« What about Timbral Hierarchies? Propositions for a Hierarchical Analysis of Timbre in Tonal and Post-tonal Music »

     Communication dispensée par Nathalie HEROLD (membre du GREAM) dans le cadre du Colloque « 13th International Music Theory and Analysis Conference », à l'Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali « G. Lettimi » de Rimini (Italie), le 1er octobre 2016 à 9h40.

     Among all musical dimensions, timbre – considered as a multidimensional metaparameter – has so far received little attention from a theoretical and analytical perspective. The research presented in this paper aims at understanding the structural function of timbre within musical form. More specifically, this paper first addresses a number of theoretical issues pertaining to timbral hierarchies – these latter being crucial as regards the cognitive organisation of musical events –, before discussing methodological propositions concerning timbre analysis in the context of both tonal and post-tonal music.

      The theoretical reflection will be based on the foundations laid down by Fred Lerdahl in his article about “Timbral Hierarchies” (see Lerdahl 1987). This essay, which aims at extending the results of the Generative Theory of Tonal Music (GTTM) in the case of timbre, introduces several essential notions such as timbral consonance and dissonance, timbral prototypes, timbral intervals and scales, and timbral trees. As Lerdahl himself explains, “these are only preliminary studies” (Lerdahl 1987, p. 155), which need to be submitted to critical discussion, and whose musical implications have to be developed in particular musical contexts. However, this timbre-oriented task received rather little attention, in comparison with the high interest of researchers from different disciplines in the implications and experimental applications of the GTTM in the field of pitch – as well as metrical – organisation.

      On the basis of Lerdahl’s propositions, as well as Stéphane Roy’s extensions that aim at elaborating a generative analysis of electroacoustic music (see Roy 2003), this paper intends to submit methodological propositions for a hierarchical analysis of timbre. On the basis of a sonogram analysis of a piece recording – which represents both the spectral and temporal content of the sound signal –, and with close relation to aural and score analysis, a segmentation of the overall form in several timbral units can be proposed, followed by a comparison and labelling of these timbral units. From there, a hierarchical representation of these timbral units can be elaborated in the form of a syntactic tree. Applications of this method will be given in the context of two short piano pieces, namely “Eusebius” from Schumann’s Carnaval Op. 9 (1834-1835) and Dutilleux’s Prelude “Sur un même accord” (1977).

      The main contribution of this research concerns the integration of perceptive and cognitive dimensions into the analysis of score-based music. Through timbral analysis, music is indeed approached via the concrete realisation of its sonic materials – and in close relation to computer-assisted music analysis tools. Another important result concerns the formal potential of timbre, as it emerges from the specificities of pianistic writing, thus emphasizing timbre as a perceptible quality – without excluding identity processes, for example in the case of register recognition. Finally, this paper also contributes to the knowledge of tonal and post- tonal piano repertoires, in relation to musical practices including both performance and listening processes.