Quick Analysis No.4
Kaija Saariaho, Sept Papillons - For Solo Cello
I find it difficult to think of a more iconic 21st century work for solo instrument than Saariaho’s Sept Papillons for solo cello. In my mind it’s up there alongside the great modern works for solo instrument such as Xenakis’ Nomos Alpha, Varèse’s Density 21.5, Sciarrino’s Sei Capricci and the Berio Sequenzas. Solo instrument works can sometimes struggle to make an impact after the revolutionary developments of musical modernism and the subsequent hundred years of iterative refinement. For one, we don’t produce standard repertoire like the Bach cello suites anymore; and since the splintering of the canon and musical tastes, styles, technologies etc. the solo instrument work, in the present day, can often feel like a genre which distils musical ideas down to a raw and hyper-focused extreme. An area where the safety nets of thick, lush and complex instrumental textures are abandoned by necessity to favour a laser-focused exploration of some essential feature of a solo instrument and its performer. Of course this is all speaking generally, and solo instrument music is as imaginative and varied as any genre if one is willing to dig around in its fertile soils.
Saariaho’s Sept Papillons (2000) is a piece that feels like a true modern staple in the canon of works for solo performer. Its clarity of vision, expression, technique, texture and harmony contrive to produce a seminal and glittering work in her inimitable style of spectral-adjacent composition (if we must use tags). It strikes that rare balance of being at once incredibly beautiful and tremendously innovative: fusing cutting edge soloistic string writing with a deep reverence to the resonant qualities of the solo cello and a canonically informed sense of how to most effectively deploy it. The piece, as the title suggests, is a set of miniatures, almost each like a little spectral etude that explores a different approach to the resonant and textural capabilities of the cello. Most movements last just over a minute, and none last longer than two-and-a-half, making each one feel like an effervescent flutter of invention that bursts into existence and then decays almost before it can even be registered. Seven butterflies, in sequence, exploding from their chrysalis states.
The first of the seven papillons presents us with three principal sonic textures: harmonic trills, harmonic tremolo and harmonic arpeggios. All natural harmonics thus immediately establishing a commitment to working with the natural resonances of the instrument and letting them sing. The first gesture is a trill between the natural harmonic touchpoints of a minor 3rd and major 6th on the cello’s A-string, producing a high and unstable fluttering between the string’s upper 5th and major 3rd harmonic partials (E-natural and C-sharp). We are then given an arpeggio of natural harmonics across the strings leading up to this same trill again, which then morphs into a tremolo harmonic glissandi, and settles on a new harmonic trill on the perfect 4th and major 6th harmonic touchpoints of the G-string, while holding the D-string’s major 3rd harmonic. In this movement Saariaho uses almost nothing but natural harmonics, vibrantly oscillating between one another, made even more ephemeral by a constant sliding between the extreme sul pont and sul tasto bow positions, and in the penultimate gesture she employs the first use of excessive bow pressure to distort the entire sound. It’s a fragile and beautiful opening which flickers right on the edge of instability with its choice of natural harmonics and wavering bow placement and pressure.
Papillon two opens with a timbral oscillation of the same note separated by an octave, one the open A-string and above it the perfect 5th harmonic partial of the D-string. Again, employing a gradient from sul tasto to sul pont destabilising the timbre of the harmonic somewhat and blending the rapid string crossing into a single sonorous fluttering. This then breaks into a rapid arpeggio of natural and artificial harmonics across all strings of the cello: All in metronomically even, rapid demi-semi-quavers, first in a group of three (the open A-string and 5th of D from before now crossing to the major 6th touchpoint harmonic of the G-string sounding B-natural) in a four-note repeated arpeggio, then expanding to a six-note descending and ascending arpeggio adding the piece’s first artificial harmonic, nestled into the texture also sounding an octave of A-natural, two octaves above its stopped fundamental in the lower bass clef. From here the constant arpeggiation is in a perpetual state of flux with new notes being added and different string crossing patterns appearing and mutating in quick succession. We hear the natural octave harmonic of the D-string, then a low stopped F-sharp grounding the low-end, then a C-sharp on the G-string before all the harmonics become stopped notes in bar ten for the first time. There is even a D-major-ish quality to the music at bar eleven when the high D cascades downwards through F-sharp and G down to a low C-sharp before harmonics return into the arpeggiated texture, the first section repeats and we are then left with a high and sparkling arpeggio which is repeated, which gradually diminuendos until nothing remains. This movement understands so well the resonant qualities of the cello and how to evoke a complex, multifaceted and complete sonorous texture using just one instrument; using ingenious voicings between strings as the basis for dynamic, rapid arpeggios which perfectly exploit the cello’s capabilities.
