Witold Lutosławski's art of orchestration. Instrumentation devices as

Despite having been discussed in books about the composer and in analytical articles on his selected compositions, the problem of orchestration in Lutosławski’s music is usually handled with secondary importance.1 The possible root of this neglect on the part of scholars might be the apparent lack of the composer’s in-ventiveness in this area as compared with his achievements in harmony and time organization. Moreover, he didn’t subscribe to the 20th century trend of preparing instruments or using them in unorthodox ways. However, the way Lutosławski or-chestrated his works shows a compelling choice of instrumentation devices, the dis-tinctive forms of instrument employment that characterise his compositional style.

Lutosławski used to call the traditional musical instruments ‘a collection of old-timers’. 2 Those ‘old-timers’, as he dubbed them, became the means of em-phasizing the systemic pitch organization, highlighting the formal features in the model he conceived, as well as ‘decorating’ the piece with instrumentation devices to his liking.

The composer’s musical path to his unique style of orchestration originated from neoclassical patterns.3 They can be traced in Symphonic Variations, Sym-

1 One of the exceptions is an article by Adam Walaciński, ‘Les Sons Tissées – o poetyce orkiestracyjnej Witolda Lutosławskiego’ (‘Les Sons Tissées, On the Orchestration Poetics of Witold Lutosławski’), in: Jadwiga Paja-Stach (ed.), Witold Lutosławski i jego wkład do kultury muzycznej XX wieku (Witold Lutosławski and His Contribution to the Musical Culture of the 20th Century), Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, 2005, pp. 75–80.

2 Lutosławski’s words in: Tadeusza Kaczyński, Rozmowy z Witoldem Lutosławskim (Con‑versations with Witold Lutosławski), Wrocław: TAU, 1983, p. 154.

3 Compare features of neoclassical orchestration with Zofia Helman, Neoklasycyzm w muzyce polskiej XX wieku (Neoclassicism in the Polish Music of 20th of Century), Kraków: PWM, 1985, pp. 131–45.

Jadwiga Paja-StachWitold Lutosławski’s art of orchestration. Instrumentation devices as the key ideas and tone-colour details

93

Witold Lutosławski Studies 3 (2009)

94


phony no. 1 and Concerto for Orchestra. In addition, it should be noted that next to the traditional use of instruments through, for instance, ‘colouring’ the same motif or a phrase and introducing it to various instrumental parts or stressing the contrast between themes by assigning them to specific groups of instruments, there appear ‘heralds’ of instrumentation devices that would become fixed ele-ments of the mature musical language of Witold Lutosławski; nonetheless, even then they would be more in line with traditional solutions than with the 20th century avant-garde. The composer would occasionally supplement their delicate sound structures, made of juxtaposed timbres of woodwind and harp, piano, ce-lesta and strings in high registers (the mixture of instrumental tone-colour much favoured by the composer and used, for instance, in the Symphony no. 1, the first movement, no. 13–17; and in Symphonic Variations, before and after no. 130), with ‘points’ of timbre produced by other instruments, for example, by percussion (the First Symphony, finale of part 3, from no. 99; Symphonic Variations, no. 170). Similar timbre interrelation comes with the new pitch organization of the com-poser’s mature and late oeuvre.

The aim of this paper is not to compile the instrumentation devices previously commented on or to be commented on in musicological writing. It is rather an attempt at presenting a typology of the combinations of instruments employed by Lutosławski and pinpointing their role in shaping the dramatic aspects of a piece, as well as underlining the interdependence between instrument timbre and pitch organisation.

