Si le monde...
The Great Globe
Original format HD 1920 x 1080
The book of Madness (7.49 MB)
The book of Motion II (11.69 MB)
Thin Air (4.98 MB)
When I began writing the orchestral composition of ‘The Great Globe’ in 1995 – commissioned by what was then the Gemeentekrediet – I mainly had Liszt’s piano sonata in my head as a model of form. This magnum opus – which he dedicated to Robert Schumann - is probably one of his most successful works. Its remarkable structure is both a climax and a milestone in the developmental history of Western music. It is the ultimate and consistent result of the architectonic thinking that began with Haydn and was brought by Beethoven to heights that have never been equalled.
For non-initiates, I include a few clarifications of two compositional form schemes : the sonata form, and the form of a symphony, for example.
The sonata form is not the form of a sonata, but the form of the first part of a sonata, symphony or string quartet etc. This form, mainly developed by Haydn, introduces two – usually contrasting – musical ideas in a single composition. This is a concept that was unusual until that time. This allows the composer/architect all kinds of adventurous possibilities. Haydn realised straight away that a disciplined structure would be needed to ensure that the work was balanced. He divided this form of composition into three main parts:
the exposition, in which the two themes are introduced one after the other, and subjected to a modulation ;
the development - Durchführung is actually a better word, but it has no English equivalent – in which the two themes are played off freely against each other, travelling at the same time through various tonalities;
the recapitulation or re-exposition, which is more or less a repeat of the exposition, but without the modulation.
These three parts are sometimes preceded by an introduction, and sometimes followed by a coda at the end.
Composers tried all sorts of experiments with the sonata form until well into the twentieth century. For example, Beethoven introduced a new theme in Eroica halfway through the development. This meant that musical logic forced him into a very extensive coda, in fact a second development, to give expression to the extra theme. Brahms and Bruckner systematically used a third theme in the exposition, and of course in the rest of the composition as well.
Mahler, Saint-Saëns, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Scriabine, Sibelius, Nielsen, Strawinsky, Bartok, Hindemith, Tippett, Lutoslawsky and many, many others have all exploited this composition technique, usually in a personal and creative way.
A symphony usually consists of four separate parts, separated by silences. Each part usually has one main tempo. In very general terms, we could say that symphonies have a fast first part, a slow second part, a very fast third part – called the scherzo – and a fast fourth part. Each part also has a certain form. In other words, the first part of a symphony is usually written in sonata form, the second in lied form or a more extensive variant of it, the third in scherzo or minuet form, and the final part in sonata form again or a freer variant of it. It goes without saying that composers have thought up and constructed countless variations and extensive departures from this scheme.
So what is it about Liszt’s piano sonata that is so special ? In fact, it combines the two forms : you could look at this work, which lasts about half an hour without pauses, as one big sonata form, but you could also consider it one great symphony in which the various parts run into each other.
This mixed form has always been a source of fascination to me. It also served as the model for The Great Globe.
I found a second, more emotional and content-related catalyst in The Tempest by William Shakespeare. In the play, Prospero, the Duke of Milan, claims to value his library more than his dukedom, without giving any further indication of the content of his books. The idea of describing the contents of a number of these imaginary books resulted in a series of ‘images’ in my imagination, and proved to offer great stimulation. And so I composed the following, one after another:
The Book of Water
Mirrors I
A Book of Traveller's Tales
The Book of Madness
The Book of Motion
The Tempest
Thin Air
Mirrors II
The Book of Games
The Book of Death
The Book of Love
The Earth
These twelve parts, which flow into each other, use the same thematic material to a great extent and can be divided up in two ways, according to my form model:
as a sonata form with three themes :
introduction:
The Book of Water
Mirrors I
exposition :
A Book of Traveller's Tales
The Book of Madness
The Book of Motion
development :
The Tempest
Thin Air
Mirrors II
recapitulation :
The Book of Games
The Book of Death
The Book of Love
coda :
The Earth
as a symphony :
first part, fast with a slow introduction :
The Book of Water
Mirrors I
A Book of Traveller's Tales
The Book of Madness
The Book of Motion
second part, slow :
The Tempest
Thin Air
third part, fast and playful :
Mirrors II
The Book of Games (first part)
finale :
The Book of Games (second part)
The Book of Death
The Book of Love
The Earth
The main musical theme is based on two names. This age-old technique resulted in an interesting series of intervals here, particularly characterised by two augmented thirds and a minor one. (example from the score)
Almost all the melodic material has been derived from this, even when there is apparently, and emotionally, no connection. (example from the score)
When the soprano sings the words ‘The Great Globe itself’, I have incorporated a quote from ‘Also sprach Zarathoustra’ into the score in homage to Richard Strauss. This is a gigantic masterpiece written exactly 100 years before my piece (1896).
Since Bach, and even before him, composers often attached symbolic meanings to certain keys. ‘The Great Globe’ follows in this tradition. The piece begins around the key of F sharp Major, which for me is the key of the cosmos. The beginning of the exposition is in A major. At two crucial moments – the central ‘Thin Air’ and the beginning of ‘The Earth’ – I use the lowest note of the symphonic orchestra, C, the key of the earth. And the work ends in E flat major, the key of hope used in ‘Eroica’… These four keys, F sharp, A, C and E flat, form an axis system that in turn refers back to Liszt.
