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Transmission, Interpretation, Collaboration-A Performer's Perspective on the Language ofContemporary Music: An Interview with Sophie CherrierAuthor(s): Nina Perlove and Sophie CherrierReviewed work(s):Source: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Winter, 1998), pp. 43-58Published by: Perspectives of New MusicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833575 .
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TRANSMISSION,
NTERPRETATION,
COLLABORATION
A
PERFORMER'S
ERSPECTIVE
ON THE
LANGUAGE
OF
CONTEMPORARY
MUSIC:
AN
INTERVIEW
WITH SOPHIE
CHERRIER
NINA
PERLOVE
ONTEMPORARY
MUSIC
is
an
expression
which
communicates
in
a lan-
guage
different from
traditional
classical
music. It is
more
explosive,
more
theatrical,
more
gestural.
The
phrases
are no
longer
singing
melo-
dies,"'
explains
Sophie
Cherrier.
As
Principal
Flutist of
the
Ensemble
Intercontemporain
since
1980,
she
speaks
the
contemporary
language
with fluency. The Ensemble Intercontemporain is an orchestra of
thirty-
one
full-time
musicians
dedicated to
the
performance,
transmission,
dis-
semination,
and
pedagogy
of
twentieth-century
music.2
Founded
in
1976
by
Pierre
Boulez,
the
Ensemble
performs
approximately
thirty
times a
year
in
Paris
and has
toured
extensively,
including
concerts in
South
America,
the former
USSR,
Canada,
the
United
States,
Japan,
New
Zealand,
Australia,
and
most
major
cities
of
Europe.
The
Ensemble
Intercontemporain
enjoys
a
unique
partnership
with
IRCAM
(the
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Perspectives
of
New Music
Institute of Acoustic Music Research and Coordination), which sponsors
research
and concerts
showcasing
the
newest
technological
advances
in
composition.3
Since
1992,
American David Robertson has held
the
position
of Musical Director of
the Ensemble.
In
addition to
Cherrier's
position
in
the Ensemble
Intercontemporain,
she was
recently appointed
Flute Professor
at the Paris
Conservatory,
one
of the most
internationally
prestigious
teaching
positions.
Cherrier
mastered the
contemporary language
the
way many
students
learn
a
foreign tongue,
through
total
immersion-in
her
case,
on the
job.
"At the Paris
Conservatory
I
played primarily
the traditional flute
reper-
toire.
I had been introduced
to
pieces
like the Pierre Boulez
Sonatine
and
Luciano
Berio's
Sequenza
I,
but
at that time
I
did
not have
any
particular
desire to
become
a
contemporary specialist.
When
I
won the
job
in the
Ensemble
Intercontemporain,
I did
not
even know what
extended
tech-
niques
such
as
multiphonics
and
slaps
were. But
I
learned
quickly
because
I was scheduled
to
premiere
Chu
Ky Vby
Ton-That
Tiet and
I
only
had
one
month to
learn
it.4 I found the
new flute
techniques
to
be
easy."
For Cherrier, the modern effects were a vocabulary she quickly inter-
nalized.
More
challenging
was
fully comprehending
the context
of
this
new
language.
"In most
contemporary
music,
the
melodies
are difficult
to
recognize.
They
are
heard,
but
in new
ways:
they
are not
tonal,
there
are
new
sounds
and
large, surprising
intervals,
there
are
nontraditional
sound
colors.
With
this
type
of
music,
you
cannot
easily
hum
back the
melody.
After
the first
hearing
of
Boulez's
Sonatine,
most
people
could
not
sing
it
one
hour
later."
One
way
Cherrier
came to
understand
the
contemporary
musical con-
text was
by
reevaluatingher rapportwith her instrument. "In a sense, we
are
required
to
forget
our
classical
training.
In
Pneuma
(1970) by
Heinz
Holliger,
you
have the
impression
of
using
the
flute
like a
completely
dif-
ferent
instrument
from
its
treatment
in the traditional
repertoire."
Like
many
contemporary
scores,
Pneuma
stretches the
flute's
sound
possibilities
far
beyond
those
available
in the
eighteenth
and
nineteenth
centuries.
Holliger's
score directs
the
four flutists to "hum
and
play
simultaneously.
Play
with
lips
firmly pressed
together
(as
on
trumpet
mouthpiece). Whisper
into the
instrument, [and]
exhale and
inhale
observing
indicated
fingering
and
with some sound
in the
blowing
noise."5
Clearly,
the
flute
is no
longer
limited
to
producing
pure
tone colors.
Extended
techniques
like
quarter-tones
have
literally,
as
well
as
figura-
tively,
transformed
the
flute
into
a "different"
instrument.
For
example,
flutemaker
Eva
Kingma,
who is based
in
Grolloo,
the
Netherlands,
pro-
duces
quarter-tone
alto
and
bass flutes
to
accommodate
the
changing
needs
of
composers
and
performers.