While elaborating on selected features of orchestration used by Lutosławski in his compositions (after 1960), I want to refer to my analytical concept, applied for the first time in my PhD thesis in 1982 and next in the book ‘Lutosławski i jego styl muzyczny’ [Lutosławski and His Musical Style]4. The concept reflects the manner in which I view Lutosławski’s works as system objects. According to this idea based on the general systems theory, ‘Lutosławski’s work is a hierarchical system of interlinked elements, an entity comprising interdependent parts, a sys-tem object.’5 I examined all the relations between the elements belonging to the system (pitches, pitch aggregations, strings of aggregations, segments and parts and phases) from the perspective of pitch organisation, thus, I approached them as an abstract model. I disregarded other tone features (timbre or time) which were aimed at emphasising the coherence of a piece, resulting from the relation between defined pitches. According to the systems theory, a system is always per-ceived together with its environment – a set of objects on which a given element depends and/ or on which it acts.6 As I transferred the notion of environment

4 Jadwiga Paja-Stach, Lutosławski i jego styl muzyczny (Lutosławski and His Musical Style), Kraków: Musica Iagellonica, 1997.

5 Ibid: p. 62; transl. AG.6 Ibid: p. 81.

95


to the vein of discussion about Lutosławski’s oeuvre, my goal was to refer to the whole real sphere of sound of the compositions, including timbre; only the pitch was excluded.

Admittedly, the question of timbres and their link to the systemic pitch or-ganisation has been remarked upon in my book7. Nonetheless, I believe it should be developed in view of the fact that not only does orchestration considerably impact on the clarity of compositional construction regarded as a system, but also accounts for the unusual attractiveness of a piece, and takes an important part in creating the musical expression and the beauty of sound that results, among others, from polishing musical details.

If we return for a moment to the way of thinking according to systems theory, instrumentation can be perceived as a more or less immediate environment of a system. The more immediate environment is referred to when instrumentation is closely related to the systemic pitch organisation of a piece, for example when a given pitch aggregation is always placed within parts of specific instruments. The less immediate system environment is associated with the situations when there is no direct link between a type of pitch aggregation and timbre, and given instruments have been introduced to achieve the effect of extended scope of tone-colours of a piece, to focus the audience on the timbre nuances, on a type of note register, or on a detail of timbre.

If treated as a more immediate environment of a system, orchestration reveals itself, for instance, in those sections of Lutosławski’s symphonic pieces in which analogous aggregates of pitches are arranged in a similar way. It can be substanti-ated, to name but a few fragments of Lutosławski’s compositions, by the refrains of Symphony no. 2 and the so-called brass interventions of the Cello Concerto. Another indication of how the orchestration works as immediate environment is creating the climax through linking twelve-note chords with orchestral tutti (e.g. in Symphony no. 2). In the examples given it is evident that orchestration contrib-utes to the structure of the whole composition and plays a vital role in stressing the contrast between separate elements of form (e.g. between refrains and episodes) and in shaping the musical dramaturgy.

Discussed below are the main types of instrumentation devices used by Lutosławski that distinguish pitch structures (pitch aggregations, strings of ag-gregations) coming in succession, simultaneously, or in the chain-like form.

Types of orchestration of pitch aggregations coming in succession

The first type consists in linking a specific pitch organisation, for instance a twelve-note aggregation, with an identical or similar way of instrumentation.

7 Ibid: pp. 81–2, 130.

96


It refers to orchestrating the refrains, the elements of the first movement in the two-movement model devised by Lutosławski.8 The device serves the purpose of ‘colouring’ refrains in order to emphasize the contrast between the neighbour-ing episodes that contain divergent pitch aggregations and different instruments. The refrains are set to be performed by small groups of instruments in contrast to the usually much wealthier arrangement of episodes. The practice can be well illustrated by the aforementioned Cello Concerto9, which contains brass refrains (referred to by Lutosławski as interventions) that distort musical development in the parts of other instruments. It is as early as at the introductory solo of the cello that a sharp ff interruption of trumpets arrives. The following interventions in trumpets bring sharp sonorities, which intensify the impression of contrast. In turn, the euphonious episodes, interrupted with refrains played by brass, display the composer’s favourite combinations of woodwind, harp and piano, as well as tu-bular bells, vibraphone, and celesta. There are also ‘decorative elements’ that shape the episodes. They take the form of percussion sonorities with undefined pitch. In the following example such sonorities, meaningful in respect of time organisation, are produced by bass drum and cymbals (Ex. 1).

