

into the canon of German theatre. Berg produced his own libretto, Wozzeck, based on

the Bchner work in the years spanning 1917 through 1922. Thus, the Operatic

Historical Time of Wozzeck has the compound value of 1837/1922, the former referring

to the year of Bchners death, the latter to the year of completion of Bergs opera.81

4.4 Operatic Referential Time

According to the discussions in Chapter 1, Referential Time is the date(s) or era in

human history to which a musical/dramatic work makes reference either through

quotation or association with pre-existing techniques, languages, styles, and aesthetics,

or, in the case of drama, by dramatic setting. When music and drama are integrated

however, the referential temporal nature becomes more complex. Five possible

combinations are proposed, and examples from the twentieth-century repertoire are

provided for each.

Congruous Referential Temporalities

As noted in Chapter 1, two types of values (singular or compound) can occur for

referential times with regard to music and drama, and since each is integrated into the

genre of opera, particular relationships between their referential times are created. If

the musical and dramatic referential times are of the same type, that is they are either

81
I have chosen Wozzecks year of completion to designate the date of the libretto since, as George Perle
writes, There is, in fact, no good reason to assume that [Berg] prepared a libretto in advance of the
composition at all. See: Perle (1980), 29.

62
both singular or both compound, then they are in a congruous relationship with one

another. Furthermore, if the musical and dramatic referential times are both singular in

value, then the Operatic Referential Time is of the first type: Fixed Congruous

Referential Time. If on the other hand the musical and dramatic referential times both

bear compound values, then the Operatic Referential Time is considered to be Multiple

Congruous, of which there are two types.

When fluctuations in both Dramatic and Musical Referential Times occur in

conjunction with, or simultaneous to one another, the second combination is produced:

Corresponding Multiple Congruous Referential Time. However, if the fluctuations

in musical and dramatic referential times occur independently of one another their

relationship is then considered to be autonomous, and the third type is rendered:

Autonomous Multiple Congruous Operatic Referential Time.

Incongruous Referential Temporalities

The remaining two types of Operatic Referential Times are created when the individual

musical and dramatic referential times are of opposite types, thus creating an

incongruous relationship, the nature of which must be clarified. If the dramatic

referential time is a singular value, and therefore fixed, and the value for musical

referential time is compound, and therefore multiple, then the fourth type is created:

Incongruous via Fixed Dramatic/ Multiple Musical Referential Times. Conversely,

the opposite relationship represents the fifth and final type: Incongruous via Fixed

Musical/ Multiple Dramatic Referential Times.

63
 THE FIVE TYPES OF OPERATIC REFERENTIAL TIME

Dramatic and Musical Referential Dramatic and Musical Referential

Times are of the same type (either Times are of opposite types (one
both singular or both compound), singular, the other compound),
thus Congruous thus Incongruous

Congruous Referential Times Incongruous Temporalities

Dramatic and Musical Referential Dramatic and Musical Referential Singular Dramatic and Compound Singular Musical and Compound
Times are both singular values, Times are both compound values, Musical Referential values, thus Dramatic Referential values, thus
thus FIXED thus MULTIPLE FIXED and MULTIPLE FIXED and MULTIPLE
respectively respectively

FIXED CONGRUOUS Multiple Congruous

Referential Times INCONGRUOUS via INCONGRUOUS via
FIXED DRAMATIC / FIXED MUSICAL /
Multiplicities in Multiplicities in
MULTIPLE MUSICAL MULTIPLE DRAMATIC
Dramatic and Dramatic and REFERENTIAL TIMES REFERENTIAL TIMES
Musical Referential Musical Referential
Times occur in Times occur
conjunction with independent of one
one another another

CORRESPONDING AUTONOMOUS
MULTIPLE MULTIPLE
CONGRUOUS CONGRUOUS

64
 Diagram 7: (above) The five possible types of Operatic Referential Time

4.5 Examples of the Five Types of Operatic Referential Time

Fixed Congruous

Gurns Fourth Song (Operatic Historical Time: 1996): H. Tmasson (Libretto by the

composer, after 13th-Century Icelandic poetry)82

The libretto is set in an ancient mythological time, and is based upon various

poems largely from a 1270 Icelandic manuscript. Tmassons music is consistently

contemporary throughout, clearly without any overt musical reference to the past.

Gurns Fourth Song can be understood as an opera whose Dramatic and Musical

Referential Times both bear singular values, and therefore it represents an example of

Fixed Congruous Operatic Referential Time.

Corresponding Multiple Congruous

The Martyrdom of St. Magnus (Operatic Historical Time: 1976): P. Maxwell Davies

(Libretto by the composer, after George Mackay Browns novel Magnus of 1973)83

The setting is 12th-Century Scotland and remains so for all but two of the nine

scenes of this one act chamber opera. In scene vii, temporal reference in both the

dramatic and musical realms change simultaneously, both working towards the same

dramatic effect: the audience witnesses a time travel from the principal setting of the

82
Score available from Iceland Music Information Center; recorded by Caput Ensemble/Christian Eggen
(BIS CD-908).
83
Peter Maxwell Davies, The Martyrdom of St. Magnus: a chamber opera in nine scenes
(London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1977)

65
work, 12th-Century Britain, to an anonymous contemporary police-state prison (in

scenes vii and viii) where the condemnation and execution of the political prisoner

(representing St. Magnus) takes place. The transition is communicated through a

gradual transformation of both the text and music; a gradual increase in use of modern

English vernacular transforms the setting, while an increase in use of dissonance and

extended instrumental techniques (such as sul pont., scratch tone, etc.) provide a more

appropriately avant-garde sound world. This contemporary setting is maintained

throughout scenes vii and viii. The final scene returns without any transition to 12th-

Century Scotland, and Davies music similarly returns to its previous, somewhat more

conservative modernist style. Therefore, since the musical and dramatic times are both

multiple and occur in relation to one another, The Martyrdom of St. Magnus is an

example of a work whose Operatic Referential Time is Corresponding Multiple

Congruous.

Autonomous Multiple Congruous

Opera (Operatic Historical Time: 1970): L. Berio (Libretto by the composer after F.

Colombo, U. Eco, A. Striggio, S. Yankowitz)84

The Dramatic Referential Time is at least three-fold, drawing for its libretto text

from: the libretto of Monteverdi and Striggios Orfeo; excerpts from an unrealized

work on the sinking of the Titanic by Colombo and Eco; and portions from the 1969

play Terminal by Susan Yankowitz. Although the reference to the mythological

underworld of Orfeo may not convey a specific human historical time, it must surely

be understood as an other-worldly time and place, distant from our present; a distance

84
No commercially available score exists of this work.

66
that is amplified by the reference itself being a work from the earliest stage in operas

history. The second and third references, however, do relate to human years: 1912 and

the present of 1969. For its music, Berio composed a collage of elements similar to

the approach employed one year earlier in Sinfonia, thus the music-temporal references

in Opera also fluctuate, but without direct connection to the drama. As Raymond Fearn

writes, Berio moves casually, arbitrarily, from one style to another and creates a

pastiche from popular to cultivated, [from] banal to abstruse.85 Therefore, as both

Dramatic and Musical Referential Times fluctuate with seemingly arbitrary

independence, Berios Opera bears an Operatic Referential Time that is Autonomous

Multiple Congruous.

Incongruous via Fixed Dramatic / Multiple Musical Referential Times

Palestrina (Operatic Historical Time: 1917): H. Pfitzner (Libretto by the composer)86

The dramatic setting of 16th-Century Italy remains unchanged throughout the

opera, which depicts the events surrounding the composing of Palestrinas Missa

Papae Marcelli. Pfitzners score is decidedly in the tradition of Wagner and Richard

Strauss, bearing a post-romantic chromatically-inflected tonality. However, for the

near-conclusion of Act I, Pfitzner quotes the opening from the Kyrie of Palestrinas

mass, as the Renaissance composer is found to be in the act of composing his

masterpiece and overcome by the presence (and the implied support) of angels. In

addition to direct quotation, Pfitzner also extends several of these Renaissance

melodies, subtly incorporating them within his own early 20th-Century language.

85
Fearn (1997), 123.
86
Hans Erich Pfitzner, Palestrina : Eine Musikalische Legende in drei Akten (Mainz : B. Schotts
Shne, 1951)

67
Therefore, since the setting remains unchanged and the Dramatic Referential Time is

Fixed, whilst the Musical Referential Time fluctuates between mid 16th- and early 20th-

Centuries, Pfitzners Palestrina is a work that demands the Operatic Referential Time

designation of Incongruous via Fixed Dramatic / Multiple Musical Referential Times.

Incongruous via Fixed Musical / Multiple Dramatic Referential Times

The Voyage (Operatic Historical Time: 1992): P. Glass (Libretto by D. H. Hwang)87

Four historical times provide the dramatic setting for this work: the Prologue is

set in the present [1992]; Act I, 15,000 years earlier; Act II in 1492; and Act III in

2092. There is however no substantial fluctuation in musical language or musical style

to reflect any of the varying dramatic temporal settings; Glass music remains

throughout the pop-influenced, ostinato-driven, quasi-diatonic amalgam for which he

has come to be known. It is therefore a music that bears equivalency in its Historical

and Referential Times. However, given the extreme fluctuations in Dramatic

Referential Times, the Operatic Referential Time of The Voyage is Incongruous via

Fixed Musical / Multiple Dramatic Referential Times.

4.6 The Four Unities of Opera

The relationship between temporal reference in music and drama is a question of

degree of unity or disunity. Aristotle in his Poetics attributes great value to the notion

of unity of action, time and place in the drama, and in particular, the tragedy. Although

87
Philip Glass, The Voyage: Opera in three acts, prologue and epilogue for orchestra, chorus and
soloists (New York: Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc., ca. 1992)

68
not all Greek dramatists structured their work in this way, Aristotle no doubt arrived at

his discussion through reflection upon those who did, perhaps most famously the

tragedies of Sophocles. During the Renaissance his ideas were re-examined and

codified as the Three Unities of Drama, and for many European dramatists this tenet

became a requirement for the proper construction of a tragedy. That a dramatic work

should be focused on a singular course of action without multiple or peripheral plot

lines, and that this action take place within the course of one day, and in locales that are

within proximity of one another such that they might be reasonably traversed within

the span of that day, was believed to offer a more natural reflection of reality and

therefore afford maximum artistic force to convey the dramatic message with the

greatest clarity and intensity. It must be said that unity is neither a positive nor negative

feature, and any value attributed to it must be considered in an appropriate context.

Proponents of the Three Unities were many, including such writers as Lodovico

Castelvetro (largely responsible for their codification), Pierre Corneille, and Jean

Racine. However, the list of playwrights who opposed (or simply ignored) the Three

Unities reveals as many if not more celebrated names such as William Shakespeare,

Gotthold Lessing and Victor Hugo. These dramatists clearly valued a much wider

temporal and spatial scope, one that permitted a dramatic structure of more epic nature.

One may conclude that adherence or opposition to the Three Unities is not a

measurement of value, rather it is an aesthetic decision on the part of the dramatist.

To return to the realm of opera, the notion of unity is equally applicable, and

must be considered in light of the distinctions discussed above regarding Operatic

Referential Time. The three Congruous Operatic Referential Times (Fixed,

69
Corresponding Multiple, and Autonomous Multiple) imply certain degrees of unity

given that the Musical and Dramatic Referential Times are of the same type.

Conversely, the two types of Incongruous Operatic Referential Time (via Fixed

Dramatic / Multiple Musical, or Fixed Musical / Multiple Dramatic) necessarily defy a

unified nature. The degree of unity nevertheless can be understood more deeply. As

discussed above, Haukur Tmassons Gurns Fourth Song provides an example of

Fixed Congruous Operatic Referential Time, since music and drama remain constant in

their respective temporal references; however the actual values are not equivalent. The

Musical Referential Time is 1996 (equivalent to its Musical Historical Time) whilst the

Dramatic Referential Time is the time of 13th-Century Icelandic poetry. Therefore,

there is unity in the congruity of type, but not in the precise temporal reference of each.

Given this juxtaposition of two different human historical times, the music can be said

to be temporally foreign to the drama with which it has been integrated, and therefore

only partial unity is inherent. We must consider further extreme possibilities in order to

reveal complete unity of dramatic and musical temporal reference, and by necessity,

complete disunity as well.

The 1958 opera Aniara by Swedish composer Karl-Birger Blomdahl (1916-

1968) is set upon a space ship whose crew is comprised of the last remaining humans

after the destruction of the Earth. We must remember that in 1958 no human had yet

gone into space (and, of course, the Earth still exists). The dramatic setting must be

assumed to be some time in the future, how far however is unclear. Before any

consideration of the nature of Blomdahls music, it is obvious that any equivalence in

temporal reference between drama and music is impossible. Despite the use of

70
electronic music in his work, and however forward-looking or prophetic this medium

may have been perceived at the time, Blomdahls music cannot be considered

referentially equivalent to the dramatic setting, since no composer can reference what

is yet to occur. The music is actually eclectic in its styles and references, utilizing

contemporary serious and popular styles (serialism and jazz) as well as earlier

references to cabaret, even hymns. Therefore, the Operatic Referential Time of this

work is of the fourth type: Incongruous via Fixed Dramatic / Multiple Musical

Referential Times. Moreover, since the Dramatic Referential Time is very much in the

future, whilst the Musical Referential Time is contemporary and earlier, unity of

temporal reference is not self-evident. Rather, as with Tmassons work mentioned

above, a temporal juxtaposition is created by disunity of musical and dramatic

referential values.

To consider a more extreme case, factors beyond mere temporal reference must

be discussed. In John Cages Europeras I and II there is an apparent randomness of

characters, costumes, and arias sung, where a multiplicity of associations and

references from the operatic canon is presented. The randomness is so extreme that

non-narrativity ensues; an atemporal world is inherent, despite multiple historic

temporal references through the quotations from the operatic canon. Due to the collage

nature of his work, Cage defies any identity of dramatic setting, and there can be no

sense of unity between place, time or music, and most certainly between these elements

and action. In this sense Europeras I and II represent complete operatic disunity.

