Biography

WORLD PREMIERE

March 4th 2011 - München, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk – Conductor : Arturo Tamayo.


NOTES

The composer speaks about his new work:
«Movement, in a metaphorical sonic representation conceived at various levels, is the fulcrum of a work that began with a series of sketches in 2004, was continued in 2008 and was completed in 2010, behind which lay various considerations (of an extra-musical nature) on Velasquez and Bacon. Forces motrices had accompanied me in silence for a long period of my development, marked by my growing interest in electronic means of transforming sound into real time (culminating with Ius lucis in 2007) and aimed at the exploration not only of “spatiality” already widely investigated by then, but also of the morphing, of the possibility to transform the identity of the sound in a dynamic way. If these aspects (space and timbre) can be identified in the arrangement of the instruments of the orchestra (five groups varying combinations and symbolizing just as many “sources” of sound each with its own characteristic timbre) and in the spatialization of synthesis sounds, that of movement can be recognized more especially in the “dramaturgy” (compact but extremely varied) of the musical gestuality. The central group, based on ’cellos, acts as the symmetrical axis, as the backbone for the principal movements of the instrumental groups on the left and on the right, coordinating and supporting its complex movements, the sudden “eruptions” and changes in register and contrasting musical situations. The Theremin, used as an instrument of control for the transformation of sound in real time, ideally links the immateriality of the gesture and the sonic “body” (the “ether”) to the immateriality of the electronic sound and eventually takes over, secretly and discretely, the whole orchestra, shaping it on the basis of a pre-established plan. On a more global level, this tendency towards sonic discourse (at times I believe I am more an “architect” of sound than a “musician”!) thus leads me to see the aggregations of sound become shaped and consolidated in the space of our auditory memory, taking on a “materiality” that – apparently – betrays the “ephemeral” nature of the actual sounds. The image I would like Forces motrices to offer is one of a race that is both impetuous and rich in accelerations and moments of stasis, almost oneiric, where everything we meet is inevitably blurred by the speed and re-transformed in the memory».