Form as an Outgrowth of Timbre and Rhythm: Wesley Fuller's "Sherds of Five"
Stephen Lilly · Perspectives of New Music · 2005
Form As an Outgrowth of Timbre and Rhythm: Wesley Fuller's Sherds of Five \w\jU I *? ? ? ?? m Stephen Lilly Introduction Much has been said about music theory's neglect of electroacoustic music. Its lack of a score and relatively recent inception have been cited as reasons for this.1 Nevertheless, there is a need for in-depth understanding that goes beyond an unreflective appreciation. At this point, theorists can only examine individual works as thoroughly as pos siblewith the analytical tools currently available and hope that eventually a consistent theoretical approach will emerge.2 Despite the relative lack of investigation by theorists, there has been no shortage of composers of electroacoustic music. From themultitude of pieces that have been created in the genre's fifty-yearhistory, which should one choose to study? Some older pieces, such as Karlheinz FormAs anOutgrowth ofTimbre and Rhythm 143 Stockhausen's Gesang derJ?nglinge and Luciano Berio's Thema?Omag gio a Joyce have justifiably been recognized and examined.3 With recent works, however, it ismore difficult to distinguish themasterworks from themundane. Often it isbest to choose a composition which intrigues or presents something of a challenge to the listener?a piece that exhibits distinctive musical qualities (timbres, rhythms, form, etc.). Wesley Fuller's Sherds ofFive is such awork.4 Fuller's timbres are carefully sculpted, and the structure is the result of their juxtaposition and interaction (or lack thereof). Though he avoids predictability and goal-oriented trajectories, his work isno less rigorously organized than amore linearly constructed work. In Sherds ofFive, form is a composite of several overlapping musical structures that are, individu ally,unambiguous. Through contrasts in timbre and rhythmic organiza tion, these superimposed structures are unified into six contrasting sections distinguished from one another by means of timbre, pitch, dynamic contour, and texture.All themusical structures are carefully bal anced so that no one trajectory isnecessarily more important or conspic uous than any other. As a result, thework has no obvious point of climax or summation; rather, each of the six sections coexist without hierarchy. In Fuller's own words, the six sections "were created as entirely separate 'episodes' ifyou will, with no overall intent of timbre development, or structural interplay."5 This paper will explore the form of Sherds ofFive, discussing how the six sections function as one coherent whole and how goal-oriented trajec tories are avoided. For the sake of brevity, the analysis will focus on timbre and rhythm. Background Composer and educator Wesley Fuller is a graduate of theOberlin Con servatory ofMusic and Boston University. He began studying computer music in 1974 in aworkshop at Colgate University organized by Dexter Morrill and led by Leland Smith of Stanford University. His firstwork using computer, Time Into Pieces forpiano and computer, was completed in 1977. For twenty-seven years, Fuller taught at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was the Jeppson Professor ofMusic. There, he developed a program in computer music studies and co founded the Tri-College Group for Electronic Music. In 1990, Fuller retired in order to concentrate on composition. He is also the author of Fourteen Introductory Tutorials toCsound,6 one of the best introductory texts for the Csound synthesis language currently available. 144 PerspectivesofNew Music Sherds ofFive was composed in the late winter and early spring of 1994. The piece was given its premiere at the conference "Technology and the Composer: The Continuing Tradition ofMusic Composed for Tape" in June of 1994. The eventwas co-sponsored by the Clark Univer sity European Center in Luxembourg (CECIL) and the University of Maryland, College Park, Department of Music. The work is for tape alone. As the composer notes: "All the timbres [were] created with dig ital to analog synthesis, using an M.T.U. Microsound Digital-Audio Workstation and the program Csound."7 According to Fuller, during the process of composing Sherds ofFive he was highly influenced by the novel Our Lady of theFlowers by JeanGenet. For example, some of the chance operations used to determine particular parameters for the computer instruments were derived from and/or related to "words from a passage or scene or character described in the text."8 However, Fuller writes: "I...