Project 2

Research point – Variable Metre introduced by German Composer Boris Blacher.

Born in a Russian-speaking community in the Manchurin Town of Niuzhuang in China in 1902. In 1919, after 5 years in China and additional time, he moved to Harbin. In 1924 he dropped his studies in Archiquecture and Mathematics and studied music composition with Friedrich Ernst Koch. Dueto accusations on writing degenerate music he lost his teaching post at the Dresden Conservatory. He later because director of the Music Academy of Berlin becoming one of the most influential composers of his time.

In 1947, he created his most popular orchestral work “Orchestral Variations on a Theme by Paganini”.  Then, he began to use modified serial techniques in his works and he even wrote electronic music. Blacher’s style took something from Stravinsky’s instrumental pungency and the anti-Romantic clarity of Milhaud; Berg and Bartók were other early influences. He also experimented with rhythm, devising what he called ‘variable metres’, inspired by Schoenberg’s note-rows, expanding and contracting to bring metrical variety to the works where he used them, such as his Piano Concerto No 2 (1952) and the Orchester-Ornament (1953) (Boosey & Hawkes, 2012)

Schoenberg talks about “change in metre” as a tool for changing the rhythm but says it is “seldom usable within a music piece” (Schoenberg, 1967). Blacher uses patters based on arithmetic/mathematical progressions of the metre that produces an effect of expansion/compression. The structures used in his 7 studios for Piano Ornamente are explained by Sitsky (2002).

Source: Sitsky L., Music of the Twentieth-Century, Avant-Garde,

Blacher brought along a conceptual change from the traditional notion of form and texture to a new idea of constantly moving, elastic shape. He chose to displace the centre of attention from harmony to rythm (Taher, 2009). As a consequence of Blachers used of variable metres, the succession of metrical units is frequently systematic. In many of his compositions, the degree of systematization of the metrical structure is strictly methodical to the point of absolute predictability. Blacher said that changes in metre intendify the formal characterisitics of a musical work. Nevertheless,  the procedure of expansion and contraction that is evident in the arrangement of metres is also present in the disposition of the durational units of other hierarchical levels (i.e. rhythmic patterns and hypermetrical sequences) and even more, in the pitch structure, which provide a unique sense of movement to his compositions. Creating an elastic effect through space (growing or contracting vertical space) that is mainly accomplished by the disposition of the pitches in register and the behaviour of the textural layers. Therefore, he creates effect of horizontal and vertical elasticity (idea of a single constantly stretching or contracting object, creating an elastic shape, over traditional concepts of successive sections and texture).

Metric Row and Metric Row and its Retrograde (Taher C. (2009))

Metrical Structure of Movement I in Duet for Flute and Piano 1973 (Taher, 2009)

We look at 7 bars per sub-row:

• First 6 bars are in 4/4 (48 quavers notes), next bar is 3/8 (3 quavers) -> 51 quavers.
• Next 5 bars are 4/4 (40 quavers) and then 2 bars 3/8 (6 quavers): 46 quavers
• Next 4 bars are 4/4 (32 quavers) and next 3 bars 3/8 (9 quavers): 41 quavers
• …We are reducing 5 quavers every 7 bars. Then starts expanding again. Sub row 6 is longer like a repetition of the mirror image.