Writings

INTERVAL CYCLES, THEIR PERMUTATIONS AND GENERATIVE PROPERTIES IN THOMAS ADÈS' ASYLA

In recent years there has been a serious lack of critical analysis of music by the younger generation of composers.  This is especially noticeable with regard to the music of Thomas Adès, whose wunderkind reputation and provocative scores have tended to overshadow any interest in examining his work in greater detail.  Although some studies of Adès’ music have surfaced very recently, there has been no wholesale analytical devotion to a singular work, resulting in albeit effective but still superficial discussion.  The present paper attempts to provide an in-depth analysis of Adès’ award-winning Asyla for large orchestra, focusing primarily on the first two movements.  The analysis uses interval cycles and their permutations as the primary means of describing the musical materials and the ways in which they relate to each other in the piece.  This discussion focuses on three main aspects:  1. The raw materials of the piece and the ways in which interval cycles function within Asyla on a basic level; 2. The ways in which the raw materials create motivic unity and development, focusing on how interval cycles are superimposed to generate larger motivic and harmonic structures; 3. The influence of interval cycles and the materials they generate on the global structure of the work.  It is the hope of the author that this analysis will shed considerable light on the complex methods by which Adès governs the vast network of relationships that unify Asyla, and bring greater appreciation to a composer whose music operates on far deeper levels than previously thought.