A succession of contrasting timbre sections comes in the first movement of Symphony no. 2.10 Seven episodes of various instrument arrangements have been punctuated with refrains based on interval pairings 4+6, performed by similar groups of reeds which do not feature in episodes (apart from the finale of the first movement): refrain 1 and 2 – two oboes and cor anglais, 3 – two bassoons and cor anglais, 4 and 5 – oboe, cor anglais and bassoon, 6 – two oboes and cor anglais; whereas the episodes are rendered by the timbre of brass (ep.1, interrupted with clustered sonority played by string instruments), three flutes, five tom-toms and celesta (ep.2), muted horns, two different side-drums, bass drums and harp (ep.3), three clarinets, vibraphone and piano (ep.4), two suspended cymbals, tam-tam, celesta, harp and piano (ep.5), three flutes, three clarinets, three horns, five tom-toms, celesta, harp and piano (ep.6), and the longest, seventh episode, compris-ing several instrumental variations, including two independent percussion strands, spreads over the end of the first movement (before no. 44 and after no. 46).

8 Let it be remembered that the model, described many times in writing on musicology, comprises phase 1 (introduction) that consists of episodes separated with refrains as well as phase 2 that leads to the climax and its unravelling.

9 See description in, for example, Charles B. Rae, The Music of Lutosławski, London: Fab-er and Faber, 1994, p. 120; or Danuta Gwizdalanka, Krzysztof Meyer, Lutosławski . Droga do Mistrzostwa (Lutosławski . The Way to Mastery), Kraków: PWM, 2004, pp. 137–8.

10 A detailed description of the link between pitch organisation and orchestration in Symphony No. 2 is to be found in the article by John Casken, ‘Transition and transformation in the music of Lutosławski’, Contact 12 (1975), pp. 3–12; and in Charles B. Rae, The Music of Lutosławski, London: Faber and Faber, 1994, pp. 102–9.

97


Ex. 1 Cello Concerto, a refrain-intervention of trumpets and the neighbouring episodes.

98


The instrumental arrangement represented by the Cello Concerto and Sym-phony no. 2 underlines different approaches to pitch organisation. When consid-ered from the perspective of systems theory the role of instrumentation may be referred to as the immediate environment of the system. It is only the participation of percussion instruments of indefinite pitch that can be described as the less di-rect environment used for either decorating the system elements or impeding the flow of musical action (in the case of independent soundings of percussion).

The second device to be set forth here is the use of altering instrumental tone-colours as a means of modification of the same or similar note organisation, thus bringing a new timbre to identical or equivalent pitch aggregations. Timbre modi-fications of this type are showcased by three Intermčdes from Livre pour Orches-tre that separate Chapitres, vast episodes of the piece. The Intermčdes presented below (Ex. 2) display interval-pitch analogies, differences and similarities in or-chestration and gradual loosening of the timbre relationship between them: the first Intermčde is scored for three clarinets, the second for two clarinets and harp, and the third for harp, piano and tubular bells.

99


Ex. 2. Livre pour Orchestre, 3 Intermèdes, no. 110, no. 216 and no. 401–402.

The important role orchestration plays in emphasising the instrumental tone-colour differences of equivalent timbre sections can also be traced in the chaconne of the Piano Concerto. Its theme has been based on interval pairing 1+6 and a rhythmic pattern gradually taken over by various sets of instruments (in 17 state-ments)11, which emphasises the structure of this movement.

Types of orchestration of pitch aggregations that come si-multaneously, or in the chain form; splitting the texture.

The orchestration devices I present below pertain to the procedure of splitting instrumental texture into several layers of distinct timbre (two, three, and four lay-ers) and matching each of them with specific instrumental tone-colour and pitch organisation or a string of such organisations.

