Before the mask: Birtwistle’s electronic music collaborations with peter zinovieff

Abstract

Harrison Birtwistle's involvement with electronic music is best known through The Mask of Orpheus (1973-5, 1981-3). Its important role within the opera was mapped out in the early stages by its librettist, Peter Zinovieff, an early pioneer of computer music. Following Orpheus Birtwistle effectively abandoned his interest in electronic music. Yet prior to the 1970s he had been one of only a handful of British composers working with the medium. From this time, Chronometer (1971-2), realized for tape playback by Zinovieff, has received some scholarly attention; however, the details and significance of Birtwistle's collaborations with Zinovieff to date have not been sufficiently documented. This chapter explores the origins of the Birtwistle–Zinovieff partnership and provides an overview of their pioneering work. Chronometer is examined as a case study of this collaborative work, and Zinovieff's plans for electronic music in The Mask of Orpheus are outlined, illustrating how they formed the basis of the electronic music later realized for the opera by Barry Anderson. The Birtwistle–Zinovieff partnership, it will be argued, produced richly connotative microcosms of compositional approaches that Birtwistle developed further elsewhere. Since the general outline of Birtwistle's engagement with electronic music is little known, the approach in this chapter is roughly chronological. Many lacunae, in both sources and human memory, necessitate a pragmatic approach in which contemporary reception, sketch study, close reading and oral history are combined. Birtwistle's awareness of electronic music and early use of technology Birtwistle's awareness of electronic music developed while he was in America on a Harkness Fellowship in 1966-7. His first visit was at Princeton where he recalls a young Paul Lansky. Lansky describes Princeton at the time as a ‘happening place’ in which musical life centred around Milton Babbitt. Birtwistle knew Babbitt's Philomel (1964) from the Wardour Castle Summer School, where he programmed a performance with Bethany Beardslee in 1965.