Varèse's Hyperprism and Penderecki's Polymorphia

Christopher Meister

This paper concerns itself with comparing two different pieces of twentieth-century music as self-contained and internally-referent information structures. To that end, the following questions will be addressed: how does one part of a piece compare with another; where are the significant compositional similarities, and in what ways do these similarities fashion themselves into larger structures and organizational patterns? The pieces to be examined are Hyperprism, by Varèse, and Penderecki's Polymorphia; Hyperprism will be discussed first, then Polymorphia, and as the latter is analyzed such comparisons will be made between the two as seem pertinent.

The Varèse contains a large percussion complement, and the present analysis concerns itself with the pitched instruments only. In order to examine briefly their harmonic content, this paper borrows from Larry Stempel's 1979 Musical Quarterly article "Varèse's 'Awkwardness' and the 'Symmetry in the Frame of Twelve Tones'". According to Stempel, much of Hyperprism's harmonic structure may be explained as one kind or other of chromatic segment. The simplest and least ordered of these segments are shown in Examples 1a and b.

Example 1a and b: Varèse, Hyperprism, chromatic segments

(c) 1924 by G. Ricordi & C.; Copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of Hendon Music, Inc.

Within the overall category of chromatic segments, special treatment appears to have been reserved for chromatic trichords whose middle pitches have been displaced either up or down an octave (see Examples 2 a-e). Frequently, "up" and "down" displaced trichords will be played off against each other. Notice that this "updown" play creates a [1] loose sort of symmetry.

Example 2a through e: Varèse, Hyperprism, chromatic segments

(c) 1924 by G. Ricordi & C.; Copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of Hendon Music, Inc.

Despite the considerable gains towards understanding Hyperprism that this harmonic analysis offers, it fails to address the matter of the composition's non-amplitudinal "dynamics." The remainder of this paper's first half sketches out a model of Hyperprism's behavior, which might be expanded to include Stempel's pitch work. This model divides Hyperprism's musical activity into five "eventcategories." (Example 3a. In this and similar examples, temporal alignment is represented vertically, and measure numbers appear above the topmost staff.) The five categories are 1) piccolo (flute)/clarinet, 2) filter, 3) tremolo/trill, 4) brass, and 5) solo. Each of these events cuts in and out of the sonic collage fairly independently of the others. Although Varèse is not particularly meticulous about an appearance's taking up the exact musical gesture that its previous disappearance had left off, the continuity is nevertheless obvious, and each event has its own [2] formal-dramatic pattern of behavior.

Example 3a: Varèse, Hyperprism, mm. 1-20 Event Relationships

b) c)