On the other hand, examples bearing more unified properties are many. The

Zeitoper (opera of the times) movement of Weimar Germany in the late 1920s

71
produced works that were composed precisely with this goal in mind: to create music-

dramatic works that depicted contemporary German society of the time, through

modern, even popular, musical expression. The realities of modern life were celebrated

by the integral inclusion of modern machinery and technology: for example,

typewriters feature during office scenes in Hindemiths Neues vom Tage; the dramatic

use of a radio and the staging of the arrival of a train highlight Kreneks Jonny spielt

auf; while photography equipment and a gramophone serve as pivotal props in Weills

Der Zar lsst sich photographieren. These and other composers of the genre wrote

music that was intended to communicate the newest trends, and as Susan Cook notes,

in particular they followed the down-to-earth spirit of the French and sought musical

renewal in the rhythms and timbres of American jazz.88 In short, Cook writes: these

young composers chose not to write for the future, but instead sought to minister to the

here and now.89 Firmly situated within my first category of Operatic Referential Time,

Fixed Congruous, Zeitopern also demonstrate what the Tmasson, Blomdahl, and Cage

operas mentioned above do not: temporal unity between the dramatic setting, musical

style, and the historical time of the audience at its premiere.

A final example that will complete this discussion is Arnold Schnberg and

Marie Pappenheims Erwartung90 of 1909. The libretto does not specify the dramatic

setting in any conventional time-and-place manner. Rather the libretto begins with: At

the edge of a wood. Moonlight illuminates roads and fields: the wood is tall and dark.

Only the first tree-trunks and the beginning of the broad path are lit. Since there are

88
Susan C. Cook, Opera for a New Republic: the Zeitopern of Krenek, Weill and Hindemith (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan, 1988): 39.
89
Ibid., 26.
90
Arnold Schnberg, Erwartung: Monodram in 1 Akt (Vienna: Universal-Edition, 1950)

72
no concrete suggestions or assurances with regard to the time of the dramatic setting, it

is fair to assume that the action is taking place in the present (that is, the audiences

present). Schnbergs musical language is consistent and freely atonal throughout. And

so, not only does Erwartung exhibit Fixed Congruous Operatic Referential Time (as do

the Zeitopern examples above), it also bears total unity between Dramatic and Musical,

Historical and Referential Times. But more importantly, it also abides by the

requirements of the Three Unities of Tragedy. The action is singularly focused on the

womans expectation of meeting her lover, the time appears to be confined to one

night, and the place is certainly that which is traveled by the woman on foot. Thus,

Erwartung can be said to represent total adherence to the Four Unities of Opera: the

unification of action, time, place and music.91

4.7 Operatic Aesthetic Time

As discussed in Chapter 1.4, it is the relationship between observer and artwork,

distinct from anything outside of the work or any objective measurement of the work

that defines Aesthetic Time in relation to art. This definition can easily be extended to

the realm of opera by simply replacing the word artwork with opera. How can the

nature of this aesthetic experience be accurately defined or discussed? One recalls B.

M. Williams remarks in relation to Stravinskys music, in Chapter 2, that the

91
Thus far, the musical element has only been considered in terms of temporal reference; however,
musical reference to place (or space) is also quite possible, and further discussion of the Four Unities of
Opera may be approached by way of musical spatial, geographical, or cultural references. For example,
in Puccinis Madama Butterfly certain disunity can be argued between music and place: the dramatic
setting is consistently in Japan, whilst Puccinis music is of course thoroughly European (despite any
possible perceptions of musical exoticism that the European public may have perceived at the time of the
operas premiere).

73
composer has techniques at his command which entice the listener to lose his

awareness of time as measured in some regular and neutral way, and furthermore

that the composer must create events which sweep the listener along with the course

of the music.92 This provocative statement begs the questions: what techniques does a

composer have to entice the listener to lose awareness of time, and how might

a composer create events which sweep the listener along with the course of the

music?

This chapter proposes to answer these questions. The argument will be that a

listener experiences the progress of Operatic Aesthetic Time based upon the following

thread of logic.

Operatic Temporal Progress

Since narrative is the telling or presentation of story, and story is by its nature

understood in terms of a before-and-after, cause-and-effect, linear temporal

continuum,93 it can be said that narrative progress is synonymous with temporal

progress. Since an opera composer determines the rate of communication of narrative,

principally through the substance of a text, so too does the composer control the rate of

temporal progress. Now the common understanding of the recitative-aria relationship

is one of dramatic motion versus slowness or stasis. From operas very beginnings,

recitative has been the chief provider of narrative, either through dialogues or through

an individuals explication of action; recitative conveys to the audience an

understanding of narrative progress, and provides forward temporal movement.

92
Williams (1973), 355.
93
See Chapter 3 for discussion on the terms: narrative and story.

74
Conversely, aria provides a pause from narrative, typically through the expression of a

characters inner thoughts, often by means of a poetic/lyrical expression of a

heightened emotional state. Indeed, Gary Schmidgall attests that opera is an epiphanic

art-form.94 Given the emotional focus of aria, it is during these passages that motion

itself, in terms of narrative progress, is slowed down if not halted altogether.

Therefore, it is the alternation of recitative and aria that acts as the principal

tool or mechanism in opera, the original creative strategy with which the passing of

time is understood. The unique temporal continuum characterised by the opposition

and conflict between music-dramatic motion (on the one hand) and stasis (on the other)

is a powerful way in which Operatic Aesthetic Time can be conceptualised.

Operatic Clock Time Proportions

Tendencies with regard to the amount of text employed in recitative and in aria, and

the Operatic Clock Time occupied for each, offer particular distinctions between text

strategy. Recitative is typically far shorter in duration than its aria counterpart, yet

paradoxically often conveys far more text. The rate at which text is communicated

moves typically much faster in recitative than aria. David Burrows supports this

understanding: Recitative is to aria as consonant is to vowel. Speech regresses in

song in the direction of the pre-articulate though far from sub-rational cry, as its

vowels expand in duration and volume and resonance.95 That vowels expand in

duration suggests that in aria, higher average clock time values per word sung must

occur, causing words to be conveyed at a slower rate than that of recitative.

94
Schmidgall (1977), 11.
95
David Burrows, Singing and Saying, The Journal of Musicology, volume 7, number 3 (Summer
1989): 393.

75
 Let us consider the recitative and aria found in E Susanna non vien! and Dove

sono i bei momenti, number 19, from Act III of Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro. Diagram

8 shows the Clock Time values, number of words sung, and average words per minute

for each. Mozarts recitative occupies a little more than a third of the duration of the

aria, yet it conveys text at about twice the rate (60 versus 35 words per minute).

Although the recitative involves 90 words compared to the arias 140, implying that

the aria conveys more words, these figures are actually deceiving. One must be

reminded that a common feature of aria is the repetition of text, a text strategy that

rarely occurs in recitative. If we consider the total number of words in the aria,

including word repetition, we do not get any sense for the amount of text the composer

was originally working with in making the setting. Furthermore, when text is repeated,

the listener is reminded rather than being told of something new, and with respect to

communication of a message or information, the listener is no further along than before

until the next portion of a unique text appears. Obviously, it is necessary to distinguish

the number of unique words from those words repeated.

The array in Diagram 8 shows that only 59 unique words are heard in the aria

of the 140 words sung; 81 words recur. We can now compare the average rates of

unique words per minute between recitative and aria: 60 versus (just less than) 15;

therefore, the recitative conveys its text four times faster than the aria does. Not only is

the rate of communicated words four times slower in the aria than the recitative,

implying that Operatic Aesthetic Time runs much slower in the aria, but the nature of

the text also compounds this contrast in temporal progress. As with recitative in

general, the text here suggests a narrative, explaining events that have happened

76
between the last scene and the current one so that the audience may be informed of the

movement of the story. The aria however, again as is the norm, is reflective and

indicative of emotional states, providing no narrative force or consequence. The faster

rate of text in the recitative reflects the narrative function it provides, that of forward

motion, while the arias pause to emotionally reflect on things amplifies (or is

amplified by) the quarter speed of conveyance of unique text in relation to the

preceding recitative.

Operatic Clock # of words Av.

Recitative
Time sung words/minute
E Susanna non vien! 1:30 90 60

Operatic Clock # of words Av.

Aria
Time sung words/minute
Dove sono i bei momenti 4:00 140 35
# of unique # of repeated Av. unique
words words words/minute
59 81 14.75

Diagram 8: Words per minute sung in E Susanna non vien! and Dove sono i bei momenti,
number 19, from Act III of Mozarts Le Nozze di Figaro

This example supports the commonly held view that recitative is narrative,

plot-driving and exhibiting forward temporal motion, whereas aria is non-narrative,

halting the progression of plot, and representing stasis. In works that employ this

traditional operatic convention, the particular pattern and the respective instantiations

of each strategy employed by the composer creates the fundamental nature of Operatic

Aesthetic Time. Another question: How does Operatic Aesthetic Time progress in

those works of predominantly continuous singing style, works that lack a clearly

delineated recit-aria formal model?

77
4.8 Text Index Series

To understand temporal progress in works without the recit-aria convention, a

different approach is necessary since in such works the boundaries and tendencies

described above in 4.7 are not clear, often nonexistent. The analyst must return to the

fundamental notion that temporal progress can be understood through the fluctuation in

the rate of text transmission, essentially what the recit-aria alternation provides. The

reader will recall, in Chapter 3.5, the pacing analysis of a scene from Shakespeares

King Richard III, according to Smiths formulation the equated twenty lines of text to

one minute of Dramatic Clock Time. This provided a system that could measure and

compare Dramatic Clock Time durations of actions with reasonable expectations of

Clock Times required to execute the portrayed actions in real time.

True, the particular operatic way in which a listener receives text and

understands dramatic situation (due to the type of narrative employed, or to the way in

which the story is presented) may be in the hands of the librettist. But the rate a listener

receives that text is solely in the hands of the composer (and of the musical forms

employed). It is the fashioning of this operatic temporal continuum that critically

concerns any composer of opera, and how this continuum can be shaped by a

composers sense of pacing or timing. Unlike Dramatic Clock Time (which requires

estimation, as with Smiths equation), an opera composer has to set down the Operatic

Clock Time in the score, and any estimation of an average rate of words per minute is

simply unnecessary since the precise rate of text transmission can be measured by way

78
of the metrical and metronomic notation a composer provides. 96 By considering the

rate of transmission of text over any predetermined period of Operatic Clock Time, one

can gain insight into the nature of temporal progress and the progress of Operatic

Aesthetic Time within that period. In the next chapter, I will refer to this type of

enquiry as Text Index (or TI) Series Analysis, and it is defined as: the series of integers

representing the number of words communicated per ten-second intervals over any

predetermined duration of Operatic Clock Time. The series not only shows the number

of words transmitted per ten-second increments over any period of Clock Time, but

also more importantly indicates any change in the rate of text transmission throughout

the entire duration. The following chapter will illustrate this analytical method by way

of analyses of excerpts from the repertoire.

4.9 Conclusion

The following diagram gathers the main categories discussed in the above chapters into

one global system of relationships. Although both musical and dramatic elements of

any opera bear their own values for each type of artistic time, it is their particular

combination that constitutes the Operatic Time for any music-dramatic work.

96
The precision of which is of course dependent upon whether or not the composer has employed
standard metrical notation. In the case of any degree of aleatoric notation, the Operatic Clock Time
should be taken from a recorded performance and noted as such.

79
 OPERA

Musical Element Dramatic Element

Musical Musical Musical Musical Dramatic Dramatic Dramatic Dramatic

Clock Historical Referential Aesthetic Clock Historical Referential Aesthetic
Time Time Time Time Time Time Time Time

THE
FOUR
UNITIES
OF DRAMATIC TIME
MUSICAL TIME
OPERA

Operatic Operatic Operatic Operatic

Clock Historical Referential Aesthetic
Time Time Time Time

OPERATIC TIME

Diagram 9: Operatic Time

80
 CHAPTER 5:
Three Text Index Series Analyses

5.1 Introduction

This chapter offers analyses of the temporal progress of Operatic Aesthetic Time in

three twentieth-century works: Alban Bergs Wozzeck (1922), Francis Poulencs La

voix humaine (1958), and Kaija Saariahos Lamour de loin (2000). These excerpts

were chosen for their similarly high levels of emotional intensity and of climactic

dramatic qualities. Each excerpt deals with a pivotal death, with either the death scene

itself or its aftermath. I will argue that any significantly contrasting features within the

results of the three analyses must be attributed to each composers aesthetic decisions

and compositional choices, rather than to any claim of vastly different dramatic and

emotional circumstances or components. Preceding the analyses are two brief sections

that address issues of accuracy in the analytical method, and that account for certain

necessary procedural choices. As has been made clear throughout this study, any

investigation of Aesthetic Time poses serious obstacles since by definition such a

category within the board topic of artistic time lies within an observers temporal

experience of an artwork, distinct from anything external, distinct from any objective

measurement. The pertinence and the perceptibility of the results of any analysis that

attempts quantification in relation to Aesthetic Time (e.g. temporal proportion analyses

as mentioned above for both music and drama in Chapters 2 and 3) can immediately be

put into question. So be it. However questionable the line of reasoning may appear to

81
be that leads to TI Series Analysis, striking results are nonetheless found in the way

words are transmitted over time, revealing various implications and meanings with

regard to the relationship between temporal progress and formal structure. For this

reason alone, the analyses serve to exemplify ways in which a composer can approach

the structuring of Operatic Aesthetic Time.

5.2 Note on Text Index Series accuracy

The Ten-Second Segment

Although the choice to employ ten-second segments to measure TI values was made

arbitrarily, a basic criterion influenced my decision. I wished the segment to be small

enough to convey a detailed rate of text transmission, yet be large enough to speak

practically and directly to a composers imagination in order to have a useful degree of

musical meaning. Ten seconds seemed to serve both needs comfortably. However, no

matter what the choice of Clock Time for the duration of the segment, some problems

in the application of this method inevitably arise.

In the common event that a word sustains across the boundary of two adjacent

segments (i.e., beginning in one segment and ending in the next), one is forced to

decide in which segment to include that word. When such moments occurred in the

course of the analyses below, the segment that appeared to contain the greatest

percentage of the word was the one in which it was counted. To remedy this problem

of words lying across segment boundaries and forcing the analyst to choose in which

segment the word is included, a second analysis could be performed whereby the ten-

82
second segments are shifted by any amount of Clock Time from one to nine seconds.

