MUSICAL DISTANCE IN KAIJA SAARIAHO’S “L’AMOUR DE LOIN” by GABRIELLE CHOMA A THESIS Presented to the School of Music and Dance and the Division of Graduate Studies of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts December 2021 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Gabrielle Choma Title: Musical Distance in Kaija Saariaho’s “L’amour de Loin” This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in the School of Music and Dance by: Dr. Jack Boss Chairperson Dr. Abigail Fine Member Dr. Steve Rodgers Member and Krista Chronister Vice Provost for Graduate Studies Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Division of Graduate Studies. Degree awarded December 2021 ii © 2021 Gabrielle Choma iii THESIS ABSTRACT Gabrielle Choma Master of Arts School of Music and Dance December 2021 Title: Musical Distance in Kaija Saariaho’s “L’amour de Loin” Kaija Saariaho’s and Amin Maalouf’s 2000 opera “L’amour de Loin” has received world-wide praise and acknowledgement for their masterful storytelling, and breathtaking, fresh musical setting. In 2020, the Met offered this work to viewers at home as part of their stay-at- home program, where it received further acknowledgement and praise among contemporary operas. Despite the success of this opera, few music theorists have attempted to dissect and understand the music of this opera. This comes as no surprise, as Saariaho’s pluralistic and idiosyncratic compositional style can seem intimidating, with complex electronics and a heavy emphasis on the timbral and cerebral reception of sound. But a glance at some of Saariaho’s preliminary sketches for this work demonstrates a rather straightforward method to composition: she assigned unique harmonies, timbres, and other musical characteristics to her three main characters. My work will focus on using these drafts to track harmonic changes as they relate to character development, specifically Clémence, Countess of Tripoli. We will find through this analysis that Saariaho painstakingly planned the projection of Clémence’s character through her harmonic progression, expressing these character changes as they relate to three kinds of distance—physical, temporal, and anticipatory. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Gabrielle Choma GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Texas A&M University Corpus Christi DEGREES AWARDED: Master of the Arts, Music Theory, 2021, University of Oregon Bachelor of the Arts, Music, 2019, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: 20th/21st century Music PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Employee (Music Theory 4-6, Aural skills 1-5) University of Oregon, 2019-present Supplemental Instruction Leader Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, 2017-2019 PUBLICATIONS: Choma, Gabrielle. “How Periodicity in Timbre Alters our Perception of Time: An Analysis of ‘Prologue’ by Gérard Grisey.” Poster presented at Timbre 2020, Thessaloniki, Greece, September 2020. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to Dr. Jack Boss for his help and support during the writing of this paper. In addition to this, I wish to thank Dr. Abigail Fine for her assistance in my research, and Dr. Steve Rodgers for his support throughout this project. Lastly, I would like to thank Kaija Saariaho for her incredibly impactful works that have shaped my approaches to both theory and music as a whole. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 Background ...................................................................................................................... 1 Courtly Love ..................................................................................................................... 10 Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 13 II. KAIJA SAARIAHO AND “L’AMOUR DE LOIN” ......................................................... 19 Biography ......................................................................................................................... 19 Conceptualization of L’amour ......................................................................................... 22 Harmony ........................................................................................................................... 26 Harmonic Analysis of the Overture ........................................................................... 31 Melody ............................................................................................................................. 35 Melody in Act 1 Tableau 1 - Jaufré ........................................................................... 35 Melody in Act 2 Tableau 1 - Clémence ..................................................................... 39 Melodic and Harmonic Interactions ................................................................................. 42 Rhythm ............................................................................................................................. 56 III. CLÉMENCE PART 1 ....................................................................................................... 59 Act 2 Tableau 2 ................................................................................................................ 59 Act 3 Tableau 2 ................................................................................................................ 81 IV. CLÉMENCE PART 2 ....................................................................................................... 97 Act 4 Tableau 2 ................................................................................................................. 97 Act 5 Tableau 1 ................................................................................................................ 103 Act 5 Tableau 2 ................................................................................................................ 112 Act 5 Tableau 3 ................................................................................................................ 127 Act 5 Tableau 4 ................................................................................................................ 133 vii Chapter Page V. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................. 138 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................... 144 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Saariaho’s early draft of the three main characters of L’amour and their associated musical elements ......................................................................................... 23 2. Calico’s (2019) translation of Saariaho’s draft. ......................................................... 23 3. Saariaho’s early drafts showing the unique harmonies for each character ............ 24 4. Saariaho’s early harmonic drafts transcribed for ease of reading ........................... 25-26 5. Foundation chord for Verblendungen ......................................................................... 27 6. Mm. 1-11 of the overture .............................................................................................. 32 7. The LdL chord and contrasting chord at A1..................................................................... 34 8. Mm. 13-14 demonstrating new sonority .......................................................................... 34 9. Original and translated text for “Lanquan li Jorn” ........................................................... 36 10. The first phrase of “Lanquan li Jorn” ............................................................................... 37 11. The first phrase of Jaufré’s song Act 1 Tableau 1 mm.90-7 ............................................ 38 12. Ordered pitch intervals for “Lanquan” ............................................................................. 38 13. Ordered pitch intervals for Jaufré’s song mm.90-3 .......................................................... 39 14. Clémence’s melody Act 2 Tableau 1 mm.91-7 ............................................................... 41 15. Stem-and-Slur analysis for mm.91-7 ................................................................................ 42 16. Mm. 204-13 of Act 2 Tableau 1 ....................................................................................... 45 17. Mm. 214-22 of Act 2 Tableau 1 ....................................................................................... 48 18. Mm. 223-35 of Act 2 Tableau 1 ....................................................................................... 49 19. Mm. 236-68 of Act 2 Tableau 1 ....................................................................................... 52-54 20. Clémence’s chord associations for Act 2 Tableau 1 ......................................................... 55 21. Rhythm of each characters’ name .................................................................................... 57 22. The Pilgrim’s pitch field mm. 472-510 of Act 2 Tableau 2 ............................................. 61 ix Figure Page 23. Clémence’s pitch field when she sings Jaufré’s song to herself mm. 536-72 .................. 62 24. The Pilgrim’s ornamentations on Jaufré’s melody mm. 374-87 ...................................... 63 25. Clémence’s ornamentations on Jaufré’s melody mm. 536-61 ......................................... 63 26. Mm. 526-35 Act 2 Tableau 2 ........................................................................................... 65 27. Mm. 536-78, showing how the “LdL?” chord bookends Clémence’s song ..................... 67-70 28. Mm. 589-655, showing the harmony at the end of Clémence’s aria ................................ 73-78 29. Updated chord association chart for Clémence in Act 2 Tableau 2 ................................. 79 30. Incomplete wedge diagram for anticipatory distance up until Act 2 Tableau 2 ............... 80 31. Mm. 426-50 of Act 3 Tableau 2, with the “original” E chord .......................................... 83 32. Mm. 458-69, showing the “distorted” E chord ................................................................. 84 33. Mm. 470-6, showing the “distorted” Ab .......................................................................... 86 34. Mm. 530-42, Clémence’s return to primary pitch collection ........................................... 87 35. Mm. 579-90, “No, by the grace of God, I do not suffer” ................................................. 89 36. Mm. 591-601, Rudel quotation ........................................................................................ 90 37. Mm. 602-78, distorted E chord ......................................................................................... 92-94 38. Updated Clémence chord associations for Act 3 Tableau 2 ............................................. 96 39. Updated wedge diagram for Clémence in Act 2 Tableau 2 .............................................. 96 40. Mm. 262-70 of Act 4 Tableau 2, Eb briefly associated with C chord .............................. 99 41. Unique chord association chart for Act 4 Tableau 2 ........................................................ 102 42. Mm. 27-34 of Act 5 Tableau 1 “He did not want to remain a distant shadow” ............... 105 43. Mm. 57-65 “The madman! The folly of love…” ............................................................. 106 44. Mm. 74-94, Clémence’s preoccupation with her first impression.................................... 108-109 45. Mm. 142-6 “God! Oh, God!...” ........................................................................................ 111 x Figure Page 46. Updated wedge diagram for Act 5 Tableau 1 ................................................................... 112 47. Mm. 314-40, Eb within the C sonority ............................................................................. 116-118 48. Mm. 367-81, Clémence’s love confession ....................................................................... 120-121 49. Mm. 394-402, Jaufré, Clémence, and Pilgrim trio ........................................................... 123 50. Updated chord association chart for Act 5 Tableau 2 ...................................................... 126 51. Updated wedge diagram for Act 5 Tableau 2 ................................................................... 126 52. Mm. 498-508 “(This) mortal had nothing in his heart but pure love…” .......................... 130-131 53. Mm. 747-51 showing Gb and descending glissando ........................................................ 136 54. Final chord association chart for Clémence ..................................................................... 137 xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background On August 15th, 2000, “L’amour de Loin,” with music by Kaija Saariaho and libretto by Amin Maalouf, premiered at the Salzburg Festival in Salzburg, Austria. Since then, this opera has enjoyed worldwide success, and numerous international stagings, including a 2016 performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera. This performance made Saariaho the second woman ever to have her opera performed by the Met (with the first being Ethyl Smyth in 1903, over 100 years prior) and the event was streamed online in Spring 2020 as part of the Met’s on- demand program during the 2020 lockdowns. Although Saariaho had already been recognized for her opera, winning awards such as the 2003 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, the streaming of her opera put her work before the eyes of audiences worldwide, and many different types of listeners were able to access this new opera from their computers, shining an international spotlight on Saariaho. This is incredibly significant, because in the realm of 21st century music, many (including concertgoers and music theorists) are hesitant to analyze and study works due to an outdated and wrongly-founded idea that new music is completely dependent upon unnecessarily complex details, intertwining social circles, and an overwhelmingly exhaustive knowledge of music theory. While it’s certainly true that Saariaho’s music is constructed with immense scrutiny and attention to details, and analyses that concern themselves with these details will certainly be fruitful, it is my firm belief that a work like “L’amour de Loin” is worth studying and understanding because of its approachability outside of such study. The music and orchestration of this opera are rich and draw from styles of the late 20th century, such as post-spectralism, but 1 are not so divorced from tonal conventions as to evoke negative reactions from the typical Western concert-going audience.1 In fact, it is often rumored that spectralism fell out of style due it’s cold an scientific approach to music, but Saariaho’s post-spectralist setting of this opera proves that spectralism can be a flexible compositional ideology that can provide depth and warmth to a narrative. Furthermore, the conflicts in this opera are engaging, but also not submerged in the epic and fantastical wars, battles, and backstabbing drama of opera giants like Handel and Wagner. Though many of the well-loved operas of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries concern themselves with the same themes as “L’amour” (such as love, death, and religion), Saariaho and Maalouf scale down the action and drama into a down-to-earth and humble narrative. The three characters that mostly comprise this opera are normal humans (no demi-gods or superheroes), and the audience is granted a view into their lives as they attempt to navigate their world to find love. There is no specific antagonist in “L’amour,” unlike many earlier operas, and instead the villain of the opera could be the distance between the two main characters, or perhaps fate, or even God. The events that unfold in “L’amour” are mundane: Jaufré and Clémence, though they are part of nobility, struggle with issues that the modern-day audience can relate to, like navigating a long-distance relationship, and finding a place in the world where they belong. These subtle features make the opera digestible, approachable, and relatable for the 21st century audiences. To give a synopsis of the work, this opera is based on the vida of Jaufré Rudel, which goes as follows: Jaufré Rudel, Prince of Blaye, was a very noble man. And he fell in love with the Countess of Tripoli, without having seen her, because of the great goodness and courtliness which he heard tell of her from the pilgrims who came from Antioch. And he 1 This is not to say that audience reaction determines the quality of a work, but instead that it is crucial for gauging the general tastes of the public. Pieces of new music that are enjoyed by music critics and audiences alike present a unique crossroads in cultural musical development, and special attention should be paid to these types of works. 2 wrote many good songs about her, with good melodies and poor words. And because of his desire, he took the cross and set sail to go see her. But in the ship he fell very ill, to the point where those who were with him thought he was dead. However, they got him - a dead man, as they thought - to Tripoli, to an inn. And it was made know to the Countess, and she came to his bedside, and took him in her arms. And he knew she was the Countess, and recovered sight and smell, and praised God because He had kept him alive until he had seen her. And so he died in the arms of the lady. And she had him buried with honor in the Temple at Tripoli. Then, the same day, she became a nun because of the grief which she felt for him and for his death.2 The opera, then, features three main characters: Jaufré Rudel, troubadour and Prince of Blaye (located in current-day southwestern France), Clémence, Countess of Tripoli (capital of current- day Libya), and the otherwise-nameless Pilgrim, who is male by design but played by a female mezzo-soprano, and he freely travels between the two locations. There are also two choruses, one made up of men who live with Jaufré in Blaye, and one made up of women who live in Tripoli with Clémence. The Pilgrim, who, at the beginning of the opera, has just arrived from abroad, finds a brooding Jaufré who is longing for a woman to love. But not just any woman; he is disillusioned with his current raucous social circle and yearns for an imaginary woman that possesses all of his desired and idealized traits: beauty, humility, virtue, charm, courage, so on and so forth (but, of course, she must be all of these things without being arrogant). This yearning of his comes from the tradition of courtly love, which, in this case, describes a love that is obstructed by distance.3 He laments the life of his youth, spent drinking and sleeping casually with women he did not love. The chorus of men mock Jaufré for his desire to change, dismissing his whims, but the Pilgrim informs Jaufré that his dream woman exists—she is Clémence, Countess of Tripoli. He begs to hear more about her but is so overwhelmed by his imagination that he cuts the Pilgrim off and instead excitedly interjects with his own imaginary depiction of 2 (Chaytor 1912) 3 A more in-depth conversation about courtly love and its role in this opera can be found in the “Courtly Love” section of this work, page 10. 3 this woman. He guesses at her hair color, her eye color, and assigns physical traits to her that are impossible to know. With his head completely in the clouds, Jaufré writes a song about her and her imaginary fairness, nobility, and devotion. This leads to act 2, where the pilgrim travels back to Tripoli and meets with Clémence. She expresses her loneliness and homesickness (which is perhaps a representation of both Saariaho’s and Maalouf’s own homesickness, as they were both voluntary immigrants to France) and the Pilgrim tells her about Jaufré’s newfound infatuation with her. Clémence is initially offended by this and finds Jaufré’s affections ungrounded. As the Pilgrim elaborates on the troubadour’s devotion by performing one of his songs for her, she lowers her guard and accepts the possibility of a complete stranger’s affection. After the pilgrim leaves, she reflects on the inherently exaggerated nature of Jaufré’s infatuation, musing over how she is only fair, noble and devout in his songs, but nonetheless, she relishes these beautiful songs that describe her in such a flattering light. In the third act, the pilgrim returns to Blaye, reports his travels to Jaufré, and foreshadows a return journey to Tripoli. He confesses to Jaufré that he revealed his secret love to Clémence. Jaufré is immediately furious and overwhelmed, and there is a slight tone of disappointment to his panic. He resolves to return to Tripoli with the Pilgrim to meet Clémence. Meanwhile, the Countess has overcome her initial skepticism about Jaufré and has fallen head- over-heels in love with him, or, rather, the idea of him, since she has never met him. She sings his songs to herself constantly, and the local women mock her for it. In act 4, Jaufré begins his journey to Tripoli with the Pilgrim and falls ill—but whether to seasickness or anxiety is unclear. He has a dream of meeting Clémence and begins to deeply fear their meeting. He starts to regret his choice and wishes that he had stayed in Blaye. In act 5, he arrives on the shores of Tripoli, just barely hanging onto his life. He has just enough remaining 4 strength to confess his love for Clémence before he succumbs to his mysterious illness, cradled in her arms. Clémence is left devastated, and she curses God for her and Jaufré’s tragic fate. Though both the Countess and Jaufré initially praise God for their extraordinary meeting, only Clémence remains after the fact, alone and questioning whether God could truly be so cruel. After a deep lament, she has a change of heart, and joins a convent to dedicate her life to God. Saariaho’s and Malouf’s setting of this moment is incredibly potent. As she vows to dedicate her life to “him,” she is kneeling before the corpse of Jaufré, and it is unclear whether she means to devote her life to God, or to Jaufré.4 The opera ends with Clémence making a solemn declaration of devotion to God, or Jaufré, who was her one true “love from afar” all along. This almost ironic ending sets the stage for my analysis. Although there are numerous commentaries and themes as well as much depth to be found in the libretto by Amin Maalouf, my research will primarily concern itself with Saariaho’s musical setting and how it reflects the theme of distance in the opera’s narrative. Specifically, I will be analyzing Clémence’s character and music primarily, as this opera is unique in that it turns the tradition of courtly love on its head and tells this story from a long-forgotten perspective--the woman’s. Oftentimes in film and media, and especially within the tradition of courtly love, a man’s love interest succumbs to a mysterious illness (or otherwise a death that was not within her control, such as murder or an accident) which drives the hero forward in his quest (such as Eurydice in Orpheus’s tale, or Ophelia in Hamlet). Saariaho flips this complex in several ways. The first way is by having Jaufré, the male, succumb to a mysterious illness, as opposed to Clémence. The second way is by 4 This detail is unfortunately not staged in every setting of “L’amour.” For example, the Santa Fe premiere of this opera in 2002 did not stage this detail. Instead, Clémence stood alone at the center of the stage, looking up and cursing God. This has an unfortunate consequence on the purposeful vagueness of this final scene, as the Santa Fe staging makes it seem like Clémence could only be talking to God, and the ambiguity whether “he” is God or Jaufré is lost. Regardless, however, it was certainly Saariaho’s vision to see this scene in that way, as she wrote explicit stage directions to perform this scene in that style. 5 portraying her devastating grief and subsequent submission to a life of service for God through 2 entire tableaus immediately following Jaufré’s death. Rarely is a woman’s grief ever so present and significant for a drama. Though lengthy, the dedication of two tableaus to Clémence’s grief is significant in portraying the woman as an individual who experiences unique emotions not controlled by the desires of her male love interest or the interest of dramaturgical development.5 When composing this opera, Saariaho wanted to explore the question “What happens when we lose someone we love?” It is quite an exaggerated and glorified media trope to claim that grief lends itself to a journey of self-realization and ultimate relief and happiness. Clémence embodies the realistic reaction to loss and grief, and this transformation is reflected musically as well. For these reasons, my work will center around Clémence, as I find her to be the “true” main character of this story, but references to Jaufré and the Pilgrim are, of course, necessary for a holistic understanding of this opera. From the title of the opera, to its settings, to its ironic ending, the theme of distance is omnipresent. In specific, I’ve located three types of distance that are musically significant in this opera: physical distance, temporal distance, and anticipatory distance. The first refers to tangible distance—the literal distance between Blaye and Tripoli. Though this could be musically represented literally with sonorities taken from each geographical area and applying them to the characters, Saariaho instead takes a much subtler approach, assigning unique, but not entirely geographically associated, chords to each character. By means of “harmonic field” analysis, one can isolate these chords and observe any processes they undergo that transform them “closer to,” or “further away,” from each other. With this method of composition, one can’t help but wonder 5 Surely, this made some audience goers uneasy, as they were not used to the portrayal of raw, tragic, and “ugly” female emotion in media. In Moisala’s book, they mention music critic Wolfgang Sandner’s reaction to the opera, saying that it was “…a significant premiere, although he wishes that the opera had ended when the male character Jaufré dies, without following the spiritual development of its heroine.” 