Creation : 28 September 1990 at Festival Musica (Strasbourg)
Muscians : 1 sampler and 5 percussionists
Commissioner: Les Caisses d’Epargne Ecureuil d’Alsace
Dedicated : “to my daughter Danaé”
Publishing : Durand
I had already composed two works for the Percussions de Strasbourg: Maraé in 1974 and Aera in 1978. Their talent made me want to entrust them with a third one, very different from the two previous ones. A solo sampler is combined with the five other percussion instruments. Most of the sampled sounds have been borrowed from the group’s instrumentarium, so this sort of “concerto” for keyboard and percussion associates, more than it opposes, the digital instrument and its acoustic neighbours. Khnoum, whose name sounds like a percussion instrument, is an Egyptian ram-god who shaped humanity on his potter’s wheel.
François-Bernard Mâche