Long line composition

March 22, 2009 11:38 AM

I'm looking for information on the so-called "long line" method of composition.

I was reading a book about Stephen Sondheim's music (incidentally he turns 79 years old today), and he kept mentioning something about "the long line" in his compositions that holds them together. Google has very little information about this, and none of my music teachers (including a guy who has a Master's degree in Music Composition) seem to know about it either. So I'm querying the hive mind.

posted by MattMangels to media & arts (8 comments total)

I'm not familiar with Sondheim's term, but it sounds suspiciously like the idea of "endless melody" (Unendliche Melodie) first articulated by Richard Wagner. Since Sondheim and Wagner were both interested in the synthesis of music and theater, I wouldn't be surprised if the concepts were related or identical. Googling for those terms should get you more fruitful results.
posted by speicus at 11:54 AM on March 22

I studied composition and haven't encountered this term. Through-composition is a possibly-related term that you might investigate, though. Sondheim is mentioned in the article.
posted by ludwig_van at 12:51 PM on March 22

What was the book, and on what page was that mentioned? (i.e., which plate and which beans?)

From your description it seems like he might've just been talking about a general sense of cohesion and flow rather than any actual method.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:55 PM on March 22

Oh, I know what this is. I'm pretty damn sure that this started with Nadia Boulanger. I'm not sure where she got it from but if she didn't come up with it at the very least she proposed this type of technique to her students. I know this as my teacher for undergrad also taught me about this technique and this was passed down from his teacher, John Lambert who studied with Boulanger. I can also remember talking to another ex-student of Lambert's about this years years ago so it seems that it was a common currency among Boulanger's students and I'm pretty sure that Sondheim studied with her.

So that's the background, the technique is basically to compose a single melodic line and to use this as the 'spine' of the piece (I don't want to use the word basis because it's much more specific than that) in a similar way to the Cantus Firmus technique of the renaissance. Essentially it's a form of pre-compositional planning, but a very useful one as it instantly provides one with a framework that can function both harmonically and temporally, in any way that you see fit. It is indeed related to compositional techniques used by late-Romantic composers such as Wagner (who sketched out whole operas in two-part piano scores) but less specifically tied to functional harmony as it is just a line and not a line and a bass line with the harmonic implications that go with that.

Of course there's a very strong possibility that this was passed down in slightly different ways from teacher to student whereas Sondheim would have got it direct from the source, but that's the essence of the technique and I certainly wouldn't be surprised to hear that he uses it. I hope that helps. I must say I'm very surprised to see this question on AskMe!
posted by ob at 2:41 PM on March 22

Ob, Sondheim did not study with Boulanger but did study with Milton Babbit.

Sys Rq, the book in question was "Sondheim on Music". It is a series of conversations between Sondheim and Mark Horowitz, who was interviewing him on behalf of the Library of Congress. The book includes sketches that Sondheim made, and some of these are just a melodic line and a bass line. He often refers to "working out the long line" when asked what the sketches mean. Also, from the book "Sondheim: A life", he says (and I'm paraphrasing) "I was trained a very conservative approach that focuses on the long line", without mentioning any specifics.
posted by MattMangels at 2:54 PM on March 22

Ah, well I don't really know much about Sondheim and just figured that he studied with Boulanger as the technique is typical of Boulanger students. Anyway, that's the technique. It shouldn't be confused with writing out a melody and bassline of a piece and then orchestrating it -this long line is moving much more slowly than that. I would expect that this long line is giving him his basic harmonic framework probably for whole acts. That's what the long line is really about. In some ways the long line is similar to a Schenkergram, (as in Schenkerian analysis) but of course this is before the fact and not after.
posted by ob at 3:10 PM on March 22

ob mentions Schenkerian analysis, which I think is important here. If you're not familiar, Schenker's theories are geared towards finding the underlying background structures of large structures of music, with the ultimate level being the Urlinie, usually translated as "fundamental line." Another plausible translation could be "long line."

It's also interesting to note that Sondheim seems to credit Babbitt with teaching him "long-line composition." Schenker was an early influence on both Babbitt and Babbitt's teacher, Roger Sessions.

But yeah, as ob says, teaching proactive "long-line" composition would be a whole different game than teaching after-the-fact analysis.
posted by speicus at 4:11 PM on March 22

"In addition to the measured intervals of the beat, there is another aspect to the concept of movement. Another level, the "harmonic movement," is created by an interplay of tension and resolution, which creates an overarching flow to a piece of music. Musicians call this overall movement the "long line." In music, dissonant chords produce feelings of tension, while consonant, pleasant-sounding chords serve to resolve the tension. From the composer's vantage point, this "tension-resolution" aspect is the same as the writer's "conflict-resolution" dynamic that is integral to a good story. This dynamic gives the story "movement" and interest. From the performer's viewpoint all "levels" of rhythmic movement, from the beat to the long line, must be consciously focused upon in order to perform well and in order to give the audience a compelling musical experience." - "Musicians' Tools" for the Workplace by Peggy Rostron
The game in formal composition has often been to see how long the line can go without an emotional resolution - how long can the tension-resolution be maintained. See J.S. Bach for example...Or Rashaan Roland Kirk doing a 5-minute circular-breathing solo...
posted by jwf3148 at 2:08 AM on June 15