“Amers” from Kaija Saariaho

“Amers”, who was composed in 1992, is written for solo cello, medium
ensemble, and tape and live electronic. This opus is a synthetic work in different
points.

First of all, the composer synthesised his way of composing that is based on
the traditional fundamentals of composition that are used in western music. Her way
of composition is also influenced by the rapid evolution of the last techniques and
technologies that are used for the artistic creation. These different techniques are
based on a perfect complimentarily between pure artistic gesture and its use by
computer based system that is between engineering and music. Because of this duality
of system, the composer does not have any other choice that to rethink her approach
of the compositional phenomenon in different ways.

In the sense that, using some reel time system that are going to operate only in
concert, and in different matter at every execution of the music, the composer has to
investigate the field of the interaction between these two part of the instrumental
ensemble:
- electronic and live electronic devices
- acoustic instruments

The composer also have to rethink her structural work in term of composition in a
way that these two different sonic personality have to create a new aesthetic that will
synthesize, marking in a same time a new step in the evolution of Saariaho’s
compositional research that is based since her first piece to integrate these two
musical actors in a same piece.

In another sense, this piece is a synthesis of her preliminary works in the way that she
worked with sound synthesis; she will create some electronic/ acoustic synthesis that
will be based on the work of acoustic instruments where the musical technique would
be expanded by the use of electronic system like synthesizer or samplers.

The title of this composition was taken in a poem the diplomat and French
poet Saint John Perse (1887-1975). This writer who received the Noble Price in 1960
is very important to Kaija Saariaho. Number of her opus ore directly linked to Saint
John Perse’s literature. Her piece for flute solo called “laconisme de l’aile” n 1982, is
based on the book of poem called “oiseaux” (1963). The composition “pres” for cello
and live electronic (1992) is also based on the artistic work of this writer’s work.

The “Amers” in the book of Saint John Perse, are objects that we can see from
very far, they are based on the coast, and they help navigators to find their way.
Amers, the title of this book is a philosophical meditation on the destiny of men
against the ocean.

One of the first musical ideas of the composer was the vision of a solo
violoncello that was the representation of the man who was travelling to meet her
destiny in the opus of Saint John Perse.

The composition is written like a contemporary concerto for cello and

orchestra. The interesting the in the instrumentation that Kaija Saariaho has chosen
for this work is her renouncement of the string section that were replaced by
electronic instrument and live transformation of the rest of the orchestra. The fact that
none of the traditional string are used, except for the solo cello will give to the
composition a non romantic, or non suave timbre, that is so often inherent to most of
composition that are using this kind of to traditional instrumentation.

The opus is divided up into three different complementary plans that are
always in complete interaction between each other:

- the solo instrument

- the instrumental ensemble
- the live electronic
The instrumental ensemble is made up with:

- woodwinds
o piccolo flute,
o flute,
o oboe,
o clarinet in b-flat and
o bass clarinet in b-flat

- brass
o two French horn in F

- one harp

- keyboards
o piano
o midi controller keyboard for the sampler
o keyboard synthesizer ( Yamaha SY99)
o midi controller keyboard for the electronic sounds

- percussions
o tam-tam
o vibraphone
o marimba
o glockenspiel
o bass drum
o xylophone
o triangle
o suspended cymbal
o tube bell
o two gongs
o three timpani

The percussion will be played by to percussionists

 - A live electronic system that will transform the sound of the solo cello in
real time.
- Some electro acoustic sources. A keyboard will play some pre recorded
sounds that can be found sounds or pure electronic sounds.

The use of found sound became very popular in France during the middle of
the twentieth century with composer like Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer. Schaeffer
chose to name his new art musique concrete to differentiate it from normal music,
musique abstraite.

Music concrete was recorded directly to tape with real (concrete) sounds ,
while musique abstraite was the traditional way of composing by writing down the
score to be played later. Music Concrete was based on manipulation of tape.

It also concentrated on 'found sounds' or natural recordings rather than

electronically produced sounds such as created by synthesizers. Pieces that would last
only a few minutes could take months of recording, cutting and splicing to create.