This would provide an alternate graph and potentially correct the instances of single

words in the previous analyses that extend across segment boundaries, and thus make

the results of rate of text transmission more accurate. However, one must also presume

that an alternative analysis, even while resolving some occurrences of boundary-

crossing words, would with equal likelihood cause other words to cross any of the

newly shifted segment boundaries. Therefore, the most accurate procedure would be to

perform ten analyses, each with its segment partitioning shifted by one second farther

along the Operatic Clock Time continuum than the previous analysis. The ten charts

could then be compared, and an average curve extrapolated. Given the purpose of this

study to provide insight into ways in which a composer might temporally structure an

operatic passage and the striking results shown below, in this case only one analysis

was deemed sufficient for each opera excerpt.

Score or Recorded Performance?

Lastly, a decision needed to be made as to the medium that would be measured:

musical score or sound recording. Either option is certainly possible. The analyst can

calculate a theoretical set of results by taking the composers tempi indications, time

signatures and note values from the score, calculate the precise locations in elapsed

time where each ten-second segment occurs, then produce a TI Series accordingly. Or,

a recording, deemed to be faithful to the performance indications in the score, might be

used to measure the Clock Time of text transmission. For this study the latter approach

was taken and the recordings examined are noted in each case.

83
 To find the TI Series as accurately as possible when using a recording, the

analyst should (1) start a stopwatch at the precise moment the first word to be

considered appears within the passage, and (2) note in the text where each subsequent

ten-second segment begins. By counting the words within each segment, the TI Series

is rendered for any passage under consideration.

5.3 TI Analysis #1: Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer?

Wozzeck: Alban Berg; Act III, scene iv, mm. 222-28497

The following analysis focuses on Wozzecks final vocal passage, in his fullest state of

madness, before drowning in the pond next to the very spot where he murdered Marie

two scenes earlier. Diagram 10 below shows the TI Series98 on the horizontal axis, and

includes the essential statistical information for the passage (Operatic Clock Time;

Total number of Words; Average Words per minute; Text Index Average). However,

the qualities of the graphs contour and its implications yield a greater significance to

this analysis, as we shall see.99

Observations

The contour of the curve in Diagram 10 exhibits distinct changes in vertical direction;

97
CD Recording: Waechter; Siljia; Dohnnyi; Wiener Philharmoniker & Staatsopernchor; London 417
348-2
98
At the very end of this passage, the final word occurs two seconds beyond the last segment. Rather
than including another Text Index Series measurement in order to account for the overflow into a new
segment, which would have rendered a misleading value suggesting an inaccurate deceleration (which is
arguably not the case), this overflow was included in the preceding segment with the label (+2) added,
indicating that the final segment is actually twelve seconds long, not ten. This choice is considered to
represent the rate of change of text transmission more appropriately than showing one more segment of a
much lower Text Index value.
99
The text for this passage is reprinted in the Appendix, with the partitioning of each Text Index
segment indicated.

84
most significant are the subdivisions indicated by the segments a c, c f, f h, and h

i, creating an initial down-up-down-up profile. These changes in vertical direction

represent deceleration and acceleration in rate of text transmission; the curve proceeds

down and up respectively, providing considerable fluctuation in the progress of

Operatic Aesthetic Time. However, it is the particular formal qualities of this passage

that prove most noteworthy.

Operatic Clock Time = 2 minutes, 30 seconds (+2 sec.); Total number of Words = 143;
Average words per minute = 56.4; Text Index Average = 9.5
Words

15

10

0
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Segment
0:00 0:10 0:20 0:30 0:40 0:50 1:00 1:10 1:20 1:30 1:40 1:50 2:00 2:10 2:20 2:30 Clock Time
(+2 sec)
12 7 4 8 11 16 11 7 11 0 9 14 13 15 11 Text Index Series

Diagram 10: TI Series Analysis #1: Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer? (from Wozzeck: A. Berg;
Act III, scene iv, mm. 222-284)

85
 The graph contains fifteen segments of ten-second Clock Time intervals, the

tenth of which, segment j, has a TI value of 0. At this point, the textual break separates

the passage into two vocal phrases: segments a through i, and k through o respectively.

This simple formal design raises two important issues about Bergs temporal structure

of this passage. Firstly, the temporal proportion between phrases one and two generates

a ratio of 2:1, since the location of segment j is two thirds (66.6%) along the total

duration of Wozzecks passage; a point very close to that of the Golden Section.100

Secondly, the subsequent phrase is intensified in relation to the first in two ways: it is

temporally compressed (i.e. shorter in duration), and is located higher on the graph (i.e.

at a consistently higher rate of text transmission). This intensification afforded by the

quicker temporal progress compacted into a smaller period of Clock Time in relation to

the preceding phrase, brings a sense of climax to the scene, and indeed to the opera (if

not a secondary climax to that of Maries murder two scenes earlier).

These two relatively simple structural aspects have large scale significance in

relation to the opera as a whole; they are clearly in accord with Bergs tendency toward

classicism in formal design as evidenced by Bergs use of pre-existing classical

instrumental forms and styles throughout the work. For instance, Act II is subtitled

Symphony in Five Movements, which contains five scenes bearing the designations:

Sonata movement; Fantasy and fugue on three themes; Largo; Scherzo 1 and 2 with

three trios; Introduction and Rondo marziale. Act I bears similar classical formal

associations, such as Rhapsody, Passacaglia, while Act III is subtitled Six Inventions.

100
The Golden Section (or Golden Ratio) is approximately 1.618; or, the point at approximately 61.8%
along any continuum. Segment j occurs at the 66% point along the total duration of Wozzecks passage,
approximately 4.8% higher than the Golden Section.

86
Conclusion

This scene exemplifies an approach with which the composer might relate temporal

structure on a local level to the large scale structural characteristics of the work as a

whole. This brief analysis is offered to provide a simple example of local level progress

of Operatic Aesthetic Time.

5.4 TI Series Analysis #2: Je sais bien quil le faut, mais cest atroce
La voix humaine: Francis Poulenc; 100 END101

A TI Series Analysis of the final approximately five minutes of Francis Poulencs

monodrama La voix humaine, beginning at rehearsal 100, is shown in Diagram 11.102

The choice to begin the analysis at this point was made for two reasons: first, the clear

cadential nature of the preceding measure, ending with a fermata (marked trs long),

and a new phrase beginning at 100 (marked Trs calme et morne) clearly indicates the

start of a new musical section; second, the stage direction Elle enroule le fil autour de

son cou (She wraps the telephone cord around her neck), unmistakably signals the

pivotal dramatic moment that directs the work to its tragic conclusion. Thus, rehearsal

100 marks a significant point in the structure of this work and the following analysis

provides an example of Poulencs long term planning of temporal structure. There are

two aspects of this passage that demand consideration: first, local level characteristics;

second, the overall nature of the curve and its relationship to the work as a whole.

101
CD Recording: Duval; Prtre; Orchestre du Thtre National de lOpra-Comique; EMI CDM 5
65156 2
102
The text for this passage is reprinted in the Appendix, with the partitioning of each Text Index
segment indicated.

87
 Operatic Clock Time = 4 minutes, 50 seconds; Total number of Words = 236;
Average words per minute = 48.8; Text Index Average = 8.13

Words
20

15

10

0
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C Segment
0:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 Operatic Clock Time
12 8 12 10 11 8 12 17 15 2 12 6 10 10 15 9 9 4 3 6 7 4 2 0 5 7 6 3 8 Text Index Series

Diagram 11: TI Series Analysis #2: Je sais bien quil le faut, mais cest atroce (from La voix
humaine: F. Poulenc; rehearsal 100 the end)103

Observations

The first observation is concerned with certain consistent features of contours within

local level areas of the curve. Segments a f, representing one minute of Clock Time,

do not show significant fluctuations in the rate of text transmission. Rather, they show

a high degree of consistency across these opening six segments rendering the values of

the TI Series: 12, 8, 12, 10, 11, 8.

103
A discrepancy between the score (Milan: Editions Ricordi, 2002) and the recording exists, where the
recording does not include the three words indicated in segment B. This analysis defers to the score and
therefore includes the three words in the TI value.

88
 When considering approximately the second minute of this passage, the graph

displays a contour of the opposite nature; for segments f m, the TI Series is: 8, 12, 17,

15, 2, 12, 6, 10. Abrupt and expansive changes in contour are the result of sudden

alternations between recitative-like and arioso phrases. For eight measures starting at

rehearsal 102 (occurring within segments g, h and i) one such characteristic recit-like

phrase is heard, which accounts for the upward spike at this point on the graph. For

three measures beginning at rehearsal 103, a distinctly recitative secco phrase occurs,

producing the spike found at segment k. Therefore, it is clear that Poulenc is

composing phrases of music of a particular temporal type (either highly consistent or

highly fluctuating) for relatively prolonged periods of Clock Time, nearly one minute

in each case. However, despite these substantial and contrasting sections, there is a

longer-term temporal plan in effect.

The second observation concerns the general trajectory of the temporal progress

of this passage. Overall, the graph has a decidedly descending contour. The most

notable peaks, at segments h, o and u, decrease in TI value (17, 15 and 7 respectively)

and occur at approximately one quarter, half way, and two thirds through the passage.

Conversely, the most striking dips in the curve, at segments j, s and w, far more

uniform in value (2, 4 and 2 respectively), occur at approximately one third, two thirds

and four fifths through the duration of this passage, immediately followed by a TI

value of zero at segment x. Therefore, the overall tendency in rate of text transmission

across the nearly five-minute long final section is from high to low, providing an

overall sense of deceleration in temporal progress, or a slowing down in Operatic

Aesthetic Time.

89
 The significance of this temporal structure becomes apparent when one

considers the dramatic context of this opera. The woman of Poulencs monodrama,

although not explicitly written in the score, is typically understood to meet her death at

the close of the work through self-asphyxiation with the telephone cord. This slow

strangulation, it appears, occurs over the duration of this five-minute passage beginning

with the aforementioned stage direction at rehearsal 100. Unlike Wozzecks death,

drowning in a state of frenzied madness, the womans demise is an expiration in the

literal sense: an exhalation, or a breathing out of air from the lungs. The woman

expires with a sense of slowness, a slowing of respiration and circulation. Her final

line, Je taime, je taime taime (the last word of which is marked dans un

souffle), expresses a weakening of the voice, with the eventual omission of je on the

third statement. This very slowing and weakening of the bodys functions is

dramatically paralleled by the long term decelerating trajectory of Operatic Aesthetic

Time that Poulenc has composed in this final passage of the work.

Conclusion

This passage exemplifies a creative strategy where the composer relates the temporal

structure of an operatic passage of moderately long Clock Time (approximately five

minutes) to the dramatic context or situation. By uniting both musical and dramatic

elements in this way, the approach to temporal structure renders a richly organic long

term plan in the progress of Operatic Aesthetic Time.

90
5.5 TI Series Analysis #3: Jespre encore, mon Dieu
Lamour de loin: Kaija Saariaho; Act 5, scene iii, mm. 470-634104

The following analysis contains four sections: the first three are sung by Clmence

alone and are indicated with vertical lines in Diagram 12 below, grouping segments a-

h, m-t, and A-J; the fourth section, sung by the Chorus, comprises segments K-Q.105 It

must be noted that the choral phrase that occurs over segments i-l, has not been

included in this analysis since the four-part polyphonic texture would require four

simultaneous TI Series (one for each of the SATB voice parts), and would not be

readily comparable to the trajectory inherent within the solo sections. Furthermore, the

text during these four segments is a direct repetition of four lines from Clmences text

in the preceding section, and therefore is not considered relevant for the charting of

temporal progress in this passage.106 Lastly the orchestral interlude occupying

segments u-z has been included on the graph simply to show, in spatial proportion, the

presence of Clock Time without text.

Observations

Saariahos overall temporal plan for this seven-minute passage, is a large arch-like

structure which gradually rises through Clmences three solo sections, then suddenly

falls at the conclusion of the fourth section sung by the Chorus. This overall

acceleration is apparent when considering the TI Series Averages from sections one to

three, which are: 5, 8, and 12.4, respectively. Although the fourth and final section

104
DVD Recording: Finley; Upshaw; Salonen; Finish National Opera; DG B0004721-09
105
The text for this passage is reprinted in the Appendix, with the partitioning of each Text Index
segment indicated.
106
Refer to the above discussion on Operatic Temporal Progress in part 4.7 for the rational on the
exclusion of substantial text repetition when considering the temporal progress of a vocal passage.

91
 Clmence Chorus Clmence Orchestra Clmence Chorus
(omitted) interlude
Op. Cl. Time: 1:20; Op. Cl. Op. Cl. Time: 1:20; (omitted) Op. Cl. Time: 1:40; Op. Cl. Time: 1:10;
Total Wds: 40; Time: Total Wds: 64; Total Wds: 124; Total Wds: 100;
Av.: 30 w/m; 0:40 Av.: 48 w/m; Op. Cl. Time: Av.: 74 w/m; Av.: 86 w/m;
Words 1:00
Text Index Av.: 5 Text Index Av.: 8 Text Index Av.: 12.4 Text Index Av.: 14.2
25

20

15

10
Text Index Average = 9.9

K. Saariaho; Act V, scene iii, mm. 470-634

5

0
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q Segment
0:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 Op. Cl. Time
7 5 7 5 8 0 5 3 ( 0 0 0 0) 13 5 5 4 6 13 13 5 10 12 16 11 9 10 9 11 15 21 17 20 23 24 11 3 2 Text Ind. Ser.
Operatic Clock Time = 7 min., 10 sec.; Total number of Words = 328; Average words per min. = 45.8;

Diagram 12: TI Series Analysis #3: Jespre encore, mon Dieu (from Lamour de loin:

92
bears yet another increase in TI Series Average (14.2), because its initial contour

continues to rise, the disproportionately quick deceleration at its conclusion completes

the arch with its severe downward slope. Upon consideration of each section, one also

sees how within her long term arch-like plan Saariaho has embedded certain local

temporal-structural characteristics which, I will argue, reveal immense musico-

dramatic significance. In order to fully understand this significance, a brief explanation

of the dramatic situation is required.

