dane rudhyar.pdf

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Syntony and Harmonic Transformation in the Music of Dane Rudhyar

Ronald Squibbs, University of Connecticut

Draft version 10/31/06

Scholarly interest in the American modernist composers of the 1920s has been

growing steadily during the last two decades, as evidenced by the appearance of such

important books on the topic as Jonathan Bernards The Music of Edgard Varse(in

1987), Joseph Strauss The Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger(in 1995), Judith Ticks

biography of Ruth Crawford Seeger (in 1997), and Carol Ojas historical study,Making

Music Modern(in 2000). In addition to these books, several other books, articles,

dissertations, and conference presentations have treated various aspects of the music from

this period. The composers who are most frequently cited in the literature for their

commitment to a progressive, ultramodern aesthetic in the 1920s includein addition

to Varse and CrawfordHenry Cowell, Carl Ruggles, and Dane Rudhyar. Although he

was quite prominent at the time as a composer, performer, lecturer, and writer on music,

Rudhyar is arguably the least well-known of any these composers today. He is mentioned

in Strauss and Ticks writings as a formative influence on the development of Ruth

Crawfords early style and Oja points out the importance of his writings in giving

ideological support to the aesthetic aims of the ultramodern composers. These references

inspired me to investigate Rudhyars music and ideas further and led to the discovery of a

repertoire and a perspective on musical aesthetics whose interest extends well beyond the

historical and cultural confines of American ultramodernism in the 1920s. Because the

circumstances of Rudhyars compositional and literary activity are not generally well

known, I will include some references to his biography and writings in my presentation in


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order to provide a broader context for my discussion of harmonic transformation in his

music.

Dane Rudhyar, whose birth name was Daniel Chennevire, was born in Paris on

March 23, 1895 and died in San Francisco on September 13, 1985. He began to study the

piano at age six and solfge at age eleven. During his teens he audited some classes at the

Paris Conservatoire but never formally enrolled, preferring instead to immerse himself

directly within the rich musical life of Paris at that time. In 1912 he began to review

concerts forLa Revue S.I.M.(Review of the International Music Society) and in 1913

Durand published a book he had written on the music of Debussy along with three of his

own piano compositions. That same year he attended the notorious Paris premire of

StravinskysLeSacre du printemps. His first commissioned works were written for the

dancer and performance artist Valentine de Saint-Point, who called her multimedia work

La Mtachorie (Beyond the Dance). In late 1916 he traveled to the United States with

Saint-Point for a performance ofLa Mtachorieat the Metropolitan Opera under the

musical direction of Pierre Monteux. The performance met with mixed reviews, but a

vivid chronicle by dance historian Leslie Satin indicates that it was recognized at the time

as a significant cultural event. (Satin 1990)

The artistic patronage that Saint-Point had tried to find with little success in

wartime Paris proved to be equally elusive in the United States, which was itself entering

into World War I. Disillusioned, Chennevire broke with his colleagues, immersed

himself in the study of Asian music and philosophy at the New York Public Library, and

changed his surname to Rudhyar, a Sanskrit name related to that of the ancient Hindu

deity Rudra. In the winter of 1917-8 Rudhyar relocated to Montreal, where he became


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acquainted with the doctrines of Theosophy and with the music of Scriabin. Rudhyars

Canadian contacts put him in touch with Leopold Stokowski, who in turn introduced him

to Philadelphia heiress and Theosophist Christine Stevenson. In 1920, Rudhyar moved to

Hollywood, where he served as musical director for a series of mystery plays that

Stevenson had written on the lives of historically important spiritual figures.

Example 1 shows the opening of a representative composition from this period:

the first movement of Tetragram 1for piano, entitled The Quest, composed in 1921.

Example 1: Opening of Tetragram 1The Quest, mvt. 1 (1921)

The stylized rhythm of this example suggests that it may have originated as incidental

music to one of Stevensons mystery plays. Although Rudhyars later music features a

greater degree of rhythmic flexibility and flow, some of the harmonic characteristics of

that music are evident here as well.

