Klangfarbenmelodie
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Klangfarbenmelodie
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Timbre Lingo | Timbre and Orchestration Writings
Published: November 20, 2023
In Western music theory, we often treat pitch and rhythm as primary structural parameters. During the nineteenth century however, composers gradually started using timbre as a major compositional resource: for example, by using timbre to create musical tension, as heard in Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. During the Impressionist era, timbre became almost as important as melody and harmony, as can be heard through Debussy’s use of novel textures and timbres. Ultimately, this tendency led to the concept of Klangfarbenmelodie, a German term meaning “tone-colour melody” [1], [2].
The term Klangfarbenmelodie was first introduced by Arnold Schoenberg in his treatise Harmonielehre (Theory of Harmony, 1911) [2]. In Schoenberg’s original definition, the word Klang was used in the holistic sense of a “musical sound,” not necessarily referring to a single pitch [1], [2], [3]; this means that the term Klangfarbe could referred to the “quality” or “color” of a complex Klang, or collection of pitches heard simultaneously [1]. Consequently, Schoenberg’s Klangfarbenmelodien (plural) can be understood as harmonic progressions defined by the colours of their sonorities. His goal was to overturn the power relations of tonality by treating all tones as equal elements of an acoustic whole. As a result, polyphony could be organized by the “logic of thought” (in the sense of intuition and sensation), as opposed to the “conscious logic” that makes up the rules of tonality (which he described as a distorted simplification of sensory reality) [4].
In the Five Orchestral Pieces, Op. 16, No. 3 “Farben”, Schoenberg creates a constant flow of sequentially changing orchestral colors (Klangfarben), resulting in a kaleidoscopic effect.
Notice the smooth transitions between the different orchestral colors, which are created by overlapping the voices while keeping them as blended as possible [1]. As Christopher Hamberger observes, this example also uses a referential colour (a very similar chord and instrumentation), which acts as a “home base” to mark the changes of sections as well as the conclusion of the work [5].
Anton Webern, a student of Schoenberg, had another understanding of Klangfarbenmelodie, one which best parallels how we understand the concept today: successions of individual tones according to timbre variations [4], [5], [3]. While typical melodies are made up of successions of pitches, Webern’s Klangfarbenmelodien are essentially successions of timbres. To put another way, Klangfarben could be seen as single points in a timbre space, with Klangfarbenmelodie representing a sequence or trajectory that links the dots, creating a timbral melody [6].
Concerto For Nine Instruments, Op. 24 shows a typical usage of Webern’s Klangfarbenmelodie, with the notes of the pitch-melody successively passed between the different instruments [5]. Sequential changes of tone-colour (timbre) can be heard throughout the twelve-tone melody, with occasional melding of voices.
In recent years, many composers have reinterpreted the concept of Klangfarbenmelodie in their own contexts. Joseph Schwantner proposed a new compositional technique that he named “shared monody” [7], [8]. This method involves having the different notes of a shared pitch-melody played successively by various instruments which sustain their note long enough to create harmony with the following note or group of notes. It can be understood as a combination of Webern’s timbre melody with Schoenberg’s melody of orchestral colors [5].
In music research, the concept of Klangfarbenmelodie has also led to a new interest in timbre intervals and the possibility of learning a timbre grammar. One study concluded that timbral intervals (the vectors that links two timbral points in timbre space [3]) are likely to be perceptually invariant to transposition [9], as are pitch intervals (for example, a tone whose fundamental frequency value is twice that of another tone is perceived as being an octave higher, whatever the starting frequency, meaning that the octave interval is invariant to transposition). For timbral intervals, invariance to transposition means that as long as the vector relating two timbres to one another has the same length and orientation, it is perceived as “the same interval,” no matter where the arrow stands within the timbre space. This supports the possibility of conceiving Klangfarbenmelodie as a sequence of timbral intervals that can be organized in a musical way—a marked departure from Schoenberg’s understanding of the concept. But even if humans are able to perceive and categorize timbre relations, are they able to internalize rules based on timbre sequences, just as one naturally internalizes the rules of tonality? Implicit learning experiments have shown that listeners can learn a musical grammar centered on timbre simply by being repeatedly exposed to timbre sequences that respect those rules [10]. In fact, participants of these experiments were able to differentiate grammatically “correct” timbre sequences from “incorrect” ones based on the feeling that a phrase sounded “right” or not [6]. This is very similar to the implicit learning of the rules of tonality: tonal melodies and chords tend to sound “right” to us while atonal sequences may sound “odd” or “wrong” if one hasn’t internalized their grammar. Regardless of whether one is exposed to a grammar of Klangfarbenmelodien, this aesthetic concept continues to offer vast potential for function, expression, nuance, and rhetoric in music [11].
REFERENCES
[1] Kursell, J. (2013). Experiments on Tone Color in Music and Acoustics: Helmholtz, Schoenberg and Klangfarbenmelodie. OSIRIS, 28, 191–211.
[2] Schoenberg, A. (1978). Theory of Harmony. Translated by Roy E. Carter. Berkley: Belmont Music Publishers.
[3] Iverson, J. (2009). Historical Memory and György Ligeti’s Sound-Mass Music 1958-1968 [PhD Thesis]. The University of Texas at Austin. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/6905
[4] Cramer, A. (2002). Schoenberg’s Klangfarbenmelodie: A principle of early atonal harmony. Music Theory Spectrum, 24(1), 1–34.
[5] Hamberger, C. L. (2012). The evolution of Schoenberg’s Klangfarbenmelodie: The importance of timbre in modern music [Master’s thesis]. The Pennsylvania State University. https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/16221
[6] McAdams, S. (2013). Musical Timbre Perception. In Deutsch, D. (ed.), The Psychology of Music (3rd ed.), 35–67. Academic Press.
[7] Popejoy, J. (2006). Liner Notes to Composer’s Collection: Joseph Schwantner. North Texas Wind Symphony, Eugene Corporon (conductor), GIA CD-657. CD.
[8] Renshaw, J. (1991). Schwantner’s First Work for Wind Ensemble. The Instrumentalist, 45, 30–36, 79.
[9] Ehresman, D., & Wessel, D. L. (1978). Perception of timbral analogies. Rapports de l’IRCAM, 13. Paris, France: IRCAM-Centre Pompidou.
[10] Bigand, E., Perruchet, P., & Boyer, M. (1998). Implicit learning of an artificial grammar of musical timbres. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive, 17, 577–600.
[11] Zeller, M. (2023). Klangfarbenmelodie in 1911: Timbre’s Functional Roles in Webern’s Opp. 9 and 10. Music Theory Online 28(1). https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.22.28.1/mto.22.28.1.zeller.html