SOME PROGRAM NOTES
Hal's screen (2009/10) for solo flute
Created on 03/20/2010 at the Nantes Arts Museum by Yves Müller. Duration: 6 'approx. The work is conceived as the escape from an established system. It is inspired by “Hal's Screen”, one of the themes covered in The City of Words by Alberto Manguel which refers to the computer screen of Stanley Kubrick's 2001 film Space Odyssey. Like Alberto Manguel's reflection, the work aims to express the flight that Man ends up taking in the face of ideal systems for which he is in perpetual quest and which end up turning against him most of the time. Answer or final question with the chorale of JS Bach Von Gott will ich nicht lassen.
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Paralanguage 2nd. version (2017)
For four female voices, commissioned by Césaré (Center National de Création Musicale). Recorded in concert by Les Voices de Stras 'conducted by Catherine Bolzinger during the premiere at the Reims Opera on 05/03/2018. Duration: 7'
The whole is thought of as voice-instruments. A set of voices that "ring". Text, harmony, timbre are thought of as a sound object. The bright and cheerful character of the work obeys a certain kind of catharsis in which a controlled release of energy is staged to conform a paralanguage of unspoken speech. The purely sound character has a desire not to transmit a message if not an ephemeral, circumstantial expression.
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Como encendida (2011) for electric guitar played by a percussionist
Created on 03/05/12 by Bruno Lemaître (percussion) at the auditorium of the CRR de Nantes as part of
from The Musical Hour of Thursday. Duration: 5'09 ”Recording of the concert during the creation.
The work is part of the Buenos Aires extrema show. Its title Como encendida (as lit) refers to the Argentine tango Los mareados. The work is conceived as a reconciliation between an instrument (the electric guitar) and an instrumental technique corresponding to another instrument (the classical percussion). The guitar becomes a percussion instrument or the guitarist becomes a percussionist.
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Pentalogy (2014). For Orchestra
Commissioned by Radio France for the Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France. Recorded on 19/04/2015 by L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Management: Maxime Pascal. 11 'approximately.
Title borrowed from literature, it indicates a group of five pieces which can be represented or edited together and which have more or less close links.
In this work there is a kind of double musical and literary pentalogy: five writers and each one corresponds to a musical work:
1 Predation: the chosen writer is Oliverio Girondo (Argentine writer, 1840-1967). Predation is the synthesis that defines for me poem 12 of his collection “Scarecrow” and places the musical work in correspondence. In the act of composing the musical work as in the work of Oliverio Girondo there is a certain way of "predation" of history, namely: borrowing of tools, materials, ideas, techniques with a sort of aesthetic irreverence.
2 Bs. As. Thesis: the writer I have chosen is Jorge Luis Borges. At the time of writing this piece I was reading poems by Borges on Bs As. And also I was at Bs As. So there was a double poetic and material permeation.
The piece has a rapid pulsation marked with micro-shifts which I call “wide pulsation” and towards the end a material derived from a “cumbia villera” (folklore of Bs As.) Which is very compressed and which followed a distortion process. At the end, instead of a cadence there is a clear cut in the music like a power cut or if we put the device (orchestra) in "off".
3 The anguish of ... in reference to "the anguish of the goalkeeper at the moment of the penalty" by Peter Hanke. Hanke's work seems to me very close to a musical construction in that in this work the things that happen are more in reference to a dynamic of reading than to a reference to the facts that he describes. I wanted through the title, to associate it with the work. The title of the work in music is an area that does not belong to music. It is literature or the world of words. Through this choice I wanted to show something that I think is important to know.
4 Diffraction in reference to Walter Benjamin and in relation to his work “The work of art at the time of its technical reproducibility”. The reference is in relation to the reason for the writing of this work: a work written to be created on the radio in the form of a recording. It fits into the model analyzed by Benjamin in relation to the art of the 20th century. What we will hear in any case for creation is not the work but its reproduction, in a type of multiform distribution.