6 if Jaufré’s sonorities begin to resemble Clémence’s as he travels to become physically closer to her, or vice versa, or both. One also can’t help but wonder if the Pilgrim’s sonority ever affects this process of harmonic transformation. I will explore these questions, and more, in this work. To further define my three types of distance, then, temporal distance refers to a musical divide between the historical setting of the opera and its modern musical arrangement. This opera is inspired by the vida of Jaufré Rudel, a real historical figure, and therefore takes place in the 12th century. Though Saariaho is influenced by the real Rudel’s troubadour songs, the musical setting is not entirely accurate to either 12th-century musical conventions nor Saariaho’s own post-modern compositional style. The marriage between these two styles results in a metaphysical temporal musical distance that can be manipulated to sound either more modern, or more ancient. This distance can change primarily through the relationship between the voices, the orchestra, and the electronics. For example, a melody sung by Jaufré that is inspired by his troubadour songs can be greatly separated from the orchestration if the instrumentalists are engaging in complex and modern timbral and harmonic procedures and if electronics are aurally present. Furthermore, this same melody could display temporal distance if it is constructed like a troubadour song, but there is something innately modern about it, such as the harmony. If this distance is correlated to a dramaturgical element, such as Jaufré becoming ill at sea, then this distance now reflects Jaufré’s internal world. By scrutinizing temporal distance and how it may ebb and flow, one can see how Saariaho micromanages this relationship to develop drama in the work. Lastly, anticipatory distance refers to the distance between expectation and reality. For example, at the mere mention of a woman who lives far away, Jaufré is overwhelmed by his imagination and begins to instead paint an image of his ideal woman. This creates a distance 7 between the imaginary woman he expects, and who Clémence truly is. Clémence reflects this distance in her dialogue, disclaiming all the positive traits that Jaufré assigned her. She says “If this troubadour knew my soul, would he sing about me with such fervor?” She herself, however, falls victim to this style of thinking as well, in a couple of ways. She has an image of Jaufré in her head as a man of great artistic talents who is entirely devoted to her. While this is true, she has no knowledge of his rowdy past as a heavy drinker and womanizer.6 Similarly, one can tell that Clémence is more in love with the idea of a man from her homeland who writes flattering music about her, than she is actually in love with the man himself. When Jaufré arrives on the shores of Tripoli, Clémence says to herself “So, he arrived. The madman! He did not want to remain a distant shadow.” This distance between both characters’ desired reality and the actual outcome exacerbates the internal struggles of the characters and drives the story and music forward. Furthermore, this distance will explore Saariaho’s early concept of immature love transforming into mature love, as this anticipatory distance changes and fluxes through the opera.7 This last concept may initially seem difficult to attach to musical elements, but from Saariaho’s early sketches of this opera, one can see that Saariaho assigns specific chords and sonorities to represent her characters, similar to, but not exactly the same as, Wagnerian leitmotifs. Saariaho transforms these chords and applies several processes to develop them, reflecting the narrative, mood, or underlying ideas of the unfolding events. Similarly, both Jaufré and Clémence spend at least 3 acts worth of time dreaming about one another. The musical 6 This detail can be easy to miss, since Jaufré’s previous lifestyle is only mentioned briefly in act 1 by his peers, who use it to mock him for wanting to change. 7 (Prikko, Moisala 2009) 8 changes that both characters undergo during this time are significant, and close attention will be paid to these transformations. My study will primarily use the piano-vocal reduction of this opera made by Christopher Brown. However, this reduction poses a problem as microtones are not a natural component of the piano. In Brown’s reduction, he reduced the microtones to their nearest equal-tempered neighbor, but this has clear consequences for analysis. Where appropriate, I will discuss and mention dissimilarities and inconsistencies in this reduction. In addition to this, the translated text for this opera will be entirely my own. Brown offers a translation at the end of his reduction, and I find that this translation is good for a holistic understanding of the events of the opera, but it lacks details in the exact translation of certain words. Since text associations will be incredibly important for my analysis, I will be translating the original French text myself, with the aid of the Merriam-Webster French to English dictionary. However, I cannot translate the ancient Occitan that appears in this opera, so for that translation, I will be either referencing Brown’s translation, or another scholarly translation. Lastly, my paper will primarily focus on the music associated with the character of Clémence, with references to Jaufré’s and the Pilgrim’s music as appropriate. Though there is the potential for much to be said about the choruses and their rich role in the opera, I will not focus on their music. This has to do with this work’s heavy reliance on the early drafts that Saariaho sketched for this opera. In these drafts, there is nothing sketched for the choruses, and therefore musical analysis for their parts will not be nearly as fruitful as musical analysis for the characters whose musical material was sketched in advance. However, to fully understand the nuance of irony and parody in this opera, a discussion of the choruses’ roles and dialogue will be necessary at times. 9 Courtly Love This opera deals heavily with the notion of medieval courtly love and bases much of its commentary on the norms of this tradition. Courtly love (or fin’amour), as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is “a highly conventionalized medieval tradition of love between a knight and a married noblewoman, first developed by the troubadours of southern France and extensively employed in European literature of the time. The love of the knight for his lady was regarded as an ennobling passion and the relationship was typically unconsummated.”8 This definition recalls the tales of the Arthurian court and knights (such as Lancelot, Perceval, and Gawain) and the temptations of adulterous love. In these tales, a man (sometimes a knight) must overcome hardships and face opposition of grand proportions to be with his one true love, who is often married to someone else or otherwise unavailable. In the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere, Lancelot is having an affair with Guinevere, who is married to King Arthur. When the King discovers this adulterous affair, he sentences Guinevere to death, but the noble Lancelot arrives just in time to save her from her doom. They leave the kingdom and supposedly live happily ever after.9 This tradition was revived in the Romantic era when many scholars and composers found themselves fascinated with the tale and works of Jaufré Rudel, a real troubadour from the 12th century. What’s different about Rudel’s vida is that the woman he longs for is not married, nor is she otherwise romantically unavailable, and therefore this is not a matter of unrequited love. Perhaps the humanistic nature of Rudel’s vida, in which he is simply a noble who yearns for a woman who lives a great distance away, appealed to the sentiment of the time. There is also the element of the ironic and sad ending of Rudel’s vida that perhaps appealed to the grim and pessimistic ideologies of the time as well. Though Rudel’s unique love interest was unusual 8 (Drabble, Stringer, and Hahn 2007) 9 (Percy, 1977) 10 amongst the other poets and troubadours of his time, his poem Lanquan li Jorn sonc Lonc en Mai details many of the affects of courtly love tradition. There is a man who yearns for a woman who is unavailable (however, in this case, she is unavailable due to distance, as opposed to being unavailable due to previous engagements or disinterest), but nonetheless he delights in his love that leaves him with a bittersweet sentiment. On one hand, she is the fairest and most noble woman that Rudel has ever known, but on the other hand, she is so far away that he cannot share the delights of love with her. Saariaho undoubtedly was fascinated with Rudel’s vida and wished to portray this story in her own setting, and therefore worked with Amin Maalouf to write the text and music for this opera. Whereas Rudel’s vida focused heavily on his life and travels, Saariaho found herself wanting to answer the question of who Clémence is, how she felt about Jaufré, and if she truly could have fallen in love with a man who she has never met. Most noteworthy here, however, is that Clémence was not named as such in Rudel’s vida; in fact, she was not named at all. Perhaps Saariaho saw the blatant disregard for the woman in this tale and wished to portray her side of the story. After all, Clémence is what inspires Rudel to pursue such a dangerous trans- Mediterranean journey. Furthermore, she was so struck with grief at his death that she gave up the luxuries of living as nobility to enter a convent and dedicate her life to God, yet she was never even named in this tale. While this is speculation, it may not be too far-fetched, as Saariaho herself commented that she saw a bit of herself in Clémence, since she was a voluntary immigrant to France and perhaps felt a homesickness like how Clémence feels.10 Regardless of Saariaho’s (and Maalouf’s) reasons for writing Clémence as the ultimate heroine of this tale, there is no question about the team’s choice to spotlight Clémence and her 10 (Calico 2019) 11 own character development over Jaufré’s. He is portrayed as being rather shallow in character depth; he is sick of his adulterous and party-going lifestyle and wishes to pursue a woman who embodies all his desired and unrealistic traits in women. One can’t help but wonder if Saariaho and Maalouf are purposefully writing Jaufré to be so naïve, as a way to comment on the tradition of courtly love. He falls in love with her from a distance, and after much prodding and interference from the Pilgrim, chooses to embark on a journey to meet Clémence. This journey, unlike those in Arthurian tradition, is far from heroic and epic. Indeed, Jaufré does not slay mythical beasts or overcome impossible odds to meet his love, in fact, his journey is quite anti- climactic, and we find Jaufré and the Pilgrim discussing banal topics, such as why the sky is blue. In addition to this, Jaufré expresses an immense amount of hesitation, regret, and fear about arriving on the shores of Tripoli. In this way, Jaufré is an “anti-hero.” He does not embody the traditions of courtly love regarding his heroism, and certainly, this love was not “ennobling” for Jaufré. This is in direct contrast to Clémence, who demonstrates an immense amount of courage when she curses and challenges God for taking Jaufré from her. She questions God’s intentions and projects human emotional traits onto him (such as accusing him of jealousy at human happiness). The chorus of women from Tripoli and men from Blaye both attempt, in panic, to silence Clémence’s grief, as they do not wish for God to cause a tragedy or disaster due to Clémence’s uncontrollable despair and blasphemous cursing. Clémence does not address them and is only minimally influenced by their suggestions. Following this, she does retract her words and apologizes to God (or Jaufré), then solemnly declares her devotion to him. This process of grief does not seem to be immediately impacted by a divine fear of punishment or by her peers’ comments, but rather it is dictated at her own pace as she deals with these emotions. In this way, 12 Saariaho and Maalouf turn the tradition of courtly love on its head to identify the hero in this tale as the woman—the object of affection with her own agency and emotions independent of Jaufré’s desire or the desires of those around her. Similarly, Jaufré falls head-over-heels in love with Clémence upon first hearing of her, whereas Clémence needs to be exposed to the idea for quite some time before she decides how she feels. Even then, she is in love with Jaufré only in her imagination. She does not actually wish for them to meet or consummate their love. This is expressed in Act 5 Tableau 1 where she expresses dissatisfaction and disappointment at Jaufré’s arrival. This is not the usual case for courtly love, where it is assumed that the woman in the romance either cannot be with the man due to a previous engagement, or, at times, due to death or illness. By giving Clémence the choice to be in love with Jaufré or not in the writing of this opera, Saariaho and Maalouf give some power back to the object of love. Lastly, it is typically the case that in these traditions, should the love interest die, the hero is often driven to pursue an epic quest through his grief. In this case, Clémence is driven to a defeatist and self-punitive attitude of dedicating her life to God following the death of her love interest. Literature Review While many scholars are deeply invested in the life and works of Saariaho, there is not a great amount of work that attempts to musically analyze L’amour de Loin. To begin with, Joy Calico (2019) has done extensive research into the primary sketches and drafts of the opera. She explores how these sources relate to the rewriting of part of Clémence’s vocal lines to suit different soprano ranges. Calico’s article is primarily concerned with intervallic and harmonic analysis as it applies to the performance of Clémence’s role, but it also delves deep into the initial sketches of the opera and how these lead to the ultimate conception of the opera that is 13 staged today. Among the most significant aspects of this article is the discovery that Saariaho based her opera around three thematic ideas: pairing the mirror with the magnifying glass (which concerns plot and character), the kaleidoscope, which is a favorite theme of Saariaho that appears throughout her musical career, and the contrasts between space and time in the Occident and Orient. Though my work will not explore all three of these elements in great detail, these concepts undoubtedly tie into the main themes in my thesis, and the last theme in particular will be of great importance. Though Saariaho’s descriptive language can, at times, be vague, my understanding of the concept of a kaleidoscope has much to do with her conceptualization of sound and space. When one looks through a kaleidoscope, one sees an image that is distorted through glass lenses that creates an image of a forever-repeating object. I believe that Saariaho conceptualizes both music, narrative, and their relationship that way. One can exaggerate the relationship between objects by scrutinizing them under a kaleidoscope, but this also distorts it slightly. Saariaho claims, in a document from 1996, that all elements represented by the kaleidoscope undergo processes that move these elements away from the “concrete” (narrative) level to an abstract and more poetic one.11 That is the function of the kaleidoscope. In many ways, this motion also creates another sense of distance in the music as well, from “real” to “imaginary,” but I will mostly relate this distance to one of the three larger concepts of distance explained above. In addition to Calico’s detailed article, Saariaho herself wrote an article in 1987 about timbre and harmony in her early electronic works, titled “Timbre and Harmony: interpolations of timbral structures.” In this article, Saariaho uses several of her own works from the 80s (such as 11 (Calico 2019) 14 Laconisme de l’aile (1982), Sah den Vögeln (1981), Im Traume (1980), Vers Le Blanc (1982), Verblendungen (1982-4), and Jardin Secret (1984-5)) to demonstrate her musical processes and discuss how the computer plays a role in her compositions. She also uses this article to introduce the “sound/noise axis,” which she uses to manipulate tension and release. Though this article is heavily concerned with her works from the 80s, and “L’amour” was initially conceived in the 90s, the compositional principles she outlines in her article are paramount to understanding how Saariaho approaches her own musical composition. She herself expresses that her time at the IRCAM experimenting with electronic music was simply a stepping stone to further develop her own unique musical sound. She no longer employs electronics in her most recent compositions as frequently as she did in the 1980’s. Furthermore, Saariaho details her principle of harmonic motion in this article. She does so through the means of harmonic field analysis, which I will adopt for my paper as well. Harmonic field analysis entails the flattening of harmonic soundscapes into a single chord and then comparing this chord to subsequent sections that employ different sonic profiles. This method of analysis is best suited for post-tonal composers (or, dare I say, post-post-tonal) like Saariaho who think heavily about the intervallic character of their sonorities and prefer slow, note-by-note processes. In her article, Saariaho uses this method of analysis to prove the importance of intervals and intervallic relationships as they pertain to her process of harmonic progression. Since there is no functional harmony in this opera (though one can argue there are tonal centers that are established through pedal points at extreme registers), a sense of progression, as well as tension and release, must be manipulated through an idiomatic method. To Saariaho, this method is achieved through manipulating the vertical intervals that create the chord. I will elaborate more on this process in my section about Saariaho’s compositional style. 15 In addition to Calico’s and Saariaho’s articles, Spencer Lambright’s dissertation on “L’amour de Loin” was a crucial addition to the current research on this piece. This dissertation takes a holistic look at the first two acts of this opera. He begins by first analyzing the musical characteristics and procedures of Saariaho’s style up to the point of composition. Then, he looks at the vocal predecessors for L’amour, including Lonh (1996), Sah de Vögeln (1981), Nuits Adieux (1991), Tempest Songbook (1993), Château de l’âme (1995), and Oltra Mar (1999). Lambright’s analysis focuses on exploring Saariaho’s unique musical stylings as they occur in her opera. He uses harmonic field analysis to observe changes in harmony and is primarily concerned with how the soundscapes associated with each character are demonstrated in harmonic changes and processes. What he does not do, however, is compare the completed work with Saariaho’s early drafts, looking for how her early ideas translated into the final piece. My research will deal heavily with these early drafts and will therefore bear a similar, but different analysis. His analysis primarily concerns itself with the construction of Acts 1 and 2, but my study will explore the entire opera and compare the events of the narrative with musical events, looking for where Saariaho complements the narrative with her music, and provides clarity in character development. Though my research will also concern itself with harmonic soundscapes and Saariaho’s idiosyncratic method of harmonic transformation, my research will build on Lambright’s by categorizing these musical elements according to my proposed three types of distance. Prikko Moisala worked extensively with Saariaho to write her biography, simply titled Kaija Saariaho. In this biography, Moisala details most of Saariaho’s life, including her early childhood, her early adulthood as well as her early and later compositional careers, weaving details about her musical career throughout. It becomes clear in this biography that Saariaho has 16 a deep connection to music and nature and has had this connection since she was a child. Moisala also briefly analyzes elements of L’amour de Loin, as well as other operas by Saariaho, in comparison to her other works. While this overview provides much-needed biographical context for this opera, Moisala’s scope does not attempt to connect Saariaho’s early musical drafts with the final product, nor does she attempt to align the events of the narrative with the unfolding of the music. Amy Lynn Prickett wrote a dissertation about Saariaho’s path to her New York Metropolitan Opera premiere. Prickett offers another analysis of Saariaho’s musical style, drawing heavily from Saariaho’s own article, and ties this information into her analysis of color, texture, and motifs in the opera. Her research tracks these motifs and observes how they change and where they appear, as well as other musical elements such as changes in style and changes in orchestration. Though motifs are important to this opera, my research will concern itself more with the harmony of this opera. Prickett’s dissertation is a comprehensive overview of common musical features in Saariaho’s musical setting. While her research is paramount for a basic understanding of this opera, my research aims to delve into the details of the planning and design of this music. The three types of distance I’ve proposed will give the audience a deeper view into the question of why Saariaho chose to use these musical elements in the way that she did, and the impact they have on the internal worlds of the characters and the events in the opera. Lastly, Battier and Nouno collaborated on an article that discusses the origin and employment of the electronics in this Opera. Nouno, in fact, worked with Saariaho on the electronics for this piece and both authors elaborate on how Saariaho recorded and manipulated sounds to use as electronics in the opera. They reference Saariaho’s early drafts in relation to the 17 pre-assigned chords for each character, but their analysis focuses on how Saariaho electronically alters these chords for the electronic tracks in the opera. Their concern with this article is more about the filtering and processing of these sounds on MAX/MSP for the purpose of educating future performers on how to accurately portray these electronics than with the understanding of compositional practices in this opera. While there is certainly a small, yet budding, body of work on L’amour, my study will be the first to scrutinize how Saariaho organizes her music to complement the events of the narrative. Most of the work written about this opera is either incomplete (in the case of Lambright, who only looks at Acts 1 and 2), or not focused on the details of composition as they apply to the ideologies of the composer (such as Prickett and Calico). I hope that my work will contribute to the understanding of Saariaho’s music, and hopefully encourage others to continue studying her mesmerizing musical style. Furthermore, I hope my work may encourage someone to delve deeper into the aspects of gender in the opera, as this opera is full of commentary on gender roles. 