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Une oeuvre de synthese, analyse d’Amers, P.45, Kaija Saariaho, les cahiers de l’ircam
 In order to explain, his position in the use of found sound in music, Pierre
Schaeffer explained him self with the following words during the sixties:

"Photography, whether the fact be denied or admitted, has completely upset music...For all that,
traditional music is not denied; any more than theatre is supplanted by the cinema. Something new has
been added, a new art of sound. Am I wrong in calling it music?"2

Pierre Schaeffer, using the research of the futurist, decided to create a sonic
scale all the musical and non sound will find there places. This scale is made up with
four different steps that are:

- living elements such as voices

- noises
- prepared instruments
- Conventional instruments.

The most composition of the association Pierre Schaeffer/ Pierre Henri were
Symponie pour un homme seul in 1950 (Symphony for a Man Alone) and Orphee in
1951 and 1953 for the definitive version (Le voile d’Orphee).

Pierre Schaeffer died the 19 August 1995 in Paris.

The work of the composer is representative of the use of electro acoustic

system that will transform the sound of the instrument in real time. Most of her
precedent work is using the same type of system to create a complete interaction
between tape, live electronic and acoustic formation. The most important work she
produced before Amers using that interaction were:

- Lichtbogen, for chamber orchestra and live electronic in 1985-1986,

- Io, for chamber orchestra, tape and live electronic in 1986-1987
- Nymphea, for string quartet and live electronic in 1987
- … a la fume for flute in G, cello, orchestra and live electronic in 1990

2
Russcol, Herbert, The Liberation of Sound : An Introduction to Electronic Music , Englewood Cliffs,
NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1972.,p.32
 In all these composition, the real time transformation of the acoustic sound of
the solo instrument have a predominant importance. In Amers, the composer will use
her knowledge of that real time process to create the live electronic in this new piece.

In her new work, all system used are commercialized at the exception of a
special microphone that was created by Frank Williams Fromy for the Ircam. For this
reason, Kaija Saariaho will create two version of the piece: one version with the
Microphone and another one without use this specific device.

The Fromy’s microphone had an incorporated system that allows the cello
player to position it on the cello’s bridge. The system is made up with four small
microphones that are regrouped in one device. They are able to take the individual
sound of each string. By using four microphones (one per string), it is easy to isolate
the sound of only one string and to create electro acoustic transformation on this
specific sound. In the use of this special microphone that is going to create more
précised and detailed treatment of the sound, six channels are going to be used to
generate a specialisation that is going to create a perfect sound space:

Diagram representation of the electro acoustic treatment of the cello’s sound

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Une oeuvre de synthese, analyse d’Amers, P.46, Kaija Saariaho, les cahiers de l’Ircam
 The musician that will played acoustic piano will also use the midi keyboard
to control the sampler. The audio elements that was prepared in studio before the
performance, ere created by using different type of synthesis operation that is typical
of the composer approach of the electro acoustic phenomenon.

In Amers, these sound transformations start by the analysis of different cello

sound with the software Iana, that will create help the user to determine the audible
perception of each harmonics of a complex tone. The analysis of these samples will
create a series of data that are going to be used by Saariaho to create most of her
musical vocabulary, and will be useful to control different parameters of the synthesis
by modelling the resonance of the partials.

Iana is software that is the fruit of the collaboration of the work of the psycho-
acoustician Ernst Terhard and the computer developer Gerard Assayag.

This type of synthesis will control different filters that are going to be excited
by two different audio sources:

- by a source of noise ( synthesis)

- by pre recorded sounds ( filtering of an acoustic sound by another one)

The phase vocoding program SVP is used to create temporal dilatation of

recorded sounds. These sounds will be recorded on a local drive of a computer and a
midi keyboard (KX 88) will control the use of these files. The program Mosaic that is
synthesis software of physical model will create some microtonal sound for the
percussions. By using Mosaic, some resonated model will be mixed with other
synthetic sound and played via a local computer drive in the rhythmical episode of the
composition. “Amers” will not use a classical tape that will be replaced by a
direct/disk system. The electro acoustic part of the composition is made up with
thirty-six different part, in stereo, of different length that goes from four to forty
seconds. The use of thirty-six, for the number of part does not look to enter in a
compositional mean in the structure of the piece.
 By her anterior studies in recognised institution, Kaija Saariaho perfectly
knows the classical techniques of composition, and the formal thought of the
important composers of the history of the music. Saariaho “the structuralist” thinks
her work as narrative and directional like a closed network of internal relationship
between the different parts of the music that will give its unity to the piece.

The narration in the tradition of classical music is based on the succession of

different musical sequences over time. These different episodes will have different
musical characteristics that will diverge, contrast, conduct the audience from one
transformation of the initial musical material to another one, step by step, from the
beginning of the composition to its ending.