Example 2 shows the four tetrachords from Example 1 that are especially

prominent, due a combination of agogic accent (tetrachords A, C, and D) and melodic

contour (tetrachord B, which contains the passages melodic high point).


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Example 2: Prominent Tetrachords in Tetragram 1, mvt. 1, mm. 1-3

The pitches in these chords have been distributed between the staves in order to

emphasize their division into fourths and fifths of various qualities. Concerning the

harmonic aspect of his music, Rudhyar made the following comments in a lecture given

in 1972 that are relevant to this example:

Most of my music is more or less based on series of fifths. The fifths of

course are not always perfect fifths. They are modified by sharps and flats,

and so on. But still the fundamental principle can be sensed. The chords,in order to become harmonized a dissonant kind of harmony do not

depend on tonality, but on the proper spacing of dissonant centers. If

[the notes] are too close together, they begin to rub against each other andconflicts arise discords instead of a dissonant harmony. Thus you

find in my music extended chords which provide a definite sense of

spacingbetween notes, notes which are supposed to be in dissonantrelationship. (Rudhyar 1972a)

The tetrachords in Example 2 are voiced mainly in fourths rather than fifths, but the

general harmonic characteristics mentioned by Rudhyar are nonetheless evident in the

excerpt.

Table 1 shows a summary of some of the pertinent structural characteristics of the

tetrachords from Example 2. Reading from left to right across the table, the tetrachords

are first regarded as pitch sets (psets) in order to give explicit recognition to the spatial

distribution of their pitches. A pitch-interval-class roster follows, showing the sizes, but

not the direction, of the intervals contained within the psets. The figured bass (FB) class


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shows the ordered pitch-class intervals above the bass notes within each tetrachord. In the

last three columns, the set class, pitch-class contents, and interval-class vectors are

shown.

Table 1: Structural Characteristics of Tetrachords from Tetragram 1, mvt. 1

label pset pic roster* FB-class* SC pc contents ICV

A {-8 -3 1 7} [4 5 6 9 10 15] 359 4-27 {1479}

B {-7 -3 3 11} [4 6 8 10 14 18] 46T 4-25 {359E}

C {-8 -4 2 7} [4 5 6 10 11 15] 34T 4-15 {2478}

D {-8 -3 2 7} [5 5 9 10 10 15] 35T 4-23 {2479}

*From Robert Morris, Equivalence and Similarity in Pitch and Their Interaction with PCSet Theory,

JMT39 (1995): 207-43.

Four different set classes are represented, one for each of the tetrachords. The

basis for the harmonic coherence of the passage is to be found, therefore, outside of the

typical set-theoretic criterion of multiple representations of a single set class. The

passage, in fact, illustrates on a small scale a principle that Rudhyar referred to in his

final book on music, The Magic of Tone and the Art of Music, which was published in

1982:

What is communicated [in my music] is a state, or a progression of states,

of consciousness. The [musical] process emerges from a seed tonethat may be either explicit or implicit. This seed-tone is often, but not

necessarily, a chord unfolding its internal potential of resonance into

melodic-harmonic roots, stems, and branches. (Rudhyar 1982)

The psychological and organic metaphors in this passage suggest that, from a technical

point of view, one might expect to find a balance between harmonic variety and structural

coherence in Rudhyars music. The succession of tetrachords in Example 2, as interpreted

in Table 1, demonstrates this balance quite clearly.


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Looking first at the interval-class vectors at the right of Table 1and specifically

at instances of interval class 5 it is notable that sets A and C contain one instance each,

while set D contains three and set B, none. Overall, then, the succession of tetrachords

moves away from instances of interval class 5 and then returns to them, concluding with

the set that contains three instances of interval class 5, the highest number possible for a

tetrachord. Moving leftward within the table, the figured-bass classes of the sets also

suggest a pattern of departure and return within the excerpt. Sets A and D share FB

interval classes 3 and 5, while A and B share none. B and C are linked, however, in that

they share interval-classes 4 and T, as are C and D, which share interval-classes 3 and T.