18 CHAPTER II KAIJA SAARIAHO AND “L’AMOUR DE LOIN” Biography Born in 1952 in Helsinki, Finland, Kaija Saariaho is one of the most well-celebrated living composers of this era. Her musical style defies all labels, even within a pluralistic post- modern era. Celebrated for her groundbreaking approaches to timbre and electronic composition, Saariaho merges many modern trends in music into her highly sophisticated compositional method. She began studying composition with Paavo Heinenin at the Sibelius Academy, then expanded her style by taking summer courses at Darmstadt with Brien Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber. In 1982, she moved to Paris to study composition at the IRCAM and has resided there since. Moisala divides Saariaho’s life into seven phases. The first phase covers when Saariaho was studying at the Sibelius Academy. This was an explorational period as she learned how to develop her style. At this point, she was already employing electronics in her music. Her second phase started when she began studying abroad in Darmstadt, and she sought to expand her musical boundaries even further with additional experience in electronics. The third phase is what Moisala calls her “sound laboratory,” primarily defined by her time studying at the IRCAM. She worked extensively with computers and used various programs to analyze sounds to aid in her composition. The fourth phase, which Moisala calls the “timbre period” took place while Saariaho was still at the IRCAM, beginning in 1986. By this point, Saariaho’s instrumental writing had already matured into a much more idiomatic style. This phase is when she wrote her first major work for symphony, Du Cristal (1988). The subsequent, fifth, phase was defined by a 19 movement away from writing musical transitions and focusing on using musical means to create drama and non-linear progression. This phase is when she wrote her first ballet, Maa (1991). This then pushed Saariaho into her sixth phase of composition, identified by the exploration of identifiable musical gestures. Melody became an important musical parameter for Saariaho much in the way that timbre became the highlight of her fourth developmental phase. This is when she began conceptualizing her first opera, L’amour de Loin. However, it did not premiere until she was in her seventh and current identifiable phase.12 This opera was a stepping stone for Saariaho into her next operas, Adriana Mater (2006), Émilie (2010), and her most recent work, Innocence (2021). As Saariaho grew more comfortable in the genre of opera, she turned towards writing specifically operatic tragedy. Her works always comment on the state of world affairs; in fact, Innocence takes place 10 years after a fictional school shooting, and the political commentary in this opera is plentiful and unfiltered. This amount of contemporary relevance is slightly lost in L’amour de Loin; however, one can see in the subtext of this opera that Saariaho and Maalouf expressed many political statements about women, gender roles, and gender stereotypes. When writing L’amour, Saariaho had already moved beyond the heavy electronic exploration of her third and fourth phases. Though these phases were fundamental in the development of Saariaho’s style, she was less concerned with the algorithmic possibilities of the computer and more fascinated with the musical possibilities that computers allowed. In a dual interview with her and her partner, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, she had this to say about her use of electronics in her works. Saariaho: Until Emilie, or this new opera, the electronics were mostly an extension of the orchestration, even if they could have an autonomy, like in Lonh for soprano or Jardin Secret II for harpsichord. I was essentially using processing as a kind of orchestration and 12 (Prikko, Moisala 2009) 20 a way to blend the voice or the instrument with the electronics. More recently, the processing sometimes has to do with the dramaturgy of the piece, not only extending the voice or the instrument, but in its own way contributing to the narration, which of course makes special sense in an operatic context. I’ve been working with technology for a long time. I started doing so during my studies in Helsinki, going to the studio to amplify sounds and adding reverberation to them, because I could not stand the lousy concert spaces where my music was then being played. Later, I used tape recorders and other analog devices, and later still, digital electronics and computers. Campion: What were you trying to achieve? Saariaho: I just wanted my music to sound as I imagined it. That is how at some point it became an important aim for me to get to IRCAM so that I could understand more about sound itself through acoustics and psychoacoustics, and develop the knowledge to achieve what I imagined. I took my first course at IRCAM in 1982. I started using the program Chant, which allowed me to control the physical and acoustical parameters for creating sound, whereas in other programs you were working principally with oscillators, filters, and envelopes. I learned about sound properties and how they are perceived, how to hear sounds, and what to do to build the sound I wanted. I understood the importance of designing coherent variations of all parameters with Chant to obtain a living, organic sound. Which, in turn, also gave me ideas for my orchestration.13 One can see from this response that Saariaho’s use of electronics is less for a mathematical or computational process unique to the computer (as it was often used by the composers of the previous generation, such as Babbitt), but more so for its ability to fine-tune and manipulate the psycho-acoustic perception of sound. In Saariaho’s earlier career, primarily around 1980, she insisted that she would never write an opera, even though Moisala considers opera to be a natural extension of Saariaho’s work. She has long been fascinated by the human voice, and this was her primary field of compositional focus for most of her career. She had also previously set many texts to song, such as From the Grammar of Dreams (1988), set to texts by Sylvia Plath. Saariaho was first moved to write an opera after hearing a performance of Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise (1983). Furthermore, she was fascinated by the life of Jaufré Rudel after discovering his vida, and 13 (Campion 2017) 21 collaboration with others came easy to Saariaho as she had been used to collaborating with sound engineers and set designers for her previous works.14 Therefore, it came naturally that Saariaho eventually wrote not only one, but multiple operas, and is continuing to write in this genre today. Conceptualization of L’amour L’amour de Loin offers a view into a world of restrained vocal composition for Saariaho. Her other contemporary works such as From the Grammar of Dreams (1988), Nuits Adieux (1991), and even her subsequent vocal works like Quatre Instants (2004) or her second opera Adriana Mater (2006) demonstrate a more unrestrained and wild vision of Saariaho’s unique yet natural timbres and harmonies. The choice of restraint here likely corresponds to a vision of 12th- century music. Saariaho has mentioned in interviews that she was less concerned with historical accuracy in portraying Rudel’s life, than with mimicking a musical aesthetic. As she stated in the aforementioned interview, “When composing, my only motivations are musical.15” To fully understand how Saariaho organized this opera, my work will heavily reference her early drafts. In particular, the following documents will be the most helpful for untangling the compositional process of this opera. Though this draft is handwritten in French, Calico (2019) recreates this diagram in clear English, shown below. From this diagram, one can see that Saariaho organized this opera by character, assigning unique timbres and ornamentations to each character. In addition to timbre, she has also designated unique harmonies for each character, also shown below. 14 (Prikko, Moisala 2009) 15 (Campion 2017) 22 Figure 1. Saariaho’s early draft of the three main characters of L’amour and their associated musical elements Figure 2. Calico’s (2019) translation of Saariaho’s draft.16 16 (Calico 2019). In Calico’s translation, she translated Saariaho’s word “Lonh,” found in Jaufré’s bubble, to “Louhi.” This may be a misreading, and I believe the word should be translated as “Lonh,” because “Lonh” is another work 23 Figure 3. Saariaho’s early drafts showing the unique harmonies she assigned each character17 In this sketch, one can see that, from top to bottom, Saariaho has designed Jaufré’s, Clémence’s, and the Pilgrim’s sonorities. Running down the middle of Clémence’s sonorities is the “basic chord,” which, for the purposes of this analysis, I will call the “L’amour de Loin” chord, or “Ldl chord” for short. by Saariaho that references Rudel and his vida, and it is well documented by Lambright (2008) that Saariaho reused musical material from “Lonh” in L’amour. 17 Ibid. 24 25 Figure 4. Saariaho’s early harmonic drafts transcribed for ease of reading These chords, as one may guess, are associated with their respective characters. Jaufré’s sonorities appear when Jaufré sings, and Clémence’s appear when she sings. In the time in between the characters singing, the orchestra either remains in the characters’ soundscapes, moving in between chords, or moves to the LdL chord. Harmony To understand the construction of these chords and where they came from, it is important to first remember Saariaho’s own explanation of her concept of vertical harmony. In her 1987 article “Timbre and Harmony: Interpolations of Timbral Structures,” Saariaho explains that she highly prioritizes the intervallic content of her vertical harmonies. Her concept of intervallic content is different from an interval vector in post-tonal theory, where one considers all the possible intervals contained within a single harmony. Instead, Saariaho is more concerned about the consecutive vertical construction (adjacent unordered pitch intervals) from bottom to top. She starts with a foundational chord, shown below, taken from her 1982-4 piece Verblendungen. This chord, from bottom to top, contains each interval from a minor second to a major seventh, stacked vertically. 26 Figure 5. Foundation chord for Verblendungen containing all unordered pitch intervals, 1-11 Certain intervals, in this case the P5 and m3, are purposefully omitted to avoid pitch class doubling and to prioritize certain chord shapes. Upon observing this chord, it’s clear that Saariaho still occasionally draws from her post-spectralist background. This chord is constructed from bottom to top in a similar way to how the overtone series is built, and there is a strong preference for tighter intervals at the top of the sonority, again, similar to the overtone series. Though it’s clear that Saariaho is carrying this concept into her first opera, I will organize her characters’ sonorities into set classes for the purpose of widely communicating and understanding their construction and inherent properties. The pitches in Clémence’s field A, {Bb, C#, E, F, A}, are equivalent to set class 5-22 (01478), also known as the “double harmonic” scale, consisting of two augmented seconds and two half steps. Pitch field B, {D#, C, Bb, D, F#, G, A}, is equivalent to set class 7-32(0134689), also known as the harmonic minor scale. Pitch field C, {D, C, G, Bb, D, F#, A, Bb, E, F}, can be 27 reduced to set class 8-22(0123568T), with no scalar equivalent. These chords begin to gain a geographical association through their context within the opera. I posit that as these pitch fields progress, A-F, they start to move further away from a contextual association with the Middle East to one with France or Europe. Chord A, as we will see in analysis, commonly occurs in moments where a scene is being established in Tripoli. This gives it an association with the Middle East, and the harmony itself is constructed with the intent of western ears hearing it as “Middle-Eastern.” In contrast to this, the E chord first appears when Clémence discusses her homesickness for Toulouse, associating it with Europe.18 Though this isn’t meant to be a linear process, one will find that the interpretive meaning of these chords is typically associated with their pitch content. For example, the A chord, as it applies to Clémence, tends to represent physical distance. This corresponds to the double harmonic scale, representative of middle eastern sounds, and representing how Clémence is far away from her homeland that she longs for. Though there are certainly leitmotivic associations with these chords, one will not find epic, grand Wagnerian transformational processes with them, as they are instead referential and represent an umbrella of associations rather than one specific meaning. Pitch field D, then, {E, F, B, A#, C#, D} is set class 6-Z13(013467), again, with no scalar equivalent. Subsequently, pitch field E, {Bb, F, D, F#, A, Bb, C#, E, B} is set class 8-20(01245789).19 In this early draft, one can see that Saariaho has drawn a line connecting Clémence’s primary melodic field (written as a scale next to the E chord) to a chord titled “F”.20 This chord is 18 Though, I do not suggest that these chords are literal representations of what the music from this geographical region sounds like, rather that there is a contextual association that primarily assigns them their geographical role, and the construction of the harmony supports this association, at least to the ears of a western audience. 19 It is slightly difficult to tell from Saariaho’s handwriting whether she meant to write a D5 or E5, however, Saariaho tends to include the note E as part of the E sonority whenever it appears. So often so, that one can safely consider the note E a “chordal tone.” 20 The intervening chord that runs vertically between Clémence’s scale and the F chord is where Saariaho drafted the LdL chord. 28 unusual in its microtonal pitches. Though microtones appear in this opera, they are usually reserved for the Pilgrim’s part. A thorough scan of this opera shows that Clémence does not sing microtones in her melodies, and microtones rarely appear in the orchestra when she is singing.21 One possible explanation of this mysterious chord is simply that it was a drafted idea that later became discarded. However, this does not explain the places in the opera where the bass trichord of [Eb, A, F#] is quite prominent, so I believe that this chord was intended to be part of Clémence’s sonorities and was not discarded. Another possible explanation considers the line that Saariaho drew from this F chord to the Pilgrim’s 1C-3C chords.22 It is possible that Saariaho decided instead to merge this chord with the Pilgrim’s 1C-3C chords. The F sonority includes the pitches (in registral order bottom to top) A, A1/4#, and A#. This octave expansion is highly reminiscent of the octave contraction unique to the Pilgrim’s sonorities. However, one can notice the bass chord {Eb, A, F#} appearing frequently during Clémence’s parts, and this sonority cannot be tied to any of the other chords A-E. For this reason, I believe that Saariaho drafted a microtonal chord for Clémence here, but ultimately decided to round the microtones to their nearest equal-tempered pitch instead, and changed the A# to an A, so that the three A’s are exactly an octave apart, as opposed to an octave plus a quartertone, as originally drafted. This then creates pitch field F, {Eb, A, F#, G, C#}, corresponding to set class 5-28(02368). The progression through these pitch fields will prove significant to Clémence and her character development as she traverses the struggles of love, distance, and grief throughout this opera. Moving to Jaufré’s sonorities, his chords consist of field A [F#, C#, E, B, G#, A], field B [G, D, Eb, A, F#, A#, G#, B], field C [B, F#, D, F, C, Db, A#], field D [B, C, F#, G, A, D, Bb], 21 Whenever the orchestra does accompany Clémence with microtones, it is because the Pilgrim is also in the scene. 22 See discussion on the Pilgrim’s sonorities below. 29 and field E [G#, D#, C#, D, A, C, E, G]. In order, these sets reduce to set classes 6-32, 8-7, 7-6, 8-14, and 8-8. It seems, from these sets, that Jaufré is characterized mostly by chromatic set classes that contain tight intervals when compressed into the same octave. This creates an intended juxtaposition with Clémence’s set classes that are characterized by much wider and less tightly-packed intervals, likely meant to relate to her melodic-musical characterization of wide, virtuosic leaps. In the draft, it seems as though Saariaho may have crossed out the 3J chord; however, in looking at the opera, this arrangement of notes, particularly in relative registral order, tend to appear when the Pilgrim is interacting with Jaufré, so perhaps this crossing out of the 3J chord was an error or a mistake. However, next to the 1J-3J chords, Saariaho drafts a “3J chord high” sonority, with only a few of the pitches from the 3J chord, particularly the highest-register ones. This isolated sonority is difficult to find on its own without the other associated notes in the 3J chord, however, Saariaho does detail in the instructions for electronics to switch to a “3J high” file occasionally when Jaufré and the Pilgrim interact, so this chord is likely a chord that was drafted to exist primarily within the electronic files. Lastly, concerning the Pilgrim’s sonorities, it seems to be an impossible task (within the scope of this paper) to apply set classes to his chords because of the microtones, but nonetheless they provide an interesting perspective into Saariaho’s musical style and composition. It’s appropriate that the Pilgrim has two separate sonic worlds for each character, after all, he is travelling between two parts of the world to speak and interact with both characters, and a new sonic profile for these interactions musically represents the Pilgrim’s role in this narrative—a link between the two characters. 30 One can see that the Pilgrim’s foundational chord is comprised of intervals that are one quartertone less than an octave apart, founded on the notes C# (for Jaufré) and F# (for Clémence). This is a process called octave expansion/compression that originates in the spectral school of composition at the IRCAM in the 1980’s, particularly with Gérard Grisey’s Vortex Temporum (1996).23 This chord construction is where we can see footprints of Saariaho’s spectral background. As Saariaho composed at the IRCAM in the 80’s where such spectralists were also experimenting with new musical soundscapes, it was very possible that Saariaho was exposed to the idea of Grisey’s Fourier transformations of the octave and applied a similar concept here. This choice of harmonic compression may be representative of “new” music among an “old” soundscape, demonstrating the idea of temporal distance weaved into the very harmonic foundation of this opera. Harmonic Analysis of the Overture Though these chords appear when the characters are talking or interacting, this begs the question of the musical and harmonic material that occurs when there are transitions or introductions to new scenes or acts. In these moments, the music may either foreshadow the featured characters (such as the introduction to Act 2, where Clémence’s various sonorities are highlighted over the span of 61 measures while the scene is being established), or it may float freely within the LdL chord. To explore how Saariaho expresses this non-character-associated chord, I will look at the opening overture. Beginning from measure 1, this LdL chord begins to sprout from nothing. The chord will attempt to stack itself vertically through time, then begin again at step one, adding one or two notes in each attempt, growing this chord from preceding silence. I refer to these “attempts” as 23 (Hasegawa, 2009) 31 stages, to better represent the concept of growth and organicism in Saariaho’s writing. This is not so much of an “attempt-and-fail” type of construction as one that builds on itself and expands as the music progresses. Not every note is presented in registral bottom-to-top order, though for stages 1 and 2, it happens to be this way. However, to provide contrasts between these two stages, Saariaho adds timbral elements to the melody such as trills and alters the rhythm of the presentation as well. Figure 6. Mm. 1-11 of the overture, showing how Saariaho presents the LdL chord in “stages” This process completes itself by measure 11, resulting in a full LdL chord with all notes present. When introducing new soundscapes, especially in the beginning of the opera, Saariaho 32 will do so in a slow and organic manner like what we have just seen. One can find these budding sprouts of harmonies throughout the opera, and the process is occasionally applied to the characters’ sonorities as well. Rehearsal A1 introduces a new sonority that contrasts with the LdL chord. The origin of this contrasting chord is vague; however, there are a few possibilities. The first possibility is that this chord is derived from Jaufré’s D sonority, but “inverted” in such a way that D is in the bass. This type of sonority “inversion” is common for Saariaho. She will regularly change out the registral placements of notes within sonorities to provide contrapuntal and harmonic contrast. However, she will place a sonority in its original, drafted position to emphasize an associated meaning. She will also fragment these sonorities as she suits, so this possibility of the contrasting chord originating in Jaufré’s sonorities is not at all far-fetched. This would also foreshadow the beginning of the opera where Jaufré is composing a melody. Another possible interpretation of this contrasting chord is that it is a fragmentation of the LdL chord. However, regardless of its origin, for the purposes of this analysis, I will refer to it simply as “contrasting chord,” as I am more concerned with the counterpoint and melody in this section than I am with the harmonic meaning. At A1, Saariaho introduces this contrasting LdL chord subtly by placing notes belonging to the LdL chord on strong beats, and juxtaposing them with notes of the contrasting chord on weak beats. 