How the harmonic techniques of Faure, Barber and Rutter have inspired me as a composer

By Amy Balcomb (510035)

Compositional approachI have always looked upon writing music as a gift. I was eight when my composing began. My approach back then was naive. I fumbled with melodies with little concern for shape or form. My bass line and harmonies consisted of root chords in I, IV and V position. It worked but lacked finesse and structure.

Everything changed when introduced to chord inversions five years later.

I learnt that replacing E and G of a root position C major triad to F and A gave me an F major chord with little movement on the keyboard. The bass of the chord was different, the sound was different, but the chord nonetheless remained F major. It was a complete revelation; I no longer needed to jump between root positions to change the harmony.

After much trial and error, I learnt that the most effective use of inversions were those that were used with subtlety.

Examples of harmonic influenceDiscovering Samuel Barber, Gabriel Faure and John Rutter helped my composing. All three created exceptionally simple yet harmonically intriguing music and I felt compelled to explore three of their pieces in more detail to ascertain what it was that made their music so wonderful. These pieces were sad and emotional; two Requiems and an Adagio. And not just any Adagio.

I first heard Barber’s ‘Adagio’ when I saw the film Platoon. I loved the sadness; it was a beautiful yet startlingly simple string quartet.

Throughout the piece, Barber’s style was to keep one note held whilst the harmonies beneath moved, clashed, and then sounded ‘right’ again. This was to be my second revelation; suspensions.

Suspensions form temporary dissonances in the harmony, which resolve in step-wise motion to a consonant note.

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This temporary dissonance was the ‘clash’ that I was hearing, a tense, dramatic effect that fascinated me:

Samuel Barber’s ‘Adagio’ – Opening two bars

The opening bars to the Adagio (above) demonstrate the surprise Barber creates with his suspension in the first violin. Only when he resolves the B-flat anacrusis to the A-natural in bar 1 does he release the tension from E-flat minor to F major.

I felt the more I worked with suspensions the more I felt that they emphasised and strengthened the harmony.

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Amy Balcomb’s ‘Woodland Burial’ – Bars 7-8

This excerpt from my Assignment ‘Woodland Burial’ shows my use of 2-1 suspension; the G in the piano part on beats 1 & 2 of bar 8 is the temporary dissonance, which resolves to an F on beat 3. By using this technique, I wanted to add more emphasis to the descending major tonality modulation.

Gabriel Faure’s ‘Requiem’ was a set text for my GCSE Music and it was my introduction to the requiem form, the musical setting of the Roman Catholic mass.

The third movement, ‘Sanctus’, stood out. Upon closer study, I realised that its construction relied heavily upon inverted chords, which moved in rising arpeggiated patterns:

Gabriel Faure’s ‘Requiem’ – Movement 3 ‘Sanctus’ – Bars 1-3

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I wrote inverted chords into my third assignment ‘Idyll for Strings’:

Amy Balcomb’s ‘’Idyll for Strings’ – Bars 17-18

Bar 18 centres around a first inversion B-flat major chord, which is followed sequentially by a first inversion A-minor chord. This enabled me to delay reaching the subdominant of B-flat major whilst making the harmonic structure more subtle.

My introduction to John Rutter’s Requiem was as part of an Easter programme that I sang with the Oratorio at Wells Cathedral.

The ‘Lux Aeterna’ was my favourite movement of the Requiem, and Rutter combines both inverted chords and suspensions throughout.

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The change of feel at Section C when the tempo drops from moderato to andante tranquillo is exquisite.

In bar 40, we are in E-flat major. Rutter pauses the homophonic texture in the relative minor of C at bar 41 with the addition of the alto’s D for extra dissonance and tension:

John Rutter’s ‘Requiem’ – Movement 7 ‘Lux Aerterna’ – Bars 39-41

As he moves us into Section C, he resolves the tension by taking us to the dominant key of G major and in root position, too; it’s a definite consonant tonality that signals a new, final passage to the movement:

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John Rutter’s ‘Requiem’ – Movement 7 ‘Lux Aerterna’ – Bars 42-43

The triplets create a similar feel to that of Faure’s ‘Sanctus’; they provide a light but distinct harmonic line. It also helps to keep the music driving forward beneath the long sustained vocal lines above.

