ABSTRACT
Maw’s melodic lines and gestures have already been described as ‘long- limbed’, and in relation to Odyssey, Andrew Bum states that this work highlights Maw’s ‘predilection for extended melodies, and his method of self- generating melodic ideas, which are then structured into long-limbed paragraphs’. The importance of the Ur-melody is further clarified by reference to the composer’s sketches. Clements’s claim that the Ur-melody colours the rest of Odyssey suggests that it will not only reappear but will do so in increasingly subtle ways, casting a shadow or projecting an influence on much of what will occur. Reference has already been made to Schoenberg in various contexts and, given Maw’s views on melody and Clements’s description of the Ur-melody, it will be both interesting and useful to introduce some of Schoenberg’s ideas concerning thematic/melodic development and transformation, and explore a possible mapping of these ideas onto the materials and processes.