33 Figure 7. The LdL chord and the contrasting chord at A1 Figure 8. Mm. 13-14 demonstrating how Saariaho introduces this new sonority on mostly metrically weak beats In addition to the very purposeful off- and on-beat placement of these two chords, both chords are presented in a similar fashion to the first 11 measures of the overture. Notes in each chord are unfolded horizontally through the measure while maintaining their original registral placement. This shows how Saariaho combines multiple processes together to create forward 34 momentum and contrast in her music. While this contrasting chord at first provides only a slight harmonic change, Saariaho continues to add tones to this sonority throughout the overture, changing how she divides the LdL chord into smaller fragments. Later, she gradually quickens the pace of introducing new sonorities to increase the rate of harmonic progressions, driving the piece forward and offering a sort of increasingly exponential rate of harmonic contrast. Melody Act 1 Tableau 1 - Jaufré Now, I will briefly address how Saariaho constructs melodies for Jaufré and Clémence, beginning with how she writes Jaufré’s part and rearranges his medieval melodies. Following the overture, act 1 tableau 1 begins with a scene where Jaufré is attempting to write a melody. He sits with his pen and improvises melodies with lyrics. Some melodic fragments please him, and he jots them down, while he discards others. This new section demonstrates a clear division of style from the preceding overture. His melody here is inspired by the real Jaufré Rudel’s surviving manuscript of his song “Lanquan li Jorn sonc Lonc en May,” and the supporting ensemble provides a bed of mostly fifths and octaves—the primary intervals used in medieval drones—to support his song. This song is the primary groundwork for the narrative themes in this opera. The concepts of distance, longing, and journeying are present throughout this song, and they appear frequently throughout the opera. This supporting bed of sound also corresponds to Jaufré’s A sonority, which Saariaho has rearranged to be organized as stacks of fifths. Though she is clearly attempting to replicate a medieval sound, she is not so concerned with mimicking this sound with perfect historical accuracy. Instead, Saariaho is attempting to create a unique medieval soundscape that is still tied to the characters and drama of L’amour but also uniquely 35 her own vision. This can be best observed by comparing Rudel’s manuscript with Saariaho’s setting. “Lanquan Li Jorn Sonc Lonc en Mai” by Jaufré Rudel Translation by Carol Anne Perry Lagemann Source Text English Translation Lanquan li jorn son lonc en may During May, when the days are long, M’es belhs dous chans d’auzelhs de lonh, I admire the song of the birds from far away Et quan mi suy partitz de lay, And when I have gone away from there Remembra’m d’un’ amor de lonh. I remember a love far away Vau de talan embroncx e clis I go scowling, with my head down Si que chans ni flor d’albespis So much that songs and hawthorn flowers No’m platz plus que l’yverns gelatz. Aren’t better, to me, than the frozen Winter. Ben tenc lo Senhor per veray I trust the Lord’s fairness Per qu’ieu veirai l’amor de lonh, In having formed this faraway love, Mas per un ben que m’en eschay But for each consolation I achieve N’ai dos mals, quar tant m’es de lonh. I get two ills, because I am so far away. A! car me fos lai pelegris Ah! Why didn’t I go there as a pilgrim, Si que mos fustz e mos tapis So that my staff and hooded cloak Fos pels sieus belhs huelhs remiratz! Would be beheld by her beautiful eyes! Be’m parra joys quan li querray, It will certainly feel like joy when I ask her, Per amor Dieu, l’alberc de lonh, For the love of God, to be hosted; E, s’a lieys platz, alberguarai And, if she likes it, I shall lodge Pres de lieys, si be’m suy de lonh, Near her, although I come from far away. Adoncs parra’l parlamens fis Conversation is so pleasant Quan drutz lonhdas er tan vezis When the faraway lover is so close Qu’ab cortes ginh jauzis solatz. That he would long to be welcome with kindness. Iratz e dolens m’en partray, Sad and pained shall I depart S’ieu ja la vey, l’amor de lonh. If I don’t see this faraway love. No’m sai quora mais la veyrai, I don’t know when ever I shall see her, Car trop son nostras terras lonh. So far away our countries are. Assatz hi a pas e camis, So many are the crossings and the roads E par aisso no’n suy devis. That I can’t tell. Mas tot sia cum a lieys platz. But be everything as she likes it. Jamai d’amor no’m jauziray Never shall I enjoy love Si no’m jau d’est’ amor de lonh, Unless I enjoy this faraway love, Que mielher ni gensor no’n sai Since I don’t know of a better nor worthier love Ves nulha part, ni pres ni lonh. Anywhere, near or far away. Tant es sos pretz ricx e sobris So abundant and sovereign her merits are Que lai el reng dels Sarrasis That down there, in Saracen’s realm, Fos hieu per lieys chaitius clamatz I wish I were held in thrall for her sake. Dieus que fetz tot quant ve ni vay God, who creates all that comes and goes E formet sest’amor de lonh And shaped this faraway love, Mi don poder, que cor be n’ai Give me strength, since I already have the intention Qu’ieu veya sest’amor de lonh, So that I see this love far away Verayamen en luec aizis, In reality and in a fitting place Si que las cambras e’l jardis. So that rooms and gardens Mi resemblo novels palatz. Shall seem to me to be new palaces Ver ditz qui m’apella lechay He is true who calls me grasping E deziros d’amor de lonh, And longing for a faraway love, Que nulh autres joys tan no’m play Since no other merriment pleases me as much Cum jauzimen d’amor de lonh As enjoying a faraway love. Mas so qu’ieu vuelh m’es tant ahis, But that which I want is denied to me Qu’enaissi’m fadet mos pairis Since my Godfather made it so Qu’ieu ames e nos fos amatz That I love and am not loved. Figure 9. Original text and English translation of Rudel’s song “Lanquan li Jorn.”24 24 (Perry Lagemann, n.d.) 36 This source text will prove incredibly helpful as we examine the progression of events throughout the opera. The opera only features the first three stanzas of this poem, perhaps representing a love that could not be complete. The progression through these first three stanzas of the poem represent a journey of immature infatuation developing into true love. Figure 10. The first phrase of “Lanquan li Jorn,” demonstrating three different manuscripts of the same song.25 When one performs a 1:1 note comparison, it’s very clear that Saariaho began by imitating Rudel’s original song, but inverted certain intervals and changed their sizes in order to synchronize it with Jaufré’s A chord. This is seen by analyzing the ordered pitch intervals of both songs. Though the inversions of intervals seem to be more of a loose interpretation of Rudel’s song, the changes in interval spacing, such as the second interval, -3, being both inverted and resized to +2, seem to be motivated by harmonicity. This passage aligns with Jaufré’s A sonority, and Saariaho has fragmented this chord in such a way to highlight the stacked vertical fifths of {F#, C#, G#} and use them as a drone to support Jaufré’s melody. This is a wonderful example of temporal distance. Saariaho has taken her abstract pitch collections—an undoubtedly modern 25 (Aubrey 1996) 37 element of her musical language, and divided them in such a way to have this sonority resemble the sounds of the medieval era. In this case, the temporal distance is unusually large. Figure 11. The first phrase of Jaufré’s song in Act 1 Tableau 1 +3 -3 -2 +2 +2 +1 -1 -2 Figure 12. Ordered pitch intervals for Rudel’s “Lanquan li Jorn” 38 +3 +2 -2 +2 -2 -1 -2 Figure 13. Ordered pitch intervals for Jaufré’s song in Act 1 Tableau 1 Regarding the melodic content, Saariaho has not only inverted the interval direction between notes, but has also changed the size. It would have been aurally jarring (and “non- chordal”) for a G natural (which would have occurred had she used +3 instead of +2) to sound at the same time as the bass’s {F#, C#, G#} drone, so Saariaho instead swaps the G natural for an F sharp, which not only fits into Jaufré’s A sonority, but also fits perfectly in the harmony and intended aesthetic of this passage. Though she is not one to shy away from harsh dissonances, and indeed she does employ many throughout this opera, this scene creates the aural palette that the audience will associate with Jaufré for the remainder of the opera, therefore she chooses to stay rather accurate to the medieval soundscape, and saves the harsher sounds for later, when the dramatic elements of the opera peak. Melody in Act 2 Tableau 1 - Clémence Though my study will primarily focus on harmonic writing, Saariaho’s melodic composition is directly weaved into her conceptualization of harmony and musical space. In Figures 3 and 4, one can see that next to Clémence’s vertical harmonies, Saariaho drafted a scalar sonority. This scale, clearly derived from common tones in the LdL chord and Clémence’s 39 harmonies, is where Clémence derives her melodic material. Often, she will sing freely within this scale, while the orchestra underneath her outlines tones from one specific sonority, even if that means Clémence sings “non-chord tones” against the harmony. Other times, she sings in harmony with the orchestra, moving between her A-F sonorities with the orchestra. Examining this relationship will reveal facets of Clémence’s internal world and struggles and, likewise, stressing the distance between Clémence and the orchestra that accompanies her will directly tie into the concept of anticipatory distance in a few ways. In one way, we will find that Clémence has a deep longing for her childhood in Toulouse, to a point where she romanticizes small details about her past. In another way, we will discover that Clémence engages in an imaginary relationship with Jaufré that she idolizes as a way to escape her reality. This distance between Clémence’s fantasy and reality is anticipatory distance, and this distance is portrayed musically in this way. In Clémence’s melodies, Saariaho highlights intervals of diminished fourths by placing them consecutively. She does not construct Jaufré’s or the Pilgrim’s melodies in this way, making Clémence’s musical soundscape unique with respect to the other characters. In a way, this specific musical distance, expressed as an interval, represents a physical location, mirroring the idea of physical distance in this opera. However, this interval isn’t marked as exotic through exposure and emphasis, but rather incorporated into her melodies by means of contrapuntal features such as neighboring tones, passing tones, appoggiaturas, and other intervening notes between these characteristic intervals to add variety. 40 Figure 14. Clémence’s melody from mm. 91-7 of Act 2 In the above example, taken from Act II Tableau I, Clémence asks the Pilgrim if he left his homeland because they starved or humiliated him. In this example, one can notice how the intervals are highlighted both through consecutive placement (such as in m. 92 F#-Bb), and through the contour of her melody. An example of such can be seen in measure 93, where the first, tied-over, note, C#, is also the lowest note in the measure while Bb is the highest. This diminished seventh is filled in with incomplete neighbors—the D acts as a chromatic upper neighbor to C#, while A acts as a chromatic lower neighbor to Bb. Saariaho heavily favors these types of neighbors for Clémence’s melodies, and similar structures can be seen in mm. 91 and 96 as well. These subtle melodic gestures highlight the concept of physical distance in Clémence’s character. A graph demonstrating a surface-level reduction of her melody is shown below.26 26 Though I borrow the notation system commonly associated with Schenkerian analysis, I do not posit that these melodies demonstrate an Urlinie in the traditional Schenkerian manner. Since this is new music based on medieval music, I find that a Schenkerian analysis would be inappropriate, but nonetheless, the stem-and-slur notational system is an easy way to communicate these types of melodic and contrapuntal relationships, so I employ this notation to highlight how Saariaho constructs these melodies to highlight the interval of a diminished fourth. 41 Figure 15. Stem and Slur analysis of Clémence’s melody in mm. 91-7 of Act 2 Many, if not all, of Clémence’s melodies are constructed in this manner. In addition to this, her melodies feature regular trills and downward ornaments as according to Figure 2 from Saariaho’s early drafts. Melodic and Harmonic Interactions Furthermore, Saariaho approaches the interaction of melody with harmony and sonic fields in a couple of ways. The first way is when the character’s sung melodies align perfectly with the underlying harmony; the second way is when Saariaho separates the orchestra and voice into different harmonies. A demonstrative example of both of these approaches can be found in Act 2 Tableau 1, when the Pilgrim has just arrived in Tripoli and is speaking with Clémence. She asks him where the docked ship came from, to which the Pilgrim responds that he himself was on it and they just arrived from a voyage that went through Marseille and Blaye. Clémence then asks the Pilgrim if his country was worth abandoning. She asks if they starved him, humiliated him, or exiled him. He reassures her that, no, no such thing occurred, he simply wishes to travel the world and find his “Other Ocean.” Clémence notices the irony of the Pilgrim’s desire to leave his home and travel the world while she is stuck in a foreign land and desperately wants to return home. This moment is key for understanding Clémence’s character, emotions, and motivations in this opera. She is homesick. Before she is in love with Jaufré, or familiar with the songs he wrote about her, she is longing for her childhood home, and desperately wishes to see France again. Saariaho is keen to this characterization and expresses it musically as well. She does this by 42 divorcing Clémence’s melody from the harmony, and even divides the orchestra into sections to contrast with Clémence in multiple ways. Through this analysis, we will find that Saariaho designates general attitudes and concepts with each of Clémence’s unique chords and uses them to musically express her internal world. Beginning in m. 204, the bass starts out with a low Eb, and the F# and A above it signify the “F” sonority. This block of sound starts Clémence’s first solo aria, and this song is a prime example of how temporal distance is musically expressed in this opera. Given that she is reminiscing about a temporally far away place with longing, the chords act as a guide to the listener that Clémence is envisioning a type of love from afar, but in this case, that love is nostalgia, and is separated by both temporal and physical distance. Following this, the bottom voices block the notes {D, C, G}, in the exact octave placement as Saariaho’s early drafts of the C chord. This, combined with the E, F, Bb, A, and F# in the remaining voices place mm. 205-6 in Clémence’s C chord. Note how the C chord corresponds to the lyrics “my own other sea,” a phrase that the Pilgrim also used as well. This phrase carries heavy significance throughout this opera in that it is not only a direct reference to Rudel’s vida, but also a nod to another piece Saariaho was working on at the same time that was written with a similar style (Oltra Mar[1999]). Following this, the music changes to Clémence’s E chord as the bass jumps up to C#. While this C# is not in the bass of the E sonority, it is nonetheless still part of the chord, and Saariaho demonstrates how she treats these sonorities as chords that can have different members in the bass. These bass jumps provide a moment of harmonic variety while still maintaining a familiar sound. In m. 209, the bass jumps down to its “proper” position at Bb2, and the tenor sits on F while the alto voice rises to F#. Then, in m. 211, the bass rises an octave and steps up to 43 Bb5 from an A5. This closing in of registral distance and moving the bass to a higher register is likely word painting to express the intimacy of talking about one’s childhood. The moments where the registral distance shortens often reflect a moment of delicacy in the narrative, in this case, the development of Clémence’s character and her conflict. The music stays in Clémence’s E chord from mm. 207-213, accompanying the lyrics “(my own other sea) is the coast of Toulouse, where the calls of my mom and the laughs of my childhood are always ringing.”27 This demonstrates one way that Saariaho utilizes these chords to represent the character’s state of mind. When Clémence reminsces and yearns for her childhood, the E sonority sounds, meanwhile when she’s discussing her current state of regret or remorse, the C chord accompanies, because it is the chord that typically represents Clémence’s true character in her present situation. This is, of course, an example of how melody and harmony are in agreement within Saariaho’s music. The subsequent musical moments demonstrate how Saariaho separates melody from harmony. Measure 214 sounds the B sonority to act as a transition between Clémence’s thoughts— it brings her back to earth, because of the geographical association between this chord and her present situation in Tripoli. Then, in measure 215, she begins to sing the phrase “I still remember having run barefoot through a stone path, following a cat. The cat was young, maybe he’s still alive and remembers me. No, he has to be dead, or at least he’s had to have forgotten about me.” Musically, Saariaho begins to juxtapose these chords to represent Clémence’s nostalgia. 27 Translation of the text is my own. 44 Ex. 16: Mm. 204-213 showing how Saariaho organizes Clémence’s 5 chords 45 Beginning in measure 218, the accompaniment splits off from Clémence’s melody. The notes E, C#, and B (the exact bass notes in the exact same position as the D chord) are sustained in the bass while Clémence sings “through a stone path” with the pitches F, E, Bb, and A. In this instance, Clémence’s melody may be read as within the A chord, but due to the nature of her lyrics and the situational context, this melodic line likely fits better within the E sonority. However, both readings would be appropriate here. This continues into measure 220, where Clémence sings “following a cat” on the pitches A, G, E, Bb, and D—the C chord, meanwhile the bass plays the notes C#-Bb-C#-Bb. These two notes, in this specific spacing, suggest the A sonority, and the other voices that play A, E, and F support this reading. Two measures later, in m. 222, Clémence stops singing and the orchestra blocks the F chord. In a way, these juxtapositions represent a metacommentary by the orchestra that comments on the character’s distress in a Wagnerian fashion. Though Clémence daydreams of her homeland and feels distress at the distance between it and her present scenario, manifested by the E chord which is given an association with Western sonorities, the orchestra gently reminds her that her current home is in Tripoli, represented here primarily by the A, B, D, and F chords— which are given an association to the Middle-East. Even during pauses in Clémence’s singing, the orchestra will remind Clémence of the B, D or F sonority. Though the orchestra attempts to ground her, she still remains daydreaming about her past. This is reminiscent of Act 1 where Jaufré’s peers in the chorus and the Pilgrim suggest to him that no such perfect woman exists, but nevertheless he allows himself to get lost in daydreams. These characteristics of both Jaufré and Clémence set up the concept of anticipatory distance, in that they both desperately want something to happen to change their lives, and they both blindly pour that hope into one another. 46 This style of harmonization continues throughout the remainder of this scene. In m. 224, Clémence sings the line “The cat was young…” and this distance is heightened as Clémence sings within her E chord (C#, D, A, Bb), while the bass highlights the augmented 2nd of the A sonority, and the inner voices descend in a scalar motion, featuring G# from the LdL chord. The juxtaposition of the E chord with the A as well as the LdL chord offer musical cues to the audience as to Clémence’s confused and unsatisfied way of life. The A chord, loosely representing Tripoli, is juxtaposed with Clémence’s E chord, which typically symbolizes distress and unhappiness. Following this, in mm. 227-231, all of the musical parts conjoin in the C sonority as Clémence ponders the possibility of the cat still being alive and remembering her. The B chord sounds during Clémence’s silence, then she submits to the fate that the cat is likely either dead, or does not remember her. As she does this, the Eb and A from the F chord are sustained in the bass while the other voices draw from the E sonority, and Clémence sings within the C chord. The musical parts start to merge back into one as Clémence accepts her reality, though she has not fully come to terms with it yet. In Clémence’s next phrase, she sings the lyrics “(Or [the cat] would have likely forgotten me,) like I’ve forgotten the stone paths. I still remember my childhood, but nevertheless, the world of my childhood doesn’t remember me.” In m. 242, on the words “I still remember my childhood,” the temporal distance is once again exaggerated by the juxtaposition of Clémence’s E chord in the melody (and partially the accompaniment, who doubles her part) and the A chord within most of the accompaniment. Then, in m. 247, Clémence accepts her fate and sings within the C sonority while the bass chord {E, F, B, A#, C#, D}, from the D sonority, is sustained underneath. This emphasis on the D sonority suggests that Clémence may never come to terms 47 with her situation, since this chord tends to appear as a harsh reminder of her present. This push- and-pull effect between the orchestra and Clémence demonstrates her internal struggle. Ex. 17 Mm. 214-22 demonstrating how Saariaho juxtaposes Clémence’s sonorities to express her nostalgia 48 Ex. 18. Mm.223-35 In the last final phrases of this solo, beginning at rehearsal L2, m. 251, the orchestral accompaniment thins out to two trills on A and C#. Though it’s difficult to discern what sonority these pitches come from, this likely is meant to evoke the sensation of the E sonority, as A trills up to Bb, and C# trills up to D. All 4 of these notes belong to the E sonority, though a case could 49 be made for these trills representing the A sonority, in which case D would be a “non-chord” tone. As Clémence closes this aria by mourning her childhood (“The country where I was born still breathes in me, but to it, I am dead. I would be happy if a single wall, if a single tree remembered me.”), the harmonic tension begins to subside as the bass changes to a stagnant {E, F, B} trichord from the D sonority. This chord is sustained from mm. 256-260 while Clémence draws melodic material from E. At m. 261, with the directions “Libero, poco disperato ma dolce,” the orchestra, chorus, and Clémence settle on a thinned-out chord consisting of a low Bb2 in the bass and high C#6. The chorus above this builds the chord {C#, F#, A, Bb}, and this is sustained until m. 266, when Clémence finishes her solo. The bass jumps up to a C#, almost as if to suggest that this conflict has yet to find a resolution. Prior to this, the bass was in its “proper” position of Bb2, but the leap up to C#4 is purposeful in that it doesn’t create a sense of “true” closure, only closure in that the bottom three voices are in octaves. The choice to end this aria primarily on the E chord represents Clémence’s dissatisfaction. This musically represents that there will always be a bit of her that wants to return to Toulouse and her childhood. Given that this is Clémence’s first aria, the conflict was not meant to resolve, and leaving this part of the narrative open-ended is crucial for future story development. By using only five sonorities, Saariaho represents Clémence’s complicated internal dilemma in this simple way. She aligns these sonorities with Clémence’s lyrics in such a way as to assign them meaning, then these meanings can be compared to one another to further enrich and provide depth to Clémence’s character. From this example, we can deduce that Saariaho associates these 5 chords with general meanings. Though they do not represent literal characters or events, they are associated with perspectives and frames of mind. The C chord tends to represent Clémence as a character, and is 50 the “basic” sonority that sounds when she is singing. This chord tends to appear when Clémence is demonstrating a desire or personal characteristic of herself. The A, B and D sonorities are often given to the orchestra as transitional material that aurally represents the land of Tripoli. These chords typically appear when the chorus is talking to Clémence or when Clémence is daydreaming heavily about her past. In a way, these chords “remind” Clémence of her current scenario, and act to “snap her out” of her daydreams. The E chord is fascinating in that it represents not just Clémence, but her internal struggles. In this example, her internal struggle is her painful nostalgia, and this chord tends to accompany her melancholy reflections. These internal struggles will develop and vary throughout the opera. Later, the E chord will also represent other dilemmas such as her own insecurities, and a falsification of her character to fit Jaufré’s prescriptive songs. In general, there seems to be an aural association between these chords and their meanings, as the E chord is a more abstract set class—which perhaps represents “European” sounds—while the A and B chord in particular sound more “middle eastern” to western ears. This corresponds to Clémence herself being European, which is why C and E specifically detail her character, while A, B, and D represent her geographical location, and the distance between that and her homeland. Though these chords are not so clear-cut in meaning as the leitmotifs of Wagner or Williams, nonetheless an aural association is there. From the above example, the following meanings can be associated with each chord. Though these meanings shift subtly throughout the opera (particularly the E chord and its associations), most of these are static throughout. 