Saariaho will construct the structure of Amers taking example on the classical
aesthetic of communication, by trying to transmit her musical message. The global
conception of the over all form will be made before the elaboration of the sound
material. Contrarily of most of her colleagues that prefer working with the use of
probabilities in the elaboration of a composition, she prefers working from the
beginning on the simplicity, clarity and audibility of the form that will generate her
work. The first diagrams of the structure by the composer allow us the essential aspect
of the definitive version of the structure of “Amers”, its temporal proportions that will
be slightly transformed during final phase of her work:

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Une oeuvre de synthese, analyse d’Amers, P.49, Kaija Saariaho, les cahiers de l’Ircam
 The definitive version of the score of “Amers” can be divided up into two
parts of slight equal time that are delimited by a series of silence (P.44).

The first part of the composition goes from the page 1 to the page 44, and is
based on a principal of exposition and numeration of different sequences over time.
The first episode is based on the audio observation of the timbre and the resonance
low E-flat played on a cello. It is very interested to see observe that the composer had
decided to use this note and not another one. Nothing is written in the preface about
for what reason Saariaho had decided to use this specific note. However, it is possible
to speculate on this choice.

A great number of spectral compositions will take a E as an example due to

the fact that one of the most famous score (Partiels) will use this note to create the
musical material that will be used to generate the piece. This note is the lowest note
that can be played on a tenor trombone. Saariaho may have chosen to use a note
closed to E as a reference to the composer of “Les Espaces Acoustiques”.

The sequence using the analysis of a low E-flat played by a cello starts page 1
to finish on page 23.

A second sequence will follow this one. The characteristic of this episode is
rhythmical and very energetic. The words energico, doppio movimento are written on
the score to give the indication of movement to the conductor. This sequence goes
from page 24 on to page 30. The third sequence of this first part is written in the style
of a classical scherzo. It goes from page 30 to page 36, and the indication leggere
accentuate this idea of scherzo movement. The fourth and last sequence part can be
thought as a first conclusion of the first part. It is a very calm episode where the live
electronic and the acoustic solo instrument (cello) are present. After a complete
investigation in the world of sound synthesis and real time sound transformation, the
cello finds again its pure acoustic sound.

With the ending of this part, Kaija Saariaho creates the perfect synthesis of her
skills in the area of sound manipulation and interaction between acoustic instruments
and live electronic systems.
 During the forty-four first pages of “Amers”, she gradually made electronic
transformations of the cello and goes for a complete acoustic sound to a complete
electro acoustic sound and, concludes to a come back to the original sound, imitating
the classical form that usually goes from a first state first (the tonic) to a second state
the dominant or sub-dominant) and coming back to the first state (the tonic)).

In this composition the use of the electronic can be thought as a tension that is
going to be added to the “pure” sound that is represented by the acoustic part. When
the electronic disappears at the end of the fourth section, this is release time.

The second part of the composition goes form the page forty-five to the page
one hundred and nine. The second part is divided up into two different episodes. In
the first sequence, we will found different rhythmical and dynamic elaboration of the
musical materials that was used in an earlier step of the composition. The musical
system used will be cut and transformed, but will follow with few transformation the
formal plan of the first part of the opus.

The piece is completely symmetric and the different textures are organised to
create sonic crescendos and decrescendos at the beginning and at the end of the
composition like it was stipulated in the initial formal diagram. The two parts of
“Amers” use the same formal gesture starting by the observation of the timbre
whereas the formal individualized sequences of the first part and the discontinued and
dynamic elaboration of the different characteristics of the second part moves into the
disintegration of the initial sound, disappearing dolce misterioso in page forty-four
and the end of the first part.

One the most important factor of unity in the composition is the discontinued
presence of the E-flat complex tone that open “Amers”. This note, initially played by
the cello, will determine the harmony/ timbre and the formal organisation of the piece.
The sound of the cello will often appear during the piece (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 17,
74, 94, 96, 95, 109-109). Because of its low register, its harmonic richness, the
different effect that are used by the cello player, this note is easily identifiable by the
audience and will structure the entire composition. The timbral use of the instrument
will conduct the listener from one step to another one; will render audible the
structure of the piece during the performance of the ensemble. This sound is the
unified system that can be compared to the tonality that was used in the classical
period. It is a research of formal cohesion of the opus since the disintegration of the
tonality and classical formal harmonic system that will guide the composer to
establish new organisations systems that could be serialism, stable axis, pitch
ostinati…

Kaija Saariaho starts her work by the observation and the analysis of a living
sound. As we have seen previously, she will use the sound of cello playing a low E-
flat with its succession of harmonics. That will define the system harmony/timbre
with all the different formal composition that will be produced (as shown on the
previous diagram).

