Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt – between the Oriental culture and the European music avant-garde. Pieces for woodwind and keyboard instruments from the period of 1965–1972

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Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt – between the Oriental culture and the European music avant-garde. Pieces for woodwind and keyboard instruments from the period of 1965–1972

Journal Title: Notes Muzyczny - Year 2017, Vol 1, Issue 7

Abstract

The article is the first ever publication in the Polish music literature touching on the life and works of the Vietnamese composer Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt. In the short biographical sketch in the introduction, special attention was paid to the initial stage of the composer’s activity – the years when he was a student in Paris and his first compositions. This study is also an attempt to capture and describe the inspirations, both philosophical and musical, which influenced the process of how the composer’s individual style was shaped in the 1960s and 1970s. That was the time when Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt wrote his first works referring to the achievements of Europe’s avant-garde on the one hand and inspired by the Eastern philosophy concepts and traditional Vietnamese music on the other hand. Between 1965 and 1972, a few compositions were written for woodwind and keyboard instruments (piano or harpsichord); the works so to say illustrate the process how Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt’s individual style was shaped. These include: Cinq Pièces pour hautbois et piano (1965), Vision II pour flûte et piano (1966), Tu dai canh pour flûte, hautbois, clarinette, basson et piano (1968), Hy vong 267 pour cor anglaise et clavecin (1969) and Ai van II pour flûte à bec basse et clavecin (1972). The composer never returned to these line-ups after 1972, even though he later on wrote numerous pieces for solo piano, harpsichord, woodwind instruments and different combinations of wind, string and keyboard instruments. The aim of the article’s author was to present the topics connected with early works of the composer in the widest possible context of the phenomena which have occurred in European music since the beginning of the 20th century. Here a special emphasis was put on the works by Anton Webern and Krzysztof Penderecki, the composers who had the greatest influence on Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt’s musical language in the described period. An example of that influence was, among others, the fact that the composer used serial technique and searched for new sound by means of cluster technique and sonoristic columns. A large part of the article was also devoted to East Asian music culture and philosophy. Their elements are already present in Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt’s earliest works, and they are noticeable in his composition concept itself, as well as in the sphere of sound, rhythm and music time flow. The feature making Tȏn-Thȃt Tiêt’s music one of a kind and at the same time proving its undeniable value is the unique combination of elements belonging to two diverse cultural circles of the East and the West.<br/><br/>

Authors and Affiliations

Joanna Balewska

Keywords

EP ID EP517938
DOI -
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