Most
recently,
Brannen Brothers
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An
Interview with
Sophie
Cherrier
Flutemakers of Woburn, Massachusetts, adapted Kingma's patented
key-on-key
mechanism
to
produce
a
quarter-tone
flute in C.
Designed
by
Bick
Brannen,
this instrument
has "six additional
keys
which allow
the
flute
to
play quarter-tone
scales
from
D4
to the
top
range
of the
instru-
ment.
It can
still
play
the traditional
repertoire
with no
exceptions,
but
expands
the
performer's capabilities
in
dynamics,
tone
color,
and
intona-
tion. Because of
the
ease
in
playing
quarter-tones, contemporary
flutists
can
now
adjust easily
to
play
eighth-tones.
Also,
the
design
dramatically
increases
possibilities
for
multiphonics,
which
can be
played
on each
semitone of the scale. Glissandos are also
improved."6
In
performing
works with extensive modern
techniques,
Cherrier
believes that the most difficult
aspect
is
switching quickly
from
a
contem-
porary
context back to
a
traditional one. "This
is
challenging
because
while
doing
extended
techniques
such
as
tongue slaps
and wind
tones
you
are
not
necessarily well-placed
on
the
embouchure,
or
there
may
be
some saliva built
up,
which
makes it difficult to
quickly change
to a tradi-
tional
position.
However,
in
performing contemporary
music,
the musi-
cian cannot be worrying all the time, thinking 'oh la la, I've lost my
classical
sound.'
You must
simply
search for what the
composer
wants."
But what does the
composer
want?
According
to
Cherrier,
this is
not
always
clear. Like
complex hieroglyphics,
the
symbols
used
by composers
are often
hard to understand:
"It
is
very
difficult that
composers
never
have the same
notation
system.
This is
very
unpleasant. Though
it
isn't
the
end
of the
world,
it is
still
very
annoying
when
you
are
in
front of
a
score
and
you
don't know
what the
composer
wants.
Oh
la
la,
that
annoys
me.7
For
example,
Froissements d'Ailes
(Rustling Wings) by
Michael Levinas is a good contemporary solo flute piece, but the score is
hard to
decipher
(Example
1).8
We are
not sure
if
he wants wind
tones or
sound with a
bit of air for
the
beginning.
Although ambiguities
in
notation
are
confusing
for
performers
who
seek
to
interpret
works
exactly
as
the
composer
intended,
such uncertain-
ties at times
may
be
central to
the
expressive
intent
of the work.
Levinas
wrote that
"sound
becomes musical
when its
[pure] quality
and
objective
reality
become also
indeterminate,
ambiguous,
because
it
suggests
a
sound
beyond,
and
yet
within
the
sound.... This
ambiguity
will
become
the
essence of
the musical
and the
poetic, opening
up
the
true
realm of
the
imagination
to
the act of
composing."9
Because Levinas's
music
explores
the
ambiguity
of
sound
elements,
his
nonspecific
notation in
Froissements
d'Ailes
may
be
his
way
of
freeing
the
creative realm for
the
performer.
In
other
cases,
however,
composers
want to
communicate
specific
ideas. For
Cherrier,
the
written
tradition of
contemporary
music must
evolve
with a
sophistication
equal
to
its oral
counterpart.
She
pleadingly
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46
Perspectives
of
New Music
states: "It would be nice to have a single notation. From one composer
to the
next,
even
techniques
like
quarter-tones
are not written the same
way.
One
might put
a backwards flat
sign
while another uses
a
downward-pointing
arrow.
Some
composers
use a
V
to indicate a
slap
while
others
simply
write
'slap.'
This
is
extremely
unpleasant.They ought
to have a notation that is clear and
precise."'1
=
160 environ
ad
libitum
J
=
72 environ
J
:
>
lllllllll*i
.
>
,o
,
'
imp
et tres sec
J=
160
..........60
_________
....
la av
(L'effet
st
plusimportant
ue
les
notes)
Flat.
angue
mp
cresc.
-=
f
=
mp
With the
kind
authorization of
Heugel,
Paris
EXAMPLE
1:
MICHAEL
LEVINAS,
FROISSEMENTS
D'AILES
To translate
notation
systems,
Cherrier
spends
much
of
her
practice
time
a la
table,
until
she
can read scores
with
fluency.
In
pieces
with
many
extended
techniques,
"it
is
necessary
to move
forward
step
by
step,
care-
fully,
almost
note
by
note,
and then
begin
to
memorize
[the
indications]
sufficiently
to advance.
This can
be a
long,
fastidious,
difficult,
sometimes
laborious
process.ll
Sometimes
I
look at
a
piece
and
I
only
have a
week
to learn it
and
I
think,
'Oh no. It
isn't
possible '
but the
more
I
do
it,
the
easier
it
gets.
