Elliot Carter is considered to be one of the distinguished American composers of the late 1900s, with works encompassing more than seventy years of musical evolution and refinement. He was encouraged to take the path trodden by innovative composers by a fellow musician Charles Ives, and studied with several musical professors including Walter Piston and Gustav Holst, and ultimately Nadia Boulanger when he went to Paris, a place that embraced all kinds of artists, especially the renegade.
His first works are said to have been reminiscent of those by Stravinsky, which is only natural as his mentor, Boulanger, was a disciple of the said composer. Had he been born at an earlier time, he would have been thrown in with the likes of Debussy and the Viennese (Schiff, 2008). His return to America, however, also seemed to mark the beginning of more originality on his part as his combined various elements of European neoclassicism and American populism as could be observed in his Symphony No. 1 and Holiday Overture (Thomas, 2008).
Elliot Carter is among the radical American pioneer composers who have dared to challenge the stereotypical concept of melodious classical music. His music is considered to be atonal: the lack of seamlessness between notes in terms of mode or key is very apparent; in other words, he does not use the traditional serial techniques of the classical era. His was a collection, in addition, of various chords in a number of equally variant pitches. Each instrument followed its own tempo, a polyrhythmic approach adding to complexity. The result is an attempt at portraying spontaneity of movement, likened to specific processes as the acceleration or deceleration of a vehicle.
Elliot was dubbed the ‘master quartet-builder’ of his time, and his String Quartet No. 1 has been considered as one landmark in American music, one which he had composed, according to the man himself, for his own satisfaction and out of understanding himself. Indeed, he found himself more able to remain consistent in terms of musical style without the pressure and constraint laid upon him by audience expectation—a retreat to an Arizonian desert away from New York aggression allowed him to create this composition of much originality, ambition and innovation, thus marking the start of his international career (Harvey, 1997), and spurring the creation of a myriad number of highly creative pieces.
This first quartet was followed by the second quartet, which more fully demonstrates his style which, as aforementioned, involves a kind of exploration into the different rhythms, tempos and pitches that particular instruments could possibly produce, all jumbled in together to form highly intricate pieces: each instrument is viewed as a distinct player in a scenario, with its own ‘personality’ as consistent as it gets over the entire composition. The first violin, for example, is both aggressive and whimsical; the second violin is terse or kind of abrupt; the viola is most dramatic of all; and, the cello impulsive, with many acellerandi and decellerandi. The over-all outcome is that it is as though the instruments are communing with each other, seeking harmony, or a singular existence, but due to each instrument’s ‘desire’ to be heard, or to stubbornness and wont to stick to a status quo, there is also discord, contrast and change. And that’s the main thing about Carter’s compositions: conversations between instruments, highlighting the opposing characteristics of each one.
Through his other quartets— the following third and fourth, Carter demonstrated his ingenuity in composition, and also a maturity marked by the increased use of time and space in musical equivalent, or rather, the taking advantage of the expanse, the theoretical breadth and height of music available for each instrument at hand. For these compositions, Carter was bestowed with several awards such as Pulitzer Prize and the New York Music Critics Award (Harvey, 1997). Truly, Elliot, along with his fellow neoclassicists has redefined the meaning of orchestration, and ultimately, that of musical theater.
Elliot also demonstrated his versatility in composition when he composed the Eight Pieces for Four Timpani, which are four drums played in solo. It is interesting to note that at some point in these pieces, the use of the back end of the timpani sticks were employed to produce a different depth of sound as opposed to normal, a virtuosic idea meant to make full use of what is available. This said compilation of short pieces is constituted by the following individual works: I. Saeta; II. Moto perpetuo; III. Adagio; IV. Recitative; V. Improvisation; VI. Canto; VII. Canaries; and, VIII. March. Each piece exhibits different characteristics of drum music. The Saeta, for example, demonstrates rhythmic acceleration; the adagio, the many sounds that could be achieved by changing the drum’s pitch while at play; while improvisation explores the effects of octave displacement and the variation of tempo.
Other works by this composer include the Double Concerto for Piano and Harpsichord; the Piano Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra; and, the Symphony for Three Orchestras. A Mirror on Which to Dwell was his first work that involved vocals, and his first opera in the twilight of his life, ‘What Next?’.
Listening to his works, such as his Sonata for the piano and the cello, one is at first perplexed with the complexity and the wide variety of tones that the composer employed, especially when used to the more subtle and serene classical music which is also characterized by familiar musical patterns, repetitive if one might say, and more friendly to the ears—it may also be said that one can listen to classical music for the purpose of relaxation. In comparison to, for example, the well-known Moonlight Sonata which is a very emotional, brooding piece by the revered Beethoven, Carter’s works are more obviously dissonant, a kind of “jazz”, as they put it, without the trademark beat. Carter’s work gives the impression of disjointedness, of chaos, of sharp notes and abrupt halts that could almost qualify as noise, except that you know there is something beyond each composition. The music is there not to soothe the mind or whatever, as traditional classical music would have it, but to invite scenarios from the real world into the corners of the psyche: scenes reflecting the true and utter chaos, distraction, destruction, and yet, amidst all that, the peace and harmony, no matter how transient.
In my opinion, his music, if one were to express it in an analogy with the neoclassical arts, is like that of Expressionism: a complete and utter surrender into some inner chaos clawing to be let out. Or, at least the expression of his life and his memories—his struggles with parents who were not exactly in favor of his chasing a musical career; various inspirations ranging from the setting of his studio, which at one point was nearby a shooting range where he derives his chaotic compositions reminiscent of machine guns, evident in his Piano Concerto. Indeed, the composer himself referred to his own music style as a “masquerade in a bomb shelter” (Thomas, 2008), discordant, a harmonious cacophony so to speak.
By virtue of international acclaim, this man attained the status that his traditional predecessors and fellow neoclassicists had attained before him—the welcoming into the world of the musical canon, his inclusion into the archives of the daring men and women who sought self-expression by the most radical, unique, innovative means, transcending convention, solidifying the foundations of a new subculture, and adding one more dashing color to the fabric of musical history.
References
Harvey, D. (1997). The String Quartets of Elliot Carter. Retrieved October 26, 2008, from http://www.davethehat.com/articles/carterquartets.htm
Schiff, D. (2008). Elliot Carter. Retrieved October 26, 2008, from http://www.newworldrecords.org/album.cgi?rm=view&album_id=80347
Thomas, G. (2008). Elliot Carter. Retrieved October 26, 2008, from Composition: Today Web site: http://www.compositiontoday.com/articles/carter.asp