Table 2 presents an additional perspective on this passage. A similarity measure

defined by Robert Morris as PM, for pitch measure, takes into account the number of

common pitches and pitch-interval classes between two pitch sets. Among the tetrachords

in Example 2, the PM is highest between sets A and D, which share three pitches and

four interval classes. The PM is also relatively high for sets A and C, and C and D, but

low between B and the other sets.

Table 2: PM(X,Y) for Tetrachords in Example 2

label A B C D

A - 1,3 2,5 3,4

B - 0,3 1,1

C - 3,3

D -

In addition to the resumption of his compositional activities once he had settled in

the United States, Rudhyar continued to write and publish articles on the music and

aesthetics of prominent composers of the day. In 1919,Musical Quarterlypublished two


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of his articles, one on Satie and the other on Stravinsky. Among the themes that emerged

in these and in subsequent articles are his concern that the trend toward irony in Parisian

musicwhich he traces to Saties music post-1910combined with the impulse toward

neoclassicism in the music of Les Six and in Stravinsky after Le Sacre du printemps,

represented a decline in the regenerative and future-oriented power of the modernism that

had begun to emerge some years previously. Of the composers who advanced the

regeneration of music to Rudhyars satisfaction, the outstanding examples were Scriabin

and the Stravinsky ofLe Sacre. In an article from 1923 entitled Varse and the Music of

Fire, Rudhyar hailed Varse as the American successor to the Stravinsky ofLe Sacre.

VarsesAmriques, he writes, towers above all the musical productions which have

appeared during the last 10 years, with the exception of the last works of Scriabin.

(Rudhyar 1923) His references to the harmonic aspects ofAmriquesreveal some of his

own developing thoughts about post-tonal harmony:

Varse bases his music on the so-called duodecuple system, using the

twelve notes of the octave un-trammeled by any feeling of tonality. But hehas perceived unconsciously the only philosophical justification of such a

system and thus appears as an heir to the old Chinese musicians who built

their scales with material derived from an ascending succession of fifths.(Rudhyar 1923)

A little further on in the article, Rudhyar declares that the hexachord system

comprising the first six members of the circle of fifths is essentially joyous and

represents an impersonal, cosmic, creative force. He rightly points out that the

pitch classes in this hexachord form the basis for both the opening bassoon

melody of StravinskysLeSacreand the opening alto flute melody of Varses

Amriques.


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The year after this article was published, Rudhyar embarked on one of the most

productive phases of his musical career. Between 1924 and 1929 he traversed the United

States several times, giving lecture-recitals of his music and that of Scriabin, and

participating in concerts sponsored by the New-York-based International Composers

Guild and the California-based New Music Society. During this period he composed

mainly for the piano, but also produced some chamber and orchestral music. The works

from this period give direct musical expression to the aesthetic ideas that he was

developing through his observations and writings about other composers music during

the late teens and early twenties. Chief among these ideas is the notion of dissonant

harmony, giving rise to what Rudhyar termed syntonic music. He gives eloquent

expression to this aesthetic in an article entitled Dissonant Harmony: A New Principle

of Musical and Social Organization. Although this article was not published until 1928,

it refers to principles that are evident in his music from at least as far back as 1924:

[D]issonant music does not solveonce for all the problem of

unification, does not resolve dissonances into consonances. It propoundsproblems which the hearer must solve for himself subjectively. Music,

as well as life spiritually considered, is not something done, to which we

have but passively to respond. It is something being done. For the syntonistwho deals spiritually with dissonant harmony

there can be no finality, no satisfaction at any point, therefore nophysicalplane consonance. Dissonances are synthetized into harmonic resonances

which are relatively consonant on the spiritual plane, i.e., in the subjectiveconsciousness of the hearer. These higher consonances break again into

higher dissonances. There is no definite finality to the process. It is really

unending, like life itself. (Rudhyar 1928b)

The best-known piano works from this period areMoments, Paeans, and

Granites. The fifteen pieces comprisingMoments, composed between 1924 and 1926,

were first published in 1930, then retitled and republished as Pentagrams 1-3in the

1970s. Paeansand Graniteswere published in Henry CowellsNew Music Quarterly,


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and remain the easiest of Rudhyars scores to locate. TheMoments(or Pentagrams),

though more difficult to find, are arguably more important historically, since they were

among the first works to establish Rudhyars reputation as a major American composer

andas has been documented by Judith Tick and othersthey exerted a strong influence

on Ruth Crawfords early development as a composer. Because of the historical

importance of the Pentagrams, as well as the aesthetic and structural characteristics of the

pieces they contain, I have chosen to focus the remainder of my remarks on one of the

movements from Pentagram 3.