Jaufr, the French Prince and troubadour, has travelled to Tripoli to unite with

Clmence, Countess of Tripoli his love from afar whom he has never met, after

(presumably) years of a relationship initiated by the Pilgrim and developed through the

relaying of messages on repeated journeys between France and Tripoli. However, their

union is not to be, as Jaufr arrives in a mortal state of health and dies in the arms of

Clmence, concluding the preceding scene. The above-analysed passage begins

immediately after Jaufrs death, and Clmence sings to God of her sorrow. The text

for the first two sections of this passage is of a sorrowful and reverential nature as

Clmence laments to God the loss of her love. However, during the course of the

orchestral interlude through segments u-z, her demeanour gradually changes from that

of mourning and obedience, to anger and defiance. In the third section, Clmence rails

against God declaring that she neither has hope nor believes any longer in a

compassionate God. Lastly, the Chorus, representing the people of Tripoli, respond to

Clmences blasphemous outburst with even greater intensity, commanding her to be

silent for fear of bringing the wrath of God upon her people as punishment for her

insolent rage. In so doing, their repeated exhortations to her to be silent with increasing

93
note value durations serve to slow the rate of text transmission and provide the

concluding descent of the overall arch in segments N-Q. The particular nature of

Clmences three sections also demands closer consideration.

As stated above, the text of the third section is in opposition to that of the first

two; it presents an inversion of meaning through a reversal in Clmences character,

from sorrowful lament to raging declaration of blame. Not only is it fitting that, for the

first two sections, the TI Series averages are much lower than that of the third (indeed

the first section is consistently low, very much in accord with the most reverential

portion of text), but also fitting is the relationship in contour of the curves between

sections two and three. In section two, when considering significant change in vertical

direction (and therefore in temporal progress), the characteristic profile of the contour

can be identified as down-up-down, while the contour of section three is clearly up-

down-up; thus an inverse relationship in temporal structure reflects the similarly

inverted dramatic content within this scene.

Conclusion

Saariaho has composed this passage such that its Operatic Time bears a temporal

metaphor for the dramatic context being played out. Not only has the composer

designed each section to temporally reflect its respective dramatic implications and

meanings, she has also expertly linked them in such a way as to convey the overall

accelerating-decelerating arch-like structure in temporal progress across the entire

seven-minute passage.

This analysis serves to exemplify a dual approach in the structuring of Operatic

Time; that which embeds local-level characteristics in relation to dramatic context

94
within a long term formal plan, thereby temporally uniting the musical and dramatic

elements in a highly rich and meaningful manner.

5.6 Conclusion

Given the degree of unique designs in temporal progress shown in the above examples,

it is important to note the striking similarity in TI Average (i.e., average number of

words per ten-second interval). The Berg, Poulenc and Saariaho excerpts bear TI

Averages of 9.5, 8.13, and 9.9 respectively. From lowest to highest extremes (Poulenc

to Saariaho), there is a difference of only 1.77. This statistic is extremely telling. Since

the TI Averages are so close in value, yet the TI Series Analyses illustrate such highly

unique relationships and insights into the composers approaches to integrating

temporal progress with dramatic context and formal designs, it is evident that the TI

Series Analysis system does indeed offer what mere averages cannot: the profile of

fluctuations in the rate of Operatic Aesthetic Time as a function of temporal progress

based upon rate of text transmission. In other words, this analytical system offers clear

insight into composers sense of pacing.

95
 CHAPTER 6:
Theory and Practice

6.1 Introduction

The current chapter addresses the relationship between the research comprising

Chapters 1 through 5 and the original composition of Part II, and discusses various

issues related to the compositions music-dramatic structure. My approach to

composing for voice and its role in the large-scale formal plan is presented, illustrating

a particular integration of both musical and dramatic elements. Concepts discussed in

preceding chapters are applied to my composition, and designations for Dramatic

Aesthetic, Operatic Referential, and Operatic Aesthetic Times are argued. A Text

Index (TI) Series Analysis of the final section of my monodrama is given, which

illustrates several similarities to the analysed repertory excerpts in Chapter 5, as well as

presenting the unique nature of music-dramatic integration that exists within my own

work. A brief conclusion addresses the issue of originality. Based upon the degree of

the numerous temporal peculiarities within my composition, I offer a suggestion as to

where I believe my work is situated within the contemporary operatic repertoire.

6.2 An Original Music-Drama Composition

The research contained in the preceding chapters began simultaneously with the

conception of the original monodrama that constitutes Part II. Although the

96
composition was completed first, the monodramas structure was in part shaped by

several of the various theories explored in Part I. Conversely, several discussions

pursued in my research sprang from compositional ideas and issues encountered during

the composing process. As such, the relationship between Parts I and II, is highly

symbiotic.

The composition, entitled The Three Last Minutes in the life of X, is scored for

tenor, flute, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello and three actors. The work is cast in a

single act of approximately eighteen minutes, comprised of five sections that flow

without interruption. Production notes, a synopsis, and Notes to Performers are

provided, followed by the full score and complete libretto.

Text, Voice, and Form

The libretto (included in Part II) draws text from two sources: selections from works by

William Shakespeare and my own original text. Alternation between these two sources

occurs within each of the five sections, and two streams of expression are thus

conveyed. The Shakespeare excerpts (most suited to heightened emotional states)

represent the subconscious thoughts of the character, X, and provide what I refer to as

the internal stream, while the original portions of the libretto text (those better suited

to conveying realism and low emotional levels) represent the conscious expression, or

external stream.

The voice part was composed according to a plan based upon Gary

Schmidgalls diagram of Rising Emotional Intensity, mentioned in the opening

Introduction on page 2. The overall form of the work is articulated by an extended and

continuous progression through what I designate as a continuum of various modes of

97
voice, which span from normal through inflected speech, followed by speech melody

(i.e., Sprechstimme), recitative secco, accompanied recitative, arioso, aria, to falsetto

(see Notes to Performers in Part II). Each stream progresses generally forward through

the modes, however, each tends to occupy a slightly different region of the continuum.

If we imagine the modes of voice on a vertical axis (as Schmidgalls diagram

illustrates), the internal stream begins at the third mode, speech melody, and constantly

rises to the highest, falsetto, thus the stream with Shakespearean text occupies the

middle and upper regions of the modes of voice. The external stream begins at the first

mode, normal speech, and although progresses upwards, never reaches the highest

mode of singing, and therefore occupies the lower to middle regions of the continuum.

Furthermore, rather than continually rising, on several occasions the external stream

regresses to lower voice modes, affording an uneven sense of Xs intermittent attempts

at rational thought.

The overall trajectory of my opera can be understood as an extended rise in

voice mode from normal speech to falsetto, afforded by decreasing amounts of external

stream passages (i.e., lower and mid-voice modes) and increasing amounts of internal

stream passages (i.e., mid to upper voice modes). Schmidgall argues that opera is a

world of high relief, magnification, escalation,107 and so my work becomes

increasingly operatic as it unfolds, offering a trajectory that is supported by Xs

transformation as he becomes increasingly confused and anxious throughout his time

on stage, losing his sense for rational thought and eventually meeting his fate in his

highest state of agitation. The vocal profile described here provided me with a clear

107
Schmidgall (1977), 10.

98
and ever-present sense of musical direction during the composing process, as well as

an avenue for potentially rich integration of the dramatic and musical elements.

Dramatic Aesthetic Time and Xs Clock

Like the examples presented in Chapter 3.5, my work also involves the manipulation of

dramatic time, although the distortions occur in a far more overt manner (references

will be made to the score or libretto in Part II). First, a brief explanation of how within

the work Xs clock operates. The monodrama calls for a digital clock to be clearly

visible to the audience, and it reads as follows: 4:57, 4:58, 4:59, 4:60, 4:61, etc.,

accelerating to and stopping at a flashing 88:88. The clock soon stops flashing and

begins to reverse, accelerating back to 4:59, before finally advancing to 5:00. Two

noteworthy aspects of the manipulation of dramatic time must be mentioned.

First, rather than modelling the accelerated time that functions in Othello II.i, as

the three ships come into view, dock and discharge their passengers (see Chapter 3.5), I

do the following: during the clocks opening advancement from 4:57 to 4:59, an

expanded sense of dramatic time is created, as the minutes on Xs clock pass at a rate

far slower than that of Operatic Clock Time. Also, upon the clocks return to 4:59 in

the final section of the work, Xs last minute is actually closer to a real two minutes in

Operatic Clock Time, causing a sense of prolongation of Xs experience of the passage

of time.

Second, Xs clock creates a particular quality of directionality due to its twofold

behaviour, displaying both rational and irrational values. A sense of narrative linearity,

established by the clocks initial move from 4:57 to 4:59, is immediately broken by the

irrational clock values, from 4:60 through 88:88. The return of 4:59 and its final move

99
to 5:00, re-establishes the original sense of linearity conveyed during the musics

opening. Most importantly, the irrational values, from 4:60 through 88:88, which

accelerate both upwards and downwards, put into question the very essence of

narrativity since during this span accorded irrational numbers, any clear sense of cause-

and-effect, or before-and-after is no longer possible. Therefore, as a function of

narrativity, the Dramatic Aesthetic Time in The Three Last Minutescan be

understood as a Linear Narrative that is interrupted by a Non-Narrative episode. The

figure below represents this Dramatic Aesthetic Form.

Overall Linear Trajectory

Xs Clock: 4:57 4:58 4:59 4:60 4:61 88:88 4:59 5:00

Linear Narrative Non-Narrative Linear

Narrative

Diagram 13: Dramatic Aesthetic Time as a function of narrativity in The Three Last Minutes

Operatic Referential Time of The Three Last Minutes

Prompted by the multitude of possible temporal conceptualisations, I offer two

promising interpretations for the Operatic Referential Time of my work. The first is

based upon a straightforward reading of the dramatic elements. Although the operas

setting is not stipulated in a conventional sense of time and place, nevertheless a

decidedly contemporary dramatic setting is conveyed through the staging of a modern

yet anonymous apartment as well as a man in modern dress described in the Production

100
Notes. The setting can be interpreted to be contemporaneous with todays audience and

remains unchanged throughout the work. Similarly, the musical language remains

consistent within a contemporary non-tonal world. Therefore, the Operatic Referential

Time (as described in Chapter 4.4) for this work can be understood as Fixed

Congruous.

There is, however, an alternative interpretation which is equally viable.

Although removed entirely from its usual context, the Shakespearean text of the

internal stream can still be understood according to the original Dramatic Referential

Time of each line and verse. On the other hand, the external streams text is modern

English, so the Dramatic Referential Time of The Three Last Minutes can be also

considered multiple. Since the musics Referential Time remains constant, the Operatic

Referential Time can be understood as Incongruous via Multiple Dramatic / Fixed

Musical Referential Times.

6.3 Operatic Aesthetic Time in The Three Last Minutes

This discussion offers a TI Series Analysis of the fifth and final part of The Three Last

Minutes , (Section 5) which has a duration of approximately five minutes. I chose

this passage for analysis because of its similar dramatic nature to the repertory excerpts

analysed in Chapter 5. Similar to the Berg and Poulenc, Section 5 of my work

constitutes what I consider to be the most significant moment of transformation along

the path to greatest intensity of the conclusion. Section 5 begins following a brief

instrumental interlude, which initiates the Non-Narrative episode with Xs clock

advancing to 4:60, and concludes with his implied demise. Five passages, or sub-

101
 sections, of alternating internal and external streams occur, indicated by 5.1 through

5.5. Since no recording of the work exists at the time of writing this document, the TI

Series Analysis for Section 5, shown in Diagram 14, is based on segment calculations

according to the tempo and metrical markings indicated in the score, as well as

estimations for the occasional measures of approximate rhythmic notation.

Operatic Clock Time = 4 minutes, 50 seconds; Total number of Words = 179;

Average words per minute = 37; Text Index Average = 6.2

Words

15

10

0
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C Segment

0:00 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 Oper. Cl. Time

2 3 5 3 6 3 0 12 16 8 2 5 12 2 14 9 9 9 5 8 4 0 8 9 2 4 5 8 6 TI Series

Diagram 14: TI Series Analysis #4: O God, O God, which this blood madest (from The
Three Last Minutes in the Life of X: R. A. Baker; Section 5, mm. 308-390)

102
Observations

On a subtle level, there is a connection here to Poulencs overall downward trajectory

in temporal progress reflecting the Womans expiration at the end of La voix humaine

(see Diagram 11). Similarly an extended slowing down in temporal progress can be

seen from segments i C, with a symbolism reminiscent of Poulencs dramatic

situation, but overall it is an arch-form that best characterises the temporal progress of

Section 5. Segments a f display relative consistency in TI values (2, 3, 5, 3, 6, 3). A

ten-second instrumental passage is present at segment g, which is immediately

contrasted with the peak of the arch articulated by segments h j. The remaining

segments indicate an overall downward slope, albeit with some local-level TI

fluctuations.

The significant flux in local-level contours across a relatively small number of

segments must be pointed out. The peaks and troughs articulated by segments h k, l

n, and n p, show the greatest degrees of flux present in Section 5, as X struggles

against his fate with the greatest degree of intensity. These sudden changes in temporal

progress work to create a two-fold effect: (1), the dramatic contrast in local-level

temporal progress helps to highlight the quickest rates of text transmission at the peaks

of these repeated fluctuations; and (2), the profile of up-down-up-down-up-down

created through segments g p reflects the similarly swift alternation occurring at this

time between the internal and external streams that are sub-sections 5.2 to 5.5. Since

both streams are presented throughout the course of this local-level fluctuation (i.e.,

each is conveyed with both slower and quicker transmission rates), a sense of dramatic

unease is amplified, reflecting Xs increasing anxiety and psychological instability.

103
 The connection to Poulencs dramatic context continues in the final sub-section,

5.5, beginning at segment o. By comparison to the contrasts just mentioned, a period of

relatively consistent TI values appears through segments p C. Here, quite early on in

Section 5.5, X begins to sing with far greater acceptance of his predicament than ever

before, and the temporal progress that his singing creates is far less erratic. During

segments p t, X sings: O pray can I not, O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!