In
studying contemporary
pieces,
I
must
also
work
without
my
instrument
in
hand
to understand
the
rhythmic
notation,
to
see
if
there
is
space
in which to
evolve,
as
in the
Berio
Sequenza."
In
studying
the
Sequenza,12
Cherrier's
initial
challenge
was
to under-
stand
the
composer's
proportional
notation
of events
in
time
which
replaces
the traditional
use of
measures
(Example
2).
She
adds that
"this
notation,
which
has since
been
adopted
by
many composers,
was
a bit
disorienting
at
first
... as
if one
were
learning
a new
way
of
speaking."13
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An Interview
with
Sophie
Cherrier
Yet, Cherrier believes Berio's system of interior time units "allows for a
certain
elasticity
and
a
type
of freedom for the
performer."14
In
a 1981
interview,
Berio described
Sequenza
I as
very
difficult,
explaining:
[I]
adopted
a notation
that was
very precise,
but allowed
a
margin
of
flexibility
in
order that the
player might
have
the
freedom-
psychological
rather than
physical-to
adapt
the
piece
here and
there
to his
technical
stature.
But
instead,
this
notation has
allowed
many players-none
of them
by
any
means
shining
examples
of
pro-
fessional
integrity-to
perpetuate
adaptations
that
were little short
of
piratical.
In
fact,
I
hope
to
rewrite
Sequenza
I
in
rhythmic
nota-
tion:
maybe
it will
be less
"open"
and more
authoritarian,
but at
least
it will
be
reliable.15
or
rVJtt
^L
W.
Mi
i
I
L[ t i lW-M
I
L _
r
h f
By
kind
permission
of
Edizioni
Suvini
Zerboni,
Milan
EXAMPLE 2: BERIO, SEQUENZA I (BEGINNING), IN THE ORIGINAL
NOTATION
In
1992,
Suvini
Zerboni
and
Universal
Edition
A.G.,
Vienna
published
the
Sequenza
in
a
more
standard
format
(Example 3).16
Cherrier offers
her
reactions to
this
adaptation:
Berio,
in
[1992]
...
rewrote his
Sequenza
in
traditional
notation-
but without bar lines-doubtless after having heard too many
performances
which
were far
from
what he
wanted.
Personally,
I
find
this
to
be a
pity.
I
studied the
new
version,
but
only
for the
small,
detailed
elements;
because
my previous
study
sufficiently
prepared
me,
I
work
only
with
the
original
notation.17
Because
of
differences
and
innovations in
notation,
contemporary
music often
relies as
much on
an
oral
tradition
as on a
written
text. In
the
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Perspectives
of
New
Music
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Cherrier consults directlywith composers,
who
help
her
translate
their
scores. Other
musicians,
lacking
such
a
lux-
ury, may
study recordings
(when
possible),
or discuss the
piece
with
teachers and
colleagues
who
may
have had
past
contact
with
the
com-
poser.
When
these
options
are not
possible, performers
make
their
own
interpretive
decisions.
"If I
am
unable to contact a
composer,"
Cherrier
explains,
"I
simply
choose the
interpretation
which
in
my
opinion
best
reflects the
spirit
of the work."
703--I
. ---
--
r-5.-
---r
r
,ffsemsr~
Luciano
Berio,
SEQUENZA
I
?
Proprieta per
tutto il mondo:
Edizioni Suvini Zerboni.
All
Rights
Reserved. Used
by
kind
permission
of
European
American Music Distributors
Corporation,
sole U.S. and
Canadian
agent
for
Universal Edition
A.G., Vienna,
and with kind
per-
mission of Edizioni Suvini Zerboni
EXAMPLE
3:
BERIO,
SEQUENZA
I,
REVISED NOTATION
Although
most
performers genuinely
want to
give
new works
solid
performances,
and
appreciate
the details
within
a
piece,
there is a
general
belief
among
musicians that
note-perfection
is less of
an issue
in
contem-
porary
music than
in
traditional
repertoire.
This is because
they
believe
some mistakes in contemporary works may go unnoticed by the audi-
ence.
Cherrier concurs:
"A
wrong
note
in Mozart
is
noticed
immediately,
it is
true.
But
honestly,
if I
play
a
wrong
note
in the Boulez
Sonatine,
who
will
notice
except
me,
or
perhaps
someone who
knows the
piece
extremely
well?"18
However,
as a
performer,
Cherrier
disagrees
with
this
attitude and
believes
that
"although
some mistakes
may
not be
heard,
I
hope
most
audiences would
notice
if
there
were
major
problems
in a
performance.
But a
wrong
note
is not the issue.
What is
important
is
giv-
ing
the
piece
a solid
presentation
and
engaging
the
public
with
what
you
have done.
The
performer
must defend the
piece
well,
so to
speak."