Examples of splitting a twelve-note chord or another chord into smaller parts scored for particular instruments can be found in all the orchestral piec-es Lutosławski composed after 1960. They contain sound-constructions of two, three, or four layers: heterophonic, vertical and horizontal. Many a time, those

11 See the table of metamorphoses in timbre as affected by scoring, articulation, and theme transpositions in Alicja Jarzębska, ‘Witold Lutosławski a postmodernism’ (‘Witold Lutosławski versus Postmodernism’), in: Witold Lutosławski i jego wkład do kultury muzycznej XX wieku, ibid., pp. 53–4.

100


planes do not start and do not finish simultaneously, but overlap and thus create chain-like relations.

An orchestration device that distinguishes both succession and simultaneity of sound planes becomes a crucial means of highlighting the chain technique that consists in connecting compositional segments in a specific way. The overlapping pitch aggregations (chain links) are characterised by separate timbres (the end of one note structure co-occurs with the next one that brings distinctive instrumental tone-colour).

Linking musical thoughts in a chain-like fashion, which had appeared in Lutosławski’s oeuvre as early as in the Concerto for Orchestra, became a fre-quently applied strategy of the mature and late period of the composer’s work. Nevertheless, it was only in the case of three compositions – Chain 1, Chain 2, and Chain 3 – that this compositional solution was indicated in the title.

The two-layer textureIllustrated below is Chain 3 (from no. 4) in which the heterophonic layers have

been contrasted with respect to pitch organisation, time and timbre: one plane is scored for three clarinets, whereas the other is for four cellos (Ex. 3).

Ex. 3. Chain 3: the chain-like link between heterophonic sound layers (no. 4); the two-layer texture shaped from the leading plane of melody and the chord-based background (often in

strings).

101


In the section taken from Interlude, as quoted below (Ex. 4), in the background of the layer formed by strings, sound the motifs of piccolo and xylophone. Strings are assigned with a sequence of eight-note chords and form a backdrop for me-lodic figures engaging the remaining notes of the twelve-note chord performed by pairs of instruments.

Ex. 4. Interlude: a two-layer texture that involves melody and chords; splitting the texture into three diverse dimensions of rhythm, pitch organisation and timbre.

The three-layer textureThe three-plane orchestration structure takes various forms, be it one that

underscores the so-called local harmony, that is the ingredients of a twelve-note chord that sound in distant registers, or one that develops three melody planes.

102


In Paroles Tissées, in the part shown in Example 5, the sound structure focuses on the local harmonies – the parts of harp and the opposing violins and violas that become the note source for the tenor solo. The local harmonies give the impression of a wide musical space.

Ex. 5. Paroles Tissées: three dimensions of timbre.

A similar method of emphasising local harmonies with instrumental setting can be seen in Les Espaces du Sommeil (in the middle movement, Adagio, built on three components: harmony created in strings, generated by a twelve-note row and interval pairing 2+3; baritone line, which ‘downloads’ its notes from the harmony of strings; and instrumental tone-colour rendered by diverse trios – wind instru-ments enriched by glockenspiel, or piano, or celesta or harp).12 The phenomenon of local harmonies arises between the layer of strings and the layers of other instru-ments.

The vital role of instrumentation in highlighting the three-layer pitch organi-sation of a piece is also perceivable in polyphonic systems. An exceptionally pre-cisely–shaped structure of this kind appears in Symphony no. 4, in the part covered by numbers 64–73. 13

12 Compare with the description in: Charles B. Rae, ‘Lutosławski’s Sound World: A World of Contrasts’, in: Zbiegniew Skowron (ed.) Lutosławski Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 28–33.

13 Compare with Alicja Jarzebska ‘Problem kształtowania continuum formy w IV Sym-fonii Lutosławskiego’ (‘The Question of Shaping the Form Continuum in Lutosławski’s Sym-phony no. 4’), Muzyka 40/1–2, 1995, pp. 135–54.

103


The four-layer textureThe four-layer organisation, comprising planes of polyphonic structures, is less

frequent than the two- and three-layer textures, exemplified by Symphony no. 3. The initial part of the piece contains three heterophonic layers scored for different sets of wind instruments (piccolo – 1, three oboes – 2, four horns – 3) as well as for strings centred upon E3 in octaves that stand for the harmonic dimension (Ex. 6).

