Pointillistic music
Serial music with isolated points of sound.
What it means
Pointillistic music designates a manner of writing of the early 1950s in which individual notes are set as isolated events: every note has its own pitch, duration, volume, and tone colour, and between the notes stand rests. Melodic lines in the accustomed sense do not thereby arise; the ear perceives a sequence of points distributed over the tonal space. The manner of writing is closely connected with serial composition, in which all parameters are ordered by rows.
In the notation
Characteristic are widely separated individual notes, frequent rests, extreme leaps, constantly changing dynamic markings for individual notes, and complex rhythms with unusual subdivisions. The notation is very precise, because every detail is fixed; correspondingly high are the demands on the performers.
Musical use
The approach arose from the attempt to extend the row principle of twelve-tone technique to all parameters. The result was a music that breaks with traditional conceptions of melody, motif, and development. It soon became apparent that the extreme individual determination could, in listening, tip over into the impression of uniformity; the same composers thereupon developed procedures that work with groups and fields instead of individual points. Pointillistic music is thus an important but short phase.
Performance practice
Count precisely and subdivide finely; without firm rhythmic control this music cannot be executed. Take the indications for dynamics and articulation for every single note seriously — they are the essential thing. Practise large leaps with reference notes and work on intonation. Watch the rests: they are shaped time, not empty spaces. In ensemble, counting matters more than listening, because orientation by the sound is difficult.
Bear in mind that this manner of writing determined only a short phase of music history: the same composers soon developed procedures with groups and fields, because the extreme individual determination can tip over into uniformity in listening. Know this connection when you classify such works. For execution it holds to count finely, to take the indications for every single note seriously, and to treat the rests as shaped time. Practise large leaps with reference notes.