5 Final del juego: related to the tale of Julio Cortazar (Argentinian writer). An analogy of the end of the cycle. Cortazar places this tale at the end of its homonymous title cycle.
There is a playful aspect in the creation of Cortazar which is dear to me. I really like this way of making fun within the fantasy genre. This aspect is also one of the components of my work.
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Yendo (2017). For flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, cello, piano and guitar
Created on June 10, 2017 in Stereolux by the Utopik ensemble. With the support of the Salabert Foundation. this work was written for the Utopik Ensemble in order to finish a concert. Duration: 9 'approx. C
Yendo means “on the way”. Music of festive intention which manifests itself through an irregular pulsation. At times Yendo becomes a free transcription of my dishwasher, a recurring subject in my production. But unlike a machine, Yendo is based on a rhetorical structure specific to classical music. I have the impression that Yendo is sometimes a texture with holes on a background of silence.
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Circundantes en eco (2002). For guitar and electroacoustic sounds
Created on 03/07/2003 at the Nantes Arts Museum by Michel Grizard. Duration 9'23 ”
The work revolves around a subject which cannot be fully understood. Is he infinite ?, is he
affordable for our perceptual structure? Does it exist?
It is, therefore, a feeling of anxiety in the impossibility and a feeling of assurance of knowing that does not end there.
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Trajicere (2014-2015). (throw beyond). Concerto in three movements for clarinet in Bb and orchestra
With the support of the device “help for the writing of a new musical work” by the Ministry of Culture. Created on November 28, 2015 at the Quai des Arts in Pornichet. About 15 '
From the question asked by Aristotle and Pascal: “is there a human nature? »(Still valid question due to human diversity) I brought together aspects of this diversity to dig further into the question and go beyond the differences to, through musical expression, reveal a common essence (nature).
Thus in the work there is a trajectory which goes from expression based on the sublimation of technique (the soloist), to pure, non-technical expression (students with disabilities integrated into the orchestra). These notions (technical / non-technical) which are specific to art, will coexist throughout the work, not in opposition, but as a diversity of means for a common human expression.
Orchestra of Saint Nazaire and students of the CRD of St. Nazaire. Dir. Thierry Brehu and Youenn Guillard. Together What's new?
Soloist: Fabrice Arnaud Cremon
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El patio iluminado, (2006) -7'30 '' - for two pianos, marimba, vibraphone and electroacoustic sounds
Two driving forces are at the origin of the dramaturgy of the work. The first is the death of the Hungarian composer G. Ligeti who leaves an ambivalent feeling of sadness due to his departure, but also of gaiety in the face of a fulfilled life. The second is the tale “El patio Iluminado” by Manuel Mujica Laines in which a certain cheerfulness and a certain pre-feast luminosity are mixed with a dramatic situation. Real fact, literary fact and musical fact have this dramatic paradox in common. This work considered as according to G. Ligeti is not related to a specific work, but it is linked to the Hungarian composer by some techniques dear to him and developed by him, especially as regards the mechanical rhythms and the microphone. polyphony.
The Transfiguration of the Banal, before the sign (2007-08). For Flute, percussion, piano and amplified cello
Commissioned by the Municipal Music School of the city of Saint-Herblain.
First of all, this work takes its inspiration from the text of Arthur Danto, American philosopher, The Transfiguration of the Commonplace. In this book, Arthur Danto leads a reflection on art and in particular on the process of mutation of ordinary objects that have become works of art. The sounds that I use in this work as materials can be considered banal outside of a musical context. Noises, breaths for example, produced by instruments are sounds that can be produced in everyday life without an instrument and without being perceived as artistic.
On the other hand, the precision given to the title - before the sign - refers to Roland Barthes. According to him, the sign (social convention of communication) is necessarily prior to any act of communication. In my opinion, for a good part of the receivers, the sound material which has become unusual precedes the sign, at this time devoid of social convention.
Le Ti-chiang for flute and piano (2004)
It was commissioned by Yves Müller and Sophie Arsenian for a concert dedicated to works inspired by birds. Duration: 7 'approx.