Ex. 6. Symphony no. 3: a four-layer texture.

104


‘Decorating’ with the use of timbres

Lutosławski’s works display the aforementioned device of enriching, or add-ing colour to strictly ordered layers of pitch organisation with a structure of purely tone-colour nature, of unspecified pitch or with a timbre detail of specified pitch that represents a kind of ‘value’ added to the main layout of timbre. Those are the ‘timbre added values’ that decide about the great beauty of musical moments (very short structures) of a piece.

The phenomenon of decorating a horizontal plane with a layer of tone-colour set for percussion has already been presented with the Cello Concerto, after no. 47, where the cello is accompanied by the bass drum and small cymbals (Ex. 1).

An example of timbre detail of specified pitch will be shown in parts of Sym-phony no. 3 (Ex. 7 no. 41–42) and Chain 1 (Ex. 8). In the part of Symphony no. 3 presented below, the added value of timbre is formed by individual notes: B2 in the cello and B4 in the marimba, which enrich the first and the last notes of the piano phrase and the first note in the melody of the clarinet (Ex. 7).

In Chain 1, in turn, the so-called timbre ‘points’ are scored for marimba, whose part covers notes ‘incorporated’ from the layer that belongs to the bassoon, viola and cello. However, the marimba emphasises only two pitches. (Ex. 8)

As has been proven in the previously mentioned examples, orchestration de-vices play a double role in Lutosławski’s music: first, they become details extend-ing the colour range; second, they take the form of the key idea or an intrinsic ingredient of a piece, if linked to a characteristic pitch organisation and meant to distinguish an element of the system.

Let me relate here the definition of the ‘key idea’ used by Lutosławski: “What are the ‘key ideas’ and ‘key thoughts’? It may be easy to explain them if we refer to the music of, for instance, the 19th century, as those were, simply, melodic themes [...]; whereas the ‘key idea’ of today is a set of notes interlinked with each other more than with any other context in which they appear [...]. It has to be endowed with an attractive force independent of the context [...] it has to exist on its own, not as it is placed before or after ‘something’.” 14 Such phrasing suggests that the key idea would be equal in rank with a theme that is a structure containing notes crucial to a piece of music. Lutosławski’s compositional drafts let us resolve that those were not only linear structures but also chords, rhythmic patterns and types of texture that he noted down as ‘key ideas’.15

14 Lutosławksi’s words in Krystyna Tarnawska-Kaczorowska (ed.), Witold Lutosławski . Prezentacje, konfrontacje, interpretacje (Witold Lutosławski . Presentations, Confrontations, Inter‑pretations), Warszawa: ZKP, 1985, p. 185; transl. AG.

15 Martina Homma, ‘ ‘Vogelsperspektive’ und ‘Schlüsselideen’. Über eininge Aspekte der Kompositionstechnik Lutosławskis anhand kompositiorischer Skizzen’ (‘ ‘Bird’s-eye view’ and ‘key ideas’: On aspects of Lutosławski’s compositional technique as seen in the sketches’), in: Heinz-Klaus Metzger, Rainer Riehm (eds), Musik‑Konzepte 71–73, München, 1991, pp. 34, 35.

105


Ex. 7. Symphony no. 3: timbre details in cello and marimba.

106


Speaking of the ‘key idea’ in the context of orchestration I do not refer to the composer’s drafts and notes, but rather to the general notion of a ‘key idea’. I un-derstand the phenomenon as a vital construction element of a work that reappears in the course of action. In Lutosławski’s pieces the key idea pertaining to orches-tration usually recurs in its variants, and its aim is to emphasise the main elements of the composition.

Ex. 8. Chain 1: timbre details in the marimba part.

107


To conclude, I would like to comment on a few other aspects of Lutosławski’s style of orchestration. Next to pinpointing the vital role of instrumentation in distinguishing entities that create the form of a piece and in making the co-occur-ring timbre planes more flexible, it is worth noting several orchestration devices of unusual charm, regardless of their relation to form or pitch organisation. They reappear in numerous pieces and make Lutosławski’s style easily recognisable in auditory perception.