51 Ex. 19. Mm. 236-68 demonstrating the end of Clémence’s first aria 52 53 54 Ex. 20. Clémence’s chord associations for Act 2 Tableau 1 As the opera progresses, there will be very slight changes to these associations, though most of these changes will have a clarifying function. The E sonority will undergo the greatest amount of change as Clémence’s internal conflicts transform throughout the opera. Understanding these associations will be crucial for understanding how Saariaho characterizes Clémence through her music. Furthermore, these associations directly tie into my concept of three distances. There is an element of physical distance in the gentle geographically-associated chord construction of the A, B, and D chords. As we will see in the remainder of my analysis, the E chord and its transformations will represent anticipatory distance and how Clémence falsely fabricates her personality according to Jaufré’s song. Temporal distance, then, is expressed not only through the modern treatment of these sonorities, but also through the use of certain sonorities (like B and D) to call Clémence back to the present, and to stop reminscing about the past. 55 Rhythm Lastly, I will take a brief look at how Saariaho organizes rhythm in this opera. In general, Saariaho is not as concerned with rhythmic stability or metrical coherence as she is concerned with her music imitating spoken language. In general, her rhythms are written in a way that mimic speech. When the characters speak, Saariaho imitates the general speed at which words and syllables are spoken, primarily focusing on the relationship between emphasized, long, and short syllables. For example, whenever someone mentions Jaufré’s name, “Jaufré” is mostly sung as an eighth note plus a quarter note to mimic how the accented, and therefore longer, syllable in Jaufré’s name is the second. This rhythm is also transposed to greater or lesser rhythmic values, such as a sixteenth note with a dotted eighth note. In comparison to this is Clémence, whose name has a more even distribution of emphasis. For Clémence’s name, Saariaho assigns a triplet that contains either an eighth note plus a quarter, or a quarter note plus a half. The triplet delineation here allows for Saariaho to show that the second syllable of Clémence’s name is slightly more accented than the first, but not as pointed as Jaufré’s name. When the characters are not speaking, such as in transitional moments, rhythms are assigned according to texture density. Texture density is typically associated with events occurring on stage. For example, when Jaufré and the Pilgrim are at sea, there is a dense musical texture to represent the noisiness of the ocean. Rhythm, in these moments, serves as a feature to portray a certain type of timbre or feeling. Since the ocean is noisy and contains a lot of activity sonically, Saariaho employs polyrhythms and thick, complicated rhythmic clusters to portray this effect. In contrast to this, such as in the beginning overture, where there is no direct correlation between narrative and music, the music texture is less dense, and rhythms seem to be freer and less complicated. Even with the triplet figure at rehearsal A1, there is not a strong sense of 56 polyrhythm with the semi-stagnant bassline, so Saariaho likely chose these rhythms to be continuously accelerating, from half notes in the melody at the beginning to triplet quarter notes by A1. Ex. 21, showing how Saariaho sets the rhythm of each character’s name 57 Since my work will primarily focus on Clémence and how her harmonies express my three proposed distances, addressing other aspects of Saariaho’s composition is important to understand this work as a whole. Saariaho composes with the entire work in mind and rarely isolates a single musical element divorced from the rest of the processes in her music. So, although I will mostly be addressing harmony, melody and rhythm will undoubtedly also reflect the three distances as well. CHAPTER III CLÉMENCE PART 1 (ACTS 2 AND 3) 58 Act 2 Tableau 1 My analysis will begin in Act 2 Tableau 1, particularly the second half of this tableau. I have already covered the first half of Act 2 Tableau 1 in my earlier discussion about how Saariaho occasionally separates melody from harmony as a means of representing drama and conflict. In that analysis, we discovered that Clémence is deeply homesick for her childhood home of Toulouse. Saariaho represented this by coordinating certain chords to appear when Clémence (or the chorus) is singing (or not singing) about certain topics, therefore associating a specific meaning with each chord. She then juxtaposes these in order to provide depth and context to Clémence’s character. For example, when she is singing about her childhood and how much she wishes to return to Toulouse, the E chord tends to appear, creating an association with some kind of distress or conflict. This is contrasted with the C chord, which appears when basic characteristics of Clémence, such as her desires or independent thoughts, are present in the lyrics. From these associations, we can draw analytical conclusions about the subtext and underlying commentary in the opera. For example, if the E chord appears when Clémence is singing about her love for Jaufré, this represents an internal conflict of some sorts regarding this romance, and perhaps even Saariaho’s concept of “immature love.” Compare this to if the C chord appears when she is singing about her love for Jaufré, which would represent Clémence’s genuine feelings of love for Jaufré, or Saariaho’s concept of “mature love.” These two chords— C and E, will prove the most helpful for developing Clémence’s character and understanding her struggles and developments, especially in regards to the courtly love tradition. These particular chords, too, will be especially important for establishing anticipatory distance. As we will see through this analysis, Clémence is initially offended by Jaufré’s strange affections, but discovers the joy of his songs and falls in love with Jaufré as a poet who paints 59 her in a flattering light, as opposed to Jaufré as a person. This scene establishes a relatively wide anticipatory distance between who Clémence thinks Jaufré is—a poet and troubadour who is wholly obsessed and dedicated to her, and who he actually is—a poet and troubadour who wishes to uproot his life of adulterous relationships and heavy drinking by dedicating himself entirely to a stranger who lives far away. As the opera progresses, this distance will widen on Clémence’s side of the romance, as well as Jaufré’s. This distance only closes and shortens itself when Jaufré is dying in Clémence’s arms. In m. 523 of Act 2 Tableau 1, the Pilgrim has just informed Clémence that she has a secret admirer and relayed to her one of his songs. At first, she is surprised and slightly offended at how someone could possibly admire her from such a distance, but she is flattered by the troubadour’s lovely melodies and finds herself entertaining the idea of such a bizarre romance. The song that the Pilgrim performs for Clémence is the second verse of “Lanquan li Jorn,” the song Jaufré was beginning to compose at the beginning of the opera.28 This opera demonstrates a progression through Rudel’s poem by having Jaufré open the opera by composing the first stanza, then the Pilgrim follows up on this by performing the second stanza for Clémence. After performing his song for her, he leaves Clémence’s presence but stays within earshot to hear her singing the same melodies back to herself. In the Pilgrim’s version of Rudel’s song, his pitch field is as follows. 28 See the discussion on Jaufré and his medieval melodies on pp. 35-40 for how Saariaho transforms these melodies from their original manuscript. 60 Ex. 22: The Pilgrim’s pitch field when he sings Rudel’s melody to Clémence in mm.472-510 This chord cluster can be reduced to set class 7-35(013568t), also known as the diatonic scale. In her own version of Rudel’s song, Clémence changes two elements: the language, switching from modern French to the original ancient Occitan (the original language of Rudel’s poem), and the pitch field, transforming it registrally up from the Pilgrim’s version. The change in language is quite shocking in the context of the opera, as there are no other moments where the characters speak, or even reference, ancient Occitan other than when Clémence sings Rudel’s melodies. One possible explanation could be that Saariaho is trying to create an “authentic” portrayal of this medieval tune, however, it is well-known that Saariaho wasn’t entirely motivated by historical accuracy.29 A more likely explanation concerns Clémence and her homesickness. She delights in her own version of this love from afar, but heavily tinted with her own nostalgia, and therefore sings this poem in the language of her childhood. This is confirmed later in the opera when Clémence admits that Jaufré’s songs remind her of her homeland and make her feel close to it. After hearing Rudel’s melody, she was not only flattered, but reminded of her homeland, and her choice of language in reciting in Occitan—the language she likely grew up speaking, shows that she is using Jaufré’s songs as a method to temporarily cure her nostalgia. Already, anticipatory distance is being established in that, like Jaufré, Clémence takes the affections of this stranger and allows her imagination to run rampant with them, warping his melody (and subsequently, his love) to suit her own conflict and internal dilemmas. 29 (Lambright 2008) 61 Pitch-wise, Clémence’s transposition of this melody is not by a perfect whole or half step. Some notes are transposed up a whole step while others are only transposed a half step. This transforms Clémence’s pitch field into the one shown below: Ex. 23: Clémence’s pitch field when she sings Jaufré’s song to herself mm. 536-72 This pitch field is set class 7-32(0134689) and is a subset of Clémence’s primary melodic sonority. By altering the Pilgrim’s pitch field in this way, Clémence contorts Jaufré’s melody into a derivative of her own pitch field, representing how Clémence partakes in anticipatory distance. She is flattered at how Jaufré describes her in his songs, but, as we will see momentarily, she pushes back against his characterization of her, as she knows that it is not representative of her true character. This creates a sense of anticipatory distance on Jaufré’s side of the romance; a distance between who Clémence is, and who she thinks Jaufré expects her to be. Melodically, Clémence also alters many of the Pilgrim’s ornamentations. In traditional troubadour music, ornamentations are improvised, but Saariaho uses these ornaments as an opportunity to both showcase the vocalist’s ability as well as emphasize that Clémence is morphing this melody to be representative of her character, not Jaufré’s. Some of these ornamentation changes are shown below. 62 Ex. 24: The Pilgrim’s version of Jaufré’s melody mm. 374-87 Act 2 Tableau 2 Ex. 25: Clémence’s version of Rudel’s melody mm. 536-51, with changes in ornamentation circled in red30 30 The ossia F# is written as an alternative for sopranos that find the high B too demanding for their voice. See Calico (2019) for how Saariaho alters her manuscripts to suit sopranos of different vocal capabilities. 63 These differences in ornamentation also come from Saariaho’s early sketches, particularly those in Figure 2. These styles of ornamentation are yet another example of how Saariaho sets an ancient style of music in a modern way, emphasizing temporal distance. Glissandi can be used to ornament medieval melodies in either direction, but the specific directions that Saariaho assigns both Jaufré and Clémence are representative of their role in the opera, and this is reflected even in the staging of the opera. This is in contrast to the tradition of troubadour melodies, where ornaments do not contain a deeper, psychological meaning regarding characters and their role in the narrative, but rather an affective aesthetic choice. The choice to assign ornamentations according to almost-leitmotivic associations applies a modern reasoning to an ancient art, demonstrating a wide temporal distance between the medieval troubadour practice and the more modern leitmotivic associations. In the stage setting of L’amour, there is a tall spiral staircase where Clémence typically stands on top, and Jaufré is typically on the ground, or sailing in the ocean. Due to this physical setting of characters, Jaufré is required to look up towards Clémence, and Clémence must crane downwards towards Jaufré. This setting is how Saariaho conceptualized these ornaments. The only time they are united at the same level is when Jaufré is dying in Clémence’s arms. In a way, this type of courtly love setting is slightly reminiscent of the famous balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet. Anticipatory distance is also expressed harmonically in a similar fashion to Clémence’s internal conflict. At first, Clémence considers dismissing the Pilgrim with a message for Jaufré, but then decides against it. During this moment, Clémence and the orchestra are in her C chord. The Pilgrim leaves Clémence’s presence but stays within earshot of her. While this moment is being set up, the orchestra plays a truly perplexing chord. This chord consists of the pitches {Bb, Db, Gb, C, C#, B, D, A#, D#}. Browsing through Saariaho’s early sketches, it is unclear where 64 this chord comes from. One possible interpretation is that this chord is a chromatic distortion of the LdL chord. If this is so, the “non-chordal” pitches from this collection would be Db, C, and Gb, two of which enharmonically correspond to pitches within the LdL chord (C# and F#), and only one being completely “non-chordal.” Ex. 26: Mm. 526-35 This proposes a truly complexing dilemma regarding Saariaho and her relationship with the listeners. From the audience’s perspective, these enharmonically respelled notes are of no significance, however, Saariaho clearly cares about enharmonic spelling as she does not treat the notes A# and Bb as the same, as seen in Clémence’s chords where some chords contain Bb while others contain A#. Nonetheless, enharmonic respelling of notes seems to carry some significance. Another such example is in Act 2 Tableau 1 when Clémence asks the Pilgrim what drove him away from his country (“Did they starve you? Did they humiliate you?”). As she 65 poses these questions of a morose nature, Gb appears as an enharmonic respelling of F#. To the audience, this poses little significance, but to the theorist, one cannot help but notice an association between the nature of her lyrics and this enharmonic respelling. This penchant for enharmonic respelling may indeed be a remnant of her spectralist roots, as Gb and F# are two completely different notes depending on the foundation of the harmonic spectrum we’re referencing.31 However, as we will discover later, there is a thematic association with these enharmonic spellings. Saariaho does not randomly choose which notes to respell, rather, she chooses them based on the pervasive, thematic questions: “Do we really love another person? Or do we love our idea of love? What happens when we lose someone we love?” In this specific moment, these enharmonic respellings likely point towards a distorted and immature love that is based on a foundation of imagination. The “distorted” enharmonic respellings are Saariaho’s way to express this. While this is inaudible to the audience, who do not know who Clémence is as a human being, it is of great significance to those who do “know” Clémence and know that these notes are not representative of her. Nevertheless, regardless of the origin of these respellings, there is a connection between Clémence engaging in this love from afar and this distorted LdL chord, even if it’s mostly only distorted through spelling. The mysterious Db bass pedal continues into Clémence’s solo, but the other voices, including her own, sing from the E sonority. As seen in the previous examples, the E sonority tends to represent an internal dilemma within Clémence, and in this instance, the dilemma has morphed from deep nostalgia to a concern about Jaufré and his affections. Following the first phrase, in m. 543, the orchestra merges together to sound the F sonority, and most of her quotation of Jaufré’s song is supported by the F sonority. This changes towards the end of her 31 Despite this, the opera is performed in equal-temperament, so this change is still hardly audible to the audience. 66 song. In measure 563, the bass jumps up to F# and remains there until measure 569 where it jumps up to B, where the previous tenor voice was. It seems to be that the F sonority here represents Clémence’s imagination and her romanticizing of her imagination, as she begins to embrace and adopt the persona of Clémence that Jaufré has envisioned for her, as opposed to the authentic version of herself. The song is bookended by both the E sonority and the distorted LdL sonority to represent how this romance is both confusing and distressing, but also alluring. There is also another significant moment of registral closing-in during this scene. In measure 547, the bass jumps registers into the treble clef and steps up to C# from B. This moment aligns with Clémence singing “(If I don’t delight) in this love from afar.” This is the first time she says the title of the opera in her dialogue, and the registral closing-in represents her intimacy as she embraces this bizarre romance. This is done again in measure 563, as she sings “(wheresoever) neither near, nor far.” There is word painting here, as the registral distance closes as she sings about distance. Ex. 27. Mm. 536-79, showing the “LdL?” chord and how it bookends Clémence’s song 67 68 69 At rehearsal U2, there is a moment of silence from Clémence as the orchestra ends her daydream with the distorted LdL chord. She is “brought back to Earth” by the orchestra arpeggiating the A sonority beginning in measure 581. Twice, now, there have been significant instances of Clémence being “brought back to reality” by the orchestra playing a Tripoli-associated chord. In a way, Clémence engages in anticipatory distance by living in her imagination, far separated from reality, and the orchestra must consistently remind her of her true circumstances with the A, B, and D sonorities. There are 8 measures of interlude material that alternate two measures of 70 arpeggiated A chord with two measures of the E chord. This axis represents Clémence’s state of mind as she is torn between embracing this romantic idea (represented by the E chord) and submitting to the easier reality of courting someone local (represented by the A chord). This is an idea posed by both the female chorus to Clémence, and the Pilgrim to Jaufré. They both want the main characters to settle for a love that is simpler and more realistic, but both Clémence and Jaufré are completely enamored by the idea of an almost impossible romance. Then, in measure 589, rehearsal V2, the orchestra thins out as Clémence begins a monologue. She returns to speaking modern French and reflects on her situation with the lines: If that troubadour knew me, would he have sung about me with such fervor? Would he have sung about me if he could know my soul? Beautiful without the arrogance of beauty, he said. Beautiful? But I never stop looking around me to make sure there isn’t a more beautiful woman! Noble without the arrogance of nobility? But I covet both the lands of Europe and the Middle East, as if providence were indebted to me! Pious, without the arrogance of piety? But I walk in my most beautiful clothing down the aisles of the mass, then I kneel in the church with my spirit empty! Troubadour, troubadour, I am only beautiful in the mirror of your words. This ends act 2. Clémence makes it very clear that she does not agree with Jaufré’s characterization of herself, but there is a hint of self-indulgence as she allows herself to be seen in this idyllic lens. When she begins this reflection, it is unclear what harmony supports her lyrics as the orchestra thins out to the notes {F#, C#, G}, while Clémence draws her pitch material from her primary sonority. After the phrase “…would he have sung about me with such fervor?”, the orchestra sounds the A sonority in a similar fashion to what we have seen before, then Clémence continues, again, with a vague underlying sonority, suggesting either the C or E sonority. She poses the next question, the orchestra plays the A chord, and she continues in a similar fashion. Most of Clémence’s monologues are designed in this fashion. As Clémence becomes more emotionally involved in her thoughts, the orchestration changes slightly. On the question 71 “Beautiful?” there is a fermata with the sustained D chord supporting it. In the subsequent measure, on the words “But I never stop looking around to make sure there isn’t a more beautiful woman!” the orchestration underneath Clémence thickens, and it becomes clear that we are hearing the E sonority. This begins a back-and-forth chain of Clémence recalling a claim that Jaufré made about her in his songs, often associated with the Tripoli-associated chords of A, B, or D, then refuting it with what she believes to be true of herself, with the C or E chords underneath. This push-and-pull contributes to anticipatory distance by exacerbating Clémence’s insecurities and subsequent idealized image of herself. At rehearsal X2, measure 616, the orchestra plays the D sonority while sustaining a long C#-D trill. This is associated with Clémence recalling that Jaufré described her as “Noble, without the arrogance of nobility.” When she refutes this claim (“But I covet the lands of Europe and the Middle East as if…), the orchestra changes to the E sonority. In this instance, the E sonority represents not just Clémence’s dilemma, but also her insecurities. In measure 626 (“Pious, without the arrogance of piety?”) the entire orchestra moves to sustaining the E chord, or ornamenting the E sonority, with a long sustained trill underneath. This trill changes pitch but remains as a persistent ornamentation even when the orchestra returns to the E sonority in measure 629 (“But I walk around in my most beautiful clothes down the aisle of the mass…”). At rehearsal Y2, measure 639, the orchestra thins out to an octave Bb while Clémence addresses Jaufré and his songs (“Troubadour… I am only beautiful in the mirror of your words.”). While it’s unclear what sonority is being referenced, one can assume that this Bb is associated with either the C or E chords. As she finishes her thought, the orchestra arpeggiates the A sonority about the Bb pedal, and the act ends with the Bb octaves being replaced with very low clusters. 72 Ex. 28. Mm. 589-655, showing how Saariaho harmonizes the end of Clémence’s aria to demonstrate her self-consciousness 73 74 75 76 77 78 Through this tableau, Clémence’s sonorities have shifted slightly in meaning, particularly the E chord. In Tableau 1, before she was aware of Jaufré’s affections, the E chord represented a deep, unresolved desire to return to her childhood home, and a deep loneliness living in Tripoli. Here, in Tableau 2, after she has learned about Jaufré’s affections, the E chord becomes associated with statements of self-consciousness and a painful awareness that she does not 79 exemplify the idealized traits that Jaufré assigned her. An updated chart of Clémence’s chordal associations is demonstrated below. Ex. 29. An updated chord association chart for Clémence in Act 2 Tableau 2 In addition to this, I’ve provided a wedge diagram below that will track the relative breadth of Clémence’s anticipatory distance. Wedge diagrams are used by Saariaho herself to track relative processes in her music that otherwise do not have measurable units to track. 32 The measurement, then, becomes comparative to itself. Since my distance here is not measured in units, but rather comparatively, these wedge diagrams are incredibly appropriate for tracking how wide and narrow this anticipatory distance becomes over time. 32 (Saariaho 1987) 80 Ex. 30. An incomplete wedge diagram that tracks Clémence’s anticipatory distance up until Act 2 Tableau 2 As of now, this wedge diagram is currently incomplete, but as we progress through the opera’s events, this diagram will grow. From here, one can see that anticipatory distance is widening in Act 2 Tableau 2 when compared to Act 2 Tableau 1. Wedge diagrams are used by Saariaho beginning in her 1987 article “Interpolations” to represent processes in her music. These graphs do not have measuring units, instead, the distance is relative and comparative. I find this method to be useful in tracking how anticipatory distance widens and shrinks throughout the opera. At the end of Tableau 2, Clémence’s anticipatory distance has widened greatly. At first, she was offended and turned off by the stranger’s affections. Then, after hearing his song and how beautifully he depicted her, she fell in love with the idea of a man who sees nothing but perfection in her, despite the flaws that seem obvious to her. Musically, this is represented through employing the chord associations to depict Clémence as living in somewhat of a fantasy 81 world (represented by the F chord) yet being painfully aware of her own shortcomings (represented by the E chord as she confesses her faults). This widening of anticipatory distance will continue into the next moment we see Clémence in the opera—Act 3 Tableau 2. Act 3 Tableau 2 In addition to juxtaposing and employing these chords to represent Clémence’s conflict, Saariaho also changes these chords’ structures as the opera progresses to represent Clémence’s character development. Though this development is clear from Clémence’s sung and spoken lyrics, Saariaho’s leitmotivic chord developments not only exemplify her principle of slow- developing music, but they expertly incorporate associated elements in a way that complements the verbal and physical action on stage. In this tableau, we will find that the E chord restructures itself slightly to include a new pitch—Eb. This Eb will prove incredibly important in tracking Clémence’s feelings and intentions throughout the remainder of the opera. Since she is now fabricating a part of her personality to engage in this far away romance, the E chord reflects this by adopting the “non-chord” tone of Eb as a musical way of mimicking Clémence’s “false” personality traits. This is also the tableau in the opera that represents the maximum amount of anticipatory distance from Clémence. In Act 3, Tableau 2, Clémence is on a walk around the city. She turns her back towards the city and faces the ocean. As this scene is being set up, the orchestra gently arpeggiates the A sonority above a Bb pedal. The chorus joins in the arpeggiation of the A chord, and in measure 423, right before Clémence begins singing, the orchestra blocks the E chord, hearkening her arrival. Clémence then recites a new stanza—the third, of Rudel’s poem to herself, again in ancient Occitan. This recitation is different than the previous one in several ways. The melody is 82 nearly identical to the same melody from Act 2, but the accompaniment has changed substantially since the audience last heard from Clémence. Chord E, as it appears in this aria, provides a fascinating depiction of Clémence and her thoughts. Prior to this in the opera, and at the beginning of this scene, the E chord had consisted of the notes {Bb, F, D, F#, A, C#, B}, but beginning at measure 464, 31 measures after she begins singing, Eb begins to appear insistently within Clémence’s melodies, but not her accompaniment. This Eb is distinct from the Eb that appears in the bass of Clémence’s F chord, as the other pitches of F rarely accompany this; however, I believe there is an association between the Eb in Clémence’s E sonority and the Eb in her F chord. In the discussion on Act 2 Tableau 2, the idea was posited that the F chord perhaps represented some element of Clémence’s imagination, especially as it related to her imagined romance with Jaufré. This idea seems to carry over into this aria as well, as the F chord first appears when Clémence sings the words “love from afar.” In this F chord, Eb is fundamental, and one may even consider it the non-triadic “root” of that chord, since there are no instances where the F chord appears without the Eb. This is in direct comparison to the other 5 sonorities, where Saariaho includes and excludes pitches as she sees appropriate. It also becomes clear in that scene that Clémence does not consider herself to be the same woman that Jaufré is singing about but is nonetheless flattered that someone sees her in such a complimentary light. I hold that the inclusion and persistence of the Eb in this specific scene represents Clémence adopting the imaginary characteristics of hers that were described in Jaufré’s song. 33 33 From here through the remainder of the thesis, I will refer to this Eb in this context as the “distorted” Eb, not to be confused with the “chordal” bass Eb of the F sonority. 