Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Sixtrum share a fascinating work, Le Noir de l’étoile, at Saint Paul’s Church, more than 30 years after its French premiere. Gérard Grisey orchestrates an ensemble of percussionists and the sound vibrations of pulsars.
Fascinated by the sounds and properties of the universe, French composer Gérard Grisey made pulsars the starting point for his monumental piece for six percussionists spread throughout the hall in 1989. It is one of the most impressive pieces by the French spectralist composer. In this work, pulsars—the “clocks of space-time”—are the tonal and poetic starting point for a monumental spatial piece for six percussionists, carried by rotation, periodicity, deceleration, and acceleration.
“Le Noir de l’Etoile is dedicated with affection to my son Raphaël and to Les Percussions de Strasbourg. I would also like to emphasize the unique and irreplaceable aspect of the live transmission in the concert hall of these imperturbable cosmic clocks that have traveled several light-years… Their unexpected confrontation with music, which not only prepares their ‘entrance’ onto a musical and theatrical stage, but whose entire temporal organization is the product of their speed of rotation… Their integration into a spatialized form of music through the positioning of the six percussion instruments and loudspeakers around the audience… The staging and lighting of these extinguished stars using appropriate projection and lighting devices… The musical, visual, theatrical, festive, and educational nature of a moving and exceptional event.”
Gérard Grisey
Introduction by Kumiko Kotera, astrophysicist at the CNRS, director of the Paris Astrophysics Institute, author of L’Univers violent (Albin Michel, 2025)
Commissioned by the French government and Les Percussions de Strasbourg
Premiere: March 16, 1991 at the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels
Music and concept: Gérard Grisey
Set design: Claudia Doderer, with the assistance of K. Dreissigacker (architect) and K. Bollinger (engineer)
Sound design: Oton Schneider
Stage manager/lighting: Laurent Fournaise
Sound engineer: Olivier Pfeiffer
Musicians: Hyoungkwon Gil, Théo His-Mahier, Youjin Lee, François Papirer, Enrico Pedicone, Thibaut Weber Musicians from the Sixtrum ensemble: João Catalão, Catherine Cherrier, Philip Hornsey, Kristie Ibrahim, Fabrice Marandola, Stuart Jackson
Publisher: Durand-Salabert
⏰ Performance at 8:30 p.m.
🎫 Info and tickets here.
More about the Musica Festival.
All information about Le Noir de l’Etoile can be found here.