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Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, Auditorium Marcel Landowski October 1 - 2009, 20h
Musicians of Court-Circuit post-concert cocktail |
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Geographical differences guided our choice of pieces for this concert, which was organised by the FICEP under the auspices of the Taiwanese Cultural Centre in Paris as part of the 8th "Foreign Culture Week in Paris". The common point among the works is the presence of electronics.
Geoffroy Drouin whose music we have been featuring since the last season, based his composition Crispy Grain on an instrumental gesture that he then subjected to numerous variations in timbre through the use of mutes. This gesture, coupled with a continuous rhythmical flow, is played by a trumpet in the instrument's little-used low register. Used in this way the trumpet takes on a new identity. Through granulation, electronics reconstitute the complexity of the initial instrumental gesture and underline its characteristic rhythm and 'pulsed' quality. As usual in his music, Geoffroy Drouin combines a complex discourse with listening pleasure.
In the now-classic Metallics Metallics, Yann Maresz explores the expressive possibilities offered by mutes. After analysing their special characteristics, he used electronics to recreate the transformations they bring about on the sound of the trumpet. This data inspired a parcours musical (harmonicity-unharmonicity) divided into distinct movements (ordinary trumpet sounds and muted sounds ranging from the softest to the loudest which alternate with brief bursts of ordinary trumpet sounds). Beyond the technical aspect of the work, the listener realises to what extent the composer of this intense and poetic music is familiar with jazz, as well as how he has tapped into Boulez's and Berio's work on motifs.
The Taiwanese composer Sue Ya Wang whose work is influenced by scientific research and development, explores how the notions of derivation, fission, duplication and differentiation affect a simple musical element in Discriminating dimensions III. In the video made by her compatriot Chen-Wei Hsieh, rhythmical images of the body undergo the same computer treatment as sound. The composer's roots in Taiwanese culture strongly influence her use of musical time.
Polish composer Aleksandra Gryka belongs to a generation that works more in sounds than in pitches. Although she adheres neither to the saturation aesthetic nor to pure concrete instrumental music, it is clear that her music is part of a movement that has broken down the barriers between instruments and electronics.
It is hard to believe that Traces, written by the American composer Roger Reynolds, in 1968 and brought up to date in terms of electronics in 2007 by Integra, was composed over 40 years ago.
Written as a chamber concerto for piano and two instruments, this piece, in which improvisation also plays a small role, is based on the metaphor of traces of thoughts or actions that remain in the mind. Recorded sound material and real time electro-acoustic treatments of live instrumental sound generate repetitions and echoes, rudimentary 'residue', and hypnotic waves that submerge the listener.
Information :
Auditorium Marcel Landowski, CRR de Paris, 14 rue de Madrid, 75008 Paris
Free admission
Reservations: Ensemble Court-circuit, 01 43 26 88 19 or production@court-circuit.fr
Coproduction : Cultural Center of Taïwan in Paris - Ensemble Court-circuit
With the support of : CRR of Paris, Renew Music Project, Integra and Ircam
This concert is given as part of our collaboration with Integra, a European project funded by the cultural programme '2000' (coordinated by the Education and Culture Department of the European Commission). Its goal is to create a European environment that stimulates composition and public performance of music with electronics