O, I could weep my spirit from mine eyes!, which is soon followed by The air hath

got into my deadly wounds, And much effuse of blood doth make me faint through

segments w x. The recognition on the part of X of some imminent conclusion

suggests a certain degree of surrender, and with it, a slowness that is reflected in the TI

values of segments y A. With a final gasp of energy resembling Wozzecks ultimate

moments (see Diagram 10), X brings to bear a final phrase of slight acceleration

(though never approaching the previous anxious heights of subsections 5.2 through 5.4)

as he cries Open Thy gates of mercy gracious God!, only to succumb to his closing

deceleration with longer note values and the stilted utterance of My soul flies through

these wounds to seek out Thee!.

6.4 Afterthought

The original composition contained in this dissertation is a work of highly concentrated

music-dramatic structure, where musical and textual elements are integrated with a

focus that provides the potential for a strongly effective work. Expectations of a

continuous forward-driving narrative are established by both the works title and

opening action. Although it serves as an ever-present backdrop for the music, the sense

104
of conventional narrative is nonetheless significantly obscured, and questions may be

raised as to both the characters as well as the spectators relationship to time. In this

way my work presents a balance between the temporally realistic and the temporally

absurd or surreal, situating itself somewhere in between recent accomplishments that

manifest a realistic narrative approach (e.g. Henzes story of the aging artist in Elegie

fr Junge Liebend (1961), or Ads Powder Her Face (1995), an historically-based

Zeitoper), and those that exhibit a more surreal temporal nature (e.g. Coriglianos

multiple and overlapping temporal world in The Ghosts of Versailles (1991), or

Dusapins surreal clock in Faustus: the last night (2004)).

105
 APPENDIX:
Libretti excerpts for TI Series Analyses in Chapters 5 and 6

The following tables show the partitioning of text according to the ten-second

segments considered for the analyses in Chapters 5 and 6.

TI Series Analysis #1: Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer?

Alban Berg: Wozzeck: Act III, scene iv: mm. 222-284108

TEXT SEGMENT TEXT

INDEX
Das Messer? Wo ist das Messer? Ich habs dagelassen. Nher, noch nher. a 12
Mir grauts da regt sich was. Still! b 7
Alles still und tot. c 4
Mrder! Ha! Da rufts. Nein, ich selbst. Marie! d 8
Marie! Was hast Du Fr eine rote Schnur um den Hals? e 11
Hast Dir das rote Halsband verdient, wie die Ohrringlein, mit Deiner Snde! f 16
Was hngen Dir die
Schwarzen Haare so wild? Mrder! Mrder! Sie warden nach mir suchen. g 11
Das Messer verrt mich! Da, da ists! h 7
So! De hinunter! Es taucht ins dunkle Wasser wie ein Stein. I 11
--- j 0
Aber der Mond verrt mich, der Mond ist blutig, k 9
Will denn die ganze Welt es ausplaudern? Das Messer, es liegt zu weit vorn, l 14
sie findens beim Baden oder wenn sie nach Muscheln tauchen. Ich finds m 13
nicht.
Aber ich mu mich waschen. Ich bin blutig. Da ein Fleck und noch einer. n 15
Weh!
Weh! Ich wasche mich mit Blut das Wasser ist Blut Blut o 11

108
CD Recording: Waechter; Siljia; Dohnnyi; Wiener Philharmoniker & Staatsopernchor; London 417
348-2

106
 TI Series Analysis #2: Je sais bien quil le faut, mais cest atroce
Francis Poulenc: La voix humaine: 100 END109

TEXT SEGMENT TEXT

INDEX
Je sais bien quil le faut, mais cest atroce. Jamais a 12
Je naurai ce courage. Oui. On a b 8
lillusion dtre lun contre lautre et brusquement on c 12
met des caves, des gouts, toute une ville entre soi. d 10
Jai le autour de mon cou. Jai ta e 11
voix autour de mon cou. Ta voix autour f 8
de mon cou. Il faudrait que le bureau nous coupe par hasard. g 12
Oh ! mon chri! Comment peux-tu imaginer que je pense une chose si laide ? h 17
Je sais bien
que cette opration est encore plus cruelle faire de ton ct que du mien ... i 15
non ... non. ... j 2
A Marseill ? Ecoute, chri, puis que vous serez Marseill aprs demain k 12
soir, je voudrais ... enfin jaimerais ... l 6
jaimerais que tu ne descendes pas lhtel m 10
o nous descendons dhabitude. Tu nes pas fch? n 10
Par ce que les choses que je nimagine pas nexistent pas, ou bien o 15
elles existent dans une espce de lieu trs vague p 9
et qui fait moins de mal ... tu comprends ? Merci ... q 9
merci. Tu es bon. r 4
Je taime. s 3
Alors, voil. Jallais dire machinalement : t 6
tout de suite. Jen doute. u 7
Oh ! cest mieux. v 4
Beaucoup mieux. w 2
--- x 0
Mon chri ... mon beau chri. y 5
Je suis forte. Dpche-toi. Vas-y. z 7
Coupe! Coupe vite! Je taime, A 6
je taime, B* 3
je taime, je taime ... taime. C 8

* see note in Chapter 5.4

109
CD Recording: Duval; Prtre; Orchestre du Thtre National de lOpra-Comique; EMI CDM 5
65156 2

107
 TI Series Analysis #3: Jespre encore, mon Dieu
Kaija Saariaho: Lamour de loin: Act V, scene iii: mm. 470-634110

TEXT SEGMENT TEXT

INDEX
Clmence
Jespre encore, mon Dieu, jespre a 7
encore. Jespre les anciennes b 5
Divinits pouvaient tre cruelles, mais pas toi, c 7
mais pas toi mon Dieu. d 5
Tu es bont et compassion, tu es misricorde. e 8
--- f 0
Jespre encore, mon Dieu, g 5
jespre encore. h 3
- Chorus - il ---
Ce mortel ne porte dans son cur que lamour le plus pur. m 13
Il fait offrande de sa n 5
vie une inconnue lointaine o 5
et se contente d p 4
obtenir en change un sourire Il q 6
remercie le Ciel du peu quon lui accorde, et ne demande rien. r 13
Si avec un tre tel que lui tu nes pas gnreux, Seigneur, s 13
avec qui le sera-tu. t 5
- Orchestral Interlude - uz ---
Javais cru en toi, javais espr, mon Dieu, A 10
quavec un tre si gnreux tu te montrerais plus gnreux encore! B 12
Javais cru en toi, javais espr, mon Dieu, quavec un tre aussi aimant C 16
tu te montrerais plus capable daimer encore, que tu nous D 11
Accorderais un instant, juste un instant de vrai bonheur, E 9
sans souffrance, sans maladie, sans la mort qui sapproche, F 10
un court moment de bonheur simple, tait-ce trop? G 9
De quoi as-tu voulu le punir? De mavoir appele H 11
desse? De stre prtendu crois, comme sil partait se battre contre les I 15
Infidles,
alors que cest moi quil venait retrouver ? Se pourrait-il que tu sois jaloux du J 21
fragile bonheur des hommes?
Chorus
Tais-toi, femme, ta passion tgare. Tais-toi, femme, silence! Voudrais-tu attirer K 17
sur notre ville
le malheur et la maldiction ? Voudrais-tu que la mer se dchane, que les vagues L 20
sentent par-dessus les murailles
pour engloutir nos maisons et noyer nos enfants? Voudrais-tu attirer sur nous M 23
tous le chtiment de Dieu? Voudrais-tu ... Pour quIl
nous abandonne en pleine mer quand la tempte fera rage? Pour quIl nous N 24
abandonne en pleine bataille quand nos ennemis seront lancs contre
nous? Tais-toi, femme, ta passion tgare. Tais-toi, femme, O 11
silence! Silence, silence. P 3
silence, silence ! Q 2

110
DVD Recording: Finley; Upshaw; Salonen; Finish National Opera; DG B0004721-09

108
 TI Series Analysis #4: O God, O God, which this blood madest
Robert A. Baker: The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X: Part 5, mm. 308-390111

TEXT SEGMENT TEXT

INDEX
Hmm, Hmm, a 2
O God, O b 3
God, which this blood madest, c 5
revenge this death! d 3
O earth, which this blood drink'st e 6
revenge this death! f 3
--- g 0
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead, Or earth, gape open h 12
wide and eat him quick! Quick, quick, call quick... They're here! Swift, swift! i 16
You dragons
of the night, They're calling, calling, quickly... j 8
Is there k 2
a murderer here? No. Yes, l 5
I don't know! Villains! Lies! They're here! O God, answer m 12
my pray'r! n 2
Pray can I not, But, O, what form of prayer Can serve my turn? o 14
I am a villain: yet I lie. O pray p 9
Can I not, pray can I not. O, I q 9
O, I am out of breath in this found r 9
Chase! O, I could weep, s 5
I could weep My spirit from mine eyes. t 8
Pray can I not. u 4
--- v 0
The air hath got into my deadly wounds, w 8
And much effuse of blood doth make me faint. x 9
Pray, pray! y 2
Help, help, angels! Help! z 4
Make assay! Open Thy gate A 5
of mercy, gracious God! My soul flies through B 8
these wounds to seek out Thee! C 6

111
Since no recording is currently available, timing data was calculated according to tempi and metrical
indications in the score.

109
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Aristotle. The Classical Journal, volume 61, number 6 (March 1966): 262-264.

Williams, B. M. Time and the Structure of Stravinskys Symphony in C. The

Musical Quarterly, volume 59, number 3 (July 1973): 355-369.

112
DRAMATIC WORKS:

OCasey, Sean. The Plough and the Stars. In Three Plays, 131-218. London: Pan
Books, 1980.

Shaffer, Peter. Amadeus. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1984.

Shakespeare, William. Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Glasgow:

HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.

Shaw, George Bernard. Major Barbara. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books

Ltd., 1986.

SCORES:

Berg, Alban. Wozzeck. Vienna: Universal Edition, 1955.

Boulez, Pierre. Third Piano Sonata, Formant 2. London: Universal Edition, 1961.

Birtwistle, Harrison. Triumph of Time. London: Universal Edition, 1974.

Cage, John. Europeras I and II. New York: Edition Peters, ca. 1987.

Davies, Peter Maxwell. The Martyrdom of St. Magnus: a chamber opera in nine
scenes. London: Boosey & Hawkes, 1977.

Glass, Philip. The Voyage: Opera in three acts, prologue and epilogue for orchestra,
chorus and soloists. New York: Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc., ca. 1992.

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Le Nozze di Figaro. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.,
1979.

Pfitzner, Hans Erich. Palestrina : Eine Musikalische Legende in drei Akten. Mainz: B.
Schotts Shne, 1951.

Poulenc, Francis. La voix humaine. Paris: S. A. ditions Ricordi, 1959.

Saariaho, Kaija. Lamour de loin. London : Chester Music, 2002

Schnberg, Arnold. Erwartung: Monodram in 1 Akt. Vienna: Universal Edition, 1950.

Tmasson, Haukur. Gurns Fourth Song (Score available from Iceland Music
Information Center)

113
 PART II:

THE THREE LAST MINUTES

IN THE LIFE OF X:

An Original Monodrama Composition

for Tenor, Three Actors and Six Instruments
 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X:
for Tenor, Three Actors and Six Instruments

Music by Robert A. Baker

Libretto comprised of selections from works by William Shakespeare
and original text by the composer

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

X Tenor
1st MAN Mute
2nd MAN Mute
X2 Mute

STAGING

The action takes place in an apartment. The door to the corridor is in the centre of the upstage
wall, immediately in front of which is a sofa, and in front of that, a coffee table. The room is
sparsely adorned with a floor lamp, bookshelf, and buffet table to one side, on which sits a
decanter, partially full of some translucent liquid, and several old fashioned glasses. In general,
the lighting need not be bright, rather should be sufficient to suggest that the setting is night,
and the sphere of action is lighted by artificial light from within the apartment.

PRODUCTION NOTES

X is dressed in a black suit, white shirt, black necktie and dress shoes. His appearance is
slightly dishevelled, although X enters with suit jacket buttoned.

1st MAN and 2nd MAN may each be of virtually any stature and appearance; however, 1st
MAN wears a modest suit, with overcoat, and 2nd MAN is dressed less formally, suggesting a
subordinate class to that of 1st MAN.

The role of X2 requires the most sensitive casting and makeup. X2 must, at all costs, appear to
be an exact likeness of X; the two must be of the same stature, wearing precisely the same
wardrobe. Both X and X2 must each have a significantly blood-soaked shirt, in identical
pattern, concealed while the suit jacket remains buttoned. Since X2 appears in the final
passages of the work, the actor must take his position without the audiences knowledge, out of
sight behind the sofa, before the music begins.

The musicians need not be in a pit (however, if a pit is available it may be used). The ensemble
and conductor may be arranged to one side of the set, occupying as little space as possible to
allow the greatest amount of space for the action.

ii
 SYNOPSIS

A digital clock, visible to the audience, displays a time of 4:57.

Fleeing his pursuers and appearing dishevelled, X enters hastily, closing the door
behind him and leaning his back against it. X weakens, stumbles to the floor behind the
sofa, picks himself up and moves to the front of stage. X states the need to place a
telephone call, and to hide a portable USB flash disk, which, he is told, will reveal
everything. Doubt and desperation grow, as he cannot decide precisely what to do.

The clock advances to 4:58 as X becomes increasingly frustrated by a growing

confusion and inability to act. He reveals that he is beginning to lose his memory, first
claiming to no longer remember whether he should place a telephone call, or wait to
receive one.
Trying to regain his composure, X pours himself a drink, raises the glass to his lips,
stops and winces. Appearing slightly confused, he abandons his drink. X attempts to
calmly reconsider his situation, but remains unclear what this telephone call is to be
about, as well as why the computer disk must be hidden.

The clock advances to 4:59 and X can no longer recall anything; he knows not where
he is, how he got there, nor even his own identity. The clock advances to 4:60 and X
appears delusional. Rational thought has evaporated and he begins a chant-like prayer.
The clock begins to accelerate and within moments reaches an imperceptible speed, at
which point it begins to flash 88:88.

