Is It Chaotic? An Examination of the Harmonic Materials in Razak Abdul Aziz’s Etude No. 5 for Solo Piano

Authors

  • Mohd Fairuz Zamani Universiti Malaya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/mz.60.1.115-151

Keywords:

chaos, music analysis, post-tonal theory, Razak Abdul Aziz, Malaysian composer

Abstract

This paper investigates the adoption of chaos theory into Etude No. 5 by Razak Abdul Aziz. Using pitch-class set to analyse the work, the study unveils several chaotic elements. By providing a unique perspective of investigating musical works from the viewpoint of chaos, this study enriches music scholarship.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bibliography

Abdul Aziz, Razak. “Compositional Materials of Etude no. 5 (Part 1).” Interview by Mohd Fairuz Zamani. Recording on tape. University Sains Malaysia, January 4, 2023.

Abdul Aziz, Razak. “Compositional Materials of Etude no. 5 (Part 2).” Interview by Mohd Fairuz Zamani. Recording on tape. University Sains Malaysia, January 30, 2023.

Abdul Aziz, Razak. “Haiku Renditions and Its Progress (Part 1).” Interview by Mohd Fairuz Zamani. Recording on tape, University Sains Malaysia, October 30, 2022.

Abdul Aziz, Razak. “Haiku Renditions and Its Progress (Part 2).” Interview by Mohd Fairuz Zamani. Recording on tape, University Sains Malaysia, November 28, 2022.

Abdul Aziz, Razak. Etudes for Piano Solo. Pulau Pinang: The Asian Centre, 2009.

Augustyn, Adam. “Chaos Theory: Mathematics and Mechanics.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed on December 29, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/science/chaos-theory.

Batubara, Junita, Sri Rustiyanti, and Stepanus Hanggar Budi Prasetya. “Maria Zaitun: The Journey from a Novel to Razak Abdul Aziz’s Opera.” Music Scholarship / Problemy Muzykal’noj Nauki, no. 3 (2021): 112–122. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33779/2587-6341.2021.3.

Besada, José L. “Math and Music, Models and Metaphors: Alberto Posadas’ ‘Tree-Like Structures’.” Contemporary Music Review 38, no. 1–2 (2019): 107–131. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2019.1578123.

Besada, José. L. Metamodels in Compositional Practices: The Case of Alberto Posada’s Liturgia Fractal. Paris: Delatour France/Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2017.

Cao, Gengxian. “Chaos and Fractal in Chinese Traditional Music Texts and Its Inheritance.” In 5th International Conference of Philosophy of Information. 1–3. Xi’an: MDPI, 2022.

del Rio, Ezequiel, and Sergio Elaskar. “The Intermittency Route to Chaos.” In Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory, edited by Christos H. Skiadas and Charilaos Skiadas, 3–20. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

di Lorenzo, Pietro. “Chaos Structures in Gregorian Chant.” In Musical Creativity / Special Issue: The Journal of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music. Liege: ESCOM, 2002: 1–11.

Fletcher, Neville H. Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos in Musical Instruments. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1993.

Forte, Allen. The Structure of Atonal Music. Connecticut: Yale Univ. Press, 1973.

Hall, Vance. “Razak Abdul Aziz: The Reluctant Composer.” The Star, November 27, 1988.

Jensen, Marc G. “John Cage, Chance Operations, and the Chaos Game: Cage and the ‘I Ching’.” The Musical Times 150, no. 1907 (2009): 97–102.

Jørgensen, Sven Erik. “Chaos.” In Encyclopedia of Ecology, edited by Sven Erik Jørgensen and Brian D. Fath, 550–551. Massachusetts: Academic Press, 2008.

Kulp, Christopher W., and Brandon J. Niskala. “Characterization of Time Series Data.” In Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory, edited by Christos H. Skiadas and Charilaos Skiadas, 211–230. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Little, David. “Composing with Chaos; Applications of a New Science for Music.” Interface 22, no. 1 (1993): 23–51. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09298219308570617.

Lochhead, Judy. “Hearing Chaos.” American Music 19, no. 2 (2001): 210–246. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3052614.

Malaysian Association for Music Education. “MusEd’ 21 Lunch Concert: Hall 2.” YouTube video. Accessed June 16, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSfXQkr4ogE&t=3s.

Malaysian Composers Collective. Freehand Anthology I: 21st Century Malaysian Piano Works. Pulau Pinang: Rhythm MP Sdn. Bhd., 2019.

Mc Laughlin, Scott. “Composers and Chaos: A Survey of Applications of Chaos Theory in Musical Arts and Research.” In Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory, edited by Christos H. Skiadas and Charilaos Skiadas, 893–912. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

McLeod, Kenneth. “Interpreting Chaos: The Paradigm of Chaotics and New Critical Theory.” College Music Symposium 45 (2005): 42–56.

