Musical topics, (self-)narrativity and adaptation in my recent composition Pearl

Matthew Kaner

This exposition charts the creation and musical-narrative structure of Pearl, my recent composition for symphony chorus, orchestra, and solo baritone: a setting of extracts from the medieval poem Perle, translated into modern English by Simon Armitage, commissioned as part of the BBC Proms in 2022. Envisioned as a contemporary adaptation of the poem’s historically distant, yet somehow timelessly poignant and continually resonant story, Pearl takes the form of a musical narrative that evokes both past and present, through personal and more universal reflections on the nature of loss, grief, and acceptance. By drawing together analytical techniques taken from musical theories of narrative (principally Byron Almén 2008), musical topics, and the adaptation of narratives across media (Marie-Laure Ryan 2014), with a self-narrative approach to documenting my practice in action (as advocated by Christopher Leedham and Martin Scheuregger 2018), I unpack my creative approach to Pearl in what might be understood as ‘bricolage’ as proposed by Robyn Stewart (2007). Constructing a ‘new story’ through a ‘plurality of approaches’, I adopt Stewart’s methodological eclecticism to theorize and situate the work as a musical narrative. However, through the slippage that occurs between narratology and self-narrativization, Pearl is shown to also mirror and situate my personal artistic experiences as a contemporary practitioner. In response to the recent and ongoing debate about the nature and validity of Practice Research in Composition, the article addresses calls to share the ‘messy, complicated, uncertain, and soft’ (Arthur Bochner 2000) aspects of the artistic process suggesting a more open, and even collaborative, role for the sharing of compositional research. Download Accessible PDF

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Integrated Narrative, Storyworld and Topical Analysis

In order to bring these various narrative analyses of the work together, in Table 2, I combine a written account of the work’s underlying narrative structure with its topical design and storyworld components, with the aim of elucidating the connections between them. After Almén (2008), I divide the narrative into eight isotopies: major structural groupings within the (musical) plotline. [1] My intention here is to illuminate the many means by which I conceived of the work as a multimedial adaptation of Pearl’s original poetic narrative, not only through literally setting some of its lines, but in a much wider sense, to reflect my interpretation of its multifaceted richness (its imagery, its mellifluousness, its strangeness, and so on, not least in Armitage’s limpid, glowing translation) in both the vocal and orchestral writing.

Table 2. Integrated Narrative and Storyworld Analysis of Pearl.