Contemporary
composers
understandably hope
each note
of their
pieces
will
be
heard within
its
context,
just
as audiences
have
learned
to
recognize
a
Baroque
harmonic
progression
or a Classical
melodic
line.
Yet,
because
function and structure
in
contemporary
music
are
constantly
being
reinvented,
even
sophisticated
audiences
and
performers
are not
always
aware of the role of
a
specific
pitch.
A
wrong
note
may
go
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An Interview with
Sophie
Cherrier
unnoticed because the audience has little expectation for what the correct
pitch
should be.
Cherrier
herself
separates
the
job
of
analysis
from
performance.
"I
am
not an avid theoretical
analyst,
but this does not
impede
my
understand-
ing
of a
work's construction. For
example,
in
the
Sonatine,
it is
easy
to
see
the
twelve-tone row
presented
in
the
Rapide
section.
(Example
4).19
But
I
believe a
good performer
is not
necessarily
a
good
analyst,
and
a
good
analyst
is not
necessarily
a
good performer."20
T5I -- 5
tIrs
man
6 10
?
1954 Editions
Amphion.
Used
by
permission.
Sole
Agent
U.S.A.,
Theodore Presser
Company
EXAMPLE
4:
BOULEZ,
SONATINE
FOR
FLUTE AND
PIANO,
RAPIDE,
MM.
32-47
One reason
for
concerns
over
note-perfection
may
be the
increasing
technical
difficulty
of
contemporary
music.
"Sometimes
composers
write
pieces
with
extremely
difficult,
even
unplayable
passages,"
Cherrier
admits.
"This
happens
more
frequently
in
orchestral
pieces
than in
solo
works.
In
the
orchestra,
these
passages
are
more
discreet
[less
obvious to
the
listener].
Usually,
if
a
passage
is difficult for
the
flute it is also
chal-
lenging
for
all
the
instruments.
Most
composers
know what
they
have
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Perspectives
of
New
Music
written is very difficult or impossible-like Brian Ferneyhough, who is
what we call a
composer
of
extremes.
He
knows
his music is at the outer
limit
of
possibility,
but
he wants to
push players
to the maximum."
For
flutists,
Ferneyhough's
music is
especially challenging.
As the
high-
est voice
in
the
orchestra,
the flute
symbolically represents
outer
registral
limits.
Ferneyhough
writes,
"The
sound of
any extremely
high
or
low
instrument
tends,
at least
for
me,
to evoke associations
with
borders,
boundaries,
and with whatever lies
beyond."21
In
addition
to an interest
in
registral
boundaries,
Ferneyhough pushes players
to
their
outer techni-
cal limits
by surpassing
expectations
of
rhythm
and
interpretation.
In
Mnemosyne
or bass flute and
tape,
Ferneyhough
scores
the flute
part
on
three
separate
staves
(Example
5).22
In
this
piece,
the
composer
writes
"unplayable" passages
to
challenge
flutists
beyond
their
training
as
monophonic
instrumentalists:
It is
clear
that
no
monophonic
instrument
is
going
to be able
to
per-
form all materials
on
all
three
lines. With
a
piano
this doesn't
matter:
there's the possibility of distributing three voices among two hands.
It is
interesting
that
what comes
naturally
to
a
keyboard player
encounters
tremendous
resistance
in
the
minds
of
(say)
woodwind
soloists,
who
are
not
accustomed
to
freeing
up
the "natural"
rela-
tionship
between
hands,
or hand and
embouchure.23
Ferneyhough's
flute
works also
push
boundaries
by requiring
perform-
ers to
breathe
as little
as
possible.
In his
piccolo
work
Superscriptio,
he
marks
optional
breathing points,
and
adds,
"Take
as few
as
absolutely
necessary."24
n the beginning of Mnemosyne,he requests that the flutist
"Breathe
either
as
little
and
as
unobtrusively
as
possible
or
employ
circu-
lar
breathing."25
Leaving
aside
those
who
knowingly push
technical
and
interpretative
limits,
Cherrier
remarksthat
occasionally young composers
do
not realize
they
have
written
an
extremely
difficult
section.
Furthermore,
scores
may
contain
passages
specifically
unplayable
on the
flute,
such
as notes
out
of
the
range
of the instrument.
Cherrier advises
composers
to "avoid
slaps
above middle F#, they come out
in the
lower
register.Also,
be careful
of
multiphonics
in
very
fast succession."
When
Cherrier
encounters
pieces
with
unplayable
passages,
she
tries to
speak
to
the
composer
and
point
out
the
problem.
"Usually
they
are
grateful
for the
feedback and
respond
by asking
what can
be
done
to
make
the
passage
playable,
or
else
they
ask
me to
play
as
much as
possible
to
capture
the essence
of the
phrase.
In
general,
I
advise
young
compos-
ers to make
use
of
existing
methods,
but
to
keep
in mind
that
everything
evolves.