Two men (1st Man and 2nd Man) enter cautiously, first scanning the room from the
doorway. They are not aware of X on stage; rather their eyes fix on the floor behind the
sofa. 2nd Man reaches down, lifts up and drags X2 around the sofa, tossing him down
upon it, and begins to search his person. X2 appears to be alive, but unable to retaliate.
X continues his monologue whilst 1st Man suspiciously surveys the scene. In the course
of his search, 2nd Man opens X2s suit jacket to reveal a blood-soaked white shirt. 2nd
Man soon produces a portable USB drive from one of X2s pockets (identical to the
one X revealed earlier) and passes it to 1st Man.

The clock display stops flashing and begins to descend from 88:88 in precisely reverse
fashion to the way in which it ascended, at first at an extreme rate, gradually
decelerating until holding at 4:59. Meanwhile, the two men exit not before cautiously
checking the corridor, leaving the door ajar.

X now displays a brief moment of lucidity as he opens his suit jacket to reveal his own
white shirt with the identical blood-soaked pattern to that of X2. His demeanour is now
of a spiritual and repentant nature, and with a final prayer-like aria, reaching almost
nightmarish quality, X seems to realise and accept his fate.

The clock advances to 5:00, with X on his knees, exhausted and hunched over, whilst
X2 appears lifeless on the sofa.

iii
 INSTRUMENTATION

Flute (Piccolo)
B-flat Clarinet

Piano

Tenor

Violin
Viola
Cello

SCORE IN C
(except normal octave transposition for Piccolo and Tenor)

DURATION

Approximately 18 minutes

iv
 NOTES TO PERFORMERS

GENERAL

Cue from conductor.

Play half sharp (i.e., quarter-tone higher than indicated).

Approximate pitch, as high / low as possible.

Unmetered; rhythmic values are approximate.

Approximate duration of measure in seconds.

Play figure in box and repeat until end of arrow.

Gradually change from one mode of playing to another.

VOICE

Whisper text with inflection of high, medium, and low

approximate pitch.

Speak text normally.

Speak text with inflection of high, medium, and low

approximate pitch (Inf. Sp.).

v
 Sprechmelodie as in Schnbergs Pierrot Lunaire. In a half
spoken, half sung manner, the singer must sound the
notated pitches, but rather than sustain them, he must
abandon them immediately by falling or rising. (Sp. Mel.)

Gradually change from one mode of speaking/singing to

another.

Slight portamento; after sounding notated pitch, bend

slightly up / down.

Sing half sharp (i.e., quarter-tone higher than indicated).

Approximate pitch, as high / low as possible.

PIANO
(ON KEYS)

Chromatic cluster approximately in pitch range indicated

or Chromatic cluster as low / high as possible

(INSIDE PIANO)

Sweep fingers across strings through approximate pitch range

of curve.

Strike strings with heel of hand at approximate cluster range.

Sweep in tremolo fashion with both hands at approximate

cluster range for duration of arrow.

Pluck strings at approximate pitch.

vi
STRINGS

Use normal bow pressure for normal pitch production.

Use heavy bow pressure producing partially distorted pitch.

Scratch tone: maximum bow pressure totally distorting the

pitch.

Play behind the bridge on all four strings.

Play behind the bridge on strings III and IV.

vii
 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
Text by a Monodrama for Tenor, Three Actors and Six Instruments Music by
William Shakespeare Robert A. Baker
and Robert A. Baker

CLOCK: 4:57
Flute
(Piccolo)

4 3 4
Clarinet

n

n

4


4
4

Piano Pno

[A digital clock, with numbers large enough to be seen by the audience, reads 4:57]
X
(Tenor)

( )


Violin
4
( )
3 4
Viola
4



4
4
ord. sul pont.

Cello

7

Flute

f.t. ord.

Fl.

(Picc.)

4 5
Cl.

n

4
















4

Pno.

pizz.

4
5
5
Vln.

4

4
sul pont. ord.

Va.

ord.

Vc.

2008 Robert A. Baker

2 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
( = )

11
Fl.

(Picc.)
3

5 3 4
Cl.

4



4

4

Pno.

X
=


( )
( )

arco

5 3 4
Vln.

( )

Va.
4

4



Vc.

13

3 3

Fl.

(Picc.)

4
Cl.

5





4






5

Pno. 5

[X enters hastily and panting. Dishevelled, he leans his
back against the door, weakens and stumbles to the floor

behind the sofa momentarily out of sight of the audience.
X

4


3

Vln.


)

4




(


Va.

Vc.




 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 3
1.1


16
Fl.

(Picc.) 6
5 6

Cl.
3 6


6

Pno.

Speech Melody

1.1

Ah,

Vln.

5 3
Va.

Vc.

3

18
Fl.

(Picc.)
5

3
3

Cl.

4
3 3

Pno.

hark! The fa - tal fol - low - ers do pur - sue, And I am

3
II

3
Vln.

4
3

Va.

3

IV

Vc.

4 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

21
Fl.

(Picc.) 3 3

4
Cl.

4







Pno.

faint and can-not fly their fu - ry.

4
pizz. arco

Vln.

Va.




4













Vc.

24


3

Fl.

(Picc.)

6 6 3

Cl.

Pno. 3 3

( )
I am
)


(

Vln.

6 3

Va.

pizz.

Vc.


 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 5

26

Fl.

(Picc.) 6

3
Cl.

Pno.

Sung

(Sp. Mel.)

X
3

gid - - - dy, ex - pec - ta - tion whirls - - - - - - - - - - -

( )

3
Vln.

()
Va.





4


arco

Vc.

28

Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.



5

Pno.
L.H.

Sp. Mel.

3
X

me round. The i - ma - gi - na - ry re - lish is so

IV III

3
3

Vln.

IV


3 3
Va.

III

Vc.

3
6 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

31

3

Fl.

(Picc.) 5

4
Cl.

4
3

Pno.

X



sweet, so sweet that it en-chants my sense: what will it

molto vib.

4
I

Vln.

Va.


4

Vc.

5
34

Fl.
(Picc.)

5 4
Cl.

4



4

Pno. 3 5

X
be?

II

Vln.
5




4

4
4
5

Va.
5
Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 7

1.2
36
Fl.
(Picc.)

4
3
Cl.

4



4








Pno.

X

1.2 Here I am! O - K, I'm here.

Vln.
4
3

Va.
4
4






3

Vc.

39
Fl.

(Picc.)

4
Cl.

4

Pno. 3

(Sp. Mel.) Inflected Speech Normal Speech
[Startled, turns to the door,

n

then to side, then to audience.]



X

Place the call, place the call,

Please call, please place the call... place the call, place...

4
3

Vln.

Va.
3






3

4

Vc.

8 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

43

Fl.


(Picc.)

4
Cl.

Pno.

Laughs

normal speaking volume

mockingly.
X

What will it be... a knock at the door? And who, who will come, a so called friend?

Vln.
4








4

3

3
Va.

Vc.

47

Take Picc.

Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

faster

loudly
X

What will it be, ... Bastards!

and how will I know? 3

Vln.

sul pont. ord.

(ord.)

Va.

(ord.) sul pont.

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 9

51

Picc.

Fl.
(Picc.)

3





3 4
Cl.

4
4

6

Pno.

3 3

louder shouting moderately
X

Please call, before I forget, ...

It's all gone wrong! It's all gone to shit!

ord.

Vln.

3

4


4 4
3 (ord.) sul pont. ord.

*

Va.

ord.

Vc.

55
Fl.

(Picc.) 3 5

3 09
Cl.

3 4

6

3


04

Pno.

3 3

[Pauses approx. 4 seconds. Looks at wristwatch, then clock.]

softer
X

please, please call.

Vln.
3 5 6
3
90
Va.
4




40



II

Vc.

* play half sharp (i.e., quarter-tone higher)
10 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
~4"
57
as fast as possible

with irregular slurring

Fl.
(Picc.)

as fast as possible

with irregular slurring

09
2
Cl.

04
4

Pno.

X

Damn it, I'll call him myself!

09 2


Vln.

Va.
04




3 5

4




Vc.

2.1
3


58 Take Flute

Fl.
(Picc.)

2 4
Cl.

4 4
3

3
Pno.

[Searches himself. Pulls USB portable flash drive out of his jacket pocket - pauses]
X


3
2.1

Vln.
2
3
4

Va.
4

4

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 11

61


3

Fl.
(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4
3 3

Pno.

angrily

Sp. Mel.
X

non vib.
My sa - ble ground of

vib. ord.

3
II

Vln.

Va.


3








4

3


3

Vc.

65
Fl.

(Picc.)

4
3
Cl.

4




4


Pno.

sin I will not paint to hide the truth of this false night's ab - -

Vln.

4



3
Va.

4

4




Vc.

12 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

69
Fl.

(Picc.) 3

3
Cl.

3


4




Pno.

us - es:

pizz.

3
arco

Vln.

3 6 6
3

4

3 3

Va.

Vc.

rit.

71

Fl.
(Picc.) 3

4
Cl.

4


Pno.

Sung
X
rit.
My tongue

4
3
Vln.

Va.
3 3


4







Vc.

3 ( )
 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 13
( = )

74

Fl.


(Picc.)

Cl.

n





Pno.

(Sung) Sp. Mel.

X

O death, made proud with pure and
=
shall ut - ter all!

( )

Vln.

Va.





pizz.

Vc.

77
Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4

Pno.

(Sp. Mel.) Inf. Sp.

prince-ly beau - ty The earth had not a hole to hide this deed



3
III 3

Vln.

3
Va.
















4



Vc.

14 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

80 2.2
Fl.

(Picc.) 3

3 4
Cl.

4

4




Pno.

There's still time, still time... Hide it! Some-where

2.2 non vib.

sul tasto

3 4
III

Vln.

4 4
III

IV

Va.

Vc.

83



Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

3 3
X

safe. So it won't be found, can't be found...

II

Vln.

sul tasto

Va.

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 15

86 Take Flute

Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.



n

3 3

Pno.

Vln.

Va.

3 3

Vc.

2.3 2
1
90
Fl.
(Picc.)

40
Cl.

approx.

40

secco

Pno.

approx.

3

Sung


X

2.3 If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide

Vln.
40

Va.
40

Vc.

16 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

3 4
92
Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.






3

Pno.

accel.

X

By self - ex - am - ple mayst thou be de - nied.

Vln.

Va.

Vc.

Piano
5 only
1
94
Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

A - way, and mock the time with fair - est show!

Vln.

Va.



III

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 17
2 3 4 A tempo
96

ord.

f.t.

Fl.

ord.
(Picc.)

f.t.

3
Cl.

Pno.

approx.



Slower

False face must hide what thefalse heart doth know.

A tempo

Vln.

3


Va.

4








3

Vc.

2.4

99
Fl.

(Picc.)

4
Cl.

4

Pno.

Inf. Sp.

X
There's

2.4

4
III sul tasto

Vln.


4
sul tasto

non vib.

Va.

pizz.
Vc.

18 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

105
Fl.


(Picc.)

4 3
Cl.

4
4

Pno.

still time, I know I have time. I know it! Hide

Vln.
4



3

4
4
arco

pizz.


Va.

Vc.

108
Fl.



(Picc.)

4
Cl.

Pno.

Whisper Inf. Sp. Sp. Mel.

the disk, some-where, some-where safe. It will re -

4
3

Vln.

Va.






5

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 19

111


3 3 3 3

Fl.

(Picc.)

3 3

3
4
Cl.

4
4

Pno.

Inf. Sp.

3 3 3

veal ev - 'ry-thing, so I'm told...

3
4
3

Vln.

4

4
3

Va.

3


3

arco

3 3

Vc.

( )


114


f.t. 5

ord.

3
Fl.

(Picc.)

4
Cl.

Pno.

[Looks at disk in hand, ... looks at door.]

( )

It will, I'm told. non vib. It will, will,

Vln.
4






4
pizz. arco

Va.

pizz.

Vc.

20 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

117 5

Fl.


(Picc.)

3 5

Cl.

Pno.

it will, will, it..., will it?

II

Vln.


Va.


3

Vc.

120 f.t.

Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

Sp. Mel.

X
Why? Why will it? Why? Why?
III

vib. ord.

Vln.

Va.



arco

Vc.


 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 21
2.5

ord.

122

5

Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

n






3 3


4

Pno. 3

Sung

Why? O now, for - ev - - - - er

2.5

Vln.






3
Va.


3

4



3 3

Vc.

125
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 4
3
Cl.

n

4
4
3
4

Pno.

X

Fare - well the tran - quil mind! fare -

Vln.
3

4

3
Va. 4


4



4


5

Vc.


22 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

129
Fl.

(Picc.)

3
2 3
Cl.

4
4
4

Pno.

non gliss.

5 3

X
well con - - - tent! Fare - well the plum - ed troop and the

Vln.
3 2


3






4
4
4
3

Va.





Vc.

132

3

Fl.

(Picc.) 3

4
Cl.

4




Pno.

X
big wars, That make am - bi - tion vir - - - - tue! O, Fare -

4
II

Vln.



Va.

4

Vc.

 23
=
The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
( )

135
f.t. ord.

Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4








3

Pno.

3
X

well! Fare - - - well the neigh - ing

( = )




3
3

Vln.

4
3
III

Va.

pizz.

Vc.

138

Fl.

(Picc.)

4
Cl.

4



Pno.

steed and the shrill trump, The spi - rit stir - ring drum the

4
III
Vln.

Va.












4

Vc.


24 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

141
Fl.

(Picc.)

4 3
4
Cl.

4

4





4

Pno.

Sp. Mel. Sung Sp. Mel.

Sung

3 3

qua - li - ty,
ear - pierc - ing fife, The roy'l ban-ner and all Pride



molto vib.
Vln.
4




3



4

4


4 4
3

pizz.

arco

Va.

3 5

Vc.

144

5

Fl.

(Picc.)

4 3 2
Cl.

4

4

4



Pno.

3
3
X

3
pomp and cir - cum - stance of glo - - - - - - r'ous

Vln.
4

3
2
Va.
4


4


4


arco III

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 25

146 f.t. ord.

Fl.

(Picc.) 3

2 3
Cl.

3 5
3

4 4
6 3

Pno.

3 3

war!

Vln.
2


3


3 6
6 3



4

4

3 3

Va.

Vc.



6
3

149

Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

(

Pno.

Vln.

Va.

6
6


3

Vc.

3

26 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

152
Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.






Pno.

end trem.

l.v.

Vln.

Va.

3



3

Vc.

154

Fl.

(Picc.) 3 3

Cl.

