A Glance at Cryptophony in Alexander Raikhelson’s Six Translations from Willi Melnikov for Theremin and Piano

Abstract

The technique of cryptophony, which was developed in the 1990s, presents a rare example of skill and knowledge formed in this country in the sphere of the newest methods of composing music. Its essence is connected with a consistent recoding of a verbal text into a musical text on the basis of correlations between letters and pitches chosen by the composer. The peculiarities of this technique have already been described in their general features, however analysis of the compositions connected with it has not lost its topicality, since it makes it possible to expand our perception of cryptophony and its potential. The object of study in the article is Alexander Raikhelson’s cycle Six Translations from Willi Melnikov for piano and theremin (1996), one of the composer’s first cryptophonic works. The article highlights the peculiarities of Melnikov’s poem, analyzes the principles of the composer’s work, and establishes that the latter’s approach is determined by the content and the capacity of the poems. The short texts that fixate one image each (Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5) are transformed into instrumental miniatures with the help of a simpler cipher (a chromatic or diatonic pitch set stemming from one definite pitch), and in them the syntax of the text is observed and a homophonic texture is used. The movements created from extended poems (Nos. 2 and 6) possess a polymelodic texture the lines of which sever the connection with the words; they make use of two ciphers each that possess individual structures. During the course of study of the cycle, elements of sound-figurativeness have been revealed, which appear in the Six Translations on various levels — from the peculiarities of the organization of the cipher and the textural regularities to the transmission of the poet’s voice by means of the timbre of the theremin. The undertaken analysis discloses the wealth of the possibilities present in the technique of cryptophony and convinces us that the action of the principle of recoding lying at its basis does not limit itself to the identification of the system of correlation between the letters and the pitches, but, spanning various strata, establishes numerous connections between the music and the text that generated it.

Keywords: cryptophony, contemporary composition techniques, Alexander Raikhelson, Willi Melnikov, theremin