Triadic chord and its expression in the compositions of twentieth- and twenty-first-century music.

Tonalumo ir konkrečių su tonaliąja muzikos kalba tapatinamų muzikos kalbos elementų apraiškos posttonaliojoje XX a. muzikoje paskatino patyrinėti konsonuojančio trigarsio (tercinės sandaros kvintakordo, įskaitant ir jo apvertimus) situaciją. Akivaizdu, kad šiuolaikinės muzikos kūrėjų santykis su šiuo akordu, kuris neretai laikomas vienu pagrindinių tonaliosios harmonijos atributų, nevienareikšmis. Straipsnyje susitelkiama į Gérard’o Genette’o transtekstualumo teoriją, kuria remiantis trigarsis interpretuojamas kaip metatekstualus elementas. Akordas kūriniuose įterpiamas kaip svetimkūnis į atonaliąją muziką, jis įgauna prasminę funkciją modalioje struktūroje arba gali tapti organiška naujojo tonalumo harmonijos dalimi. Dėmesys atkreipiamas ir į naujai trigarsio (triados) aktualumą pabrėžiančią bei nagrinėjančią neorymaniškąją teoriją. Straipsnyje išskiriamos dvi būdingos trigarsio panaudojimo strategijos XX ir XXI a. kompozicijose: Luigio Dallapiccola’os ir Olivier Messiaeno kompozicijose trigarsiui suteikiamos tam tikrų simbolių reikšmės, o Arvo Pärto, Philipo Glasso ir Raimondos Žiūkaitės kūriniuose jis tampa reikšmingu struktūriniu kūrinio komponavimo vienetu.In Western music, for three centuries (the seventeenth through the nineteenth) a consonant triad was treated as the core structure on which all sonorities were built. Obviously, the triad in one or another form has remained in the music of the twentieth and twenty-first century; however, its meaning and use have undergone great change. The paper concentrates on the era of post-tonal music, characterized by radical anti-tonal tendencies, which is the reason the use of a tertian major or minor triad in such music calls for special attention and a critical approach. To explore manifestations of the consonant triad and its inversions, Gérard Genette’s theory of transtextuality, which treats the chord as a metatextual element, is employed along with other theories developed and cultivated by different composers of the twentieth century. Usage of musical expression elements of the past in compositions of the early twentieth century is studied in the book by Joseph N. Strauss, Remaking the Past: Musical Modernism and the Influence of the Tonal Tradition (1990); the author expresses criticism of various allusions employed by Stravinsky, Schönberg, Bartók, Webern, and Berg in their music. According to the theoretician, early modernism saw the triad become a musical element provoking a conflict between old and new music. The key and most distinctive elements of classical musical expression are interpreted by the above-mentioned composers on the basis of new features of musical expression. By changing the function of a triad, they aim to neutralize its tonal significance and refresh it in a post-tonal context (Straus 1990:74). The twentieth- and twenty-first-century compositions selected for this study clearly reveal different ways of using a triad, whereby a triad serves as a symbol or structural element out of which the whole composition is woven. The symbolic expression of the triad is evident in Vingt Regard sur l’Enfant-Jesus by Olivier Messiaen, which displays the theme of God made of triads and inversions and the octatonic scale, whose structure is naturally based on trichords. The consonant sound of a triad is purposefully employed by the composer to convey sacredness and the presence of God, while the chord produces a sense of peace and stability. Luigi Dallapiccola places his work Quaderno Musicale di Annalibera (1952) in a completely different context; the metatextual consonant tertian triad inherited from the tonal epoch is intentionally used here with reference to Baroque music by Johann Sebastian Bach. The so-called rebirth of tonality (from the 1960s–70s onward) saw the triad manifest in other shapes. Analysis of Philip Glass’s Metamorphosis (1989) and Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa (1977) has shown that although minimalists quite explicitly cultivate the “classical” music tradition by employing the most primitive elements of harmony, the compositions in question treat the triad as a structural element. Both works are based on a specific and quite explicit harmonic field, which in Pärt’s oeuvre is presented through his own, widely exploited tintinnabuli system, while for Glass the triad is the sole compositional element whose transpositions become the basis of the entire piece. While some composers have developed their own triadic compositional technique or tend to use chords in accordance with their own rules, the Lithuanian composer Raimonda Žiūkaitė’s work Levitating Organza (2017) displays her interest in the Neo-Riemannian theory, which emerged in the nineteenth century. The harmony, based entirely on triads, is the key, most refined musical parameter of this composition. The composer makes use of the principal triadic operations (P, L, R, N, H), treated as mathematically calculated structures. An emphasis is placed on the P, N and H operations, which dominate the vertical of the composition; after their introduction in the first part, the return of triads connected by these transformations in the second and third part of the piece is based on a mirror principle. A closer look into a number of compositions written between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with a focus on the states and expression of consonant triads found in them reveals in what way and for what purpose each composer uses one of the key chords of classical music. In conclusion, the study indicates that elements of the past have retained their importance to this day and are used in contemporary composition to realize various meanings