3 Unreal City (PDF)
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Unreal City
Alexander Kolassa
(2011)
‘Fourmillante cité, cité pleine de rêves,
Où le spectre en plein jour raccroche le passant!’
Les Sept vieillards, Baudelaire
The name of this piece is lifted from a recurring phrase in T.S. Eliot’s landmark poem, the
Waste Land (1922): ‘Unreal City/Under the brown fog of a winter dawn’ and later ‘Unreal
City/Under the brown fog of a winter noon’.
In the extensive analysis he published along with the poem Eliot refers the reader to
Baudelaire’s Les Sept vieillards, specifically the two lines in the epigraph above. Both
poems share in a similar mystification of the urban landscape, exploring the mixture of
alienation and awe the individual feels as they are eclipsed by their respective
modernities. In light of the Lowry exhibition soon to be opened here at the University of
Nottingham, consideration of the above could inspire a reinterpretation of Lowry’s
supposed naive celebration of the northern industrial cityscape. The austere and
imposing industrial structures, juxtaposed against the busy optimism in the streets below
poses an interesting flipside to the bleaker post-war image of Eliot’s The Waste Land; it is
the space somewhere between these two images that I have set out to explore in music.
The piece can be divided into three parts; a slow-paced opening which deals with large
structures and combinations of instruments, often overlapping. The harmony here is
intentionally static – like the monolithic factories of the industrial landscape – built
primarily upon a pitch-class set which emphasises both a major and a minor 3rd, and a
more dissonant 2nd. However, the security of the Unreal City is undermined and
eventually gives way to a fast section; here we have the individual movement of
instruments and a spiralling kaleidoscope and widening harmony that is characterised by
fifths. Elements of the static harmony are maintained and following a final build up the
piece collapses back into a recapitulation of the initial slow section.
(programme note: October 2011)
flute
oboe
clarinet in Bb
bassoon
horn in F
percussion (one or two players optional)
vibraphone
finger cymbals (*)
strings (quintet, vln I and II, vla, vc, cb)
* The finger cymbals referred to here are small (about 2-3 inches in diameter) and when
struck against each other (lightly and on the side) emit a particularly resonant high
pitched ‘ping’, Held at the base, a vibrato effect can be achieve by subtly ‘wobbling’ the
cymbals.
Unreal City
Alexander Kolassa (2011)
grand and spacious, at a slow walk ( c. q = 63 )
Flute
Oboe
Clarinet in Bb
Bassoon
Horn in F
Finger Cymbals
Vibraphone
motor off
grand and spacious, at a slow walk ( c. q = 63 )
Violin I
Violin II
f
f
Viola
f
Violoncello
f
Contrabass
p
f
p
mp
mp
mp
mp
pp
A
2
poco rit.
4
Fl.
Ob.
Cl.
Bsn.
p
mf
p
mf
mf
p
F. Cym.
Vib.
mf
pp
mf
pp
pp
pp
vibrato.
mf
pp
p
Hn.
p
very slow, impeded ( c. q = 50 )
mp
A
Vln. I
poco rit.
mf
Vln. II
mf
Vc.
mf
Cb.
f
pp
mf
pp
pp
pp
pp
mf
pp
very slow, impeded ( c. q = 50 )
mf
pp
mf
Vla.
pp
ff
3
Fl.
8
Ob.
Cl.
f
f
Bsn.
Hn.
Vib.
Vln. I
Vln. II
Vla.
pp
damp.
senza sord
damp.
damp.
mf
pp
Cb.
pp
ff
f
Vc.
pp
ff
con sord.
f
F. Cym.
p
pp
ff
ff
pp
ff
f
pp
ff
3
pp
f
pp
3
f
4
12
Fl.
p
Ob.
p
Cl.
Hn.
F. Cym.
ff
pp
mp
p
f
pp
Cb.
pp
Vc.
3
mp
ff
pp
sul tasto.
pp
Vla.
Vln. II
p
Vib.
Vln. I
pp
mf
Bsn.
mf
pp
mf
pp
mf
ff
pp
ff
ff
mf
pp
ff
mf
ff
ff
pp
pp
5
16
B
Fl.
Ob.
Cl.
Bsn.
p
Hn.
mp
ff
pp
con sord.
F. Cym.
Vib.
Vln. I
Vln. II
3
pp
p
pp
Vla.
sul pont.
sul pont.
Vc.
Cb.
norm.
norm.
norm.
ff
ff
ff
3
pp
3
3
pp
f
f
f
B
damp
ff
pp
ff
pp
pp
6
19
Fl.
Ob.
Bsn.
C
mf
Cl.
f
ff
Hn.
F. Cym.
Vib.
Vln. I
Vln. II
ff
damp.
ff
pp
senza sord.
Vc.
Cb.
ff
ff
C
f
pp
f
pp
f
f
Vla.
ff
pp
pp
pp
pp
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