QOTD

[randy_byers]

"It is perhaps scarcely an exaggeration to claim that, in this opera, the entire 'natural' musical order of things is inverted; 'inverted' being the operative (and in this case appositely loaded) word, since the result of inverting a perfect fourth is a perfect fifth, and what is the musical meaning of 'Quint' but a fifth? I am aware that this is in effect asking the reader to accept that the entire musical structure of The Turn of the Screw was motivated by a pun; and while I feel that Britten must have been aware of the musical implications of Quint's name, I think it likely that they unconsciously, rather than consciously, influenced his choice of vocabulary. Whatever the facts of this matter, we should not be chary of recognising Britten's achievement (a) in creating a sense of all-pervasive evil through the very musical formulas normally and naturally (but there is nothing 'normal' or 'natural' about The Turn of the Screw) associated with all-pervasive good, and (b) in avoiding totally the cliché of the augmented fourth/diminished fifth, the conventional, traditional diabolus in musica."

-- Christopher Palmer, "An Inversion of the Natural Order" (liner notes to Britten's original 1954 recording of the opera on Decca/London Records)

Comments

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

That's intriguing, though it's not enough to make me like The Turn of the Screw, the least interesting Britten opera I've ever heard. (B. didn't like it either.) I trust that the technical matters that Palmer is discussing are clear to you?

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

No, I don't actually understand the technical musical points, although in the larger context of his analysis I think I get the gist of it. For example, he also talks about how different instruments (e.g. celesta) are used against traditional expectations. Also ties it to Britten's exposure to gamelan music, and it's all very interesting.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Well, "inversion" means taking a chord or a sequence of notes and doing them upside down, i.e. going down the scale instead of up and vice versa. Thus, a C and the F above it would be a fourth, but if you take that C and the F below it instead, that's a fifth, as you count four steps up (inclusive) from C to get F, but five steps downward to get an F.

If C and the F above it are a fourth, and C and the G above it are a fifth, then C and the black key in between on the piano are the tritone, either an augmented fourth (C and F-sharp) or a diminished fifth (C and G-flat) depending on harmonic context. Perfect fourths are traditionally a consonant interval; perfect fifths without fill-in harmonies are hollow and were once avoided but became a basis of modern post-1600 harmony (if C and the G above it are a fifth, add the E in between and you have a major chord in root, i.e. uninverted, position), but the tritone in medieval harmony was a big no-no, the diabolus in musica as Palmer calls it.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I can't say I follow all of that, but it does help, especially the descriptions of what a fourth and a fifth are. And now that I read it again I think I understand the augmented/diminished part of it too. I just can't hear what any of it sounds like in my head.