Voûtes

Creation : 27/09/1988, festival Musica, Strasbourg
Ordered by : Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
Dedicated to : Percussions de Strasbourg
Music : Michaël Levinas
Number of musicians : 6 percussionnists
Duration : 11 mn

In "Voûtes," I worked with the idea of the soundburst of copper when it is thrown and spun on acoustically reflective surfaces. the piece consists of a study of new transitions of unrestrained attack in percussion instruments. Furthermore, by its limited character, percussion expresses other than merely percussion: one might call this the enigma of sound. Thus the fall, the explosion of sound of the copper as it falls in a vaulted space evokes for me, by acoustic alchemy, the vocal outburst, or burst of laughter. Undergirding the orchestration of copper sounds, large Chinese vases sustain a pedal by instigating a sympathetic vibration in the snare drums, on very precise frequencies. In this moment, I recognise the distinctive qualities of the ’percussive’, the interference of one sounding body on another, the phenomenon of rocking and the evocation of breath.