Metric Ambiguity and Rhythmic Gesture in the Works of George Crumb

Abstract

Despite a growing body of theoretical work on the music of George Crumb, surprisingly little has been said about his use of rhythm and metre, elements which are often more aurally accessible than complex pitch structures and which constitute a recognisable aspect of Crumb’s style. Much of Crumb’s output is characterised by a unique combination of metric ambiguity with clear and often recurrent rhythmic gestures whose use and juxtaposition creates varying levels of metricity. A significant portion of his music can then be situated in the middle of a spectrum that ranges from completely non-metrical to clearly metrical. The result is a unique rhythmic language that stringently avoids large-scale metrical structures but makes frequent use of localised metrical gestures and brief moments of metrical emergence. These rhythmic and metric structures are then used in different ways to create a range of temporal and formal effects. This paper focuses on the rhythmic and metric characteristics of motives from several pieces by George Crumb. Emphasis will be placed on a particularly interesting case in the final movement from Crumb’s Vox Balaenae, where the repetition and shifting musical context of a small set of rhythmic motives results in a process of metrical emergence and dissolution that contributes to the arch form of the piece.

Keywords:

• Rhythm and Metre
• George Crumb
• Ametrical
• Metrical Ambiguity
• Metric Continuum
• Time

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Katrina Rousch and Rachel Short for their feedback on earlier versions of this article, as well as an anonymous reader for a number of helpful suggestions that were incorporated during the revision process.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A variety of researchers have attempted to study the perceptibility of pitch structures in post-tonal music, including experiments focusing on the perception of tone rows (Krumhansl, Sandell, and Desmond 1987), sets with related intervals (Bruner 1984), and the aural relevance of transpositional relationships between sets (Samplaski 2004). These studies have largely concluded that listeners struggle to hear pitch relations, and instead focus on other musical parameters such as register, rhythm, timbre, and contour.

2 See Cooper and Meyer (1960), Lerdahl and Jackendoff (1983) and Krebs (1999) for examples of metric theories that take a recurring beat or pulse as the foundation of metre. See Justin London (2012) for an account of metre as a specific type of entrainment.

3 I will address the potential influence of Crumb’s notational practices in greater depth at a later point.

4 Several of the rhythmic features mentioned here have been discussed by theorists within the context of other works from the twentieth century. Scholars have addressed shifting pulses and metric changes in the works of Stravinsky (Horlacher 1992, 1995, 2011), Reich (Horlacher 2000; Roeder 2003), Schoenberg (Roeder 1994), and Bartók (Horlacher 2001; Roeder 2001, 2004), metre within the context of rhythmically irregular twentieth-century compositions (Hasty 1997; Roeder 2006; Knowles 2016, 2020; Sullivan 2018, 2021), and the frequent use of motivic and metric irregularities (van den Toorn 1988; Horlacher 2011; Rust 2017).

5 A metrical gesture refers to a motive or set of motives that contain metrical elements, such as a recurring pulse or a clear grouping element, or both. In contrast to an emerging metrical structure, where cues for metre in the form of a regularly recurring pulse and some means of grouping that pulse gradually emerge from shifts in the musical surface (Horlacher 2011), a metrical gesture implies the existence or perception of metre, or some degree of metricality, that appears and disappears with a specific motive or group of motives. In other words, a metrical gesture is a subtype of rhythmic gestures, one that displays metrical characteristics. Note that this description of metric gestures follows Hasty’s treatment of metre as a special type of rhythm (1997).

6 This third option for ambiguity of metrical type is seen in Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s discussion of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (1983, 22–25).

7 I am taking the idea of functionally equivalent durations from Joel Lester (1986) for its ability to suggest durations that may not be precisely equivalent according to the clock but may be perceived as such by a listener. A related idea is conveyed via Justin London’s use of the phrase ‘nominally isochronous’ (2012).

8 While there is a fair degree of variance in the use of the terms beat and pulse within the literature, most scholars tend to associate the term beat explicitly with metre, where it is usually linked to the idea of durationless time-points. In contrast, the term pulse is usually associated with rhythm and is understood to refer to events that have a discernable duration. For a more in-depth discussion of the varying uses of these terms in the literature, see Knowles (2016, 88–95).

9 Each of these examples falls under one of Butler’s two categories of metric ambiguity (2006).

10 While notationally this pulse consists of a quintuplet division of an eighth note, the tempo indication provided for this movement (eighth note = 30 bpm) means that the quintuplet thirty-second notes are performed at approximately 150 bpm. Consequently, both the pulse and the duple grouping of the pulse implied by the registral alternation fit comfortably within perceptible limits (London 2012).

