Marc-André Dalbavie’s ‘Diadèmes’: From the Polyphony of Layers to the ‘Polyphony of Processes’

Abstract

In the spectral and post-spectral music the category of process acquires special significance. Realizing the idea of an internal connection between form and material, processuality is endowed with compositional functions and, being implemented in a continuum of transformations of sound objects — timbre-harmonic and timbre-textural complexes, — determines the dynamics of shaping. The concept of “composing” directed musical processes as a conductor of the idea of transition and transitivity, which is the cornerstone for the aesthetics of spectralism, becomes part of the compositional strategy of Marc-André Dalbavie (b. 1961). In the Russian-language musicological literature, this publication is the first and so far the only reference to the work of one of the leading contemporary European composers. Based on the material “Diadèmes” for viola solo, instrumental ensemble and electronics (1986), the most important components of the author’s method are considered: the principles of continuity of transformations of sound structures, interpolation of timbre-textured blocks and musical “streams”, as well as the principles of sound polarization and “reintegration” a number of “historical” compositional procedures. Particular attention is paid to the author’s concept of “polyphony of processes” as a tool for the multifaceted implementation of the compositional action of the process category, carried out both within the layers of individual musical parameters — harmony, rhythm, timbre — and in the space of their cross interaction.