Ideally, composers
should
meet
and work
with
performers."
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Cherrier treasures the performer-composer friendship, which she
believes
helps
to better transmit the music to
the audience. She discusses
her
experience working
on
Chinese
composer
Shuya
Xu's
Dense/
Clairseme,
a
piece
for
solo
bass
flute and
orchestra which she
performed
at IRCAM
in
1996.
"I
was
playing
it
too
European,
too
French,
with
a
centered, clean,
'perfect'
sound.
I felt
it wasn't
right,
so I worked
with
the
composer.
Xu wanted
much more air
in
the
sound,
and
well-marked
accents. He
sang
the
expression
and
I
reproduced
the
sounds."
The
performer-composer
relationship
is
obviously
crucial for the dis-
covery
and transmission of new
works,
but Cherrier also believes that
performer-performer
contact
is critical.
"When David Robertson
took
over as musical director
of the Ensemble
Intercontemporain,
we
started
programming
much more
American music.
Before,
we
always
did
Reich,
Ives,
Cage,
but
now we
are
branching
out
even further."
For
the
1997-
1998
season,
the
Ensemble
Intercontemporain programmed
three con-
certs titled
Made
in
the
USA and featured
works
by
George
Crumb,
Charles
Amirkhanian,
Morton
Feldman,
David
Soley,
Josh
Levine,
John
Adams, Terry Riley, Elliott Carter,and Roger Reynolds.
Although
the
expressive
qualities
of the
contemporary
language
may
be a
mystery
to
many
concert-goers,
Cherrier believes
that audiences
are
constantly
involved
in a
process
of
musical selection.
"The decisions
as
to
what
pieces
will
last
over time is
not made
by specialists
alone,
but
by
the
public
as
well.
Why
did Mozart
last? Not
only
because
he
was
a
prodigy,
but because
his
language
touches
us. We have
found
genius
in
this
Monsieur.
Other
composers
of
his era have
long
been
forgotten.
I have
sometimes
played
quite
bad
contemporary
music,
boring
works,
and
screaming pieces which give everyone a headache. But I believe works of
many composers
will
withstand
the
test
of time.
For
example,
we
spoke
about Berio-for
me,
his
music has
a
unique
expression
which
is
theatri-
cal,
gestural.
It
has
halting
moments,
sweet
interludes.
It
speaks
to
me
and
I
think
to the
spectators
as well."26
Yet,
Cherrier
believes
that
composers
should
not
write
solely
to
please
the
public
taste.
"Each
composer
has,
at least
I
hope,
a
personal
evolu-
tion.
Composers
should
not
write
just
to
please
others,
they
should
write
with their feelings."
Because
the
contemporary
musical
message
is often
difficult
for audi-
ences to
comprehend,
Cherrier
stresses
the
importance
of
live
perfor-
mance:
"Contemporary
music
is enhanced
by
the visual. Of
course,
all
music
is
more
enjoyable
in
live
performance,
but
I
think
it is even
more
necessary
in
contemporary
music
because
there
is a
gesture
which
ema-
nates from
the
performer.
For
example,
in
the double
piano
works
of
Gyorgy Ligeti,
the
effect
of
watching
the
pianists
communicate
with
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An
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with
Sophie
Cherrier
signs and body language enhances the audience's understanding of the
music."
Contemporary
music
is
not
only
transmitted
through
the
performer-
heard and
seen-but
also
through technological
means,
a
trend
which
is
more and more
prevalent.
One
technology-enhanced
medium
is
chamber
music
between live
performer
and
prerecorded
sounds.
"I
never
appreci-
ated this
type
of
composition,
which is
becoming
obsolete."
Cherrier
explains
that
sharing
the
stage
with
a
tape
machine limited her
flexibility.
"I
felt
dependent upon
the
prerecorded
element. Once it started
run-
ning,
I did not feel free. If
you
have a
tape
which is
transmitted
very
well
in
a
game
of
spatialization
in
the
hall,
it
is
okay.
But
if
it is
simply
me
play-
ing
with
a
tape
and two
speakers,
it
is not
very interesting.
But
this
form
of
composition
is
virtually
extinct
now." This
may
be
true for members
of
the
Ensemble
Intercontemporain,
who have
access to
the
most
advanced
technology
at IRCAM.
However,
many
musicians who do
not
have
access to
this
technology
still
regularly perform
pieces
for
instrument and
tape.27
For the Ensemble Intercontemporain, composers have replaced works
for
instrument
and
tape
by compositions
for
instruments
enhanced
by
MIDI.
This
technology
was used
by
Pierre Boulez in
explosante-fixe,
which
Cherrier
recorded
with the
Ensemble
Intercontemporain
in
1995.28
This
compact
disc won a
"Best
Small
Ensemble
Performance"
Grammy
Award in
1997. In
explosante-fixe,
a
flute
is
prepared
with
mag-
netic
captors
on
each
key.
