by Christopher Fulkerson
The imagination can be quite inspired by a word. Within a few weeks of one another I saw two book titles that had the idea of "recognition" in them. The first of these was the great novel, called simply The Recognitions, by William Gaddis; the other was an academic dissertation discussing "recognition and re-cognition" in music. I bought the Gaddis, but I read neither book. (Eventually I did read the Gaddis.)
However, my imagination was sparked. I began thinking about what it is that the mind is working with when it recognizes something, and I wondered whether systematic transformation of ideas might permit of a type of continuity of recognition, in which, if B is recognizable next to A, and C next to B, might a continuous flow of transformations render coherence to two things, at more distant points in the transformative process, that really aren't similar? The question fit well into the Modernist project of building coherence from discontinuity, of creating meaning in changing contexts.
I was especially interested in the effect this sort of thing could have on form. Form would not need to rely on any kind of sectional structuring; the coherence of the continuity would be all that would be needed for a strong structure. I could go anywhere, as long as each step made sense. An approach of this sort could work to create a large form.
I devised an ostinato that transformed over a long period of time, to act as the backbone of the work's introductory section; shortly after this first idea gets started in the trumpets, a cascading idea begins in the pitched percussion... it seems as though it's quite different, but of course it turns out to be the same idea as the first, in a later stage of transformation. Over the counterpoint between two lines of transformation I created a group improvisation that I called in the score "an undulating game of catch," in which different sections and soloists from the orchsrtra play figures that combine interestingly in succession. For this material I introduced another type of graded transformation: a scale of rhythmic durations, for use in constructing phrases that would be only slightly faster or slower than their predecessor or successor.
The work is about the effect on the mind of hearing ideas that were similar, but different. I wanted to work with ideas of varying degrees and types of similarity. I created several systems of interrelationship between ideas, so that some ideas would be obviously similar, while the similarity of others would be less evident. Some ideas are parts of large patterns that take the entire piece to be revealed in their entirety, and need to be played quite strictly; others are parts of patterns that are like brief, composed improvisations, and are tailored to the situation of the moment.
Years after writing this piece I eventually read the Gaddis novel, and was delighted with how remarkably a few of the passages that treat of music seemed to correspond with my orchestral piece. This correspondence was however merely fortuitous, and not the result of design. Gaddis' novel is concerned with the recognition of authenticity. It can be debated whether there is ever any "authenticity" in music, since it's all what W.H. Auden rightly called "pure contraption." In any case,though I'm pleased with the result of Gaddis' effect on my imagination, and though I loved his novel, in the sense of the terms my composition probably has more to do with that other book, the dissertation that I will probably never read.
THE RECOGNITIONS was completed in 1985, and was my doctoral dissertation. It is fifteen minutes long.
The photo was taken in my Hugo Street studio during the time I was composing THE RECOGNITIONS. The pages on the music stand are from the partitur; page four of the full score is on the architect's desk. Behind me about two thirds of one of my paintings is visible; it is in oil on canvas, 21" by 36;" painted sometime around 1979, it is entitled THE CITY. My efforts at painting have not been resumed since all of my art materials were, together in one fell swoop, thrown in the garbage by my landlord of the time.
The nomenclature of this work is: Two Flutes (both doubling piccolo); Two Oboes; Clarinets in Eb and Bb; Bassoon; Contrabassoon; Four horns; Three Trumpets (four may be used); Two Trombones; Tuba, Three percussionists playing Glockenspiel, Vibraphone, Crotales, Chimes, and Marimba; Celesta; Piano; Two Harps; Strings at least 12-8-8-8-5.
The score is 45 large pages long, in the composer's fair hand.
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Last Updated December 8, 2009.