The unusual angle of the style in question has been determined by harmonies scored for string instruments, to name but a few. They make up static layers, e.g. in Symphony no. 3 (Ex. 6), or ‘languidly floating’ planes , as in Interlude for orchestra (Ex. 4). To this group belong the variants of instrument sets much favoured by the composer, including harp, piano, and tuned percussion: xylophone (xil), glocken-spiel (cmplli), tubular bells (cmpne), marimba (mar), vibraphone (vibr) and celesta (cel). The frequency of employing the timbre produced by this group – present in many compositions by Lustosławski – will be demonstrated by Symphony no. 3. The following timbre combinations have been employed in the composition: ar+pf (no. 1, 2, 10–14, 93–94), xil+cel (no. 8), xil+cel+pf (no. 9), cmplli+vibr+cel+ar (no. 10), mar+vibr (no. 25), xil+mar+vibr+ar+pf (no. 26), xil+mar+cmplli+pf (no. 37–38), xil+mar+cmplli+cel+ar+pf (no. 39), cel+ar+pf (no. 40), mar+pf (no. 41), xil+mar (no. 42, 70/71), xil+cmpne+pf (no. 42), xil+pf (no. 43, 72), mar+cmpne (no. 61), xil+mar+cmplli+vibr+cmpne+pf (no. 62), xil+cmplli+pf (no. 63), xil+mar+cmpne+pf (before no. 73), cmpne+cel+pf (no. 76), xil+mar+cmlli+cmpne+pf (no. 77), mar+ar (no. 84), cmpne+ar (no. 87); cel+ar (no. 91); cmplli+vibr+cmpne+ar+pf (no. 95–96), vibr+cmpne+ar+pf (no. 97), xil+mar+cmplli+vibr+cmpne+ar+pf (no. 99), xil+mar+cmplli+vibr+pf (no. 100–101). The variety of instrumental combinations is one of the sources of the richness of timbre in this composition.

In addition, Lutosławski ascribed a decisive role in his works to percussion in-struments of unspecified pitch. Apart from the above mentioned ‘decorative’ role, they perform the important function of shaping the musical plot, especially with the characteristic interventions that separate its flow. They make a colourful epi-sode for the whole music narration (e.g. in the first chapter of Livre pour Orchestre before no. 107), or an unexpected accent of a climax, e.g. in part one of the Double Concerto (no. 24), and they frequently attract the audience’s attention with a care-fully ordered rhythmic pattern, e.g. in Jeux Venitiens, part 4, bar 101–131 (Ex. 9).

To signal the meaning of percussion instruments in Lutosławski’s oeuvre one cannot overlook the decisive role of this section in Le Grand Combat of Trois Počmes d’Henri Michaux because it arouses deep emotions for the listener and adds to the plot of the poem.

Incidentally, it should be mentioned that the characteristic timbre present in the music of Lutosławski stems not only from the choice of instruments but also from the use of articulation and dynamic devices. One of the most commonly dis-tributed is glissando in strings, often played ppp – p, as in the introductory episodes

of Mi‑parti (up to no. 15) and at the end of Dolente in the Double Concerto (no. 48 and 49), in which the twelve-note chords are linked through string glissandi .

The orchestration in Lutosławski’s compositions displays the composer’s in-ventiveness when using traditional instruments. At the same time, it enchants the audience with its beauty. The majority of Lutosławski’s orchestration ideas are directly linked to the pitch organisation of a piece and underscore its systemic aspects. All in all, the instrumental tone-colour solutions, both in the form of key ideas and those of a decorative nature, are memorable and can be considered attractive music phenomena, regardless of the underlying logic behind the note arrangement.

transl . Agnieszka Gaj and Alexander Pettett

Ex. 9. Jeux Venitiens, part 4, bar 101–131: structured rhythmic timbres in the percussion section.


Documents

Witold Lutosławski's art of orchestration. Instrumentation devices as