ASC-2.1-III15 (2015)

Notes:

First is the idea of a hyper-instrument. By that I mean that the two performers act as if there is only one gesture every time. It is within this gesture that I aim to combine different sounds. In other words, the two performers contribute equally to the overall quality, texture, and color of each gesture.

That’s why I use every instrument twice: so that they two players can naturally blend with each other. But, on the top of that, I also want to combine, for example, the wooden and warmer colors of the marimbas with the metallic and acute sounds of the vibraphones as if they all belong to the same instrument; as if all sounds derive from the same hyper-instrument. In this sense I am trying to lead the listeners to perceive the sounds of the work as being a whole, without necessarily being able to distinguish what each performer plays each time. And, finally, those who want to dive into this one sound and get to know more details about its structure will discover a great complexity being each time performed.

Second is the idea of glissando. This might be surprising, for the instruments I use are chromatic, and there is no possibility for actual glissandi, at least as big as those that I employ. So glissandi do not occur directly in one instrument but, rather, are the result of a synthesis between the sounds of the two performers. I aim to compose one sound within another in a way that results in the impression that this combination moves up and down as if it were a glissando. If I could say that there is a musical idea in the work, it is probably this one: going up, then going down. Conceptually very simply. But, technically, it turns out to be much more interesting and exciting, primarily because each glissando consists of so many different parameters (i.e. speed, length, timbral quality, relation of the two sounds that contribute to this result), and I work with all of them at the same time.