83 Ex. 31 mm. 426-50 demonstrating the “original” E chord, with the notes {Bb, F#, B, D, C#} emphasized in the accompaniment and how the F chord aligns with the lyrics “love from afar.” 84 Ex. 32. mm. 458-69 showing the persistence of the Eb in Clémence’s melody alone following the comment by the chorus. 85 The presence of Eb in Clémence’s melody alone, and not the accompaniment, may once again represent a metacommentary by the orchestra and chorus that they understand that this Eb and what it represents is not “authentic,” and they therefore refuse to take part in the alteration of the E chord. Furthermore, the timing of this “non-chordal” Eb is significant in this reading. It appears for the first time after the chorus of females comment “Look, look as she lets herself be caught in the nets of this troubadour.” The chorus is entirely convinced that nothing good can come of this romance. The entirety of their comments, translated, are as follows: Look, look as she lets herself be caught in the net of this troubadour. She sings his songs, she feels flattered. But what good can come from love from afar? Neither good company, nor soft embraces, nor marriages, nor land, nor children. What good can come from love from afar? It will only estrange her from those who want her hand in marriage: the prince of Antioch, the old Count of Édesse. (Whispered) And also, people say, people say the son of the emperor… This shows that even the citizens of Tripoli can sense that perhaps Clémence is allowing herself to be not only self-indulgent in this romance, but also deceived, as they mention the high- ranking men that went Clémence’s hand in marriage. In addition to this distorted Eb, I find, too, that my reading of Clémence’s fabricated characteristics is supported by the presence of Ab in this aria as well. This Ab is much less present than the Eb, but nonetheless it appears as a highlighted and accented note in Clémence’s melody beginning in m. 475, after the chorus comments “She sings his songs, she feels flattered.” Lastly, both the Eb and the Ab return to their “chordal” equivalents within the E sonority after Clémence finishes quoting Rudel’s song. The E chord being distorted here, as opposed to any of the other sonorities, represents that Clémence’s internal dilemma has shifted from one of conflict to one of inauthenticity. Otherwise, the supporting harmonies in this song are treated very similarly to prior sections, and the primary harmonies that support this moment are the E and C chords, with occasional interjection by the B, D, and F chords. 86 Ex. 33. mm. 470-6, showing Clémence’s accented Ab and its doubled octave in the orchestra after the chorus comments 87 Ex. 34. mm. 530-42, showing Clémence’s melodic return to both modern French and her primary pitch collection after she is done quoting Rudel. 88 In the above example, the distorted Eb pedal returns at rehearsal V3. This Eb is sustained for the duration that Clémence doesn’t sing, then disappears once she sings. This Eb reminds the listener that Clémence is still engaging in a distorted sense of love and fantasy. Furthermore, this exchange demonstrates how euphoric Clémence feels when she daydreams about this love from afar. Though the chorus offers her a scathing criticism (“Princes or servers alike, they all make themselves servers for you. When they are near you, you suffer, and when they are far from you, you still suffer.”), she replies simply with “You tell the truth, my friend, God bless you! God bless you!,” seeming to pay no regard to the criticism. The subsequent scene is critical for Clémence as it fully develops her feelings about her “relationship” with Jaufré and establishes Clémence’s unique type of anticipatory distance. In this scene, we will find that Clémence engages in anticipatory distance by allowing herself to daydream about a romance with Jaufré solely because he adores her and reminds her of her childhood, even if she understands that this romance is near impossible. In this scene, the chorus does not hold back their confusion and critical thought about Clémence. They have this to ask her: Because you, Countess, do you not suffer? Do you not suffer from being so far from who you love? From not being able to tell from his expression if he still desires you? Do you not suffer from not even knowing what his expression looks like? Do you not suffer from not being able to close your eyes, feeling his arms around you and resting on his chest? Do you not suffer from never, never feeling his breath on your skin? The chorus seems quite concerned for how Clémence can feel romantic fulfillment without her lover’s physical presence. Following this barrage of questions is a brief moment of silence from the characters as the orchestra builds Clémence’s E chord. Once it is built, the chord is sustained as she responds “No, by the grace of God, I do not suffer.” The orchestra builds the E chord again, sustains it, and Clémence continues her thought with “Maybe one day I will 89 suffer, but, by the grace of God, no, I do not suffer at all.” An element of foreshadowing irony is suggested here, as indeed she does suffer later in the opera when Jaufré passes away in her arms, then subsequently curses God for their unfortunate fate. Ex. 35. mm.579-90 90 She goes on to explain why she is not currently suffering. She says “His songs are more than hugs, and I don’t know if I would love the man more than I love the poet.” Following this is two measures of silence from Clémence, and now the orchestra does not block the E chord, but rather maintains the previous static bassline while oboe 1 plays a melody that is strikingly similar to the melody of Jaufré’s song, ornamented with Clémence’s associated trills and downward glissandi. Ex. 36. mm. 591-601 showing the Rudel quotation in m. 598 91 Following this quotation, Clémence resumes “I don’t know if I would love his voice as much as I love his music.” Then, a measure of the orchestra building the E chord, but with sforzandi on every note. “No, by the grace of God, I do not suffer.” Then, a measure very similar to the prior interlude, but with pitches taken from her primary sonority. “Without a doubt, I would be suffering if I was waiting for this man,” The C chord underlies this even though there is not a proper moment of pause like before. “…And if he wasn’t coming. But, I am not waiting for him.” As she says this, the orchestra underneath her blocks the previously discussed distorted E chord with Eb taking the place of the otherwise chordal E. The Eb appearing in this specific moment in conjunction with Clémence’s C chord clarifies how her love is disingenuous. This love is distorted because she is truly not waiting for him, represented by the C sonority, but rather, she is more in love with the idea of someone adoring her from afar and seeing no flaw in her the way she sees in herself. In this regard, Clémence embodies Saariaho’s thematic question of “Do we really love another person? Or do we love our idea of love?” It is very clear here that Clémence is in love with her idea of love, much more so than she is in love with the man himself. She confirms this idea in her next phrase “Knowing that in a different country a man thinks of me makes me feel close to the land of my childhood. I am the other ocean of the poet, and the poet is my other ocean.” In this moment, Clémence admits that she loves being in love with Jaufré because his songs soothe her devastating nostalgia. The distorted E accompaniment changes to the A chord, depicting physical distance. She also references the “other ocean” again, but this time in reference to Jaufré being her other ocean. This shows a progression where Clémence first considered Toulouse to be her other ocean but found relief for her loneliness in Jaufré. The Gb 92 reappears within the E sonority beginning at measure 631, when she references these other oceans, musically demonstrating more romanticization of her scenario. Ex. 37. Mm 602-78 demonstrating the presence of the distorted E chord 93 94 This aria and, by extension, this act ends shortly after the passage just discussed. Clémence continues to daydream to herself, saying “Between our two rivers travels these tender words. Between our two lives travels this music. No, by the grace of God, I do not suffer. No, by the grace of God, I do not suffer.” As she sings this, the E chord is gently sustained underneath. 95 Then, there is a moment of contextual clarity as Clémence closes the act with the line “I am not waiting for him…” Below this, the orchestra blocks and sustains the entire C chord. This seems to represent that these thoughts are truly Clémence’s. Amidst the confusion and distortion, Clémence truly is not waiting for Jaufré. Regardless that she is simply in love with the idea of a man loving her so deeply, she still holds that she is not waiting for him, and the C chord that underlies it shows she is being genuine. In the grander scheme of Clémence’s life, it seems that she is bored of traditional courting and is excited by the romantic and fantastic idea of this love from afar, though the idea of lifting the veil of mystery and pursuing the romance in real-life is scary and unwanted. This sentiment will be echoed in Act 5, when she expresses disappointment, and even frustration, at Jaufré’s arrival on the shores of Tripoli, but this moment prepares the audience for that. This tableau has proved to be incredibly significant for Clémence’s character development, and her E chord has changed greatly. In the previous scenes in this opera, the E chord maintained a static pitch collection, and this chord derived its meaning from its associative lyrics and juxtapositions against the other 5 Clémence chords. In this scene, the E chord morphs its pitch identity to include an Eb. This Eb could have multiple origins, including Clémence’s F chord “bass” and Jaufré’s B chord. Both of these readings support the idea that Clémence is fabricating part of her personality according to Jaufré’s song. She does this to delight and to engage in this idealized and imaginary romance—her own sort of courtly love, so to speak, where a noble troubadour and poet is wholly obsessed and dedicated to her, despite never having seen her in real life. In doing so, she reaches the height of anticipatory distance for this opera, as Clémence not only has a distorted image of Jaufré, but also herself, as they engage in this 96 romance. An updated table of Clémence’s associated chord meanings, as well as an updated wedge diagram, is shown below. Ex. 38 Updated Clémence chord association chart for Act 3 Tableau 2 Ex. 39 Updated wedge diagram for Clémence in Act 3 Tableau 2 97 CHAPTER IV CLÉMENCE PART 2 (ACTS IV AND V) Act 4 Tableau 2 Thought Act 4 mostly concerns Jaufré and the Pilgrim as they traverse the sea, there is a brief mention of and aria by “Clémence”—that is to say, Jaufré’s imagined and dreamt version of Clémence. In Tableau 2, Jaufré attempts to sleep his worries away in the dead dark of the night. He awakes with a fright and recounts his dream, or rather, nightmare, to the Pilgrim. As he details the events of the dream, they unfold in front of the audience. In this dream, we will see how Jaufré engages in anticipatory distance through his distorted and idealized image of Clémence, who manifests in a white dress and beckons towards Jaufré to listen to her siren-like song about how his love encompasses her entire soul. In this moment, the directions in the score state “The dream materializes in the scene while Jaufré recounts to the Pilgrim. We see Clémence in a white dress moving forward on the ocean and gesturing to Jaufré to follow her and listen to her sing.” As we will see through analysis, this staging and this setting is ripe with irony, and the first sign of this is Clémence’s white dress. I find the choice of a white dress to be ironic in that white typically signifies purity and is often associated with the typical damsel-in-distress trope. Though we learned that Clémence is indeed not a “damsel in distress” (though she is in distress) because she is not waiting for Jaufré, he still envisions her in this manner because he simply does not know her personally, and projects a gendered stereotype onto her. This also sets up an axis of meta- anticipatory distance for the audience, as they are expecting Jaufré, through this portrayal of Clémence, to ultimately show up right on time, “rescue” Clémence from her loneliness, and somehow end up living happily ever after. 98 This dream also shows that Jaufré still has a fabricated version of Clémence in his imagination, one that is not representative of the real person. Saariaho is keen to this irony and represents this musically as well. The first way she does this is by replacing Clémence’s signature upward-reaching glissando with a downwards one. This supposition of Jaufré’s own ornamentation of Clémence’s melody is a quite literal representation of how Jaufré is projecting his desires onto Clémence. This entire tableau is telling in that it illustrates how Jaufré views Clémence as an object of affection rather than a human being with her own independent life and emotions. The harmonies underneath Clémence’s music also illustrate how Jaufré envisions Clémence. The first chord that appears is A, which, in Clémence’s music, typically represented either distance or Tripoli, and in this case, it’s appropriate that the audience hears this chord that represents physical distance, as Jaufré envisions Clémence as a being that is far away from him. Then, the C chord appears, but with the distorted Eb in the bass. This is significant in that the distorted Eb typically appears in Clémence’s E chord. This begs the question, then, of where this Eb comes from. Eb is a characteristic pitch of Jaufré’s B sonority, and the projection of this Eb onto Clémence’s C chord, which represents Clémence as an individual with her own desires, further demonstrates how Jaufré is assuming Clémence’s character. This Eb bass “resolves” down to D in the subsequent measure, which would suggest Clémence’s C chord, but I hold that this Eb is much more significant than just an upper neighbor, as it foreshadows the transformation that the pitch Eb will undergo in Act 5. 99 Ex. 40 Mm. 262-70 showing how Eb is briefly associated with the C chord 100 There are a few musical elements that Jaufré “guessed correctly” about Clémence. Amongst this is the shift to ancient Occitan beginning in m. 283 when she begins to quote his song back to him. Again, Clémence is the only character that speaks, sings, or even references Occitan in this opera (including the chorus members!), even though Jaufré is from a country that speaks it. Though it’s true that Clémence sings this song in Occitan, this is because the act of singing his songs makes her feel closer to her homeland and helps alleviate her deep nostalgia. It is highly unlikely that Jaufré would have known that Clémence sings his songs in Occitan, or that she even speaks Occitan to begin with, so it’s quite curious that Clémence is singing in this language in his dreams. This could be because, once again, Jaufré is projecting his own characteristic and desires onto Clémence, including his own language. Another element that Jaufré “guessed correctly” about Clémence is her trills. Jaufré is imagining an “ideal” woman in this scene, not Clémence herself, and that’s reflected in the music in a few different ways, but particularly in the trills. Jaufré “guessing” that Clémence is associated with trills is not because he truly knows her, but because he is imagining a caricature of a woman. Women, especially when characterized as damsels-in-distress, are commonly associated with the soprano coloratura range, as well as vocal virtuosity. This hearkens back to common mythological descriptions of women, or women-like creatures (such as sirens, harpies, fairies, mermaids, nymphs, succubi, etc.) that are often portrayed as luring men into their eventual death through their sweet song. This tradition eventually evolved into one of female docility, where women who are objects of affection still embody the concept of men-luring song, but with the intent of simply loving, not killing, the man to be lured in. This carried on well into the tradition of opera, though it was not until the Baroque era where this practice was normalized. In this way, this scene depicts a sense of temporal distance that both reflects on this 101 practice from a 21st century lens, but still references the pre-Baroque time period of the opera by having Clémence present herself as a mermaid-like creature, beckoning to Jaufré from the water in a beautiful, alluring vocal tone. Trills here are seductive rather than characteristic due to their association with ornament and virtuosity. The association Jaufré makes with this performance being frightening and not alluring also supports the reading of Clémence being presented as a siren-like creature here. This depiction is meant to be purposefully ironic. Clémence’s characteristics are exaggerated and bastardized. She can sing of nothing else other than Jaufré’s sweet song and love, and how much she loves his song because she is reminded of him when she sings it. In reality, Clémence loves the song so much because it paints her in a flattering light and reminds her of her home. Though much of this scene is portrayed as a duet between Jaufré, who informs the Pilgrim of his dream, and Clémence, who reenacts the dream, there are occasional moments where Clémence sings alone, and in these moments, it is clear that Jaufré’s Eb is being implanted onto her C sonority. And in this case, there is no question about enharmonic spelling, Eb truly is a “non-chordal” tone. This Eb, though its context is different, still maintains an element of fabrication. When Clémence adopted the Eb in Act 3, it was to represent that she was adopting elements of her personality that were detailed in Jaufré’s song. Here, the Eb acts as a projection of Jaufré’s B chord onto Clémence. After all, she is the most noble and fair woman he “knows” of, so she must embody the traits that he wants in her, and Jaufré cannot imagine it being any other way. In this tableau, we saw yet another version of Clémence that is not entirely true to the original. In this case, Clémence was fabricated through the lens of an “ideal” medieval woman, 102 as opposed to through the lens of Jaufré’s song, which is how Clémence distorts her own self image. Musically, this fabrication is represented by the implantation of the Eb into Clémence’s C chord, as opposed to its otherwise fixed position within Clémence’s E chord, as shown in example 40. The conflation of Clémence’s C and E chords here to mean similar things is also demonstrative of Jaufré’s projection. He doesn’t know of her insecurities or trials in life, therefore the chord that represents her struggles may as well be the exact same as the chord that represents her true self. These changes warrant an updated chord association chart, but this chart will be unique to the developments up until this point. When we revisit this chart in act 5, these changes will not stay. Since Clémence did not know that Jaufré envisioned her in this way, these changes to the C and E chords do not carry over exactly. There will be an Eb that becomes part of Clémence’s C sonority in Act 5, but the context is considerably different there than here. In act 5, Eb will become part of Clémence’s sonority because Jaufré is leaving Clémence with the memory of him and his devotion, not because Jaufré is projecting his desired traits onto Clémence. Ex. 41. Unique chord association chart for Act 4 Tableau 2 103 Act 5 Tableau 1 Act 5 of L’amour contains the climax of Clémence’s character development, as well as the climax of the opera itself. Here, Clémence expresses disappointment at Jaufré’s arrival, depicting how anticipatory distance is starting to shrink away from its peak. In Clémence’s mind, she was engaging in a beautiful romance with a complete stranger, which allowed her to project all of her insecurities and desires onto an imaginary figure. When Jaufré arrives on the shores of Tripoli, Clémence is reminded that he is indeed a real person, and may not live up to her expectations of him, therefore shortening the anticipatory distance. In the opera, this is created by juxtaposing Clémence’s disillusionment at the prospect of Jaufré’s arrival with her previous obsession with her love from afar. Eventually, however, her disillusionment is transformed from an immature to a more mature love as Jaufré dies in her arms. The first tableau opens with the chorus of women mouthing various phonetics underneath the orchestra’s LdL chord to represent the chattering and gossiping of these women as they discover that Jaufré is about to arrive on shore. They transition into a chaotic jumbling of words as they try to draw the Countess’s attention toward the shore. At rehearsal A5, measure 20, following a sudden stop in sound, the orchestra arpeggiates Clémence’s C chord and she speaks: “So, he came. The madman!” The chorus continues to “gossip” underneath her, enunciating “k” and “ts” phonemes. She continues, “He did not wish to remain as a distant shadow. A strange tale that one retells, a bold voice that one imitates.” As she says this, the C chord, with no distortions, sounds continuously underneath. This is significant in that this homogenous harmonization is odd for Saariaho, and she will usually contrast this chord with a different chord in Clémence’s solos. Clémence’s insistence on the C sonority here is purposeful, then, and shows 104 that these thoughts and actions are entirely her own, and not influenced by Jaufré’s desires. This continues into rehearsal B5, measure 36 where she elaborates “He was not content being a poet and a troubadour.” There is a sudden stop, and she repeats the line “He came.” The chorus of females begin chattering again, telling her that he arrived, and the orchestration moves to the D chord as she trails off with the phrase “The madman.” It is clear from this dialogue, as well as the supporting harmonies, that Clémence never had any intention of pursuing this love from afar in the physical realm. She was pleased and flattered knowing that a troubadour from her homeland wrote these lovely songs about her, and she was delighted to play a part in this fantasy, but now that the veil of mystery is lifted, she is rather displeased and frustrated. As the chorus excitedly repeats the words “He’s here!,” the orchestra moves from the B chord to the D chord. In measure 55, the C chord sounds, signifying Clémence’s chance to speak. “So, he came. The madman!” The orchestra then moves to the E chord, now delving deeper into how Clémence feels about this. The E chord, representing Clémence’s internal distress, now specifically represents her mixed feelings towards this twist of fate. She says: “The folly of love. He has crossed the sea to see me for who I am, and so I may see him for all of his manliness, that I may see his lips move when he speaks of me.” As she discusses how he has crossed the sea, the B chord appears momentarily, but then returns to the C chord for a moment as Clémence ponders in silence. Rehearsal C5, measure 74, poses one of the most enlightening passages in this opera. The E chord, which, in general, represents Clémence’s internal dilemmas, has transformed throughout this opera from representing intense nostalgia and homesickness, to representing a fabrication of her personality. It, then, makes sense that this is the chord that is sustained and arpeggiated during the entirety of the following passage where she says, “Should I show myself 105 as attentive, flattered, and appreciative? Or rather hesitant, feigning indifference? Should I remain distant? Ex. 42. Mm. 27-34 of Act 5 Tableau 1 “He did not want to remain a distant shadow.”34 34 The A# in the bass at measure 33 seems to be a mistake in this reduction, as there are no A#’s nor Bb’s in this moment when compared to the original score, however, there are A naturals, so I posit that this A# should be an A natural. 