Commissioner : State
Dedicated to : Percussions de Strasbourg
Creation : 12/01/2013, Montpellier, Salle Pasteur du Corum, by les Percussions de Strasbourg
Composition : 2010
Musicians : 6 percussionists
Duration : 22′
Publishing : María Sánchez Lucas
From the first page of the Haikus del mar, a polyphony is established which privileges microscopic temporal relations. The initial explosion of sound sparks, comparable to a calm sea illuminated by the sun, aims to parallel sound and light thanks to the light reflections and acute resonances of glockenspiels, vibraphones, metal bars, triangles, bells, etc. The result is an explosion of sound and light. This polyphony in turn shows several levels of speed: resonances of simultaneous attacks by the 6 percussionists, irregular durations that oscillate between 6 s and 12 s – relatively long resonances – to which other textures are superimposed, where one can hear more than 150 attacks per second as well as others between 10 and 30 attacks per second. Let us add to this that the general time of the work constantly changes in a perfectly controlled manner, which allows me to establish particularly precise rhythmic and temporal relationships between the macroform and the microform, between the long and short articulations, between the speeds close to that of light – at least in our poetic sound imagination – and the speeds close to that of sound, in the image of a universe where the infinitely small and the infinitely large remain in close relationship. The course of the work therefore tries to show polyphonic situations and extremely dense sound articulations, as well as others that are perfectly simple, resulting from the filtering of the latter, which allows us to enter into the internal zones of this complex matter, to hear and understand them. During this journey we will also pass through very slow situations, between 25 s and 2 min 30 s, where time stands still, like a calm sea where nothing seems to happen. But, during these seemingly motionless passages, simultaneously, thousands of sound sparks are superimposed: those of a drumstick being struck, those of a small metal bar resting on the body of the instrument, which vibrates for 25 seconds simultaneously with the long vibration of the drumstick; those of ocean drums, rain sticks, bells, etc., etc., etc. The thousands of grains of sand or seeds contained in the latter instruments make their skins and woods vibrate thousands of times a second, creating what are known as granular sounds or textures, which evoke the relationship between the infinitely large and the infinitely small. Finally, I must say that these sound situations, these calculations and mathematical relationships, are only a reflection of the poetic images taken from Japanese seaside haikus. They inspire me and allow me, through their combinations, to place my mind in sound situations otherwise impossible to imagine. A discursive logic and a language on the borderline between science and poetry are thus expressed, in the perfect image of my personal and artistic preoccupations. The work is dedicated to my very dear friends and admired musicians, the Percussionists of Strasbourg.
José Manuel López López, Paris 14 novembre 2012