Sputnik as it orbited the globe in 1957 was the first time most people ever heard a beep, now a ubiquitous artificial sound heard daily whenever a button is pushed, or an item is scanned at the grocery store.
You can hear Sputnik’s beep here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdQHuiV_9AI
Look at how excited the tv anchorman is at hearing this new sound! Ah . . . with familiarity all allure is lost!
Who was creating these new electronic sounds that no human being had ever heard before?
Karlheinz Stockhausen (22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was one of the pioneers, and he used these new sounds for his musical compositions, culminating in his opera Light, a combination of prerecorded and live music that stretches for a full week.
Stockhausen was also a music theorist.
Consider the following table:
points groups masses
determinate variable statistical
development sequence moment
Along the top line, we have points, groups, and masses.
A point is a single event, such as a phrase of music; for example, the famous “da da da daaaaa” of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. A group is a collection of such phrases. A mass is a collection of groups.
Along the middle line, we have determinate, variable, and statistical.
A determinate music never changes, such as the daily ringing of the church bells at noon. A variable music varies, such as the roar of the bus that arrives at 6 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but at 6:15 a.m. on the other days, and never on Sunday. A statistical music follows a statistical profile, such as the alarm of an ambulance, which is more likely to occur during rush hour.
Along the bottom line, we have development, sequence, and moment.
A developing music develops when its phrases repeat; a sequential music repeats without development, such as many pop songs; a momentary music is a random intrusion into the music, such as an audience member’s cough.
This framework can be used to analyze not only music, but painting and novels, and even the performing arts.
For example, Genet, while writing The Miracle of the Rose in his prison cell, threw his manuscript on the floor to allow chance to connect his episodes. The result of these “moments” was a collage.
The line “quoth the raven” repeats without variation at determinate points in Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem; “Quoth the raven” is a point in a determinate sequence.
Most pop songs are points in a determinate sequence. Ad jingles, too.
A Jane Austen novel is a variable mass in a development.
The most modern element of the table is the moment. A moment is independent of the past and future; it is an insert taken from something unconnected, such as the sudden blaring of an ambulance siren. Music that is a sequence of moments has no transitions, no development, no beginning, no ending, merely continual starts and stops. Stockhausen asks: How could unity be achieved in such a musical piece? He answers: By having each moment feel equally present, equally memorable. The unfamiliarity of such procedures makes such music challenging for the listener!
A work of art can have determinate points in a development in one of its sections, and statistical masses in a moment in another section.
A work of art can also have these processes superimposed on one another, such as sonata form and variation form at the same time with different groups of instruments (see for example the fourth movement of Bruckner’s 9th Symphony).
A moment can also be lyrical; it is a pause, an insert, a poem suddenly appearing in a Japanese novel.
Dramatic works are sequential, proceeding along a path of variations and contrasts, not necessarily directional.
Epic doesn’t require contrasts; it can be the same texture, expanded, or compressed.
Lyrical is a moment independent of before and after, an insert, without transition.
Noise is statistical masses in a moment, but not necessarily inartistic when inserted, for example, at a proper place in a movie.
The beep you heard today at the grocery store was a point at a statistical moment.
* Orlando Bartro is the author of Toward Two Words, a comical & surreal novel about a man who loves yet another woman he never knew. Find your copy at Amazon. Hardcover, paperback, and e-book editions available.
https://www.amazon.com/Toward-Two-Words-Orlando-Bartro-ebook/dp/B072MNB4F9