Isotopy	Bars	Narrative Components and Trajectory
1. Jeweller recalls and mourns his Pearl in the Garden of Herbs	1-167	Storyworld Components	The Jeweller (existent), is introduced in the Garden of Herbs, the ‘spot’ where he lost his Pearl (setting), first recounting her radiant beauty, then grieving her loss (narrative events). Unable to overcome his ‘wretched desire’ (mental events), his overwhelming grief attempts to transgress the norms of his wakeful existence (physical laws) and religious doctrine (social rules and values). He longs to, but cannot be, reunited with her.
		Topical and Motivic Components	The easeful breathing chord motive opens the work imbuing it with (as yet unknown) structural significance An early music topic (or set of topics) is immediately introduced, suggesting the story’s historical setting. Its deliberately limited timbral palette (with little percussion and woodwind), enhances this depiction, reserving the full orchestral colour-palette for the radiant textures to follow later. The solo baritone enters with plainsong-like syllabic vocal lines reinforcing the sense of medievalism. Hints of a lament topic occur within the early music umbrella topic, through the emphasis on descending lines (bb. 10-11; 19-20) and melodic sighing figures (e.g. bb. 31, 62, 67, 74 etc.) The lament topic grows more prominent as the Jeweller begins to describe his grief, with increasingly chromatic melodic descents (bb. 67-68 and 85-86), further melodic ‘sighing’ in the plangent cor anglais solos (bb. 135-136), and the tragic violin theme (beginning b. 163) that ends this isotopy.
		Musical and Narrative Structural Trajectory	Diatonic modal clusters in the mid-register facilitate the free flowing, ornamented topical melodic style of the opening. However, a sense of unease is soon implied by occasional clusters in the bass which subtly undermine the resonance of the otherwise diatonic-modal harmonies above. As the mournful aspect of the text grows clearer, this effect becomes more pronounced, in tandem with the emerging lament-topical tropes, which results in an accumulating harmonic tension and growing affective unease (in the bass ‘outbursts’ e.g. bb. 63, 84, 92 etc).
2. Chorus comments on his sorrow as the Jeweller sinks into heavy sleep	168-209	Storyworld Components	The Jeweller (existent) remains in the ‘same spot’ (setting) but the focus shifts to a more reflective plain with the chorus and orchestra ‘commenting’ on Pearl’s death as he falls asleep (narrative and mental events), preparing his arrival in the dream-realm (change of setting).
		Topical and Motivic Components	The ornamented melodic character of the early music topic recedes as the tragic violin theme continues, while still anguished and mournful in nature (b. 160 onwards). Beneath the violin theme, the full chorus enters for the first time with the lament chorale, enriching the tragic character through falling sequential writing and further vocal melodic sigh. [2] As the chorale ends (b.192), the descending lament figures within the tragic violin theme and lament chorale, transforming into the sinking topic proper and leading to the whole tone cluster in the extreme bass in b. 206.
		Musical-Narrative Trajectory	While little plot action occurs in this isotopy, the musical depictions of grief and subsequent dissolution of this material into a large-scale descent add dimensions of depth to the Jeweller’s inner psychological experience. Following the music’s departure from the medieval garden/early music topic, via the sinking topic, the ensuing clusters in the low register reinforce the function of the bass as a source of unease and prepare the way for the further accumulation of harmonic tension in the following two isotopies. Timbrally, the entire passage slowly introduces a larger orchestral palette, including more woodwind and tuned percussion, further implying a transition away from the ‘Garden of Herbs’ into a new dream-realm.
3. Jeweller’s spirit embarks on dream-quest to marvel and amazement	210-313	Storyworld Components	The Jeweller’s spirit (existent) awakens to a new gleaming dreamscape, ‘overwhelming’ in its ornament and his dream-quest now begins. As he journeys through the landscape, he focuses less on his grief and is overcome with awe and excitement (mental events). A new order of reality (or unreality) seems to prevail for the Jeweller, now unconstrained by the physical laws of his earthly existence.
		Topical and Motivic Components	Shimmering in the strings and tuned percussion become more prominent (while perhaps not yet fully topical) to depict the radiance of the landscape (e.g. bb. 224-225). A gradual build-up of rising figures contrast with the preceding sinking topic to suggest building excitement, leading to the arrival of the more rhythmic journeying topic (bb. 216-237). Chorus entries around the solo voice (bb. 264-287) further develop the rising topic within this setting. Following the climax of the journeying topic (bb. 286) the bass rumbling becomes more distinctive and topical in nature (bb. 305-306; 309-310) suggesting an element of uncanny otherworldliness.
		Musical and Narrative Structural Trajectory	A change of musical language occurs, defined by the introduction of the above new topics and textures, including a new harmonic vocabulary and timbral palette: The arrival of the journeying topic heralds the use of new chord spacings emphasising perfect and compound-perfect fifths, with an increase in harmonic rhythm and stronger sense of pulsation. The rising figures result in structural lines that now ascend. The full colour spectrum of woodwind, high strings and tuned percussion is in use throughout. The eventual arrival of rumbling bass clusters cements their role as the source of accumulating harmonic tension until Isotopy 5.
4. A more marvellous matter: beyond the beautiful water	314-436	Storyworld Components	The Jeweller remains present but now, with surreal excitement, glimpses Pearl (existents) from afar (on a gleaming crystal cliff across the water), no longer a child, but ‘a young woman of grace’ (events and setting). His emotions and sense of expectation are almost overwhelming.