11 It should be noted that some of the dyads in the left hand within the motives are registrally higher than the alternating low-high pitches in the right hand, potentially suggesting an irregular grouping within some of the motives. Specifically, attending to these instances where the left hand dyad is registrally higher would suggest a grouping of 3+5 (or 3+3+2) for the second motive, and the inverse of a 5+3 (or 3+2+3) for the third motive.

12 The measured vibrato that ends most of the melodic gestures in the opening flute solo for Idyll for the Misbegotten comprises yet another variant on this gesture, maintaining the acceleration/deceleration shape but removing the articulation of each note typically found in the gesture.

13 A number of scholars note that metre serves a similar orienting function as tonality, with the latter enabling a prediction of ‘what’ will happen next, while the former enables a prediction of ‘when’ it will happen (Mirka 2009; London 2012).

14 Taqsīm is a genre of instrumental music performed in Egypt, Turkey, Levant, and Iraq, which typically precedes a composed, metered piece.

15 Ohriner applies the term quasi-entrainment to passages where participants’ tapping indicated a basic level of attending to the rate of events within the music but where taps and events were not consistently aligned (2016, 29).

16 I have used the term prescribed silences elsewhere (Knowles 2016, 246–49) to differentiate silences demarcated with a bracket and a number of seconds indicating the length of the silence from more traditional ways of notating silences via rests and fermatas. As prescribed silences are given a set duration, typically provided by some number of seconds, they can create a very measured and intentional sensation of time for the performer (who must count off seconds) while simultaneously making it difficult for the listener to judge or predict the duration of the silence. In contrast, most notated rests occurring within a metrical structure enable the perception of metric beats through the silence (London 1993; Margulis 2007) and thus are more predictable in length for the average listener.

17 Of course, the degree to which any sense of metre is present depends in and of itself on the characteristics of the rhythmic gestures at play, as well as the listening strategies employed by a listener. In some cases, it may be possible for a listener to impose a metrical structure on to a passage (particularly one that may contain a weak or ambiguous expression of metre), a tendency that may increase either with familiarity or as a result of listening habits developed via primary exposure to strongly metrical music. As noted earlier in this article, the construction of Crumb’s rhythmic motives can vary widely in their degree of inherent metricality.

18 Over the years, I have had various conversations with performers around one of Crumb’s compositions that both omits barlines and utilises a notated pulse, and these performers have provided opposing descriptions of their experience performing the passage. Some performers reported hearing and experiencing a very strong sense of pulse, while others described an experience of timelessness or suspension while performing.

19 The original inspiration for the work came from a set of tapes made by marine biologist Roger Paine that contained some of the earliest recordings of whale songs. These tapes were sent to George Crumb by cellist Charles Forbes, who was a member of the New York Camerata that had commissioned the work from George Crumb and requested that the composer use them in some way within the piece (Hobbs 2009, 26–27).

20 In a 2009 interview, Crumb acknowledged that both Vox Balaenae (1971) and An Idyll for the Misbegotten (1985) represent on some level his concern for the state of the environment, noting, ‘I was so conscious, in both pieces, of the danger, the extinction of the whales, the earth degenerating or being threatened’ (Hobbs 2009, 27). For more on the ecological themes found throughout both pieces see Knowles (2017). See Cook (2017) for a detailed discussion of ecomusicology, the relationship between culture and the destruction of nature, and the representation of nature’s voice in An Idyll for the Misbegotten.

21 Due to the absence of barlines in this score, locations are referenced with the notation pagenumber.system. Thus 13.3 references page 13 of the score, third system on the page.

22 Within the score, the first entrance of the wave motive is followed by an eighth note rest. At the indicated tempo (sixteenth note = 60 bpm), this rest should last for approximately 2 s.

23 See James Sullivan (2021) for a detailed discussion of motivic parallelism and metre in twentieth-century compositions by Arnold Schoenberg, Krzysztof Penderecki, Benjamin Britten, Claude Debussy, Anton Webern, Samuel Barber, and Thomas Adès.

24 While this cadential moment confirms the pitch B as the tonal centre of the piece, the cello’s move from F-sharp to E-natural rather than the expected E-sharp seems to confirm B-Dorian rather than the B-Lydian collection that has been used in the majority of the movement thus far.

25 Taken from Crumb’s annotations to the score, found in Gillespie (1986).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kristina L. Knowles

Kristina Knowles is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at Arizona State University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on music theory and cognition. An interdisciplinary scholar, her work combines research in music theory, philosophy, and psychology around questions of rhythm and metre in twentieth-century music, perception, and the relationship between time and music.