The third movement is very short, and first establishes a descending theme which will recur later in the fifth movement. Well up in the high register, at the top of the treble clef, a descending melodic cell of B-flat, A-natural, F-sharp over an open D-natural pedal is repeated (with variations) mantra-like, becoming a hook to the listener’s ear. This is then further repeated but with rapid tremolo, again, varying the texture and dancing on the edge of instability with Saariaho’s use of extreme sul pont and sul tasto bow placement.
Papillon four opens with a confluence of textural effects: harmonic glissandi distorted by excessive bow pressure and shifting bow placement that morph via these effects into double stopped tremolo. Following this a new arpeggio section emerges, however, this time it is a lot slower than Papillon two and, to me at least, feels like a direct homage to the Bach G-major cello suite. The tempo, the spacing and the trajectory of the arpeggios all evoke a sense of this canonical monolith, however, Saariaho unsurprisingly uses expertly chosen natural harmonics to bring this reference into her more ephemeral world of sound. The arpeggios gradually disintegrate into sul pont tremolo, and then we end the movement how it began, with a burst of excessive bow pressure followed by a glissandi into tremolo.
Papillon four opens with a confluence of textural effects: harmonic glissandi distorted by excessive bow pressure and shifting bow placement that morph via these effects into double stopped tremolo. Following this a new arpeggio section emerges, however, this time it is a lot slower than Papillon two and, to me at least, feels like a direct homage to the Bach G-major cello suite. The tempo, the spacing and the trajectory of the arpeggios all evoke a sense of this canonical monolith, however, Saariaho unsurprisingly uses expertly chosen natural harmonics to bring this reference into her more ephemeral world of sound. The arpeggios gradually disintegrate into sul pont tremolo, and then we end the movement how it began, with a burst of excessive bow pressure followed by a glissandi into tremolo.
Number five takes the form of a rapid recap of the sounds, textures and melodic cells presented in the piece thus far. Opening with harmonic tremolando and trills reminiscent of the first movement, then oscillating ostinati and arpeggios similar to the second, then a recap of the high descending theme that characterised the third movement, and ending with a slow trilling glissandi, somewhat similar to movement four’s textural swells.
Papillon six is perhaps the most ephemeral and sonically unstable of them all: A series of morphing textures combining all of the effects seen thus far in ways that push them to the edge of noise. It opens with just the left hand gently tapping on harmonic touch points across the G and C-strings before the bow fades in from nothing, both placed at such an extreme sul pont position so as to only produce a kind of glassy, high-pitched white noise. Following this is a sequence of harmonic trills, glissandi and tremolo eventually subsiding into the left hand tapping alone across the strings, as the movement began.
The final movement, Papillon seven, is a reprise of the second movement’s arpeggio material. It begins almost identically with the open A string oscillating against the A-natural 5th harmonic touchpoint of the D string and then breaking into the same cross-string harmonic arpeggios as before. Until bar twelve, where a descending triplet quaver incarnation of movement three’s melodic theme announces itself and then alters the wide string crossing arpeggios into more closely voiced arpeggios comprised of 2nds, 3rds and 4ths rather than 5ths, 6ths and 7ths. This carries on alongside the descending triplet quavers until Saariaho lands on the open low C of the cello which repeats ad lib transitioning to sul pont before a final arpeggio across four octaves of the same note, C-natural, repeats and fades into nothingness.
For all of Sept Papillons sonic beauty it also has immense conceptual strength and flawless technical execution. Each movement is a brief yet wondrous burst of sound that perfectly and poetically mimics its namesake: The emergence of the butterfly from its chrysalis, its fragile yet striking allure and its ephemeral lifespan are all fundamental features of how the music is conceived and executed, the simple poetry of this idea finding a perfect home in the cello’s rich palette of resonances.
- Jocelyn Campbell, 2024
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