…explosante fixe…, Répons, Dialogue de l’ombre double, Anthèmes II are as many mixed works (combining instrumental and electronic sounds) punctuating the body of work by Pierre Boulez, who founded a landmark institution in the field: the Institut de recherche et de coordination acoustique/musique (Ircam). This institution has shaped the careers of Yan Maresz and Philippe Manoury. A composer and builder of culture, Pierre Boulez also was an eminent conductor, having recorded El retablo de maese Pedro and Harpsichord Concerto by Manuel de Falla.
Singing and mixed music fields
Born in Monaco, Yan Maresz trained in the United States (jazz guitar, arranging, orchestration) before devoting himself more specifically to composition. In the early 1990s, he crossed the Atlantic again and joined Ircam’s composition and computer music training programme. The end of his curriculum was marked by the creation of Metallics (1995) for solo trumpet and electronic devices. Since then, this idea of interaction and dialogue between acoustic and electronic sources has been a major source of inspiration for the composer’s sonic imagination.
In Soli, the composer explores the notion of a duet between the piano (physically present on stage) and the electronics, which, in his words, “make space sound like a physical instrument”. To realise this aspiration, Yan Maresz uses the IKO spatial audio system. This device, in the form of an icosahedron placed alongside the pianist, allows the sound generated by the electronics to be diffused in all directions (as would an instrument). This dialogical writing is reinforced by the fact that the content of the electronic part is directly derived from piano sounds (prepared or not). Dialogues, oppositions, fusions: such is the grammar of this solo for two, in which acoustic and electronic, real and imaginary pianos are given equal parts.
Since the 1980s, Philippe Manoury has been a tireless researcher in the field of computer music (notably at Ircam), and the mixed repertoire has logically prime of place in his catalogue. A nod to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Wohltemperierte Klavier (Well-Tempered Clavier), Das Wohlpräparierte Klavier presents another exploration of the link between acoustics and electronics. This time, it is a large, one-piece form spanning almost thirty-four minutes of music. Although conceived as a single block, the piece is nevertheless articulated in two large “panels” (to use the composer’s terminology): a “fantasia” and a “sonata”. Four interludes in a freer form act as breathing spaces in the discourse.
Philippe Manoury is particularly interested here in the notion of sonic attraction, which he readily compares to the phenomenon of flocking among birds. At the start of the piece, the audience is immediately immersed in the electronic sound. We perceive different layers that seem to influence each other. Generally speaking, four constantly evolving layers are deployed throughout the work. Depending on the context, one layer may take the lead over the other three, although the piano remains the main activator of the entire electronic score. As with Maresz, these electronics are not fixed, but constantly conversing with the pianist in the manner of a virtual performer.
Figure of Spain
At the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, there is a mutual fascination between France and Spain. On the French side, the Iberic peninsula is perceived as an elsewhere within reach, whose folklore revitalises language and instrumental writing. On the Spanish side, it is not uncommon to travel to or train in Paris in a context of artistic and cultural fertilisation. Albéniz, Rodrigo, Turina and Manuel de Falla were all prominent figures in the revival of Spanish music.
The Càdiz-born composer Manuel de Falla settled in Paris between 1907 and 1914. There, he met Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and befriended Paul Dukas. A few years after this Parisian sojourn, he wrote his Fantasia Batica (Latin for Andalusia), commissioned by virtuoso pianist Arthur Rubinstein. The commissioner considered the work austere and severe, and did not include it in his regular repertoire. Nevertheless, this three-part fantasy is rife with flamenco references. In the fast sections, the pianistic writing flirts with guitar playing, while the more lyrical middle section makes explicit reference to cante jondo melodies (the earliest sources of flamenco).
A later work, Pour le tombeau de Paul Dukas (1935) follows in the literary tradition of tributes. It is part of a collective work of nine pieces composed in memory of the French composer. In this short elegy in F minor, Manuel de Falla slips in a posthumous nod to his friend from across the Pyrenees, quoting a theme from the third movement of his Piano Sonata in E-flat minor. Pour le tombeau… is also available in an orchestral version in the Homenajes (Tributes) suite, alongside a page dedicated to Claude Debussy.
Nicolas Munck
