ABSTRACT
Musical density in Maurice Ohana’s mature music results from a predominantly linear approach in which horizontal motion is thickened to create vertical texture. Ohana’s view of his music as primarily monodic should be understood against the background of musical influences described in his writings and interviews as having shaped his compositional development. In Ohana, monody is the source from which the main driving-force of his music springs and is therefore the first element to be discussed in relation to his mature musical language. Central to Ohana’s wider vocabulary of allusive melodic writing are his parodies of the shape or pattern of plainchant. Characteristic of Ohana’s plainchant parodies is the notation as note-heads without stems, described by Ohana as ‘neumes’. Two independent monodies are combined without precise vertical coordination; conveniently pianistic, the upper monody is duplicated in major ninths, while the lower monody is duplicated in major seconds and thirds.