		Topical and Motivic Components	Uncanny shimmering gradually overwhelms the musical foreground as the poetry further emphasizes images of radiance, leading to an explicit reference to Rued Langgaard’s Music of the Spheres combined with otherworldly microtonally inflected harmonies and further bass rumbling (bb. 349-360) Blurring is employed as the Jeweller’s speech grows increasingly ‘dream-like’ (bb. 368-377) and in the accompanying hazy string lines (bb. 370-373, 382-387). Fragments of earlier melodic material (vocal and instrumental) recur in the bass melody of bb. 387-401, but these are somewhat eclipsed by the brightness of the shimmering effects, which continues to intensify in its approach to the moment of ‘maximal shimmer’ (bb. 425-435; see Figure 8).
		Musical and Narrative Structural Trajectory	The harmony is now reconfigured to facilitate much shimmering above/around the baritone (and instrumental bass melody) as the Jeweller excitedly narrates what he sees, in somewhat breathless recitativo phrases. Tension continuously accumulates with much activity also occurring in the bass register, until reaching its goal of C-D whole tone cluster coinciding with the point of ‘maximal shimmer’ (bb. 425-435). However, this is not a climax as such – the structural line continues to ascend beyond this into the next isotopy.
5. Pearl, and the heavenly chorus, speak without sentiment	437-506	Storyworld Components	Pearl speaks first alone and then in harmony with the ‘heavenly chorus’ (existents and setting), persuading him that he should not mourn: she now lives in joy in paradise, where her new existence is joyful in nature (physical laws, mental events).
		Topical and Motivic Components	The intense shimmering clears to reveal the ‘purity’ of Pearl’s voice (a solo soprano voice), leading to the arrival of the heavenly joy topic in the chorus with a new simplified melodic language and more resonant harmony. The earlier ‘tragic’ violin theme is reprised from b. 480; yet now reharmonized and played by all the strings, it is recast as joyful in character. The joyful choral material climaxes in b. 504, achieving its high point on a top B (b. 502) just before the structural high point and climax of the work (b. 504), at which point all the choristers partake individually in singing exuberant lines, unified by a single harmony on a resonant perfect twelfth in the bass (C-G), setting up the role of this dyad as part of a new ‘tonic’ sonority. (A further stepwise onto this dyad occurs in the bass in the following two isotopies.)
		Musical and Narrative Structural Trajectory	The new harmonic resonance of the heavenly joy topic results in a dissipation of tension on a structural level. However, some tension remains: the (12-note) chord on a low C and G in bar 504 still arguably produces much inharmonicity (due to the false relations in its upper register), requiring final resolution in the remaining isotopies.
6. Jeweller’s vain attempt to cross the current	507-537	Storyworld Components	Overcome with delight (mental events), the Jeweller excitedly attempts to ford the river separating him from Pearl. As he does so, he finds his path blocked (physical laws, narrative events), to his frustration.
		Topical and Motivic Components	A reprise of journeying topic conveys the Jeweller’s excitement and attempt to ‘travel’ further (bb. 510-523). His attempt is thwarted by the swirling water suggested by the orchestral wave (b. 525-531). A bittersweet cor anglais solo (b. 532) signals the poignancy of his realisation that he cannot join her.
		Musical and Narrative Structural Trajectory	This isotopy begins the final long-range, structural descent in the bass in parallel twelfths, from E and B down to D and A. The Jeweller’s attempt to cross leads to a temporarily tense bass cluster around the D and A. However, this eventually clears to reveal the prominent C-sharp of the cor anglais solo in the treble, which functions as a voice-leading link to the following isotopy and ensuing large-level harmonic resolution, on C and G in the bass, at the reprise of the opening breathing chords.
7. Chorus reflects on faith and the afterlife	538-567	Storyworld Components	The Jeweller realises his vain attempt to cross was against God’s wishes (physical laws, existent, narrative events) and the chorus reflects on the eternal solace, love and support offered by God (mental events).
		Topical and Motivic Components	The overlapping of a reworked version of the lament chorale, against lines from the solo baritone and the continuing elegiac obbligato cor anglais solo evokes a Bachian chorale aria topic: a liturgical ‘lesson’ in the chorus is heard against a more personal text in the solo voice, affectively refined by the instrumental solo.x The chorale inverts its mournful sighing gestures to rising semitones, and though the phrase is repeated sequentially down a tone at first, it later rises from b. 554 in a final phrase that reaches a respacing of ‘tonic’ chord of bar 2, imbuing it with a new sense of hope and acceptance.
		Musical and Narrative Structural Trajectory	As the final ascending phrase of the chorale arrives on the respaced ‘tonic’ chord from the opening (cf. b. 2 and b. 562), a C# appears in the first sopranos, creating a voice-leading link with the C# that began the cor anglais solo (b. 532). This provides a voice-leading link with the following chord on the anticipated bass twelfth (C-G, b. 568), which will then ‘resolve’ further onto a reworking of the original ‘tonic’ chord above the C-G drone (b. 595).
8. Jeweller reflects on his vision and newfound acceptance of grief	568-612	Storyworld Components	The Jeweller awakens to the Garden of Herbs (existents, setting, narrative events), but now with a changed perspective, unburdened and accepting of his grief (mental events).
		Topical and Motivic Components	The opening breathing chord motive returns both in voices and instruments, now over the resonant low C and G twelfth. Plainchant vocal lines reappear, returning us to opening medieval/early music setting, but now with more directly religious connotations, leading to the moment in which all singers (b. 596: chorus and soloist) perform in octaves/unison the poem’s invitation for all to unite in faith: ‘may we live both as his humble servants and beautiful pearls.’ The final ‘amens’ echo this sense of unity and acceptance of religious salvation in death.
		Musical and Narrative Structural Trajectory	The newfound resonance generated by the C-G twelfth in the bass generates large scale resolution and closure. However, this is not fully achieved until the final structural descent in the upper voice: the chord above the C-G drone in bar 569 is a tone higher than at the opening (with G# at the top) until it finally descends in b.595 (to F#).

