Gondwana (1980) is a defining musical composition of spectral musicStaines, Joes (2010). The Rough Guide to Classical Music, p.372. . "The locus classicus of early spectral music". for large orchestra composed by Tristan Murail using simulated synthesis to create a harmonic interpolation between an orchestrally synthesized chord derived from a simulated bell sound (inharmonic) and a chord derived from a trombone sound (harmonic).Fineberg, Joshua (2000). Spectral Music: History and Techniques , p.69. (Overseas Publishers Association, published by license under the Harwood Academic Publishers imprint, ©2000) OCLC: 48862556. . This process is meant to evoke the shifting of continents and thus the piece is named after the former supercontinent Gondwana.
The piece uses interpolation to make a smooth transformation on all musical parameters including spectral profile, envelope, and instrumental attacks.Fineberg (2000), p.108 The bell sounds were created through a Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis with a single modulator affecting five carriers to create five different harmonies, these being connected by interpolated chords.Fineberg (2000), p.128-129. The components of the trombone's frequency spectrum was derived through a Fourier transform.
The piece's long quiet or silent moments are shaped in "long, seamlessly evolving paragraphs" evoking the geological processes which created the continent. The first opening slowly transforms a chord before turning to trills."Murail Gondwana & Désintégrations", CompositionToday.com. The opening chord has been compared to the work of Messiaen.Griffiths, Paul (2011). Modern Music and After, p.344. . The piece, "incorporates a substantial passage directly modelled upon," Sibelius's Lemminkäinen in Tuonela from the Four Lemminkäinen Legends op.22 (1896).Grimley, Daniel M., ed. (2004). The Cambridge Companion to Sibelius, p.200. .
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