106 Ex. 43. Mm. 57-65 “The madman! The folly of love…” 107 Inaccessible? Or, on the contrary, should I be close to him? How would the woman of his songs show herself? She who is called his love from afar?” Again, this homogenous type of harmonization is unusual for this opera and is therefore purposeful in contrast with the prior section, entirely within the C chord, that demonstrated Clémence’s true feelings of wishing to partake in this love solely within her imagination. The act closes with the Pilgrim informing Clémence of Jaufré’s arrival. It seems, from Clémence’s response, that she chose to present herself as indifferent, yet excited. The Pilgrim tells her “I have news that will displease you.” To which she responds “Pilgrim, allow me to judge what will please or displease me. It’s possible that your good news will sadden me, and your bad news will fill me with joy. It is also possible that all of your news will leave me feeling indifferent. What would you like to announce to me?” In fact, this response is meant to be so on- the-nose that Saariaho wrote in the directions for Clémence “she imagines that he is about to announce the arrival of the troubadour, so she shows herself a bit playful and cheerful.” The orchestration underneath this is somewhat static, with a sustained bass and arpeggiated quintuplets, but well within the E chord. When the Pilgrim tells her that the news concerns Jaufré, she responds, with a voice that is “firm, but trembling,” “The troubadour? The news you bring me, I’ve already heard it. He crossed the ocean, they tell me, his ship came to dock in Tripoli. How many days will he stay?” It is obvious from this forced dialogue that Clémence is trying to “play cool,” and act as if the news neither excites nor unnerves her. The music reflects this insincerity by sustaining the distorted E chord, this time with both Eb and Gb present and sustained. She is, of course, not at all prepared for the news the Pilgrim brings. “It does not concern those issues,” he says. “I came to tell you that he is dying.” 108 Ex. 44. Mm.74-94 of Act 5 Tableau 1, showing how Clémence’s preoccupation with her first impression is entirely within the E chord. 109 Though Saariaho demonstrates her ability to compose chaotic and disturbed music, such as when Jaufré was growing increasingly ill at sea, and, as we will see later, when Clémence is 110 cursing God, the music at this point of crisis is oddly restrained, only at a dynamic of piano, and only Clémence (followed by the chorus) shouts out “God! Oh God! God! God!” In this moment, Clémence is “shocked” back into reality by the presence of a diatonically-arranged C chord. This chord is arranged as a G minor 6/4 triad with an A minor triad on top. Though this is a complex chord from a tonal standpoint, it is well within Saariaho’s vocabulary. Nonetheless, this arrangement is odd for Saariaho, as she prefers wide ranges of registers and non-triadic placement of her pitches. Similarly, on the final declaration of “God,” Clémence’s voice is also registrally strained, as the high B5 is the highest pitch in her vocal sonority. The simplicity of this accompaniment, combined with the return of the C chord is entirely characteristic of Clémence and her associated musical characteristics. This shows that this reaction is entirely genuine. Though she was scared at the idea of meeting Jaufré in person, she still does not wish death upon him, and in fact, was beginning to warm up to the idea of pursuing this romance in real life. She is, then, frightened at the possibility of her admirer passing away. The Pilgrim informs Clémence that Jaufré has lost consciousness, and only she can bring him back to this world. He then tells her that he will be here momentarily, to which Clémence bargains with herself, asking if he could really be so ill if he could make it to the Citadel. The Pilgrim tells her that four of Jaufré’s friends are carrying him, and indeed he is quite that ill, as he cannot walk himself. He arrives to the Citadel, and immediately regains consciousness upon viewing Clémence. 111 Ex. 45. Mm 142-6 “God! Oh, God! God! God!” In this tableau, we learned that Clémence only wished to engage in this romance in her imagination and is quite frustrated at the demystifying of this unique love. This is expressed in her dialogue, as well as the accompanying chords that represent her genuine feelings. In addition to this, to prepare for the arrival of her distanced lover, she begins to ponder how she may further fabricate her appearance and likeness. This represents the decline of anticipatory distance on Clémence’s part, and an updated wedge diagram to express this is demonstrated below. 112 Ex. 46 Updated wedge diagram for Clémence’s anticipatory distance in Act 5 Tableau 1 Act 5 Tableau 2 In the next tableau, Clémence runs to Jaufré’s side to kneel next to and comfort him. He regains consciousness and claims that he would know her face amongst any other woman in the world, and he feels happy, despite the obvious pain he is in. The Pilgrim informs Clémence that the doctor said that Jaufré would live only until sunrise. Jaufré accepts his fate, and in fact even challenges it, claiming that doctors often lie to comfort those who are dying, and he anticipates dying sooner. Clémence reassures Jaufré that it’s possible that God does not yet wish to take him away. Jaufré chides her, telling her not to abuse the kindness of the heavens. He already asked for the grace to be able to see her in person before he dies, and here she is before him. Jaufré elaborates on how happy he is to simply behold her in his final moments. He claims that there is nothing more he could wish of heaven. The chorus of men and women whisper amongst 113 themselves underneath this, repeating the line “Cursed is the love from afar, when it makes one hate their life.” Jaufré then goes on to chide them, claiming that love is what gives us joy in life, and that they should not curse it. “It isn’t love that betrays us, but rather, it is we who betray love.” In this sense, Saariaho develops one of her central themes of immature love developing into mature love. In between Act 4 and this moment, Jaufré has developed his character exponentially. From a coward who feared meeting his love to a brave man who accepts his fate with grace, the voyage across the sea, though anticlimactic, ennobled Jaufré in the tradition of courtly love. However, he will not get to live long enough to reap the rewards of this ennobling journey. Or, perhaps the reward was simply to see Clémence, and therefore he did indeed complete his journey. Nonetheless, the fact that Jaufré is so close to death is an ironic ending to this tale of courtly love. The subsequent interactions between Jaufré and Clémence demonstrate how Saariaho alters the meaning of her almost-letimotivic chords without changing notes. Prior to this section, I’ve referred to the E chord with an Eb as a “distortion.” This is because the Eb is aurally connected to the bass of Clémence’s F chord, or Jaufré’s B chord, therefore connected to her imaginary romance, and also because the Eb is a true non-chordal tone, as there are no equivalent enharmonic spellings of this note in that sonority. The adoption of the Eb, a necessary and unique component of the Clémence F chord, or Jaufré B chord, into her E chord demonstrated that she was embodying characteristics and personality traits that were not entirely her own, but rather suggested to her by Jaufré’s songs. As Clémence and Jaufré have both their first and final meeting, we will find that this Eb transforms the negative connotation of fabrication into a declaration of love and devotion. 114 At measure 304, rehearsal I5, Clémence confesses to Jaufré that she so desperately wanted to be a poetess, a muse. As she does this, the E chord sounds gently underneath her, and both her melodies and the accompaniment employ Gb. Prior to this, I’ve described this Gb as a distortion to the E chord, similar to the Eb, but we will find throughout these next two acts that this Gb represents death and grieving. Prior to this act, Gb would be present during moments of distorted E harmony, but not nearly as present as the Eb. From this point on, especially in Tableau 3, Gb becomes much more present in Clémence’s sonorities. Though this enharmonic respelling is inaudible to the audience, this change represents one of the key questions that Saariaho wanted to ask with this opera: what happens when we lose someone we love? Perhaps Saariaho’s answer to this question is that maybe we may be perceived the same on the outside, but something within us, something that is sometimes invisible (or in this case, inaudible), changes forever. She then goes on to confess to Jaufré that she would sing his songs to herself every night and weep with joy. She begins by telling him “There is something I’ve kept secret for a long time,” while the orchestra begins with her F sonority, then switches to the C, and briefly to the E, sonority to accompany her. As she tells him “But, if I don’t say it now, I worry I won’t ever be able to tell you.” The orchestra sustains a low Eb octave under her dialogue. The Eb here would suggest that Clémence is being ingenuine, however, beginning in this moment, the Eb begins to transform in meaning. This is because the context of this Eb is different than in its previous iterations, and its context remains different until the end of the opera. When Eb would appear as a distortion, representing a fabrication of Clémence’s personality, it would always appear with the E sonority, of which the most unique note is C#. There are many common tones between Clémence’s C and E sonorities, but one can typically tell when the music is within the E chord 115 when C# is present. C# is not present here in Clémence’s confession (though it appears during moments where she isn’t speaking), and many of the registral placements of pitches suggest C, so one can safely assume that this confession is within the C sonority. However, despite this, a very present Eb octave pedal appears in measure 323, when Clémence begins to worry that she may never get to tell him her secret if she doesn’t tell him now. This is significant in that Clémence is beginning to acknowledge Jaufré’s mortality. Since Eb is part of Jaufré’s sonorities, and since it is especially present here as he is so close to death, the Eb now represents Jaufré himself, as opposed to a fabrication of Clémence, and Clémence’s adoption of Eb even in the most genuine of her dialogues represents the inner transformation of doubt to love. In this moment, so close to death, Clémence feels closer and more in love with Jaufré than she had in her imagination. In a way, death was the catalyst for immature love to develop into mature love. This, in addition to the preceding events and the treatment of the Eb distortion, lead me to believe that this moment is when Clémence’s imaginary love begins to transcend into real love. The orchestra then moves to the C sonority as she confesses to him “Your songs, I would recite them every night, all alone, in my room, and I would cry from happiness.” The C chord is sustained throughout the entirety of this confession, showing that Clémence is being honest with herself instead of deceitful, but the Eb sneaks its way into the C harmony in certain measures, supporting the interpretation of a transformed association with Eb. The Eb in the C sonority is different here than when it appeared in Act 4 Tableau 2. In that scene, Jaufré was projecting his Eb onto Clémence’s basic characteristic sonority, showing how he was projecting his own hopes and desires onto this stranger. Here, however, Clémence is performing her own C chord with this Eb; it is not suggested to her by an outside influence, showing how she herself is making this change within herself. One can say that this Eb in her C 116 sonority shows that she is welcoming Jaufré into her heart, as opposed to the Eb in the E sonority, which represented a shallow desire to appeal to a stranger’s affections. Ex. 47. Mm. 314-40, showing how this passage is primarily within the C sonority despite the Eb’s (circled in red) which previously were associated with the E sonority. 117 118 In the above example, one can see that the E sonority tends to appear when Clémence acknowledges their limited time together. Throughout this opera, the E chord has represented a multitude of Clémence’s distresses, from her painful nostalgia to her insincerity, and now it has shifted to represent Clémence’s fear of Jaufré’s mortality. Jaufré explains to her that his songs are only so beautiful because his love is pure and the object of his love was so beautiful. He expresses that she is a thousand times more radiant and sweeter than he could have imagined. If he could have met her before, he would have written even more beautiful words, music that would penetrate one’s soul, and he would have loved her 119 even more. Clémence echoes his sentiment, telling him that she would have loved him if they could have met before. As Clémence says this, it is unclear whether we are hearing the C or E chord due to the vague orchestration. Though the bass’s position on D suggests a reading of this chord being the C chord, there are also pedal C#’s above it. This is likely done on purpose to obscure which chord we are hearing. If the C chord represents Clémence’s character, and the E chord represents her distress, the melding and obscuring of these two chords in this scene represent the ultimate fear of loneliness being embodied by her entirely. Jaufré then asks her “as much as I love you?” To which she responds “As much as you love me.” As Clémence says this, the C chord with an Eb bass sounds underneath, and both C natural and C# appear in this moment, again making it unclear if we are hearing the C chord or the E chord. In the subsequent moments, Jaufré asks Clémence if she would have said “I love you Jaufré” in a proposed hypothetical meeting where death was not so close. Clémence responds “I would have said ‘yes, I love you Jaufré’.” In the harmony, there is no question that we are haring C, as the bass is affirmatively on D2 (then jumps an octave to D3) with a Bb3 above it, just as in Saariaho’s rough draft. There is a C# that appears in m. 379, momentarily obscuring the sonority we are hearing, but in measure 380 where Clémence says “’yes, I love you, Jaufré’,” the C# disappears, leaving an incredibly clear C sonority, demonstrating that in this moment, Clémence does truly love Jaufré, completing the transformation of immature love into mature love. In this moment, so close to death, Clémence realizes that perhaps she truly would have loved Jaufré if they had met under different circumstances, even if she was initially hesitant to engage such a romance. Something about the finality of this ill-fated meeting brought them closer together and made Clémence’s initial disdain transform into deep appreciation and love. 120 Ex. 48. Mm. 367-81, Clémence’s love confession to Jaufré 121 This declaration of love reignites a will to live in Jaufré, as he tells the heavens that he has a newfound desire to live. Following this, he convulses slightly, and Clémence takes him into her arms. He begins to beg the heavens to allow him to just stay in her arms a bit longer, and at this point, the Pilgrim has something to say. He interjects Jaufré’s pleading with the line “But if death were not so close, Jaufré, the woman that you love would not be, in this instant, so close to you, embracing you.” This sets off a chain of comments and responses from the Pilgrim. As he is saying this, Jaufré and Clémence seem to totally ignore him, and Jaufré continues to beg “If I could revive for just a moment, my love who was so far away, is now close to me, and I’m in her 122 arms, and I’m breathing her sweet perfume.” To which the Pilgrim responds: “The air that you breathe would not be filled with her perfume (if death were not so close).” Clémence tells him she loves him, with a thin E chord underneath, and the Pilgrim responds “and she would not be telling you “I love you, Jaufré.” As the three voices interact in an almost undistinguishable fashion, the LdL chord harmonizes all three of their parts. This is unusual since typically microtones will accompany the Pilgrim and his interactions with the other two characters, but here, all of the accompaniment fits neatly within the LdL chord, perhaps foreshadowing Jaufré’s looming death. The final, clearly audible line from this cacophony of three voices is Clémence’s declaring “…and I want you to live so badly.” With the Ldl chord sounding softly underneath. It seems clear that the Pilgrim, in an almost omniscient manner, seems to have understood Clémence’s hesitancy to engage in this romance, and he seems to allude to an alternate timeline where, had Jaufré not fallen mortally ill, Clémence may have just dismissed their relationship. Indeed, if Jaufré were not so close to death, perhaps his voyage across the sea would not have ennobled him in such a way, and perhaps he would have arrived to Clémence in the same cowardly state that he left Blaye. In this hypothetical, it’s impossible to tell if their immature love would have grown into noble love, but the Pilgrim seems to believe that it would not have. In this ironic turn of events, death brought Clémence closer to Jaufré and transformed her indecision into genuine love. 123 Ex. 49. Mm. 394-402, showing the beginning of this three-way interaction between Jaufré, Clémence, and the Pilgrim. This is the only time in the opera all three characters speak at once. 124 There is then silence from the characters for 4 measures and Jaufré asks “If the heavens heal me, would you take me by the hand and lead me to your room?” As he does this, there is a low Bb2 pedal juxtaposed with a high B6, the latter being instructed to play “loco.” This seems to be a foreshadowing that death is coming, as this “hollow” version of Clémence’s E chord will appear from here on out in reference to death and grief. Clémence reassures him that yes, she would take him by his hand to her room if the heavens, in their goodness, decide to heal him. Throughout this opera, both Jaufré and Clémence worship and thank the heavens for their fate, and even in this moment so close to death, both still hold onto the hope that perhaps the heavens will have mercy on them. Once again, the E chord, undistorted, arpeggiates softly underneath Clémence’s declaration and the “loco” B6, which, at measure 427, jumps down two octaves to a B4. Beginning in measure 435, as Jaufré grows sicker and closer to death, the primary sonority that occurs underneath both characters is the LdL chord. It is blocked as a chord in measure 435, then 4 measures later at 438 where it is sustained for three measures. This also coincides to a quickened conversational rhythm, where Clémence and Jaufré now speak in short sentences in quick succession. Jaufré asks her “And I would lay close to you? To which Clémence responds “Yes, you would lay close to me.” “And you would put your head on my shoulder?” “My head on your shoulder…” “Your face turned towards mine… your lips close to mine…” “My lips close to yours.” They then kiss, accompanied by this Bb2 and B5 registral strain, again with the B5 being played “loco.” After this climactic kiss, the LdL chord sounds, and Jaufré claims “In this moment, I have all that I want. What more could I ask of life?” His final words, “of life,” are dictated with downward glissandi, typically out-of-character for Jaufré, but now representing word painting as he takes his last breaths. He convulses, then no longer 125 moves, signifying his death. Clémence stays with him for a moment before getting up to pray. This ends the second tableau of this act. This tableau contained the climax of the opera—Jaufré’s death. Through this act, both Clémence and Jaufré developed their characters significantly. Clémence’s immature and imaginary romance developed into a genuine love for Jaufré as he lay dying in her arms. In this way, the anticipatory distance shrinks to relative zero, as Jaufré and Clémence both get to know each other and fall in love with one another. In addition to this, the previously mentioned “distorted” Eb changed in meanings. Prior to this tableau, Eb would typically appear in Clémence’s E sonority to represent a falsification of her personality in order to play part in this wonderful and imaginary romance between a noble Countess and a troubadour from a faraway land who sings of her fairness and nobility and is entirely devoted to her. In this tableau, Eb now appears in Clémence’s C sonorities. This time, the context of association does not point towards a reading where Clémence’s love is ingenuine or otherwise distorted, but rather, the morphing of immature love into mature love. Since Clémence’s C chord is the one that represents her true character and feelings, the adoption of this Eb suggests Jaufré leaving somewhat of a signature on Clémence’s life, answering Saariaho’s thematic question “What happens when we lose someone we love?” The changes in these chord associations, as well as an updated wedge diagram for anticipatory distance is shown below. 126 Ex. 50. Updated chord association chart for Clémence in Act 5 Tableau 2 Ex. 51. Updated wedge diagram for Clémence’s anticipatory distance in Act 5 Tableau 2 127 Act 5 Tableau 3 The third tableau opens with an arpeggiated LdL chord, followed by a descending scale featuring Gb5 and Gb4. This tableau, and the subsequent and final tableau, feature Clémence and her grief. After Jaufré’s death, the Gb becomes a permanent member of the music’s harmony that represents grief, whether part of Clémence’s harmonies or the LdL chord. In this third tableau, Gb mostly makes its presence in the intervening moments between dialogue or as part of the LdL chord. However, in the final tableau, Gb will appear more readily in Clémence’s parts. From this tableau, we will find that Clémence truly did love Jaufré before he died, and she curses God for their unfortunate fate. This dramatic shift of faith is significant for Clémence’s character. She had previously mentioned that she would parade in her finest gowns down the aisles of mass only to kneel with her soul empty, showing that Clémence already had a seed of religious doubt planted in her subconscious, though she nonetheless chose to continue to perform her faith and have hope that God could bring her happiness through this romance. Now, only Clémence and the Pilgrim remain in the world of the living, and she lashes out in rage against God for denying her the small bit of happiness that this romance allowed her. Regarding her harmonies in this tableau, the previous tableau limited itself primarily to Clémence’s E and C chord as she battled with her conflicting feelings about Jaufré while being confronted with his death. Here, in measure 470, Clémence’s dialogue begins with the B sonority, zooming out from the intimate drama of the previous tableau and referencing distance once again, this time the distance between Jaufré, who has now passed, and Clémence, who is left on Earth. Painfully, she pleads “Still, I hope, my God. Still, I hope.” On this last iteration, the orchestra moves to the C chord, showing the audience her genuine pain. The chorus of women join her and echo her words “Still, I hope. I hope.” In this moment, the chorus sympathizes with 128 Clémence and shares her desire for Jaufré to somehow, miraculously, arise from the dead. As her hope begins to turn into confusion and anger, the orchestra moves to the E chord. She begins to question God’s intention by stating “Ancient Gods could be cruel, but not you… but not you, my God. You are good, and compassionate. You are mercy.” Following this statement, the orchestra arpeggiates the LdL chord and descends in a scalar fashion from C8 to C#6, featuring a Gb in the descent, serving as a painful reminder of Jaufré’s mortality. Clémence repeats these statements to herself, seemingly trying to comfort her grief by invoking her faith, however, she can’t help but feel rage and injustice. The seed of religious doubt she had planted in Act 2 is beginning to blossom into rage towards God. She reflects on Jaufré’s character, beginning in measure 497. “This mortal had nothing in his heart but the most pure love.” As she states this, the A sonority appears, perhaps reminding the audience of the great distance between the two lovers now. She then tells God “He offered his life to a faraway stranger and was happy to receive but a smile in exchange.” As she says this, the Eb makes its first appearance in the tableau within the C sonority. What’s fascinating about this chord is that the bass tetrachord of {G, D, Eb, A} is in the exact registral position as Jaufré’s B chord, though the notes in this chord fit well within Clémence’s C chord otherwise. As Clémence recalls their brief encounter with pain and love in her heart, her pitch field temporarily morphs to resemble Jaufré’s. In this way, he has left an everlasting mark on Clémence and her characteristic sonority. As Clémence’s confusion begins to grow into rage, the E sonority replaces the C, and she addresses God directly challenging him by saying “He thanked the heavens for the little that you allowed and did not ask for anything. If you are not so generous with a being like him, with whom are you that generous?” As she poses the last statement, the D sonority sounds, before quickly returning to E. She is silent as the orchestra outlines this chord, and the music grows increasingly disturbed. 