Pno.

Vln.

3


Va.

3 3




Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 27

156
Fl.

(Picc.)

2
Cl.

3
5







4

Pno.

Vln.
5
2



4
3

Va.

3



Vc.

ritard

159
Fl.

(Picc.)

2 3 4
Cl.

4 4


4




Pno.

ritard

Vln.
2 3

3
4

Va.
4

4
4

Vc.

28 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

CLOCK: 4:58


162
Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4

Pno.

X

non vib.

3
sul tasto
Vln.



4
3

Va.

Vc.

3.1
166
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 4
Cl.

4

4

Pno.

l.v.

3.1 For now sits Ex - pec -

Vln.
3
4








Va.
4

4

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 29

169
( )




Fl.
(Picc.)

3 4
Cl.

4 4
n

Pno.

l.v.

ta - tion in the air, And hides a sword from

Vln.







3

4

4
4
5

Va.

3

Vc.

171

Fl.
(Picc.)

4
Cl.

4


Pno.

hilts un - to the point!


IV

4
III

Vln.

4
3

Va.

Vc.

30 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

3.2 approx.
1
173

Fl.
(Picc.)

40 4
Cl.

80

4

Pno.

rit.

3

3

3 3

Hide it some - where safe, so it won't be found, can't be found, by an - y - one but me.
3.2 approx.


Vln.
40





4
Va.
80



4



Vc.

3.3
174 A tempo

Fl.
(Picc.)

4 3
Cl.

4
4

Pno.

A tempo

X

'Tis in my me - m'ry lock'd, my
3.3

4 3
A tempo

Vln.

Va.
4






4












Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 31
176
Fl.
(Picc.)

4
Cl.

3
6

4


Pno.

X
3
me - - - - - - m'ry lock'd and you your - self shall keep the key of it.

4
I
Vln.

Va.


4

3

3

Vc.

3.4
178

with conductor, maintain

Fl.

(Picc.)

with conductor, maintain

3
2
Cl.

with conductor, maintain






4

4

Pno.

approx.


independent of conductor,

Inf. Sp. Sp. Mel.

3 3

Who told me that? Who told me that?! Some-one told me, who said that?
3.4


III
with conductor, maintain

3
2
Vln.

IV

with conductor, maintain

Va.

with conductor, maintain

4

4





Vc.

3

32 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

5

3
181
Fl.

(Picc.)

2 5 3
Cl.

4
4
4

Pno.

3
X

Who told me that? By Ju - pi-ter! for-got!

2
5
3
5

Vln.


4 4 4
6

Va.



3

Vc.



5
3

3.5
3


183

Fl.
(Picc.)

3 4
Cl.

4


4

Pno.
l.v.

with conductor

3.5


3
4
3

Vln.

3


Va.
4



4
















Vc.


 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 33

186
Fl.

(Picc.)
3

3 4 3
Cl.

4
4


3

4

Pno.

Sung

I am wea - - - ry

3 4
3
3

3 3

Vln.

Va.




4
3

4




4



Vc.

189

Fl.


(Picc.)
3
3

3 4
Cl.

4

4



3

Pno. 5

3 3

X
Yea, my me - mo - ry is tired. Where



3 4

3

Vln.

3

4
4
3

3
Va.

non vib.

sul tasto

III ord.

Vc.


34 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

192


Fl.
(Picc.) 3

3
2 3
Cl.

4




4
4

Pno.

X

3
3

have I been? Where am I? I should e'en

3
2
3
5

Vln.

4
4 4
5

Va.

3


3 3

Vc.

195
Fl.

(Picc.)

3 4
Cl.

3 3

4



3






4

3
Pno.

X
die with pi - ty, I should e'en

3


4
5

Vln.

Va.
4









4

3

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 35

f.t. ord.

197
Fl.

(Picc.)

4 3
Cl.

4






4








3

Pno.

X
die to see an - oth-er thus!

4

3
5

Vln.

4
4



5

Va.

Vc.

3
199

Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.


3

3
5

Pno. 5

Vln.

Va.



3

Vc.


36 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

3.6
approx.

1
202
Fl.
(Picc.)

40
Cl.

40

n




Pno.

approx.



secco

X

I should have call'd be - fore, be - fore I for - got!
3.6


Vln.
40


40
sul tasto

Va.

Vc.

2
204
Fl.
(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4

Pno.

Slower

Should have call'd, I need more time.

Vln.

3
Va.
4

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 37
3.7
205
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 2 3
Cl.

4

4
4

Pno.

3.7

3

3
2
3
pizz.

Vln.

4
4 4
3

Va.

pitch ord.

ord.

sul pont. 3

Vc.

3


208
Fl.

(Picc.)

4 3 3
Cl.

4

4




8

Pno. 3

Swift, swift you dra-gons of the night, the
3

4
3 3
arco
Vln.

n

4

4
8
3

Va.





Vc.

38 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

211
Fl.

(Picc.)

3 2 4
Cl.

8
4



4

Pno.

night that dawn - ing may bare the rav - en's

Vln.
3 2 4


Va.
8
4


4

Vc.

214
Fl.

(Picc.)

2 3 2
Cl.

3 3

4

4
4

Pno. 3

eye! Swift, swift, swift, swift! I

3

Vln.
2
3


2
Va.



4


4
4

3

Vc.


 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 39

217

Fl.

(Picc.)
3

2 4 3 2
Cl.

4

4



4



4

Pno.

lodge in fear Though this a hae - - - - - v'nly

Vln.
2
4
3
2
4 4 4
4
ord.

Va.

Vc.

220
Fl.

(Picc.) 3

2 3 4
Cl.

4
4
tap fingertip on wood

4

Pno.

ang - - - - el hell is

Vln.
2
3
3



4
Va.
4


P

4

P

ric. col legno

4


ric.

c.l. batt. pizz.

Vc.


40 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

223



key clicking
Fl.

(Picc.)

key clicking

4 3
Cl.

4











4

Pno.

Falsetto

Sung

here. One, two, three:
pitch ord. c.l. batt.

Vln.
4














3
4 4
arco ord.

Va.

Vc.

ad lib. key clicking 3

3 5 3
226
Fl.

(Picc.)

ad lib. key clicking

3 5 3 3

3 4 3
Cl.

4 4 4
3

3


3

Pno.

mock laugh

Sung

3
X

3
time, time! Ha, ha! Keep time. How

ord.

ric.

pizz.

col legno

3
4 3
Vln.

ric.

4
4 4
sul pont.

col legno

arco ord. sul pont.

molto vib.

vib. ord.

Va.

IV

sul pont.
arco ord.

I IV

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 41

229
Fl.
(Picc.)

ord.

3
4
Cl.

n
4
4

l.v. a niente

Pno.

Falsetto Sung Sp. Mel.

X
sour sweet mus - - - - ic is when


3
4
arco
Vln.

4 4
ord.

Va.

Vc.

232 3.8
Fl.
(Picc.)

4 3 4
Cl.

4
4
4

Pno.

Sung

3
time is broke and no - pro - por - tion kept. I need more time!
3.8
Vln.
4
3
4

Va.
4
4


4

Vc.

42 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

236
Fl.
(Picc.)

04 5
Cl.

04

4

Pno.

approx.


Slower rit.

hurried slightly gasping breathes deeply

X

I need to calm down! Calm down, need to think.

04 5
Vln.

Va.
04

n

4
Vc.

237

Fl.
(Picc.)

5
4
5
Cl.
3

3

4
4
4

Pno.

[Goes to side table, pours a drink from decanter.] [Winces mid-pour, touches side of chest.]
X

Vln.
5
4


5
Va.
4
4
4
Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 43
241
Fl.
(Picc.)

5
2 4
Cl.

3
5

4
4
4

Pno.

[Looks down inside jacket - without unbuttoning it.]
X

5 2 4
Vln.

4 4 4
ord.

non vib.

sul tasto II


Va.

non vib.

ord.

II

sul tasto
Vc.

244 5

Fl.


(Picc.)

4
Cl.

Pno.

[Abandons drink.]

[Appears confused.]
X

4
Vln.



Va. 4

Vc.

44 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

246
Fl.


(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

[Returns down stage.]

X

Vln.




3 sul tasto

IV non vib.

Va.

Vc.

249 4.1
Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

X

I have
4.1
Vln.

Va.


Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 45

253
Fl.
(Picc.)

5 4
Cl.

4








4

Pno.

3

X
some wounds up -on me, some wounds up - on me and they

Vln.
5 3

4

4




4
3

Va.

vib. ord.

Vc.

3

256
Fl.
(Picc.)

4 3
Cl.

4











4

Pno.

smart to hear them-selves re - - - - mem - - - ber'd.

Vln.
4
3

Va.
4






4

Vc.

46 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

4.2

f.t.

ord.

258

Fl.

(Picc.)

2 3
Cl.

3




4 4
3

5
3

Pno. 3

Sp. Mel.

4.2 I can't think, it's

sul pont.

Vln.

3
2 3

Va.




4 4

n

Vc.

261
Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

Pno.
4



l.v.

Sung

no use, I can't re-call, can't

ord.

Vln.
3

4
sul pont. ord.

II
Va.

sul pont.

ord.

non vib.

II

Vc.

sul tasto

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 47
poco rit. 4.3
265
CLOCK: 4:59
Fl.
(Picc.)

4 3
Cl.

4
4

Pno.

Falsetto con

[Snatches phone from coffee table.]

3 3

4.3
re - call a sin - gle thing!

poco rit.

Vln.
3
4

3

4
4
sul tasto

non vib. 3

Va.



subito

Vc.

subito

269
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 2 3
Cl.

4 4


4



















Pno. simile

Falsetto

Sung

X

I fear, I fear

3
2
3
3

Vln.

4 4 4
3

Va.






Vc.

48 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

274
Fl.
(Picc.)

2 3 4 3
Cl.

4

4




4


4

Pno.

Sung

X
I am not in my

Vln.

2 3

4

3
Va.
4

4


4



4

Vc.

3
278

Fl.

(Picc.)

3 5 3
Cl.

4

3

5

4





4

Pno.

3
X

perf - - - - - ect mind... I am main - ly ig -

Vln.
3


5 3
Va.
4
4





4

3

II
Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 49

280
Fl.

(Picc.)

3 4
Cl.

4
4
3 3

Pno. 3

X

3

no-rant what place this is.
)

3
4
(

Vln.

4 4
5

Va.

Vc.

282

Fl.

(Picc.)

4
3
Cl.

4
4

Pno.





X


And all the

4


3
Vln.

4
4
3

III

3 3

Va.

ord.

sul pont.

ord.

Vc.

50 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

284
Fl.

(Picc.)
3

3 4 3
Cl.

4


4



3

4

Pno. 3

skill I have re - - - mem - bers, re - mem - bers not these

Vln.
3
4 6
3
4 4 4
5 3

Va.

II

Vc.

286
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 4 3
Cl.

4
4



4

Pno.

gar - ments. Nor I know not

Vln.
3
3
4

3
4 4 4
5

Va.






Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 51

288
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 4 3
Cl.

4
4
4
3

Pno.

where I did lodge 5 last

Vln.
3
4
3
Va.
4
4





4



Vc.

f.t. ord.

290
Fl.

(Picc.)

3
4
Cl.

4






4

Pno.

Falsetto Sung Falsetto Sung Falsetto

[Confused, and slightly

off balance.]
X

night, lodge, last...

Vln.
3


4

4 4
pizz.

Va.

3


pizz.
Vc.



52 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
4.4 with

conductor

292

Fl.

(Picc.)

with conductor 3 5

4
Cl.

4
with conductor

Pno.

approx.
independent of conductor,

3
Sung 3

3 3

X

am I?
Where Who did this? Who am I?
4.4

with conductor

Vln.
4

4



with conductor

Va.

with conductor



pizz.
Vc.

294 Take Picc.

Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4

Pno.

3

cresc.

3 3

X

can't re - mem - ber, can't re - call. I can't re -call

3
III 3 IV

Vln.

3
Va.














4


Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 53
CLOCK: 4:60


f.t. ord.
296

Picc.

Fl.

(Picc.)

3



3 4
Cl.

4
4
3

Pno.

Shout

[Looks at phone in his hand.]

3

X

a sing - le bloo - dy thing!




3
4
III
Vln. IV


P

4 4
ord. P
Va.




5

arco

Vc.

298
Fl.

(Picc.)

3

Cl.

4
3

Pno.

[Angrily tosses phone onto sofa, and roughly presses his hands on either side of head.]
X

3


Vln.





Va.





4




3

Vc.




54 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

300

Take Flute

Fl.

(Picc.)

4
Cl.

3

3

Pno.



5 4 6 3



5

X


I

II

4
Vln.

Va.







4

II

Vc.

302
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 3

quasi cadenza

3
Cl.

4
3

Pno.

l.v. a niente

[Slowly releases grip - now quite delerious.]
X



Vln.

3
Va.

4

Vc.
 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 55

5.1
305 ~ 5"
Fl.
(Picc.)

40
Cl.

40





Pno.

l.v. a niente

INSIDE PIANO

X

5.1


Vln.



40

Va.



40



Vc.

308
Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

Freely, as a chant

Hmm, hmm, O God, O God,

Vln.

Va.

Vc.
56 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
2
309
Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

approx.

~ 3"





Pno.

X


which this blood mad - est re - venge this death.

Vln.

Va.

Vc.

311
Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

O earth, which this blood drink - est re - venge this death!

Vln.

Va.

Vc.
 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 57
approx.

4


CLOCK: 4:61
312

Flute

Fl.


(Picc.)

4
Cl.

Pno.

l.v. a niente

approx.





4
II

Vln.

Va.

4


Vc.

314

with conductor

Fl.
(Picc.)

with conductor

H

3
Cl.

4
with conductor

Pno.

approx.
independent of conductor,


X



Eith - er heav'n with light - ning strike the murd - er - er dead, Or earth, gape

3
with conductor

Vln.

4
with conductor

Va.



with conductor

Vc.


58 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

317


Fl.
(Picc.)

,
Cl.

Pno.

Sp. Mel.

X
3
op - en wide and eat him quick!


II

Vln.

Va.

IV


Vc.

5.2 CLOCK begins to accelerate to an imperceptible rate by m. 322

f.t. ord.
319
Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno. ON KEYS

approx.


accel.