An
interface
connected to
the
computer
acti-
vates
preprogrammed
sounds or
effects,
transforming
the
sound of
the
flute in
real
time.29 In
this
way,
the MIDI
responds
to
the
musician,
unlike the former method which made the
performer
subservient to the
tape.
"This
system
works
well
because
the
machine can
read
very
fast
pas-
sages
and
respond
to each
fingering
as if it
were
hearing
the
score. I
have
much
more
freedom with
this
system
than
with flute
and
tape."
But from
Cherrier's
perspective,
this
system
is
still
imperfect.
"I
am
required
to
play
with
a
special
flute,
which I
find
unpleasant.
Also,
the
captors
can fall
off,
in
which
case
the
system
doesn't work
at
all "
Recent advances,however, solve these problems. "The newest technol-
ogy
is a
MIDI
which
recognizes,
or
'hears'
the
pitches
I
play.
A
micro-
phone
is
placed
into the
flute
headjoint
which
attaches
to the
computer.
The
composer
enters a
program
and the
computer
follows
the
score
based on
the
pitches
I
play.
For
example,
if I
arrive at
a
B
b
and
the com-
poser
desires to
have a
succession
of
tongue
slaps, my
Bb
will
trigger
the
series."
Furthermore,
with
this
technology, performers
have
the freedom
to
change
tempo.
"You
can
do
what
you
want.
If
you
want
to
go
three
times
slower,
the
MIDI
will
go
three
times
slower,
too.
Before,
with
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Perspectivesof
New
Music
pieces for flute and tape, the expression seemed inhuman because it was
rigid,
our hands were tied. The new
technology
is much more human."
One
problem
with
the new
MIDI
system
is
that
it can become confused
in
reading
a fast run. For works with such
passages
(including explosante-
fixe),
it
is
necessary
to
keep
the
former
key-captor system.
As
the voice of
computers
becomes
more and more dominant
in
the
contemporary language,
one
might question
the
role of the
live
per-
former.
Cherrier,
however,
is not worried. She sees
the
technological
advances as
additions,
not threats to the
profession.
"The
MIDI does
not
replace
a
performer,"
Cherrier states,
explaining
that the sounds
pro-
duced
by computers
are
usually
electronically
generated
noises or
sound
effects which could
not be
reproduced
by
an
on-stage
performer.
"The
MIDI
is
an
extra.
We are
thirty-one
musicians
and with the
MIDI
we are
thirty-two."
Furthermore,
the
computer
does not
run
itself,
but
is trans-
mitted
by
a music-technician
who must
be
present
for
every perfor-
mance.
If,
for
instance,
the musician
misses a note and does
not
trigger
a
command,
the
technician,
who is
following
the
score,
will set the
com-
puter ahead to meet the performer.
Even
so,
the
MIDI
performance
medium
requires
new
technical
stan-
dards of the
performer.
Cherrier describes
how "the
process
of
activating
the
sequences
allows
little
room for mistakes:
the
margin
of
error
is
very
small....
The
added
difficulty
for the
performer,
in this
case,
is
to aim
for
a
faultless
presentation."30
Perhaps
now
more than
ever,
musical creation
involves
a continuous
dialogue
between
composers
and
performers
sharing
ideas,
experiences,
and
reactions.
The voice
of
technology,
the
newest and
fastest-growing
member in the family of contemporary musicians, is part of this collabo-
ration.
As Cherrier
states,
"the
technological
evolution
is the
expression
of the
modern
age
and
music
continues
in
a
similar direction."
Compos-
ers,
performers,
and technicians
struggle
to
assert their individual
identi-
ties,
and often
clash
in the
process.
Yet,
as
Sophie
Cherrier
has
demonstrated
throughout
her
career,
it
is
through
such
communication
that
learning
and
growth
occur:
composers
stretch
the
expressive
and
technical
possibilities
of
performers,
musicians
challenge
composers
to
communicate their
ideas
clearly, composers
and
performers challenge
technology
to
meet
their
changing
needs,
and
technology
in turn
chal-
lenges composers
and musicians
to create
and master
new methods
of
performance.
In this
way,
each
area
develops
as
a
creative
whole
where
every
member
is
dependent
upon,
and
grateful
for,
the other.
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Sophie
Cherrier
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to
thank Frank
Samarotto,
Darrell
Handle,
Marianne
Kielian-Gilbert,
and the
anonymous
reviewers of
Perspectives
of
New
Music for
their valuable
suggestions
on this
manuscript.
I
would also
like
to thank Steven Cahn for
looking
over
my analysis
of the
Boulez
Sonatine.
NOTES
1.
Unless otherwise
indicated,
Cherrier's
quoted
material
(in
both
text
and
footnotes)
is taken
from two
interviews
held
in
Paris,
France
(June
1997).
