Re: GG and Webern

[Ed Price <edp@PANIX.COM>]

Mary Jo wrote:

>One of the things I found most interesting about the Alchemist
>DVD is that quick moment when BM and GG discuss the Idea of
>North and GG mentions that he finds his "composition" (the IoN)
>to be reminiscent of the tone rows of Anton Webern. Anyone want
>to venture a guess as to what he meant by that?

Interesting question...

GG: "as opposed to Schoenberg, who tended to pick nice, neat,
geometric rows that fit rather like that [gestures], Webern
used rows that were much more loose, much more flaccid, had
many more undulating dives and swirls [lots of hand motion!],
and which tended to overlap in such a way that the last notes
of a certain transposition would reflect -- or be identical
to, perhaps -- the first notes of the next, and there was
this kind of overlap [gestures]".

I think the key here is that Webern used rows "which tended
to overlap" so that "the last notes of a certain transposition
would reflect -- or be identical to -- the first notes of the
next".

While they are listening to "The Idea of North" Gould points
out exactly this sort of effect, how he arranged the entrances
or juxtapositions of voices, so that one speaker says "further"
and then the other one says "farther", or two voices talk about
numbers, one voice asks a question and the other answers, etc.

-ed