Time, Memory and Multiplicity: Exploring the Influence of Marcel Proust's Narrative Language on the Musical Language of Henri Dutilleux (2019)
Henri Dutilleux's compositional language can be broadly divided into two categories: into a group of dynamic metamorphic techniques and processes the composer combined under the rubric of processes of progressive growth, and into different types of static and recurring pitch structures that have become known as referential devices. This research, which comprises my PhD dissertation, explores the way author Marcel Proust's unique approach to the interconnected phenomena of time and memory in the novel À la recherché du temps perdu influenced Dutilleux's approach to those phenomena in his works, and how that influence manifests in the processes of progressive growth, processes which result in: a manipulation of the musical object that reflects Proust's treatment of the human character as comprised of multitudes; non-linear formal types, like multiply-directed time and moment form, that replicate Proust's non-chronologic approach to narrative sequencing; the formation of dense associative memory networks that are similar to those created in À la recherché du temps perdu by Proust's expansive use of metaphor and foreshadowing.
Composing with Histories: Creating an "Individual Sound" in the Twenty-First Century (2014)
The starting point and primary assumption that this research is based on is that all sounds have histories and historical associations that accompany them. These associations provide people, not only with spatial information, but also with temporal information—in essence, each sound has its own unique spatial and temporal fingerprint.
If this assumption can be made about sound, it can also be made about music. In the case of music, however, we usually refer to historical associations by discussing historical style; each era having its own distinct stylistic fingerprint and historical associations.
In this article, I look into how and why the Western European musical tradition resulted in numerous musical styles—each style containing its own cultural and historical associations. I will also look into why composers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries feel compelled to create their own unique "sound," or stylistic fingerprint, by appropriating, re-contextualizing and combining the various historical styles that have proceeded them, as well as how we relate to constant sound and music re-contextualization, and how the increasing number of musical histories and styles that are currently being created, provide us with more and more specific information about who the composer is, who we are, and where we are in time.