The
sessions were
conducted
in
French
and
were tran-
scribed and
translated
into
English
by
the
interviewer.
2.
The
Ensemble
Intercontemporain
welcomes
submissions
of new
compositions
for
performance.
Priority
is
given
to
young
composers
who
have
never before had
their work
presented
in a
concert at
IRCAM or
by
the
Ensemble
Intercontemporain.
The
committee also
evaluates
candidates for
pedagogical
activities. For
information
write
to:
Direction
Artistique
de
l'Ircam,
1
place
Igor-Stravinsky,
75004
Paris,
tel:
011-33-1-44-78-48-34,
fax:
011-33-1-44-78-48-06.
Ensemble
Intercontemporain
website:
.
3. IRCAM
(the
Institute of Acoustic Music Research and Coordina-
tion)
website:
.
4.
Ton-That
Tiet,
Chu
Ky
Vfor flute and
tape
(Paris:
Jobert,
1983).
5.
Heinz
Holliger,
Pneuma
for
wind,
percussion,
organ,
and radios
(Mainz:
Ars
Viva
Verlag,
1972),
6.
6.
Bickford
Brannen,
telephone
interview,
July
1998. Bick
added that
with
the
multiphonic
instrument,
"flutists can
literally
play
the
clari-
net introduction from Gershwin's
Rhapsody
n Blue." Flutists Anne
La
Berge
and
John
Fonville
collaborated in
the
development
of
the
instrument.
Since
1995,
Brannen
Brothers
Flutemakers,
Inc. has
sold
over
forty
quarter-tone
flutes,
and
John
Fonville,
Robert
Dick,
Jennifer
Higdon,
and
Anne La
Berge
are
among
the
performer/
composers
who have
written
for
the
instrument.
Brannen
Brothers
has
also
designed
a
quarter-tone
piccolo.
55
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Perspectives
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New Music
7. "C'est tres difficile car les compositeurs, n'ont jamaisla meme facon
d'ecrire.
Ca
c'est tres
desagreable.
Ce n'est
pas
enorme,
si
tu
veux,
mais
c'est tres enervant
quand
tu
es devant une
partition
et tu ne
sais
pas
ce
que
veulent
les
compositeurs,
oh
la
la, ga
m'enerve."
8.
Michael
Levinas,
Froissements
d'Ailes
(Paris: Heugel/Alphonse
Leduc,
1975).
9.
"Le son devient
musical
lorsque
cette
qualite [pure]
et realite
objec-
tive devient aussi
indetermination,
ambiguite, parce
que suggestion,
comme s'il
y
avaitun 'au-dela' du son dans le son.... Cette
ambigu-
ite deviendrait
l'essence
du musical
et
du
poetique,
ouverture
d'un
vrai
espace
de
l'imaginaire pour
le
travail de
composition."
Michael
Levinas,
"Le son et
la
musique,"
Entretemps
6
(1988):
28. Unless
otherwise
indicated,
all
French
translations
are
by
the
interviewer.
10. "Ca
serait bien d'avoir
une notation
unique.
D'un
compositeur
a
l'autre,
meme
le
quart
de
ton ce
n'est
pas
la meme
ecriture.
II
y
en
a
un
qui
met
un bemol
a
l'envers,
un
autre met
une fleche
vers le
bas.... Ca c'est extremement
penible.
Ils devraient avoir une nota-
tion
claire,
precise."
11.
"II
faut
avancer
pas
a
pas,
doucement,
c'est
vraiment
presque
note
a
note,
lentement,
et
puis
commencer
a
memoriser
suffisamment
pour
pouvoir
avancer.
C'est
parfois
tres
long,
tres fastidieux.
C'est
difficile,
c'est
parfois
tres
penible."
12.
Luciano
Berio,
Sequenza
per
flauto
solo
(Milan:
Edizioni
Suvini
Zerboni, 1958).
13.
"Depuis,
beaucoup
de
compositeurs
ont
adopte
cette
ecriture,
qui
desoriente
un
peu
au
debut ...
comme
si
on
apprenait
une
nouvelle
facon
de
parler."
Sophie
Cherrier,
as
quoted
by
Veronique
Brindeau,
"Flute
Solo:
Sophie
Cherrier,"
Accents:
Le
Journal
de
l'Ensemble
Intercontemporain
5
(May-August
1998):
11.
14.
Ibid.
"Cela
donne
une
certaine elasticite
et
une forme
de
liberte
a
l'interprete."
15.
Rossana
Dalamonte
in Luciano Berio:
Two
Interviews
(New
York:
Marion
Boyars,
1985),
99.
Translated
and edited
by
David
Osmond-
Smith.
Interview
originally
published
in
Intervista
sulla
musica
(Rome:
Laterza,
1981).
16.
