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sir harrison birtwistle
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On this matter of aural texture, is György Ligeti an important composer for you? |
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Well of course I think he is an important composer; but you’re really asking me if I’m influenced
by him, and no, I am not.
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Is the unison the tonic of post-war music? |
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All unisons are tonics, aren’t they? Like any note, if you hold it long enough at the end of a
piece, becomes a tonic.
It’s a sort of way of beginning, it’s a sort of way of starting with the basic material.
Do you know what Silbury is? It’s a prehistoric mound, and it’s a complete mystery. It’s a
mystery for two reasons: it’s a mystery for what it is, and for what its function is. And it is a
mystery for how it is arranged in a landscape that is formally arranged with corridors and
stone circles. And the whole geographic formation is like a hidden formality, an arcane
place. It’s a formal mystery that no one can interpret. It’s like seeing a game board where
you don’t know what the rules are. It’s largest man-made mound in Europe, and it’s not
very far from where I am now, ten miles away.
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"It's a prehistoric mound, and it's a complete mystery." |
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And your work, Silbury Air, is also a labyrinth. |
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Yes, when Silbury was excavated, it was found to have a labyrinth of hides or animal skins
that created a sort of three-dimensional spider’s web. They have no idea why. They used to
think that there was some sort of god or burial tomb in the middle; but there was nothing.
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Do you feel in all of your pieces there is a secret structure? |
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Yes, there is.
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Have there been analyses of your music that you feel have illuminated aspects that could not have been discovered simply by listening? |
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If you analyze my music you find what’s there. And a lot of people find a lot of things that I
didn’t put in there. But it doesn’t mean that they aren’t there.
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| You once made an analysis of Stravinsky’s Agon. | ||||
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Yes, I did, at one time. I find that when I do analysis, I’m always less interested in the piece afterwards.
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| Is there something lost through analysis? | ||||
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You can go into the details of the music and go right into the heart of it, but you can never find out what makes it what it is. And that is the most fascinating about music in the end. |
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