Díptico (2003)
(for ensemble )

Díptico by Elena Mendoza was created in connection with the project Tres miradas sobre Machaut by the ensemble Taller Sonoro, which combined the performance of Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame with contemporary compositions. The reference to ars nova techniques was thus a given, whereby for Mendoza the appeal lies in the freedom of their application, not in their – supposed – rigour.

The starting points for the composition are, on the one hand, the demand for diversity in detail with overarching coherence and, on the other hand, thinking in the complex category of ‘sound’. The first movement of Díptico, for example, is based on working with predefined rhythmic cells and groups of pitches, which do not serve to predetermine the structure, but rather as a pool of material. Their selection and tonal appearance is determined by a series of finely graded contrasts: between tone and noise, individual sound and surface, stationary and directed movement, clear pulsation and the blurring of rhythmic contours. These pairs of opposites define the decision-making space in which the composer moves, but not the concrete decisions; they are the self-imposed rules in a game that is always transparent to the listener, but never predictable.

Markus Böggemann