The Sandwich Method

The Sandwich method of composition used in Der Sprung

Jotting down of sentence by Thomas Brasch

"Eine Oper schreiben heißt: Keinen anderen Ausweg wissen."

("Writing an opera means: Having no other way out.")
Brasch's reading onto answering machine

Total duration of sampled sentence is 5.4 seconds
The sample was subject to a McAulay-Quatieri type of Fourier analysis (FFT; Fast Fourier Transform).
A FFT frame size of 10 msec yielded 540 continuous spectra with 100-200 partials. Their temporal succession was expanded by a factor of 1000 to Der Sprung's total duration of 90 minutes.
Of the over 200 spectral components, only the 24 strongest were retained and used as pitch material.
After time stretching, each frame's duration is 10 seconds. Thus, the succession of the 540 frames, i.e. 540 chords, creates a precision clockwork determining the harmonic rhythm of the entire opera.

Listen to a resynthesized version of the sentence with 16 partials without time stretching

Listen to a MIDI version of the sentence with 8 partials with time stretching.

(Caveat: The duration of this example is 90 minutes long; the duration of the entire opera)

Two types of material revealed by frequency analysis

Phonetic (determined) material based on vowels and consonants; was worked into two acts with 4 scenes each; operatic gestures; quotations, pastiche; double coding
Statistic (derived from answering-machine noise; indetermined) material was worked into radio plays (Prolog, Intermezzo, Epilog)

Spectrogram of the eight strongest components. Notice the nearly perfect alignment of the partials in segments with harmonic content (vowels). Click inside the graph to bring up a typical spectrum for the selected region. Summing up the ampltiudes for the partials shows the boundaries between the sonic events. These events were turmed into parts, scenes and sections. The flat areas correspond to the answering machine noise.

Waveform of the sentence (top) and the 90-minute structure derived from it (bottom).
Two of the five parts are divided into scenes which are further subdivided into sections.

8 scenes and 3 "radio plays"

Prolog 1. Act Intermezzo 2. Act Epilog

Jetzt würde
sie es schaffen

1. Scene
Ich kannte sie, Herr Kollege
Jetzt ist der Scheitelpunkt
endlich erreicht

1. Scene
Die Zuschauer wollten eine Erklärung
Ich stürze ab

2. Scene
Wir hatten immer ein gutes Verhältnis zu ihr

2. Scene
Sie habe mich schon früher gekannt

3. Scene
Heute habe ich beschlossen

3. Scene
Eine andere Sprache sprechen

4. Scene
Die Waffe soll eine aus dem Mittelalter sein

4. Scene
Die Grenze überschreiten

Libretto

In his libretto, Brasch strictly follows the given structure: The texts entitled A., B. and C. (green) differ from the rest in that they feature the inner monolog of the protagonist, whereas the other eight texts (yellow) are more descriptive.

Prolog	1. Act	Intermezzo	2. Act	Epilog
Jetzt würde sie es schaffen	1. Scene Ich kannte sie, Herr Kollege	Jetzt ist der Scheitelpunkt endlich erreicht	1. Scene Die Zuschauer wollten eine Erklärung	Ich stürze ab
	2. Scene Wir hatten immer ein gutes Verhältnis zu ihr		2. Scene Sie habe mich schon früher gekannt
	3. Scene Heute habe ich beschlossen		3. Scene Eine andere Sprache sprechen
	4. Scene Die Waffe soll eine aus dem Mittelalter sein		4. Scene Die Grenze überschreiten

Jotting down of sentence by Thomas Brasch

"Eine Oper schreiben heißt: Keinen anderen Ausweg wissen."

Brasch's reading onto answering machine

Two types of material revealed by frequency analysis

8 scenes and 3 "radio plays"

Libretto

In his libretto, Brasch strictly follows the given structure: The texts entitled A., B. and C. (green) differ from the rest in that they feature the inner monolog of the protagonist, whereas the other eight texts (yellow) are more descriptive.

Improvised texts (recorded onto an answering machine)

[Home] [Start] [Thomas Brasch] [Spectra]


Spectrogram of the eight strongest components. Notice the nearly perfect alignment of the partials in segments with harmonic content (vowels). Click inside the graph to bring up a typical spectrum for the selected region.	Summing up the ampltiudes for the partials shows the boundaries between the sonic events. These events were turmed into parts, scenes and sections. The flat areas correspond to the answering machine noise.