ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on aspects of musical time in Nymphea, which is to say the time the work evokes: dynamism, stasis; change, prolongation. Time becomes matter in music; therefore composing is exploring time as matter in all its forms: regular, irregular. Composing is capturing time and giving it a form. The opening of Nymphea presents a rapid expansion of pitch space; 'expansion' implies the passing of time, as there is a definitively different 'before' and 'after'. Finding ways to control and structure the way time is felt to pass is a central concern for Kaija Saariaho; she has explored a range of possibilities throughout her career. 'The speed of time passing' does not follow simply from degrees of rhythmic activity. Both expansion and contraction – growth and decay– involve materials in flux, motion between two points of definable difference. Prolongation involves exploration within an existent sound-world, a sense of free-floating, non-focused discovery.