Nguyen, H. Tuan Anh, Van Liet Dang, and Shunji Kawamoto. “Nonlinear Dynamics of Two-Dimensional Chaotic Maps and Fractal Sets for Snow Crystals.” In Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory, edited by Christos H. Skiadas and Charilaos Skiadas, 83–92. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Oestreicher, Christian. “A History of Chaos Theory.” Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 9, no. 3 (2007): 279–289. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2007.9.3/coestreicher.

Ovchinnikov, Igor V. “Supersymmetric Theory of Stochastics: Demystification of Self-Organized Criticality.” In Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory, edited by Christos H. Skiadas and Charilaos Skiadas, 271–306. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Posadas, Alberto. Liturgia Fractal. Madrid: Kairos, 2009.

Pressing, Jeff. “Improvisation: Method and Models.” In Generative Processes in Music, edited by John A. Sloboda, 129–178. England: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Pressing, Jeff. “Nonlinear Maps as Generators of Musical Design.” Computer Music Journal 12, no. 2 (1988): 35–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3679940.

Rahn, John. Basic Atonal Theory. New York: Schirmer Books, 1980.

Ramm, Alexander G. “Integral Equations and Applications.” In Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory, edited by Christos H. Skiadas and Charilaos Skiadas, 163–182. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Shultis, Christopher. “Cage and Chaos.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 45, no. 1 (2000): 91–100.

Skiadas, Christos H. and Charilaos Skiadas (Eds.) Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Solomos, Makis. “Cellular Automata in Xenakis’ Music: Theory and Practice.” In Definitive Proceedings of International Symposium Iannis Xenakis, edited by Makis Solomos, Anastasia Georgaki, and Giorgos Zervos, 120–138. Athens: 2005.

Steinitz, Richard. “Music, Maths & Chaos.” The Musical Times 137, no. 1837 (1996): 14–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1003886.

Steinitz, Richard. “The Dynamics of Disorder.” The Musical Times 137, no. 1839 (1996): 7–14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1003934.

Straus, Joseph Nathan. Introduction to Post-Tonal Theory. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005.

“What Is Chaos Theory?” Fractal Foundation. Accessed December 29, 2022. https://fractalfoundation.org/resources/what-is-chaos-theory/.

Wolfram, Stephen. “Universality and Complexity in Cellular Automata.” In Cellular Automata and Complexity, edited by Stephen Wolfram, 115–157. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018.

Wright, Simon. “Jeff Pressing.” Accessed January 20, 2023. http://www.move.com.au/artist/jeff-pressing.

Xenakis, Iannis. Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition. Indiana University Press, 1971.

Zamani, Mohd Fairuz, and Abdul Fattah Abd. Gani. “Razak Abdul Aziz’s 10 Pantun Settings: Imagery behind the Chosen Texts.” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 10, no. 6 (2020): 959–990. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v10-i6/7465.

Zamani, Mohd Fairuz, and Mohd Muzhafar Idrus. “Music as Poetry and Performance: Arranged Marriages, Past Instabilities, and Razak Abdul Aziz’s Musical Performance.” 3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies 28, no. 1 (2022): 1–15. DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2022-2801-01.

Zamani, Mohd Fairuz, Mohd Muzhafar Idrus, and Goh Yen Lin. “Razak Abdul Aziz: The Forgotten Composer.” ASEAN Journal of Management and Business Studies 1, no. 1 (2019): 76–83. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26666/rmp.ajmbs.2019.1.11.

Zamani, Mohd Fairuz. “Magunatip and Wayang Kulit: The Influence of Malaysian Traditional Performing Arts in Razak Abdul Aziz’s 10 Pantun Settings.” International Journal of Applied and Creative Arts 3, no. 1 (2020): 1–9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33736/ijaca.2187.2020.

Zamani, Mohd Fairuz. “Music of Razak Abdul Aziz: Preparing Chosen Solo and Collaborative Piano Works for Two Academic Recitals.” Wacana Seni Journal of Arts Discourse 20 (2021): 79–85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21315/ws2021.20.7.

Zamani, Mohd Fairuz. “Performing Works by a Living Composer: Understanding the Musical Inspirations of Razak Abdul Aziz in Selected Piano Works.” PhD diss., University Pendidikan Sultan Idris, 2021.

Zelinka, Ivan. “Deterministic Chaos and Evolutionary Dynamics: Mutual Relations.” In Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory, edited by Christos H. Skiadas and Charilaos Skiadas, 21–38. Florida: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Downloads

Published

8. 10. 2024

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Zamani, M. F. (2024). Is It Chaotic? An Examination of the Harmonic Materials in Razak Abdul Aziz’s Etude No. 5 for Solo Piano. Musicological Annual, 60(1), 115-151. https://doi.org/10.4312/mz.60.1.115-151