129 In the stage directions, Saariaho wrote “Little by little, her sadness is replaced by rage and revolt. She gets up and throws a vengeful fist towards the heavens.” This is followed by 23 measures of interlude by the orchestra and chorus, all within Clémence’s E chord, and the LdL chord, painting a clear harmonic image of Clémence’s grief. In addition to the authenticity of Clémence’s emotions offered to the audience by the harmonic language, the timbral language here consists of all the associated sounds for Clémence, such as brass and metal percussions, creating a conglomeration of all that is Clémence, grief and rage included. Her rage in the next section is punctuated by harsh stabs of the LdL chord, as opposed to interludes from her 6 sonorities. This change in harmonic form demonstrates a change within Clémence—she is “reacting” to the orchestra’s LdL chord and continuously kept in a cycle of grief and rage as she attempts to come to terms with their unfortunate fate. In this following moment, she says “I believed in you, I hoped, my God, that with a being so loving, you would show yourself more capable of love. That you would allow us a moment, just a moment of true happiness, without suffering, without illness, without death looming. A short moment of simple happiness. Is that too much to ask for?” To the chorus, this is blasphemous. They snap back at Clémence, telling her “Tais-toi, femme! Ta passion t’égare. Tais-toi, femme. Silence!” (“Shut up, woman! Your passion leads you astray. Shut up, woman! Silence!”) At first, Clémence ignores them and continues her cursing. “For what did you want to punish him? For having called me a Goddess? For having crossed the ocean as if he were to battle the infidels, though it was me that he wanted to find? Is it possible that you are jealous of the fragile happiness of humans?” In between each sentence, the chorus responds with “Shut up, woman!” At her final accusation, the chorus cuts her off completely and enters their own song. 130 Ex. 52. Mm. 498-508 “(This) mortal had nothing in his heart but pure love…” 35 35 The direction at measure 507 reads “The pilgrim, while this is happening, bends over Jaufré and discovers that he is no longer breathing. To Clémence, who looks at him with question, he signals that it is all is done. She bends over above her lover and caresses him in her arms like a sleeping child.” 131 This is the first moment that the chorus demonstrates their own agency, independent from the actions of the three main characters. This is a stark contrast from the chorus who previously sympathized with Clémence and her grief. What made the chorus change stances so quickly is 132 Clémence’s blasphemous choice to curse and challenge God. To the chorus, all of the expressions of grief were fine and understandable up until she performed blasphemy. The chorus encompasses the whole space of the opera, and in a grand tutti, they sing this to Clémence: Shut up, woman, your passion is leading you astray. Shut up, woman. Silence! Would you like to attract misfortune and curses to our city? Would you, would you like that the ocean decay and that the waves jump over the walls to swallow up our houses and drown our children? Would you like to attract all of God’s punishment on our city? Would you like for him to abandon us in the middle of the ocean when the storm will rage? For him to abandon us in battle when our enemies are launched at us? Shut up, woman, your passion is leading you astray. Shut up, woman. Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! Silence! This shocking delineation in role for the chorus is revealing of the attitudes towards religion in this opera. The chorus seems to worship and praise God out of fear of punishment, whereas Clémence was previously worshipping and praising God for his goodness and her fortune to engage in such a romance, hence her rage at this “betrayal.” This tableau ends with a tragic and indirect duet between Clémence and the Pilgrim as they both try to process the events that passed. At rehearsal V5, Clémence begins this duet, saying “Jaufré believed he was coming to be near me, and he found death. Could it be that my beauty is the face of death? He believed to see clarity in me, but I was the guardian of darkness!” Then, the Pilgrim enters, though completely of his own regard and not in response to Clémence “And me, God. And me, God. Why, God? Why, why did you choose me for this task?” As he says this, Clémence says in tandem “How can I love again? How could I reveal my body? Open my breast towards a lover?” Then, the Pilgrim begs “Why did you choose me for this task? From one shore to another. From one shore to another, from one secret to another.” To which Clémence interjects “I am no longer worthy of being sung about by a poet, nor leaning against a shoulder of a man, nor being held. Tomorrow, after the funeral, I will wear my mourning.” Then, 133 the Pilgrim, “I believed I was sewing the white threads of a dress, of a wedding dress.” “I will wear a thick wool dress and I will hide myself under the roof of a convent, where I will never leave, neither living nor dead.” “I believed I was sewing the white threads of a wedding dress. Without my knowledge, I sewed the fabric of a mourning gown. I sewed the fabric of a mourning gown!” “I am the widow of a man who never knew me, and never, never will another man lay in my bed.” The harmonization of this duet is surprisingly sparse in microtones, though the Pilgrim’s Clémence chords and their characteristic microtones, such as A1/4#, appear in moments when the Pilgrim is singing alone. Otherwise, this duet is rather uniformly harmonized with either Clémence’s C chord, E chord, or the LdL chord. The end of this duet signals the end of this tableau. Though this tableau did not present many harmonic changes or alterations to Clémence’s harmonies, the dramaturgical and lyrical associations, as well as the exploration of the chorus’s role in this tableau, were crucial for an understanding of this final tableau of this opera. Act 5 Tableau 4 The final tableau of this opera focuses on Clémence and her resolution to join a convent. The opening directions say “As if she were already in a convent, Clémence kneels to pray, first in silence, then out loud, turned towards the inert corpse of her lover who acts as an altar, so that we do not know if she is praying to him or God, against whom she revolted. Especially since her words are vague.” In this tableau, we will see Clémence adopt Gb into her C and E sonorities in addition to F#. The majority of this final tableau is harmonized with the E chord, the Ldl chord, or Clémence’s D chord, representing the strained spiritual distance between her and her lover. Though this enharmonic Gb is not audible to the audience, this choice is clearly intentional, as Saariaho is very careful and purposeful with her enharmonic respellings, as discussed earlier. 134 This Gb represents not only represents her grief, but also represents the part of her that is forever changed after her brief and fateful meeting with Jaufré. This Gb first appears in the first phrase Clémence sings, in measure 718, “If you are called love…” on the word “you.” This Gb continues to appear both in Clémence’s melodies and the accompaniment, in conjunction with G natural and F#. In this way, Gb does not replace a chordal tone, but rather it is added to her sonority. Though there is not a direct correlation between this Gb and a certain word, it tends to appear on the words “me” or “you.” There is certainly a possibility here that the Gb is intended to add a dimension of vagueness to the underlying harmony, mimicking the way that Clémence is purposefully vague as to whether she is addressing God or Jaufré. Though Saariaho makes it clear that this obscuring is purposeful, and there is no definitive answer as to who Clémence is addressing, my reading of this scene makes a strong case for the addressee of this prayer being Jaufré, not God. The first reason for my conclusion is Clémence’s ornamentation. As previously discussed, Clémence was assigned downwards bending glissandi as part of her characteristic ornamentations, whereas Jaufré was assigned upwards-reaching glissandi. This is due to word painting of the opera’s setting, where Clémence is usually on top of a balcony, and Jaufré is at ground level, therefore he must look up towards her, and she must look downwards at him. Here, in this final tableau, these ornamentations do not change, except for one telling moment. In measure 734, Clémence says “My prayer lifts itself towards you…” on the word “lifts,” there is an upwards-reaching glissando. This is the only time this upwards glissando appears. In the subsequent phrase “…who is so far from me, now,” on the word “far,” Clémence returns to her characteristic downwards-bending glissando. If these ornamentations were chosen with the intent of word painting, it would make sense if Clémence continued to sing upwards-reaching 135 glissandi, but she does not. After this brief moment, all of her ornaments return to descending glissandi, perhaps betraying her words and demonstrating that she is still thinking of Jaufré. This phrase— “…who is so far from me, now,” is the first time the word “far” appears in this tableau, and in the brief 75 measures of this final tableau, the word “far” occurs 7 times. Though Clémence doesn’t always decorate this word with a glissando, she ornaments this word with downwards-reaching glissandi a total of 4 times. This seems purposeful, and the juxtaposition of these glissandi with the brief ascending one is curious. If these glissandi represent word painting, then certainly it is appropriate that it bends upwards when she references a prayer reaching heaven. But if that is the case, why does Clémence return to downwards-bending glissandi afterwards? In specific, these glissandi appear in the following phrases: “…who is so far from me, now.” (which was previously mentioned), “Near you, who is so far,” “Please excuse me for staying so far away,” “Now, it is you, the love from afar.” One can’t help but notice how vague these statements are, and one can easily see how Clémence may be addressing Jaufré here as opposed to God. In addition to this, another reasoning for my conclusion is the heavy religious irony painted throughout this entire opera. As early as Act 2, Clémence alluded to her faith being hollow and forced, as opposed to genuine. Her revolt against God is the culmination of this religious doubt, so I find it hard to believe that she had such a sudden and dramatic change of heart. Her purposeful vagueness may be with the intent of pacifying her peers in the chorus, who lashed out against her for daring to challenge God. This, however, does not answer the question as to why she would choose to dedicate her life to God if she held such resentment for her fate. Though there is no definitive answer to this, one may briefly reference Rudel’s vida and Clémence’s rage to discover that Jaufré travelled while posing as a Crusader, when his true 136 intents were to see Clémence. Perhaps Clémence herself is adopting this ironic role of “pretending” to be devoted to God while having different intentions at heart. Considering that her choice to join a convent clearly came from a place of self-punishment and grief, this may indeed be a possible reading of this conclusion. Ex. 53. Mm. 747-51, with Gb’s circled in red and Clémence’s descending glissando circled in yellow Though far from a happy ending, Saariaho provides immense depth to Clémence’s character and insights as to what she is feeling and thinking through her masterful orchestration. 137 There is no doubt as to whether Clémence’s grief was genuine or staged. The appearance of Clémence’s C chords during her confession to Jaufré proves her sincerity, and the homogenous harmonization of the E chord through the final tableau demonstrates a purposefully stationary accompaniment to represent that Clémence is entirely consumed by her grief. Through this final tableau, Clémence’s E chord develops into its final form for this opera, a chord that contains the pitches {Bb, F, D, F#, A, C#, D, G, B, Eb, Gb}, as opposed to when it first was introduced with the pitches {Bb, F, D, F#, A, C#, D, G, B}. These two additional pitches were added slowly throughout the course of the opera, and they represent how Jaufré impacted himself onto Clémence’s life. Similarly, Clémence’s C chord also completes its process in this tableau, transforming from the chord {D, C, G, Bb, F#, A, E, F} to {D, C, G, Bb, F#, A, E, F, Eb, Gb}. Though some of these notes are enharmonic equivalents to one another, Saariaho does not treat them as such, and only introduces these pitches into the sonority after an impactful event in the narrative, such as Gb at Jaufré’s death. An updated, and final, chord association chart is shown below. Ex. 54. Final chord association chart for Clémence at the end of the opera 138 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION Through a sweeping and detailed analysis of the tableaus in which Clémence appears, we have found that Saariaho applied a painstaking amount of detail to the harmonic planning and projection of Clémence’s character. She designed 6 chords to be associated with Clémence, and 2 of these (C and E) represent Clémence as a character directly. Drawing from her spectralist roots, she made miniscule, and even inaudible, changes to these 2 characteristic Clémence chords and transformed them slowly over the course of this two-hour opera. In this way, Saariaho brilliantly injected the slow and meditative post-spectralist compositional style with drama and excitement through the unfolding of events in this opera. Relying solely on the libretto and staging leaves much to be desired in the way of Clémence’s character development, and those developments can be observed and traced through the harmonic progression in this opera. At the beginning of this opera, Clémence is a homesick Countess in a country where she feels she doesn’t belong. She is presented with this bizarre and exciting romance; a foreign troubadour from her home country is head-over-heels in love with her, despite never seeing her, and can write about nothing but her fairness and nobility. She finds herself entranced by his beautiful melodies and by the way he paints her in such a flattering light. To Clémence, Jaufré’s songs offer her solace for her painful nostalgia and her self-consciousness. Her characteristic chords begin to morph slightly to represent this change within her. Her E chord, which is associated with her internal conflict, mutates into a chord that contains the otherwise-nonchordal Eb, derived from either Jaufré’s B sonority, or Clémence’s F sonority, which represents her imagination and dreams. This Eb replaces the otherwise chordal E natural, which shows that she is quite literally changing an element of herself. 139 This change carries into Act 3, where Clémence has allowed herself to become fully immersed in this imaginary romance. She promenades around the Citadel singing Jaufré’s songs to herself in pure bliss. She is so entrapped by this affection that she is immune to the scathing criticisms by her peers, who prefer a more realistic and sensible approach to love. Clémence is not the only person who allows herself to be carried away by this love, as Jaufré agrees to set sail for Tripoli with the Pilgrim to meet his love. It is during this voyage, in act 4, where he has a nightmare about Clémence, who presents herself as a siren-like creature in white who can sing of nothing but how his love encompasses her entirely. This imaginary depiction of Clémence is hardly the spitting image of the character herself, but rather, an exaggerated projection of how Jaufré had been portraying Clémence. In act 5, Clémence has already embodied the image of how Jaufré has portrayed her, as opposed to who she genuinely is, and this is represented by the heavy presence of Eb in her harmonies, as well as her disingenuous dialogue. When Clémence learns of Jaufré’s mortal illness, she is shocked out of her imagination and rushes to meet Jaufré. As he lays dying in her arms, she confesses her love for him. In this moment, if one were to solely rely on dialogue, it would be nearly impossible to determine if Clémence is being genuine in this confession, or if she is simply comforting a dying man. When one scrutinizes the harmony that underlies this moment, it becomes crystal clear that Clémence is indeed being genuine, as the heavily distorted E chord is replaced by her more genuine C chord as she confesses her love for him. Though Eb is present here, it becomes clear that this Eb is a reflection of Jaufré’s sonorities, and therefore character, leaving an imprint on Clémence and her own character. After Jaufré dies, Clémence’s C chord permanently adopts the Eb together with the otherwise chordal E natural, as well as a Gb in addition to the enharmonic F#, and in tandem with the chordal G natural. The adoption of these new pitches into Clémence’s characteristic 140 sonorities, as opposed to a replacement, such as Eb was prior to this interaction, is a beautifully poetic musical representation of how we are impacted by the death of a loved one. We carry a part of them with us forever afterwards. Though my harmonic analysis does not provide a solid conclusion as to whether Clémence was genuine in her dedication to God, or if she was praying to Jaufré in the final tableau, I believe that Saariaho did not want a definitive answer to this question, and instead wanted the ending to be determined by the listener. She creates this ambiguity by obscuring the harmonies that accompany Clémence and creating a purposefully vague melodic line. In my personal reading of the themes and irony in this opera, I find that an ending where Clémence is addressing Jaufré instead of God more appropriate, however, in the same way that Rudel’s vida left many questions as to what happened to Clémence after Jaufré’s death, this opera has a similar conclusion. My work’s focus on Clémence allowed for a nuanced understanding of how Saariaho spotlighted this character in her opera, however, there is still much more irony and underlying commentary to be discovered in the parts of the Pilgrim and Jaufré. For example, there is still much research to do about how Jaufré is portrayed as either a hero, or anti-hero, in relation to the courtly love tradition. Given that Jaufré is assigned 5 sonorities much in the same way that Clémence is assigned 6, I would predict that the processes and changes that Clémence’s chords undergo can also be observed in Jaufré’s sonorities as well. If the voyage across the sea did ennoble Jaufré to elegantly accept his fate in the arms of his lover, then, undoubtedly, his chords underwent a similar transformation during Act 4 as he travels across the sea, changing from a nervous, bumbling coward to a brave martyr. 141 Similarly, there is much left in the way of understanding the Pilgrim’s role in this opera. Though it’s clear that he serves a transitory role, and somewhat of a matchmaker between the two main characters, there is an air of omniscience and mystery in the Pilgrim’s character that begs for further understanding. Furthermore, there may be more remnants of Saariaho’s post- spectralist roots in the Pilgrim’s part, as he is the only one that employs microtones, and therefore, there may be spectral transformations in the Pilgrim’s music that mimic some of the well-known slow, static processes of the Parisienne spectral school of the 80’s. Moving beyond this paper, there is plenty to be discovered and written about gender roles and the various ways that Saariaho parodies them in this opera. Even a harmonic analysis of Clémence’s music alluded heavily towards a larger overarching theme of gender, particularly how it relates to courtly love, so a more detailed reading that heavily considers gender norms in opera and how Saariaho either conforms to or parodies these norms would undoubtedly be rich and provide further context into Saariaho’s relationship with her own gender as well as how she approached the writing of Clémence’s character. Saariaho has expressed herself that she feels connected to Clémence, particularly in that she was young when she emigrated from Finland. Though she has said that she hates being referred to by her gender in the compositional world, she also admits that she has had to face backlash from composers’ circles because she is a woman and is also the first prominent composer to come out of Finland after Sibelius. There is certainly room here to explore how Saariaho treats and writes music for her female main characters spanning throughout her opera career, beginning with Clémence, then continuing to explore Adriana, from her second opera Adriana Mater (2005), then Émilie from Émilie (2008), then onto her most recent opera, Innocence (2021) that features 3 prominent female characters: 2 different mothers, and a deceased daughter. There is no question about how important Saariaho 142 considers her female main characters. A possible analysis of these settings would be quite revealing. Furthermore, there is much more research to be done with regards to the courtly love and medieval setting of this opera. Though I refer to it gently, there are likely elements of parody that I missed that would prove to be quite rich and compelling, especially in regards to Jaufré’s character development. There are still questions remaining about Jaufré’s journey across the sea and whether this constitutes a parody or a retelling of the typical Hero’s quest that’s often outlined in the courtly love tradition. Though I get the sense that it is parody due to the exaggerated cowardice that Jaufré expresses while travelling, there is perhaps more scrutiny that can be applied to both the literal text as well as the music that accompanies these moments. Kaija Saariaho is regarded as a pluralistic master of compelling orchestration, dazzling musical timbres, and breathtaking live performances. Theorists are beginning to express interest in her unique compositional style that encompasses elements from post-spectralism in combination with a complete desire to control the perception, space, and time of performances, often times proving to be more important to her than the music itself. Her works provide a new and modern perspective on composition and present a crossroads between compositional idiosyncrasy and audience digestibility. Though its certainly true that L’amour de Loin becomes richer and deeper with each re-watch, the messages and themes of the opera are easy to grasp and digest thanks to Saariaho’s complementary music that reinforces the narrative and drama. This study has proved how discerning and detailed Saariaho is with planning every second of the opera. She gives specific directions to the performers as to how to pronounce every isolated phoneme, and how to create each unique sound that is required for this opera. It is my deepest hope that my thesis sparks a curiosity to continue to study and appreciate Saariaho’s 143 works in depth, in hope of coming up with a comprehensive understanding of her compositional style, at least regarding her operas. Many theorists are growing more and more curious about her works, thanks to her 1987 article that presented a fascinating philosophical approach to the structure and form of her music; however, this article was written before she began writing operas. Despite the obvious genre and stylistic changes that she went through during the time in between that article and her first opera, it’s clear that she maintained these compositional principles in her later works. One could say that the distance between her early and late compositional styles was not all that wide. 144 REFERENCES CITED Aubrey, Elizabeth. 1996. The Music of the Troubadours. Music--Scholarship and Performance. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 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