Guero: instrumental concrete music and directionality in piano

study-piece by Helmut Lachenmann

University of São Paulo (USP) – School of Communications and Arts (ECA) – Department of Music (CMU)
FAPESP – The São Paulo Research Foundation [sponsor]
Authors: Guilherme Ribeiro (scholarship) / Prof. Dr. Silvio Ferraz (advisor)

INTRODUCTION shown during this process; such an analysis becomes important since the piano pedal in Guero is
treated as an instrument by itself.
The analysis presented here through graphs, tables, relationships, among others, is the
result of a research in which we propose to study the relationship between the sounds generated For the verification of such statements, the analysis of this process will be presented
by the expansion of the musical instrument (extended techniques) and the contemporary musical here line by line, page by page through graphics and tables, which can, without difficulty, be
composition. This was the motto of the research: to investigate the insertion of extended and confronted with the score of the work.
contemporary instrumental techniques as compositional material chosen by the composer as a
Facture criteria
base object to be unveiled, explored and developed in the act of creation and later also by the
interpreter, who should understand sounds and gestural frame (instrumental modes of play) In the work, there are two 'criteria of facture' whose materials submitted to them are
generated from the extended techniques with the same importance that once dedicated to the exploited to the maximum by Lachenmann. These are: iterated sounds and impulsive sounds.
melodic and harmonic elements. It is not only a matter of technical refinement, which is already And adding on this graph of the Facture its procedural direction in the work, obtained by means of
present in common instrumental practice, but of having such sound and gesture data as a a calculation of the observed data, it is noted:
fundamental part in the very principle that generates the work.
This work intends to illustrate the points presented above through the analysis of a
piano study composed in 1969 by the German composer Helmut Lachenmann, whose title is:
Guero: Studie für Klavier. It will be noticed that this work has a close relation with the previously
exposed premises: to unveil the use of the contemporary instrumental extended technique as a
tool to obtain sound materials from a 'new sound source': the expanded musical instrument.

MATERIALS AND METHODS Mass criteria

As methods for the analysis of Guero - Studie für Klavier, two works were used as main As far as Mass's plan is concerned, there are (also) two 'criteria' in the piece, which are
sources: Pierre Schaeffer 's "Typology of Sound Objects" (Treatise on Musical Objects) and obtained and discriminated according to the surface (part of the piano) excited by the interpreter.
Helmut' s "Sound Types of New Music" Lachenmann. From the reading and study of these works, They are the 'criteria': aperiodic vibrations and periodic vibrations. And adding on this graph of the
it became possible to create schemes, tables and graphs that demonstrate the concepts that can Facture its procedural direction in the work, obtained by means of a calculation of the observed
be applied in the analysis of the work. Regarding the analysis itself, the path chosen was what data, it is noted:
passes through the micro and macro "structures" of the work. In this sense, parametric analyzes
of Guero's sound materials, analysis of materials processing and "sound criteria" were carried
out, until an analysis that presents a common convergence for all these other parts: the analysis
of the form of the work.

Pierre Schaeffer's "Typology of Sound Objects": 'facture criteria' and 'mass criteria'

In Book IV ("Morphology and typology of sound objects and solfege of musical objects")
of the Treatise on Musical Objects, Pierre Schaeffer (1988: 227-242) presents a typology of
sound objects, in which he distinguishes, among the criteria of classification, the use of sound
objects and the solfege of musical objects, the criteria of facture and sound mass. It is these two
criteria that we use as the starting point for the analysis that we carry out in this work, and which
we will specify below.

1) Facture criteria. The scale: 2) Mass criteria. The scale:

• Tenuto sound, maintained; • Pure sound;
• Ordinary, well-formed sound; • Ordinary, well-formed note;
• Short sounds with resonance; • Complex note;
• Impulsive, percussive sound; • Varied note, mass that varies in texture;
• Iterated sound, repeated pulses. • White or colored noise.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
In the analysis of Guero proposed in this work, we will notice the presence of
manifested mass and mass criteria in the objects of iterated sound and impulsive sound and in With the use of the methodology chosen, it was possible to confirm, affirm and positively
the mass criteria related to noise (aperiodic vibrations) to the note (periodic vibrations), as crucial amplify what was expected from the beginning of the work: the demonstration that the work in
elements in the process compositional and indicators of a directional structure that the composer question, Guero, has musical writing procedures that make the piece procedural and directional,
realizes with his sonorous objects throughout the piece. duly substantiated by specific analytical criteria.
When we demonstrate the directionality implied in the composition of Guero, we try to
The "Sound types of the new music", by Helmut Lachenmann demonstrate how the composer used the extended technique and the use of the piano beyond
the modes inherited from the classic-romantic tradition. In Guero, the extended technique is
In "Sound Types of New Music," Lachenmann (2013) theorizes a total of 8 'sound
employed as a mechanical sound "synthesis" system, performing the transition from the aperiodic
types', namely: sound-cadence, sound-color, sound-buoyancy, sound-texture, sound-structure.
and iterated signal, expressed in distinct modes of sound production through the "reco-reco" keys
The remaining 3 'types' are, in fact, subdivisions of sound-cadence: sound-impulse, sound-
of the piano, in periodic signal of defined pitch of precise and single thrust, performed with the
sedimentation and sound-decay. Here, therefore, is the other part of the methodology used for
strings of the piano being directly tangled by the hand.
the analysis of Guero.
Guero thus serves as an example of a compositional process conducted by concrete
sound objects, without the intermediation of the structure of heights, and where even durations
are treated as a system of greater or less permanence, greater or less transitivity between
objects. Lachenmann thus realizes a concrete directional composition with mechanical
instrument.

REFERENCES

FERRAZ, Silvio; PADOVANI, José Henrique. Proto-história, evolução e situação atual das
técnicas estendidas na criação musical e na performance. Música Hodie, Goiânia, v. 11, n. 2, p.
37-58, 2011.
LACHENMANN, Helmut. Guero: für Klavier. Germany: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1980. Score.

DEVELOPMENT
Guero is a work-process. And more than that, it will be seen here that Guero is a
directional process. This process is divided into two planes: the Facture plan and the Mass plan.
In the plane of Facture, the direction of this process occurs from the iterated sounds to the
impulsive sounds; and in the plane of the Mass, the aperiodic vibrations (noises) for the periodic
vibrations (defined heights). An analysis made exclusively on the use of the piano pedal will be
LACHENMANN, Helmut. Tipos sonoros da nova música. [Preliminary translation by José
Henrique Padovani in April 2013 of the original in German "Klangtypen der Neuen Musik" in
Musik als existentielle Erfahrung, 2nd edition updated]. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Härtel (2004):
pp. 1–20.
ROSS, Alex. O resto é ruído: escutando o século XX. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2009.
SCHAEFFER, Pierre. Tratado de los objetos musicales. [Spanish version, Araceli Cabezón de
Diego]. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1988.