Saturday, March 9, 2013

Musical Texture

This is not something that they really talk about much in theory classes, but it is one of the most distinctive features of a piece of music. I can recall an interview with David Byrne where he said that when he wrote a song, he always started with the texture. Here is an example of one of his textures:

The bass has a quick dactyl (dum, da, da) and the guitar an iamb (da, dum) with the drums giving isolated punctuation. This is a rhythmic texture and it is rhythm that distinguishes most textures. Here is a prelude by Bach in which there is a nearly constant flow of sixteenth-notes, but layered against this is a staccato rising theme. These two layers often change places, but it is the layering that creates the unique texture of this piece:

The Rolling Stones have always had, propelling their songs, probably the best r&b rhythm section in the business. The bass and drums are a tightly integrated unit that drives the song. Over top of this they layer guitars, keyboards, harmonica and voices. Listen to how they build up this texture in the beginning of this song, "Gimme Shelter" from the 1969 album Let It Bleed. It starts with the guitar, some isolated percussion, voices and finally the bass and drums.

For a comparison, listen to this song by George Harrison from the year before, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" from The White Album. The texture is much sparer and suspended rather than driving. Ringo's drumming is placed, crafted, rather than constantly pushing onward. The bass is very distinct and solid. Listening to the textures of the two songs side by side is quite illuminating!

Going back to classical music, the second movement of Beethoven's quartet op 59 no 3 is an unusual texture. In 6/8, with the violins and viola flowing along in arc-like melodic shapes, it is the cello that is the odd man out, playing pizzicato nearly the whole time. The throbbing cello part is a textural contrast with the other instruments.

But for some really extraordinary textures, we should look at the piano sonatas. The late sonata in E major, op 109 is in three movements and ends with a theme and variations that starts with the most tender and simple theme that becomes more and more involved. The theme itself is just over two minutes long (the length of a whole early Beatles' song). It is a very simple song in 3/4. Each variation is a different textural spinning out of the theme, sometimes in 2/4 or 9/8 or 2/2. For Beethoven, variation technique has a great deal to do with rhythmic texture. Here is Alfred Brendel with the first part of the movement:

It continues with a change of tempo from andante to allegro in a more contrapuntal texture, then for the final section, it returns exactly to the original theme and tempo, but this time starts a process of rhythmic division that turns the simple quarter notes of the theme into 32nd notes combined with trills and triplet eighth notes! It seems almost a miracle, that he can find his way back to the simplicity of the theme at the very end.

With all the scores of books on Beethoven I am still surprised that more has not been written about his rhythmic ingenuity. Sometimes it is all about texture...

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