Ebook: Analysis of "Semimaru" An Opera

The opera Semlmaru represents a step in the process of developing a new more flexible musical vocabulary and syntax. The specific goals of this system are: a) to allow a wider range of consonance and dissonance, b) to allow inclusion in a unified structure of all conceivable compositional processed, and c) to generate a technique and associated expressive vocabulary which will allow for a simplification of the compositional process, and for a more immediate and direct comprehensibility of musical thought.

This work was begun in earlier songs (1978-1980) and continued in String Quartet (1981). It will be carried on in subsequent compositions. Accordingly, a large part of this paper will deal with the pre-compositional assumptions of the system as a whole', since it would be impossible to discuss such a large work in detail.