One of the first analyses of the cello triplet played with the bow at a normal
pressure will show the evident spectral consonance of the cello sound.

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Une oeuvre de synthese, analyse d’Amers, P.52, Kaija Saariaho, les cahiers de l’Ircam
6
Une oeuvre de synthese, analyse d’Amers, P.54, Kaija Saariaho, les cahiers de l’Ircam
 This natural sound will be used by the composer as a stating point for the
synthesis investigation that will in a second time suggest the harmonics tension the
consequence in a formal area during the total length of the piece.

For the elaboration of the sonic material, Kaija Saariaho made analysis of
numbers of sound played by a cellist. The only difference between the different
samples will be found in the way that the musician will play. He will play the same
note (E-flat) with different position and pressure. (the cello is an instrument where the
same note can be found in different place, due to the fact that it is an instrument with
four strings. The same note can be found in one specific place on the first string, but
can also be found in a different place and in a different string and conserve the same
pitch. However a slight difference of timbre between these similar notes will be
perceived).The position of the bow when a string vibrates will also be changed. The
cello will pay from sul ponticello (on the bridge) to sul tasto (far from the bridge).

The following musical example shows the result of an analysis of a triplet

played sul ponticello with a great bow pressure.

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Une oeuvre de synthese, analyse d’Amers, P.54, Kaija Saariaho, les cahiers de l’Ircam
 The properties of these sounds will be mostly used to generate processes that
will create different sound transformations.

The first synthetic sound that appears in “Amers” (measure 22, page 4,
sequence C, a tempo, sempre espressivo) precisely starts by a variation of the
structure that was based on the use on the pitched sound E-flat. The composition will
also end on the harmonic structure that will be based on the spectral vocabulary issued
from a triplet.

In the synthesis part, the triplet rhythm was slowed down until the
disappearance of its movement that will create a discontinued transition between the
basic harmonic structure and one single pitch (G). The part that is played y the
orchestra will periodically vary between two structures that come from two different
analyses. The solo cello part that had started the composition will not come to its
initial point but its sound is going to fuse with the sound of the ensemble.

“Amers” is representative of a new wave of compositional research that is

based on the extension of the instrumental universe of the composer. The cello is ,
with no doubt, one of the favourite instrument of Saariaho that will be used in most of
her works.

Like in Petals in 1988 that was written for cello and electronic, the richness of
the timbral possibilities of the instrument are impressive depending on the style of
play that is used by the musician:
-triplet,
-glissando with or without vibrato,
-different pressure of the bow that goes for triple piano to triple fortissimo,
- Artificial or natural harmonics,
- Micro interval,
- Tremolo,
- Sul tasto or sul ponticello, etc…
 The combination of some of these techniques will transform the timbre of the
acoustic sound of the cello by adding the noise of the fingers or the bow to the natural
sound of the instrument that could be assimilated to an added sound that could be
generated in studio. In her analysis of “Amers”, Ivanka Stoianova affirm that the
previous work “petals” that was written for solo cello and electronic was the first
manifestation of the composer to operate a complex sound morphing from acoustic to
electronic.

The electronic part that is mainly based on the used of harmoniser and
reverberation system will create a deployment and a modulation of the acoustic
sound. In Lichtbogen (1986), the starting point of the composition was also the
analysis of a note played by a cello with noises that were created by an over pressure
of the bow on the string. In Nymphea (1987), Saariaho experiments the use of the
micro-interval, the glissandi, the use of the bow sul tasto and sul ponticello.

All these previous experiences gave to the composer enough data to state
about her research in that area in the present composition. By using all her past
experience in the treatment of the string effect the deal during the past ten years, she
intends to synthesize her skills in this area in order to move on in a new step of
composition.

The solo part of the cello is going to use the entire possible extension of the
musical universe of the instrument by using most of the techniques that were citied
before. Each sound that is created by the player is studied and taken as example for
the elaboration of the synthesis.

