Per elettronica, flauto, violino e percussioni / Pour électronique, flute, violon et percussions / For electronics, flute, violin and percussions

Using AUDIO SCORES

Read THOSE LITTLE THINGS THAT CANNOT BE REDUCED TO THE WHOLE THAT MAKE ART A FORM OF RESEARCH (AND VICE VERSA): COMPOSING-LISTENING-PLAYING IS THE SAME KIND OF THING

Inspirée par le bruit amplifié de l’écriture au crayon sur papier, semblable au vent et à la respiration à la fois, cette création est un voyage dans les sons et l’écriture à travers leurs miroitements réciproques. Ora parle d’un geste musical englouti progressivement dans une texture sonore dense et réverbérant. Elle intègre les temporalités de la création, du concert et de la composition en utilisant la diffusion électronique dans l’espace. Composée comme un morceau unique, elle met en valeur les contrastes sonores et dynamiques dans une construction narrative. Œuvre ouverte, Ora émerge de l’envie d’impliquer les musiciens dans la composition, de découvrir le fonctionnement d’une écriture nouvelle, et de donner à entendre-voir une expérience évocatrice. Comme les dernières œuvres de Luigi Nono, cette pièce est en mouvement perpétuel, elle est un voyage, une composition et un documentaire-radio à la fois.  La lumière et l’espace du concert font partie de cette expérience. À travers une écriture et une méthodologie de création expérimentale, qui mobilise l’invention instrumentale dans le processus de création, cette pièce développe un travail collectif et est réalisable dans une multiplicité de formats et d’espaces.

EN Ora it is a multifaceted piece. It requires a great deal of investment from the musicians and therefore eludes traditional editing, requiring a lot of time and an important collective effort. Basically, the idea is this: to create a playing field. The title indicates the fact that now, at this instant, choices can be made from a proposed material. The implication at the instant is crucial and the basis of the game: the piece must be in completion with the musicians, who must create their parts. However, at the centre of this performance, there is a writing, which takes the form of sounds fixed on a support, which have the role of concert electronics and a score. The fixed dimension of this support allows the musicians to learn and perform it to define the sonorities of their parts, which are to be sought through an imitative process. 

The score of Ora is as multi-format as the piece itself. Four audio files are offered (flute, violin, percussion and electronics). Each one accompanies the musician and simultaneously forms part of the electronics that is diffused in the hall. Therefore, for rehearsal and performance, the musicians must be equipped with a mobile listening device, such as open headphones, in order to be able to follow their own part and everything else at the same time.  

This text accompanies the sound parts. It is a starting point for work between performer and composer, the material for a future performance to be finished in detail, lots of detail, through collective work. The words serve to direct the understanding of the sound events and evoke sonorities that have to be realised by leaning on the sound part, imitatively in most cases. I advise musicians to work at the table, with the sound parts being listened to, and to note down, mentally or on paper, the suggestions given by the text. It is a matter of playing with these cues, starting from them. 

Things are completely open. There are poetic images, almost subtitles for each sound.

The stage must be arranged in such a way as to create a feeling of immersion for the audience, and the musicians must be arranged in the space, far enough apart. The distribution of the audio channels must also be done with this objective in mind. The three instrumental parts must be equally divided between the available channels (e.g. the flute part on channels 1 and 2; the violin part on 3 and 4). The electronic part, on the other hand, must be sent to all available channels while preserving the stereo nature of the source file, or be played live.

The instruments and voice must be amplified, so that they can sing, blow, whistle. For certain parts, especially percussion, but also flute and violin, electronic treatments can be imagined, so as to create a specific sonority and broaden the available sound palette. For this then, each musician can be enabled to directly control the treatments with one or more interfaces. The musicians must also be able to move around the space and be able to interact with each other and with the electronics – and the audience – freely.