Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Allain Gaussin
L'Harmonie des Sphères (2006)
- Alphonse Leduc (World)
Programme Note
I borrowed the title from Pythagoras and Kepler. In my score, what interested me was not the theoretical aspect of their work, but rather the poetic and metaphorical aspect of their thoughts, turned towards the kinetics of the celestial bodies turning over on themselves, and the various geometric lines they draw in the universe.
The work is written in three parts which are played one after the other, without a break. In the first and the third part, I tried to preserve the idea of the three dimensions of space, by writing a purely instrumental work, and by creating true sonic perspectives, without making use of electroacoustic spatialization, or even the specific positioning of the musicians in the concert hall.
The first part "Symmetries" develops the interlacing of multiple « ribbon figures » (in arabesque shape) split by various types of mirrors (flat, oblique or distorting). The evolution of these « ribbon figures » is controlled by a piece of software (3a-table) created in the context of work on OpenMusic at Ircam.
The second part "Malaise d'adolescent" is a musical parenthesis. It attempts to describe a nocturnal phenomenon, which has obsessed a part of my adolescence, by waking me brutally and by terrorizing me. Here, everything is composed around a straight line which has no ending. Several jolts, as violent as they are brief, occasionally perturb the apparent calm of this section. The instrumentation (with certain specific sounds and layers of shadow…) complete the composition of this musical fresco.
Finally "Quantic Movements" (third part) takes us to another universe, that of the infinitely small, where the universe was probably created. In this part, I tried to realize what Giacinto Scelsi had sought to develop in his music: "the sound is spherical and round". Thusly, multiplied in a very large number, these « sounds », turning independently on themselves, have been distributed onto four lines in the form of counterpoint. Each of these lines describes a trajectory which is unique to it and evolves in a sort of spatial canvas, beaded, demultiplied, and ends in the centre of a galaxy. Here, in this scorching nucleus, in this "black hole" the infinitely small and the infinitely vast join and merge.
The work is written in three parts which are played one after the other, without a break. In the first and the third part, I tried to preserve the idea of the three dimensions of space, by writing a purely instrumental work, and by creating true sonic perspectives, without making use of electroacoustic spatialization, or even the specific positioning of the musicians in the concert hall.
The first part "Symmetries" develops the interlacing of multiple « ribbon figures » (in arabesque shape) split by various types of mirrors (flat, oblique or distorting). The evolution of these « ribbon figures » is controlled by a piece of software (3a-table) created in the context of work on OpenMusic at Ircam.
The second part "Malaise d'adolescent" is a musical parenthesis. It attempts to describe a nocturnal phenomenon, which has obsessed a part of my adolescence, by waking me brutally and by terrorizing me. Here, everything is composed around a straight line which has no ending. Several jolts, as violent as they are brief, occasionally perturb the apparent calm of this section. The instrumentation (with certain specific sounds and layers of shadow…) complete the composition of this musical fresco.
Finally "Quantic Movements" (third part) takes us to another universe, that of the infinitely small, where the universe was probably created. In this part, I tried to realize what Giacinto Scelsi had sought to develop in his music: "the sound is spherical and round". Thusly, multiplied in a very large number, these « sounds », turning independently on themselves, have been distributed onto four lines in the form of counterpoint. Each of these lines describes a trajectory which is unique to it and evolves in a sort of spatial canvas, beaded, demultiplied, and ends in the centre of a galaxy. Here, in this scorching nucleus, in this "black hole" the infinitely small and the infinitely vast join and merge.
Media
L' Harmonie des Sphères
Scores
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