Example 3: Nine-Note Segment of the Circle of Fifths and Its Structurally

Significant Hexachordal Subsets in Stars

Stars, the fourth movement of Pentagram 3, is possibly Rudhyars most

immediately appealing composition, and was certainly one of the most frequently

performed during his lifetime. In this work the cycle of perfect fifths that Rudhyar

referred to in the article on Varse, cited previously, are particularly evident on the

musical surface, where they lend a quality of openness and serenity to the sound.

Example 3 shows the first nine members of the cycle of ascending fifths beginning on

C2. This set, of set class 9-9, is labeled X for easy reference. Set X serves as the source


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for the structurally significant hexachords, A and B, that follow in Example 3. The

pitches in X are shown in open noteheads in order to illustrate more easily the distinction

between the pitch-equivalent subset, A (shown with open noteheads), and the pitch-class-

equivalent subset, B (shown with filled-in noteheads).

Based on observations of Rudhyars compositional practice, as well as the

intimations of compositional principles given in his writings, it appears that he regarded

subsets of the circle of fifths that consist of adjacent members of the series as being more

stable harmonically than those that contain nonadjacent members. The subset classes and

interval-class vectors of subsets containing only adjacent members of set X are shown in

Table 3. The interval-class vector for each set class in the table shows the maximum

number of instances of interval class 5 for set classes of a given cardinality, a number that

is equivalent to the set classs cardinality minus 1. Set class 4-23, which appears on the

table, is represented at the conclusion of the excerpt from Tetragram 1see Example 2

and Tables 1 and 2where it provides a relatively stable ending to the phrase. Set class

3-9, also in Table 3, appears twice in set A in Example 3, where it partitions an instance

of set class 6-26 into a transpositional combination of set class 3-9 with interval-class 4.

Table 3: Set Classes and Interval-Class Vectors of Subsets Consisting of Adjacent

Members of Set X in Example 3

SC ICV SC ICV

3-9 [027] 9-9 [01235678T]

4-23 [0257] 8-23 [0123578T] 5-35 [02479] 7-35 [013568T]

6-32 [024579] - -

Sets A and B from Example 3 each feature a gap in the series of fifths, and thus

their set classes fail to exhibit the property of complete adjacency possessed by the set


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classes in Table 3. Part of the structural drama of Stars results from the filling in of the

missing pitch classes in each hexachord independently. In each case this results in the

completion of a member of the diatonic set class, 7-35, which is among the subset classes

of set X included in Table 3. Set B is the first to reach diatonic completion. This occurs in

mm. 6-9, as shown in the analytical sketch in Example 4a, where set B provides an

ostinato accompaniment to a simple melody that starts on the missing pitch class, E.

Example 4: Diatonic Completion of Set B in Stars and Related Trichordal

Partitions of the Pitch-Class Contents of Sets B and A

The melody is an instance of set class 3-2, which also provides a subtle link

between the two structurally important hexachords in Stars. Set B, of set class 6-25,

partitions into two instances of 3-2 by transposition (shown in Example 4b), while set A,

of set class 6-26, partitions into two instances of 3-2 by inversion (shown in Example 4c).

The structural drama of the diatonic completion of set B is accomplished within

the works first major section, which is the first part of a large ternary design. The

diatonic completion of set A, however, takes longer and necessitates the overcoming of

some harmonic obstacles along the way. Set A is first presented on the downbeat of m. 1

of Stars, as shown in the analytical sketch in Example 5a. The attempted diatonic

completion of set A gets off to an uncertain start, as the pitch-class A that would have


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completed the seven-note diatonic collection is replaced by A#. This creates a near

miss to the diatonic collection, a septachord that is a member of set class 7-30. A second

attempt at completion introduces the pitch class C# and a new septachord in combination

with set A, of set class 7-14. Finally, a third pitch class, G#, produces a second form of

set class 7-30 in combination with set A.