Luciano
Berio,
Sequenza
I
per flauto
solo
(Milan:
Edizioni
Suvini
Zerboni;
Vienna:
Universal Edition
A.G.,
1992).
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Cherrier
57
17. "Berio, en 1997 [sic] ... a reecrit sa Sequenzaen ecriture tradition-
nelle-mais sans barre de mesure-sans doute
apres
avoir
entendu
trop d'interpretations
eloignees
de
ce
qu'il
avait
voulu.
Personnelle-
ment,
je
trouve
cela
dommage.
J'ai
retravaille
sur
la
nouvelle
version,
mais
pour
de
petits
elements
de
details,
car
le
travail
prealable
m'avait
suffisamment
preparee,
et
je
ne
joue qu'avec
la
notation
d'origine."
Cherrier,
"Flute
Solo,"
Accents,
11.
In
this
article,
the date of
Berio's
revision is
incorrectly
given
as 1997.
The revised version was
pub-
lished
by
Universal
Edition
A.G.,
Vienna in
1992,
UE 19
957.
18.
"Une fausse note dans
un Mozart s'entend
tout
de
suite,
et
elle
ne
s'entend
pas
dans un
Boulez,
c'est
evident. Si
je
fais une
fausse
note
dans
la
Sonatine
de
Boulez,
qui
va
s'en rendre
compte,
franchement?
A
part
moi ou
quelqu'un qui
le
connait tres
tres bien?"
19.
Pierre
Boulez,
Sonatine
(Paris:
Amphion,
1954).
All
analysis by
the
author unless
otherwise
indicated.
Given the
prime
form of
the row
<
C B
G
C#
A
l
E;
A
D
Bl
F
F#
>
or
C
=
0
(0,
11,
7, 1, 8,4, 3,
9,
2, 10, 5, 6); the flute presents row forms T5I and T7I in measures
33-40
and
41-47,
respectively.
Introducing
this
passage,
the
piano
in
measure 32
juxtaposes
H1 of T2Iin
the
right
hand and H1 of
RT2I
simultaneously
in
the
left
hand,
converging
on the
B-B6.
Although
Carol
K. Baron
states that
throughout
the
piece
"the
juxtaposition
of
the
first and last
notes of a
given
row,
always
a
tritone,
is
carefully
avoided,"
this
is
one
instance where
such
simultaneity
does
occur.
Baron
identifies a
repeated rhythmic
pattern
of
two
quarter
notes,
dotted
quarter,
sixteenth,
eighth
starting
in
measures 33
and
41. See
Carol K. Baron, "An
Analysis
of the Pitch
Organization
in Boulez's
'Sonatine' for
Flute and
Piano,"
Current
Musicology
20
(1975):
89-
91.
20.
"Je
pense
qu'un
bon
interprete
n'est
pas
forcement
un
bon
analyste,
[et]
un
bon
analyste
n'est
pas
forcement
un bon
interprete."
21.
Brian
Ferneyhough,
Superscriptio
or
solo
piccolo
(London:
Edition
Peters,
1982),
preface.
22. BrianFerneyhough, Mnemosyne London: Edition Peters,
1986).
23.
Brian
Ferneyhough,
"The
Tactility
of
Time
(Darmstadt
Lecture
1988),"
Perspectives
f
New
Music
31,
no.
1
(Winter
1993):
26-27.
24.
Ibid.
25.
Brian
Ferneyhough,
Mnemosyne London:
Edition
Peters,
1986),
1.
-
8/18/2019 Sophie Cherrier
17/17
Perspectives
of
New Music
26. Cherrier recorded Berio's Sequenza I for Deutsche Grammophon,
release
pending.
27. American flutist
Jill
Felber,
who
recently
recorded
a
compact
disc
including
works
for
flute and
tape
(Neuma
450-94),
explains
that
in
tour
situations,
it can be difficult to
perform
works
requiring
advanced
MIDI
technology.
Works
for flute and
tape
(or
flute
and
DAT)
are more
easily transportable
and
adaptable
to various concert
settings.
Jill
Felber,
telephone
interview,
July
1998.
(Cherrier
agrees
that MIDI has limited concert possibilities and therefore works with
tape
are still
important).
28. Ensemble
Intercontemporain,
Boulez
Conducts Boulez:
Explosante-
fixe,
Deutsche
Grammophon
CD 445 833-2.
29.
For more information
on the
MIDI flute and
explosante-fixe,
see
Cecile
Daroux,
"Flute
Contemporaine,"
Traversieres
Magazine,
no.
23/57
(April-June,
1997):
51-59.
30. "Le fait de declencher des sequences laisse peu de droit a l'erreur: la
marge
d'erreur
est
faible....
La
difficulte
supplementaire
pour
l'interprete,
dans
ce
cas,
c'est
d'essayer
de
realiser un sans-faute."
Cherrier,
as
quoted by
Brindeau,
11.
58