chamber symphony quasikristall

chamber symphony – quasikristall

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chamber symphony – quasikristall : piece for chamber music orchestra and live electronics, composed by héctor parra.

first performed on december 16, 2005 in centre pompidou (paris) by the ensemble intercontemporain, conducted by daniel kawka.

computer music designer: alexis baskind.

programme notes

in chamber symphony – quasikristall, the interweaving of textures, the counterpoint and the constant succession of centres that focus musical tension, act as structuring principles for the various proliferating materials that grow and ignite until they vaporise into harmonious flows of denaturalised timbres and extreme registers. the contrapuntal and harmonic deployment is based on an instrumental gesture connected to timbral elements. this gesture takes these roots deep into the structure of the piece.

the discourse presents a dynamic of permanent changes that is superimposed on the iterated application of certain “formal/structural envelopes” providing a multidimensional modular basis. these constituting elements, such as the vectors of the reciprocal network of a quasi-crystalline structure, are more numerous and different from those that produce (crystal-like) regular acoustic structures. designed to influence the various possible dimensions of listening (harmonic/spectral, rhythmic/temporal, dynamic, timbral, gestural frictions within the instrumental ensemble, etc.), they produce a musical temporal structure with “quasicrystal” qualities.

most of the piece’s electronics is dedicated to the real-time processing of the two flutes and the string section. the use of granular synthesis and networks of variable delays activates the temporal and gestural deconstruction of the instrumental material. the time freezing of main chords, modulated in time and frequency, amplifies this phenomenon. sound synthesis based on spectral analysis combined with resonant filters creates a new timbral space while developing the gesture that created it. all treatments play an integrating role. they provide a prolongation of the instrumental gesture, and simultaneously promote the emergence of new “constituting vectors” that act on the basic instrumental elements by creating unusual synchronisations. thus, electronic processing gives greater texture and structural malleability by allowing convergences between very distant gestures and instrumental timbres. thus, new micro-universes are created. they are inserted and contribute decisively to the global form of quasikristall.

hèctor parra