Music 251A Chamber Music Profile No. 3: Complexes

Each profile will highlight a specific problem of orchestration for chamber ensemble. This set of examples will deal with musical complexes, those simultaneous mixtures of gestures in which there may not be a single dominant element. The concept of a complex may be applied to either foreground or accompaniment. In the area of accompaniment, there may be more than one complex.

  • 1. Foreground complexes which are two (or more) lines.
    Stravinsky, L'Histoire du Soldat, Part I opening of the piece, which balances tpt. and tbn.
  • Foreground complexes which are two (or more) fragments or figurations.
    Dvorak, Serenade No. 2, Mvt. III, P. 83: cl./ob. simple melodic complex.
  • 3. Accompanimental elements which consist of linear mixtures.
    Dvorak, Serenade No. 2, Mvt. III, horns with lower strings form two distinct layers of accompanimental complex.
    Schoenberg, Verklarte Nacht, meas. 100 (P. 12, system 2, last measure). Both foreground and accompaniment play off freely to one another.
    Schoenberg, Pierrot Lunaire, "Heimweh." CL. and vln. have the figures, while pno. has the chords.
  • 4. Accompaniments in which chordal support is multi-layered.
    L'Histoire Part I opening until Reh. 7 with vln, and Cb. Vln. produces harmonic enrichment and obbligato at Reh. 5. Vln. chords persist to the downbeat before the entance of the narrator. Cb. goes on.
  • 5. Complexes resolve into a mixed tutti passage.
    Stravinsky, Renard, opening of the piece, "March: Entrance of the Actors," P. 25. Compare with the opening of L'Histoire.

    Updated, October 16, 2003.