Quick, quick, call quick... They're here! Swift, swift! you dra - gons of the

5.2



Vln.


3

Va.

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 59

1 2 cue for Piano and strings only

321
Fl.

(Picc.)

3 3
3 3
3

Cl.



3

3


Pno.

approx.
approx.



accel.

night, They're call - ing, call - ing quick - ly...


Vln.





Va.

Vc.

5.3 3
CLOCK flashing 88:88
322
Fl.
(Picc.)

4 3
Cl.

4
4

Pno.

approx.


with conductor

Sp. Mel. Falsetto Sp. Mel. Inf. Sp. Sp. Mel.

3
X



5.3 Is there a murd - er - er here? No. Yes.


molto sul pont.

Vln.

4

3
4 4
molto sul pont.

Va.

molto sul pont.

pizz.

Vc.

60 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

5.4
324
Fl.
(Picc.)

3 4
Cl.

4
4

Pno.

Sung Sp. Mel.

5.4

I don't know! Vil - lains!

Vln.
3


5



4

4
4
ord.

Va.
3

arco ord.

III 5 3

Vc.

f.t.
326
Fl.

(Picc.) 5

4
Cl.

Pno.

con

3

Whisper Sp. Mel.

[Cocks his head toward door, and listens ...]
X


Lies! They're here! O God,

pizz. 3

Vln.
4

Va. 4 sub.

pizz. arco

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 61

328

Fl.

(Picc.) 5

Cl.

6





5

Pno.

Sung [Door opens. Two actors (1st Man, 2nd Man) enter looking around room.

X is oblivious and continues singing as the following directions take place:]

3
X

ans - - - wer my pray'r.

arco
Vln.

II


5 3

Va.

Vc.

330

Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4

3

Pno.

[The Two actors do not seem to see X, rather their eyes fix [1st Man motions to 2nd Man who then leans down and picks up X2,

upon something on the floor behind sofa, out of sight of audience.] barely alive, and carries him to sofa.]
X

3
3

Vln.

3
3

4
3 3

Va.





3

Vc.

3
62 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

5.5
332
Fl.

(Picc.) 5

3 4
Cl.

Pno.


4


4

[2nd Man lays X2 roughly on sofa, opens X2's jacket revealing blood-soaked shirt. He searches X2's pockets, while 1st Man paces around room.]

Pray can I not, But O What form of

5.5

Vln.
3
4

Va.
4


4

Vc.

f.t. ord.
335
Fl.

(Picc.)

5 4
Cl.

4
4
3 3

Pno.

[2nd Man finds USB flash drive and holds it up for 1st Man to see.]
3
X

pray'r can serve my turn? I am a

Vln.

5
4
Va.



4


4


5
Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 63
CLOCK stops flashing, and begins to run in reverse from 88:88


337

Fl.

(Picc.)

4
Cl.

4
3

3
Pno.

[1st Man takes drive, puts it in his pocket, as the two actors turn to leave.] [2nd Man peeks out into corridor, two actors exit, leaving the door open.]

vil - lain yet I lie O, pray

4
3

Vln.

Va.
4


3 3

Vc.

340

Fl.

(Picc.)
5

3
Cl.

4

Pno.

X
3
can I not, pray can I not, O,

3
IV

Vln.

Va.









ord.
4


Vc.

64 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
CLOCK stops at 4:59
rit.


343
Fl.

(Picc.)

3 4 3
Cl.

4
4









4

Pno.

I, O, I am out of

rit.

Vln.
3



4

3

Va.
4
4 IV

Vc.

347
Fl.
(Picc.)

2 4 2
Cl.

3 3

4

4
3 3

4

Pno.

Falsetto

3 3

X

breath in this fond chase! O,

Vln.
2

4


2
Va.

4



4


3

4

IV
Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 65

350

Fl.

(Picc.)

2 3 2 4
Cl.

4

4
4
4

Pno.

Sung

3
X

I could weep, I could

2
3 2
4
3

Vln.



4
4 4 4
3

Va.

III

Vc.

353



Fl.
(Picc.)

4
Cl.

Pno.


4


6

X




3 3
weep my spi - rit from mine eyes! Pray

4
3 3

Vln.



4
3

Va.

II

Vc.



66 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

356

Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

Pno.



4

(approx.

Falsetto
pitch) [X opens jacket revealing blood-soaked shirt,


identical to that of X2. He inspects his wounds gently.]
X

can I not.
sul pont. ord.

Vln.


3







Va.
4

Vc.


3

360


3
Fl.

(Picc.)

4
3
Cl.

4




4

Pno.

Falsetto

Sung

The air



Vln.

4 3
4
4
sempre

Va.

Vc.


 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 67

364
Fl.

(Picc.)

3 4
Cl.

4
4
3

Pno.

Sung Falsetto Sung

X
hath got in - to my dead - ly wounds, And

Vln.
3
4
Va.
4


4

III

Vc.

367

Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

Falsetto Sung Falsetto Sung

3
much ef - fuse of blood doth make me faint. Pray,

Vln.

Va.


3

Vc.


3
68 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

370
Fl.

(Picc.) 3
3

3
Cl.

4



Pno.

Falsetto 3

X
pray!

3
P
Vln.
3

3
Va.




4



Vc.

373

Fl.

(Picc.)

3
Cl.

4





Pno.

5

3
Sung

weepeing slightly
X

Help, help, ang -

pizz. arco P

3

P
Vln.
3
3 6 6

4

3

Va.

Vc.

6
 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 69

376

Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

( )

Pno.

els! Help! make as -

Vln.

Va.

6
6

Vc.

poco accel.

379
Fl.

(Picc.) 3

4
Cl.

Pno. INSIDE PIANO

(Hold pedal until the end)

[Kneeling.]

X
say. Op - - -

poco accel.

Vln.
4





Va.







4

3

Vc.

70 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X

381

Take Picc.

Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

3


3 3 3

X


en Thy gates of mer - cy gra - cious God



Vln.
5 3

3 3

Va.

Vc.

384


Picc.

Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

simile

Pno.

Falsetto

My soul flies through these wounds

Vln.

3 3

Va.

Vc.

 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X 71
cresc.

387

3
Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

5
3

Pno.

Trem. w. both hands

5

X
to seek out Thee!

Vln.



3

Va.

II



Vc.

5 5

389

5
3

Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

pizz. 5

(approx. pitch)

Pno.

[X contorts and slouches in a heap, still on his knees,

weeping inaudibly. X2 lay dead on the sofa.]
X





Vln.

6 3
5

5 3
Va.


5


3

pizz. 3

Vc.

72 The Three Last Minutes in the Life of X
( )
391 CLOCK: 5:00
Fl.
(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

X

( )

con sord.

Vln.

Va.


arco

sul tasto

Vc.

397
Fl.

(Picc.)

Cl.

Pno.

Vln.

Va.

Vc.


 LIBRETTO
A digital clock, with numbers large enough to be seen by the audience, reads 4:57

X enters hastily and panting. Dishevelled, he leans his back against the door, weakens and stumbles to
the floor behind the sofa momentarily out of sight of the audience. Rises in some pain, looks back to
door, then moves around sofa.

CLOCK: 4:57
1.1
X.
Ah, hark! the fatal followers do pursue;
And I am faint and cannot fly their fury: i
I am giddy, expectation whirls me round.
The imaginary relish is so sweet, [so sweet,]
That it enchants my sense: what will it be? ii

1.2
Here I am! OK, I'm here.
Please call, please place the call...
Place the call, place the call,
place the call...
(Startled, turns to the door,
then to side, then to audience.)
What will it be... a knock at the door?
And who, who will come, a so called friend?
What will it be, ...
and how will I know?
Bastards!
It's all gone wrong!
It's all gone to shit!
Please call, before I forget, ...
please, please call.
(Pauses approx. 4 seconds. Looks at wristwatch, then clock)
Damn it, I'll call him myself!
(Searches himself. Pulls USB portable flash drive out of his jacket pocket pauses)

2.1
My sable ground of sin I will not paint
to hide the truth of this false night's abuses:
My tongue shall utter all; iii

O death, made proud with pure and princely beauty!

The earth had not a hole to hide this deed. iv

73
2.2
There's still time, still time...
Hide it! Somewhere safe.
So it won't be found, can't be found,

2.3
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,
By self-example mayst thou be denied!
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. v

2.4
There's still time, I know I have time.
I know it!
Hide the disk, somewhere,
somewhere safe.
It will reveal ev'rything, so I'm told...
(Looks at disk in his hand, ... looks at door)
It will, I'm told. It will, will, it will, will, it...,
will it? Why? Why will it?
Why? Why? Why?

2.5
O now, forever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars,
That make ambition virtue! O, farewell!

Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump,

The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife,
The roy'l banner, and all quality,
Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war! vi

CLOCK: 4:58
3.1
For now sits Expectation in the air,
And hides a sword from hilts unto the point vii

3.2
Hide it some-where safe,
so it won't be found, can't be found,
by anyone but me.

3.3
'Tis in my mem'ry lock'd, [my mem'ry lock'd,]
And you yourself shall keep the key of it. viii
74
3.4
Who told me that? Who told me that?!
Someone told me, who said that?
Who told me that?

3.5
By Jupiter! forgot.
I am weary; yea, my memory is tired. ix
Where have I been? Where am I?
I should e'en die with pity, [I should e'en die]
To see another thus. x

3.6
I should have called before,
before I forgot!
Should have called.
I need more time.

3.7
Swift, swift you dragons of the night, the night that dawning
May bare the raven's eye!
[Swift, swift, swift, swift!] I lodge in fear;
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is here.
One, two, three: time, time! xi

Ha, ha! Keep time: how sour sweet music is,

When time is broke and no proportion kept! xii

3.8
I need more time!
I need to calm down!
Calm down, need to think.

(Goes to side table to pour a drink from decanter. Winces mid-pour and touches side of chest.
Looks down inside jacket without unbuttoning it. Appears confused. Abandons drink.)
(Returns down stage.)

4.1
I have some wounds upon me,
[some wounds upon me,] and they smart
To hear themselves remember'd.xiii

4.2
I cant think, its no use, I cant recall,
cant recall a single thing!

(Snatches phone from coffee table)

75
CLOCK: 4:59
4.3
I fear [, I fear] I am not in my perfect mind
I am mainly ignorant
What place this is; and all the skill I have
Remembers [, remembers] not these garments; nor I know not
Where I did lodge last night.xiv [Lodge, last ]

(Confused, and slightly off-balance)

4.4
Where am I? Who did this?
Who am I? Can't remember, can't recall.
I can't recall a single bloody thing!

CLOCK: 4:60
(Looks at phone in his hand. Angrily tosses phone onto sofa, and roughly presses his hands on
either side of head. Slowly releases grip now quite delirious.)

5.1
[Hmm, hmm]
O God, [O God,] which this blood madest, revenge [t]his death!
O earth, which this blood drink'st revenge [t]his death!

CLOCK: 4:61
Either heaven with lightning strike the murderer dead,
Or earth, gape open wide and eat him quick[!]xv
(Clock begins to accelerate to an imperceptible rate by m. 322.)

5.2
Quick, quick, call quick...
They're here!
Swift, swift! You dragons of the night,
They're calling, calling, quickly...

CLOCK: flashing 88:88

5.3
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, xvi

5.4
I don't know! Villains! Lies! (Cocks his head toward door, and listens ...)
They're here! O God, answer my pray'r!

76
(Door opens. Two actors (1st Man, 2nd Man) enter looking around room.
X is oblivious and continues singing as the following directions take place:
The Two actors do not seem to see X, rather
their eyes fix upon something on the floor behind sofa, out of sight of audience.
1st Man motions to 2nd Man who then leans down and picks up X2, barely alive, and carries
him to sofa.)

5.5
Pray can I not,
But, O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn?xvii
I am a villain: yet I lie.xviii

CLOCK stops flashing, and begins to run in reverse from88:88

(2nd Man peeks out into corridor, two actors exit, leaving the door open)

[O, pray can I not, pray can I not,]

[O, I,] (CLOCK stops at 4:59)
O, I am out of breathxix [in this fond chase!]

O, I could weep [, I could weep]

My spirit from mine eyes!xx
[Pray can I not.]

(X Opens jacket revealing blood-soaked shirt, identical to that of X2. He inspects his wounds
gently.)

The air hath got into my deadly wounds,

And much effuse of blood doth make me faint.xxi
[Pray, pray!]
Help, [help,] angels! [Help!] Make assay!xxii
(Kneeling.)
Open Thy gate of mercy, gracious God!
My soul flies through these wounds to seek out Thee[!]xxiii

(X contorts and slouches in a heap, still on his knees, weeping inaudibly. X2 lay dead on sofa.)

CLOCK: 5:00

THE END

77
ENDNOTES

i
King Henry VI, Part iii Act 1, Scene 4: YORK
ii
Troilus and Cressida Act 3, Scene 2: TROILUS
iii
The Rape of Lucrece, Stanza 154
iv
King John Act 4, Scene 3: PEMBROKE
v
Sonnet 142
vi
Othello Act III, Scene iii: OTHELLO
vii
King Henry V Act 2, Prologue: CHORUS
viii
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act 1, Scene 3: OPHELIA
ix
Coriolanus Act 1, Scene 9: CORIOLANUS
x
King Lear Act IV, Scene vii: KING LEAR
xi
Cymbeline Act 2, Scene 2: IACHIMO
xii
King Richard II Act 5, Scene 5: KING RICHARD II
xiii
Coriolanus Act 1, Scene 9: MARCIUS
xiv
King Lear Act IV, Scene vii: KING LEAR
xv
King Richard III Act 1, Scene 2: LADY ANNE
xvi
King Richard III Act 5, Scene 3: KING RICHARD III
xvii
Hamlet Act 3, Scene 3: KING CLAUDIUS
xviii
King Richard III Act 5, Scene 3: KING RICHARD III
xix
A Midsummers Nights Dream Act 2, Scene 2: HELENA
xx
Julius Caesar Act 4, Scene 3: CASSIUS
xxi
King Henry VI, Part iii Act 2, Scene 6: CLIFFORD
xxii
Hamlet Act 3, Scene 3: KING CLAUDIUS
xxiii
King Henry VI, Part iii Act 1, Scene 4: YORK

78