In an article from the Winter 1998 issue of 'The Musical Times', entitled
"Beethoven's Primitive Cell Structures", Reginald Smith Brindle finds
parallels between Beethoven's music and that of early man.
Here are some extracts:
"Although one is aware in Beethoven's music of a certain primordial
quality, as if some part of it echoes the beginnings of music's
existence, one would hesitate to associate any part of his sublime
art with that of primitive cultures. Yet there are certain aspects
of his music which would seem to have been gleaned, not from his
immediate predecessors, but from the music of man in the most distant
epochs of history. Obviously, any recollection of such historically
distant elements was no deliberate act on his part, as had been the
'neo-primitive" artistic movement of this century. Rather it must
have been due to a dim stirring in his subconscious, a re-awakening
of a dynamic creative art practised by his remote ancestors."
Our scholarly author, of course acknowledges that no direct knowledge of
Palaeolithic music exists in the present age. He turns instead to numerous
examples of parallels which may be drawn from examples of modern 'stone
age' primitive societies, for example the Yamana of Tierra del Fuego.
During the visit of HMS Beagle (1832-4):
"The Yamana expressed friendship as follows: 'They made Messrs Waldron
and Drayton jump with them on the beach...took hold of their arms
facing them, and jumping 2 - 3 inches from the ground, made them keep
time to the following song:
Ha ma la ha ma la ha ma la ha ma la
O la la la la la la la la la"
Smith Brindle points out the musical factors of a regular metre and
repetition of simple rhythms with a dynamic, motoric basis and that
repetition in one form or another is fundamental to primitive song.
Likewise Beethoven devised a form of musical structure depending on
persistent repetition of a minimum number of rhythmic cells.
"None of his immediate predecessors initiated this, nor had it been
a feature in any Western art music during known history".
"It is important to emphasise here that we are referring to a
persistent repetition of rhythmic cells over a large area. Such
composers as Mozart and, before him, originators of the galant style,
often initiated a melody by repeating a simple rhythmic formula two
or three times before the melody culminated or 'took flight' with
differently shaped material. This 'gathering together' of similar
melodic strands is common enough, but a very different process indeed
from Beethoven's construction of entire edifices through multiple
repetitions of one or two cells. Such constructions can be likened
to honeycomb structures, where each cell is identical, equal is status
and indispensable to the strength of the whole."
"There is another close parallel between Beethoven's repetitive
structures and those of primitive man: relief from monotony is
obtained (without resorting to variations or expansions of the
material) by volume contrasts and by occasionally moving the music
onto different tonal planes. We will shortly see these primitive
techniques are virtually identical with the organisation of the entire
development section of the first movement of the Pastoral Symphony".
To be continued...
Geoffrey Gaskell [log in to unmask]
http://freeweb.digiweb.com/music/Gustav_Mahler/
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