Commissioner: Ministry of Culture / Direction of Music
Dedicated to: Percussions de Strasbourg / Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg
Creation: 18/09/1984, Festival Musica, Strasbourg
Musicians: 6 percussionists
Duration: 20 to 25′
Publisher: Editions transatlantiques
Tourbillons was conceived from the idea of the spacialisation of the performers, by the confrontation of two forces: the percussionists with their dry sounds opposed to the more continuous fibre of the orchestra. The six soloists of the Percussions de Strasbourg encircle the orchestra, which unleashes a calm and peaceful universe, in large, highly unified layers of sound. From this space, reminiscent of a peaceful nature, the refined timbres of the percussion instruments burst forth like a proliferation of sounds in the silence. Yoshihisa Taïra himself defines his aesthetic as follows: “Around us floats an infinity of sounds, some of which touch us more intensely than others. For me, starting to make music is equivalent to listening attentively to each of these sounds that I have retained. Music is a living, concrete truth. An emotion close to nature. Yoshihisa Taïra is inhabited by “sounds carried by the wind, sounds of diverse and distant origins, sounds of nature, rumours of waves, chimes mixed together”.