I, too, have used inverted chords for ‘economy of movement’ within the harmony but also to create a relaxed feel:

Amy Balcomb’s ‘Woodland Burial’ – Bars 1-4

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I wanted the opening harmony to stay as close to A-minor as possible and I achieved this by rooting the bass on A in bars 1-2 whilst the harmony of B-minor 7 is still hinted at. In bar 3, I move through A-minor in the first half of the bar to the first inversion of E-minor. Bar 4 works through the first inversion of the subdominant (D-minor) before taking us to the perfect cadence in E-major during the last two beats, albeit starting on the third of the chord, which is effectively a momentary first inversion.

The composers’ influencesFaure could have attributed his Requiem to the deaths of his parents in the mid 1880s. Faure himself has been quoted as saying:

‘My Requiem wasn’t written for anything – for pleasure, if I may call it that!’.

However, Wikipedia notes that some have remarked how similar Faure’s Requiem is to the structure of Brahms’s ‘German Requiem’ and to Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ (it shares the key of D minor).

Thomas Larson notes in ‘The saddest music ever written’ that Barber may have been influenced by Schubert’s String Quartet in C Major when he was writing his quartet, the ‘Adagio’ forming the second movement. Ultimately, many do not know the impetus behind Barber’s piece.

John Rutter’s influences are easier to establish, given in an interview about his Requiem. He cites the death of his father and Faure’s Requiem as the two impetuses to his piece.

Rutter admired Faure’s flexibility of performance setting (church or concert hall). He liked Faure’s personal selection of texts; favourite sections were kept, whilst he omitted less favoured parts such as the ‘Day of Judgement’, normally the second movement. Faure also broke with tradition and added the ‘In Paradisum’, normally found in the catholic burial service.

Musical Context Gabriel Faure (1845 – 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher who wrote his Requiem between 1887-1890. Around this time, his compositions varied from solo piano pieces, vocal and piano arrangements, to larger orchestral & choral works.

The requiem is short - 35 minutes - has 7 movements and is written for orchestra, organ, mixed chorus and two soloists.

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Performed in Latin it premiered in it’s first version in 1888. Faure only originally wrote 5 movements and added the ‘Offertorie’ and ‘Libera Me’ later on, premiering in 1893.

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral and piano music. Arguably the most famous of his music was his ‘Adagio for Strings’, the second movement of his String Quartet, Op.11, written in 1936.

Around this time, Barber was writing a variety of music, including orchestral works, solo organ compositions and string pieces.

The ‘Adagio’ was performed by NBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini in 1938, upon which he remarked ‘Semplice e bella’ – simple and beautiful.

Barber also wrote a choral arrangement of ‘Agnus Dei’ in 1967 using the music from the ‘Adagio’. Other arrangements have since been written; William Strickland’s ‘Solo Organ’ (1949), Lucien Cailliet’s ‘Clarinet Choir’ (1964) and John O’Reilly’s ‘Woodwind Band’ (1967).

Barber’s ‘Adagio’ has been heard throughout the world at many sad public occasions, including the announcements of President’s Franklin Roosevelt and J.F Kennedy’s deaths and played at the funeral of Princess Grace of Monaco.

John Rutter (born 1945) is a British composer, conductor, editor, arranger and record producer, mainly of choral music. He is the only contemporary composer I have identified as an influence to my music. I have also been fortunate enough to meet him at a singing master class where he conducted the Requiem.

His Requiem consists of 7 movements for orchestra and chorus together with soprano solo, although the original version had 4 movements for chamber orchestra and chorus. Rutter has a combination of Latin and English texts.

In conclusion, these three composers opened my eyes to how specific distinct harmonic techniques can be used, both to enhance a mood or feeling and/or to add emphasis to a harmonic progression.

Suspensions form temporary tensions in the harmony and I will always be drawn to them because of their emphatic nature. Inversions are the antithesis and allow composers to progress their harmonies with subtlety. These two techniques will always be a part of my composition and I will forever be grateful to Faure, Barber and Rutter for showing me how it can be done.

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