By using this process, and by creating electronic sounds cape that are
modelling on every single sounds of the cello, the composer is able to create a perfect
morphing system where the inner structure of the electronic sound is directly copied
on the inner structure of the modelled acoustic sound. In order to achieve a more
perfect relation between the two states of the compositional sound, Saariaho will
precisely indicate the way of playing notes on the score.
Kaija Saariaho will organise the sound scale with six different characteristics:

- the height of the note:

o portamenti
o glissandi
o micro-interval
o triplet
o Vibrato, etc…
- rhythm
o the rhythmical durations are very précised
o complex rhythmical figures
o repeated figures
o rhythmical crescendo and decrescendo
o Tremolo legato, tremolo vibrato, etc…

- The choice of the string where the note has to be played (sul G, sul A. This
system will allow the musician to slightly change the timbre of the sound
without interfering with its pitch.)

- The dynamic
o crescendo and diminuendo
o highly précised indication of intensity

- expressivity
o Delicato, dolce, espressivo, furioso, intensive, calmo, con violanza,
agitato, energico, calando.

The complete extension of the sound universe of the cello is not only based on
a technical manner, but on a necessity to link the elaboration of her own
compositional style to her conception of the musical form in a way that these two
distinct compounds are still clearly audible during the performance of the piece. The
extension and the analysis of this sounds cape is synonymous of extension in richness
vitalisation of the synthesis that will try orchestrate the inner movement of the
acoustical sound. (Example U, page 45 of “Amers”)

One of the major aspects of the composer’s writing system that considerably
help to create a rhythmical vitality of the sound can be found in the formal

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Une oeuvre de synthese, analyse d’Amers, P.59, Kaija Saariaho, les cahiers de l’Ircam
organisation of the dynamicity. This is determined by the meticulous elaboration of
the rhythmical patterns and duration parameters. The rhythmical compounds that are
that are the most repetitive and rigid of the composition ( like the computer part at the
beginning of the section U) or the superposition of different rhythmical pattern create
complex rhythmical orientations, complex writing process that are unpredictable. The
most repetitive and periodic rhythmical compounds (like the electronic part at the
beginning of the part U) and the static and rigid parts that are unpredictably introduces
are used with lots of imagination as a unifier and organiser factor.

It is the rhythmical process movement that create dynamic synthesis of the

different formal compounds. Concentrated under a symmetrical and rigid form, the
rhythmical formula is like an unpredictable intervention that deserves the other
parameters of the texture of the piece. That system will be introduced many times
during the composition.

This transductional elaboration of the dynamic system is prepared during the

first part of the composition in page 14-16 by the harp, bass clarinet 1 and 2, cello,
and in page 19-23 by the percussions, the harp, the bass clarinet 1 and 2, and the cello.

The extension of sonic universe of the cello is a primordial factor for the
composer. However this extension is linked with the synthesis of different types of
compositional writing:

- linear
- polyphonic
- vertical homophone

These different writing will be used by Saariaho in all there formal

possibilities a complexity of vocabulary that will the basis of a fissional unification.
 Contrary of the first school of spectral music, that tried to avoid linearity in the
conception of their melody, the polyphonic superposition, the too active rhythmical
process that were to easily discernable in the timbral exploration, Kaija Saariaho deals
with horizontal harmony (that is always based on the principle on harmony/timbre)
and the vertical writing system can allow the compression of rhythmical percussive
chords.
The formal thought that synthesize different type of compositional techniques
in order to obtain different contrast, oppositions, directions or elaborations is based on
the development of similarities between simple and complex level between audio
phenomenon and syntax of the opus by exploiting the established knowledge of the
sound analysis.

The working method during the elaboration of the overall form will be done is
like an evolution model that start from the complexity. This evolution is based on the
analysis of acoustic sound that could create complex textures. This evolution can also
be studied in a macro formal level that is based on a précised control of all the
parameters of the sound (pitch, spatialization, timbre structure, loudness)

The formal thought of “Amers” refers to the western tradition that is based on
the opposition of contrasts, an interaction between the different sections of the
composition, organisation of the structure and unification of the overall form.

By synthesizing the formal strategies of the western tradition, and the

contemporary compositional synthesis (instrument, live electronic generated by
computer, tape/direct to disk system), that attempt to use each characteristics of the
sound in a dynamic way, Kaija Saariaho succeed in her present composition to create
music as a superior form of communication that needs clarity to be perceived9

9
Kaija Saariaho:”Kunst ist mehr als Kunsthandwerk” in Musik text n 35, Koln, 1990, P.5