Since 2001 I have also been working as a visual artist. In this new process of development, I became aware that I had always been unconsciously seeing images when composing my earlier pieces of music.
The combination of the two art forms began to seem indispensable to me. In standard tableaux, to begin with, but before long I felt the need to include the element of time in the images as well. Not just by giving the illusion that still pictures were moving, but by using real moving pictures too, i.e. film.
I don’t work with feature films with a storyline or realistic images ; instead they are more like moving paintings. With the music as a basis, I worked out an extra contrapuntal line in a new dimension : light. So I did not slavishly ‘illustrate’ my music, as is often the case in animation films. The images have an independent meaning and rhythm, which is sometimes parallel, and sometimes imitative, but completely free and contrapuntal.
In music we use the term counterpoint for passages in which several melodies can be heard at the same time.
The Tempest is an allegory of the magician who conjures up whole worlds in his imagination for the eyes and ears of his audience. It is an allegory of the mortality – and meaninglessness – of all things, not only these pretty fantasies built from “such stuff as dreams are made on,” but also palaces, churches and even the theatre building itself and the whole wide world – Shakespeare’s theatre was called The Globe.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
My composition and film do not tell this story literally, but paraphrase its deeper meaning in a very free manner. The connection with the play is not important for the listener, in fact : it functioned as a catalyst, setting off the creative process but not taking part itself in the chemical reaction …
As for the film, however : its form is closely linked to the form of the music. It is a film in sonata form !
A few examples of the parallels between musical and cinematographic form, with explanations:
In the exposition and recapitulation, the ‘decors’ correspond to the three ‘themes’ :
the SpaceChessStation in
A Book of Traveller's Tales - The Book of Games ;
the Groenhoven estate in
The Book of Madness - The Book of Death ;
The Thermal springs of Montecatini in
The Book of Motion - The Book of Love.
Parallels between Mirrors I and II:
In both the music and the images, you see/hear one individual and a group of people. The individual is portrayed by the piano (and the pianist …) in the music and by the single figure in the image.
Moreover, Mirrors I and II are sometimes analogue with each other, and sometimes each other’s reflection :
man and woman are swapped over ;
the ruin of San Galgano and the garden at Groenhoven retain the same functions ;
Pythagoras’ theorem is mirrored each time in different directions.
In technical terms, the form of both ‘Mirrors’ is a build-up to the exposition and recapitulation respectively, a procedure tried and tested by many composers, such as Beethoven in his ‘Appassionata’.
The music in these sections is completely in two voices or two layers, with the two mirroring each other exactly ! (example from the score here)
I have always felt there is an obvious link between a human figure in visual art and a melody in music, between a landscape or decor and a musical accompaniment figure. A character in a natural setting is, for me, the equivalent of a melody with an accompaniment. Hence two interactive characters mean counterpoint.
The characters in the film do not interact much ; they are used in a more symbolic way.
The man-in-white, Marc Bogaerts, symbolises humanity in general, a sort of symbol of the self.
The riders of the apocalypse, the dancers in black trousers, represent the inevitability of life. Inescapable ‘fate’.
The body-painted dancers are an abstraction of art, the muses in a certain sense.
The ballerinas represent people at play, and hence also the erotic …
The actors represent people in the world, the audience. For example, they are sitting on the beach and watching at the point when the singer sings ‘ … the great globe itself …’.
The Fish and Moon are the symbols of the monotheistic religions.
The astronauts are the symbol of science and rational thinking in general.
Pythagoras’ theorem is the symbol of all concepts that – according to human thought, at least – are independent of society. Such as numbers, geometric figures, algebra etc.
The chess board represents both the limits and the splendour of the world we live in.
In the margins of this project, I have also constructed a floating chessboard. It consists of 64 panels, each of which measures one square metre : so the whole measures eight by eight metres. It consists of 64 tableaux gathered either from earlier work or new film material. 32 are mainly white, and the others mainly deep blue.
On four squares – F6, F7, G6 and G7 – there is a life-size statue of the two main characters in the film, who are arguing as they play chess.
Both in the music and the images, The Great Globe suggests that humanity’s search for freedom on the way towards humanistic existentialism is only possible through science, erotica and art, which is to a great extent sublimated erotica.
Robert Groslot
Original format HD 1920 x 1080
La Chute begin (5.09 MB)
La Révolte fragment (10.83 MB)
Le Désert (2.48 MB)
Nocturne fragment (11.43 MB)
Una Processione notturna begin (5.82 MB)
'Si le monde ...' (If the world ...) sketches a world view in the form of a moving painting. Three categories of characters are essential in this film. Each category represents an important aspect of human experience, and was symbolized during the work process by a painter : Botticelli, symbol for the marvellous beauty of nature and the universe, Munch, symbol for existential anxiety and the senseless existence, Dix, symbol for the Great Party and for man who tries to ignore his anxieties. Next to these three categories stands Death with three assistents. The main scenery is a virtual building, the Pan@Theon, placed in the desert. This building symbolizes the set of all human ideas. There is no essential evolution and almost no interaction between characters. In the end, everything is being destroyed, only Death and the World of Ideas remain. The works and the ideas of Albert Camus are the main source of inspiration. The title refers to a quote out of Le mythe de Sisyphe: Si le monde était clair, l'art ne serait pas. If the world was clear, no art would exist.