Lastly, in Figure 9, I summarize this entire narrative structure visually to clarify and convey its overall trajectory to highlight the integration of its main images at the larger level of form. Significantly, in contrast with the arc-like or triangular contour of most comparable graphs (usually based on Freytag’s (1876) famous ‘narrative pyramid’ characterized by ‘rising action’ approaching a climax) mine has perhaps a more distinctive trajectory (cf. Hoffman 2002: 116 and Scheuregger 2021: 304). Arguably this functions on multiple levels: in a more literal sense, it conveys my reading of the poem and the fall and rise in status (or rank, to use Almén’s term) of the Jeweller-protagonist as he sinks deeper into his grief, falls asleep and undergoes his dream-quest, leading to his radiant vision of Pearl and her joyous existence, his brief loss of rank in his failed attempt to cross the river, and final ascent to state of equanimity with his grief through his renewed faith. Yet in another, it depicts the harmonic underpinning of the work as depicted in Figure 8 and Table 2: the literal descent of the orchestra in isotopy 2; the ensuing climatic build-up; and the eventual attainment of harmonic equilibrium; thereby highlighting the close mirroring between the poetic and musical narrative in the work.

Graph description: Figure 9. Graphic depicting the plot trajectory as a line moving from left to right through time with textual labels. The line begins horizontally with the label ‘Jeweller, in the garden of herbs’ and then sinks as the protagonist relives his loss, reaching its lowest point as he enters ‘heavy sleep’. As he dreams, his ‘spirit rises’, and the line thickens (shaded with a gradient from dark to light) to suggest growing ‘radiance/shimmer’. It reaches an initial high point when Pearl speaks, but then continues to rise further, reaching its true climax at ‘heavenly joy’. It then dips briefly as the jeweller attempts and fails to cross the river to reach Pearl, before rising again, and finally levelling, at a higher point than it initially began, to depict his final state of acceptance.

Click on https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2353444/2361780#tool-2361826 to see the graph.

[1] The term is derived from semiotics, and is perhaps most clearly defined by Eco, as ‘a constancy in going in a direction that a text exhibits when submitted to rules of interpretative coherence’ (Eco 1980, 153). ↩︎

[2] C.f. J.S. Bach ‘Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen’ Cantata, BWV12, movement ii. ↩︎

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Matthew Kaner - Musical topics, (self-)narrativity and adaptation in my recent composition Pearl - 2024