Following this passage there are some further pitch-class set relationships that

proceed logically from those that are introduced in Example 5a, but the issue of the

diatonic completion of set A is left unresolved at the conclusion of the works first major

section. After a rather turbulent middle section, the diatonic completion of set A is

reserved for the final portion of the works third major section, which presents a modified

repetition of material from the beginning of the piece. An analytical sketch of the works

concluding measures is shown in Example 5b. The example shows that a pitch-class

equivalent instance of set X is formed when set B is superimposed over set A. The

combination of pitch class E with set B (aligned vertically in the sketch) recalls the

diatonic completion of that set that first occurred within the works first major section.

Two more instances of set class 6-25 occur: first, one that is pitch-class equivalent to set

B, and then one that is inversionally related to it (both indicated with brackets above the

sketch).

Set class 7-14, first heard in the works opening measures (see Example 5a), also

reappears in two different forms: one includes the set-class-equivalent repetition of B in

the middle of the sketch and the other results from the combination of set A with C#6.

The latter is a pitch-equivalent repetition of 7-14 from Example 5a and is shown in open

noteheads in Example 5b.


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The diatonic septachord, set class 7-35, appears three times in Example 5b. The

last of these appearances arrives with the sounding of the works final pitch, A6, which

provides the diatonic completion that set A has been reaching toward since the beginning

of Stars. While the pitch class A appears several times within this passage prior to final

A6, it is not strongly associated with a complete form ofpitchset A until the very end. A

detail that is left out of the analytical sketch, but present in the score, is that sustaining

slurs are attached to the pitches in set A and to the final A6, and only to these pitches.

These slurs, as well as the dynamics and rhythmic values that are used in the passage,

indicate that these pitches should be given special emphasis, thereby causing them to

emerge clearly from the resonant background provided by the remaining members of the

works referential form of set class 9-9.

Example 5: Analytical Sketch of Opening and Concluding Measures of

Stars

Rudhyar was a provocative composer and writer whose views on the social

dimensions of modernism provide an enriching supplement to better known, but

generally more technical, contemporary literature on the topic. Moreover, the


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sophistication of his musics harmonic logicdemonstrated here in only a very partial

and preliminary manner due to time constraintsmay come as something of a surprise,

given the aesthetically perceptive but generally non-technical nature of his writings on

music.

During his lifetime, interest in Rudhyars music rose and fell in cycles, due in part

to his inconsistent efforts in promoting the musical aspects of a wide-ranging career that

also embraced astrology, philosophy, poetry, and painting. Interest in his work may be

growing again, as evidenced by the establishment of an online archive of his writings and

the appearance of several new recordings of his music within the last several years. Some

older LP recordings have also been reissued on CD. It is difficult to tell how long and

how widespread this renewed interest in his music will turn out to be. Whether or not his

music comes to enjoy a more secure place in our musical history and in our current and

future performance practice than it has done in the past, the general issues that Rudhyar

addressed as a musician and as a writer retain their relevance for us today.

Rudhyar gave eloquent expression to these issues in an article written near the end

of his life:

The musical urge to deal with complex tones having meaning and power

in themselves as single, separate entities indeed parallels the intense

emotional desire to operate, and to be valued by others, as an individualperson whose beingness essentially and irrevocably matters. The

development and growth of the potential of being inherent at birth in such

persons turns out to be very important. Likewise in music, the productionof new and rich sounds which may stir, exalt, or shock the individual's

sense of being has also become a matter of supreme significance. The

great issue now is how and when these sounds can be integrated in a musicable to assimilate as significant factors an immense variety of composite

vibrations, because its scope is no longer determined by local conditions,

but has become global and possibly cosmic. It requires the embryonicgrowth of a new mind and a consecrated will to psychic and intellectual

transformation a new philosophy of existence, intense enough to


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assume the character of a new faith, and a new vision of the character and

meaning of being human. (Rudhyar 1984)

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