Alliages

Alliages ("Alloys ")

For 2 pianos and percussion

The primordial importance of the piano in the history of western music and of the percussion instruments in every culture throughout the world loads this association of instruments with strong connotations. If you add to that Bartók’s masterpiece, the Sonata for two pianos and percussion, you have the explanation of why there are so little pieces written for this quartet. There is no doubt that these aspects made me want to confront it. Indeed, when writing for such a group, the composer needs to deeply appropriate the musical material.

On a different level, a distinctive feature of this quartet is that it consists in two pairs of instruments. The importance of this double polarity is found in every different dimension of the musical writing, and a permanent interrogation on the organization of the material and its development originates from it. How does the "three " arise from the "two ", when does the "two " become one again ? What first comes to mind is the concept of opposition which, though a tremendous awareness factor, remains a representation of the most archaic level of duality which our societies cannot manage to overcome. Religions, on the contrary, seem to advocate the return to a continuum of oneness. Far from a preestablished attitude, Alliages thrives on these interrogations through a cycle divided in four periods, each providing a specific hearing angle.
Traduction Victor Mortimer