Since I have never had a particular interest in these animals, I chose to take inspiration from a fabulous bird that is mentioned in a story by Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings. Borges reproduces a story by T'ai P'ing Kuang Chi, who describes the Ti-chiang as: “a supernatural bird that dwells in the celestial mountains. He is ruddy in color, has six legs and four wings, but has no face or eyes. "
This portrait represents for me an invitation to imagine and the freedom for everyone to create their own Ti-chian. Thus the descriptive scope of the musical work can give each person their intimate image of the bird.
Replicas of the Spirit (2008) For bass clarinet, baritone sax and cello
Duration: 12 'approx. The title of the work refers to a certain notion of the work, through which we can think that what we hear or see is nothing other than a material manifestation of a thought, feeling etc. the work will therefore be found when we cross the material manifestation that dresses it; when we know or when we manage to glimpse the “why” it is made. “The relationship between the work and its material substrate is as complex as that between the mind and the body. »Arthur Danto supports. Mind and body is obviously idea, realization and context.
Replicas of the Spirit is a crossing of what can correspond to an analytical perception, therefore a discursive material and also a contemplative perception, therefore a static material of the ritual type.
JS uns kommen her (2008/09) for guitar
It is a piece inspired by a technique of construction of sounds by computer: hybridization. It consists, for example, in mixing the form (envelope of a sound) with the spectral content (timbre of another sound). Here, the initial idea is to propose the meeting of two textures: one, African polyrhythmic and the other, baroque “choral” (Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, Cantata BWV 9 by JS Bach).
Choike Purrum (2009) for guitar
It is a free inspiration from the Choike Purrum dance. which is part of nguillatun. This is the largest Mapuche ceremony that the Indian people of Patagonia celebrate in the New Year, June 24, the date of the completion of the creation of this work.
Tissage en élan (2009) for quintet, flute, clarinet in Bb, vl., Vlch, and guitar
The creative process of this work is influenced by the fact that it was written for specific musicians and performers. The composition becomes a weaving combining the human dimension and musical creation: a personal letter to the musicians, an open letter offered to the public.
L'ombre du souffle (2002) for flute and electroacoustic sounds
The flute and the band (its shadow) draw an allegory of realities other than musical ones. It is a work of transcription of human relationships and behaviors, translated by sounds and sound relationships. The flute and the band can be one, two or more characters. It is a scene of sounds in virtual spaces. For Western civilization, the shadow of the breath is the representation of life (the breath: bodily life; its shadow: the soul). Finally, I wanted to establish a parallel with life, by giving birth to an acoustic being that grows, develops and dies. Duration: 9 'approx.
Next Bach (2003). For marimba and electronic sounds
This work offers a polyrhythmic Central African look at the polyphonic vocal texture of the 17th century.
A synthesis of textures. (The cultural and stylistic reconciliation seems to me to be the duce and inexorable utopia of the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st). I prefer to see the work not as marimba and electronic or simply as a duet if not as a hybrid made from a sample of sound and a way of playing the marimba. Duration: 9 'approx.
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SSSSCHCHS (2001): for female voice, electroacoustic sounds
This is what lies behind the precise meaning of a language and which dreams of reaching it. The name of the unnameable, almost says it or says it without words. A primary state of communication, before the symbol arrives.
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Deviation from Balance (2015) For Violin and Sampo
Term borrowed from population genetics (Hardy-Weinberg principle) which postulates that within an (ideal) population, there is a balance of frequencies. The work is imagined as populations of sounds, in which the notions of balance, imbalance and deviation from equilibrium become an engine of construction. The scientific reference of the title is linked to the context of the creation (art and science festival), as well as to the electronic device (Sampo) which precedes the work.
Created on 2/06/2015 at the Jacques Coeur Theater in Bourges by Marie-Violaine Cadoret during the Art Science days. Commissioned by the musinfo association. Duration: 10 'approx.