-Métalmorphose  (15' - 1990), for percussion and 2 track tape

     - dedicated to Gérard Siracusa

      -premiere by Gérard Siracusa in June 1990, in INA-GRM Concert season, in Radio-France's Big Auditorium

      - • CD INA-GRM "Nicolas Vérin - 4 pièces pour solistes et sons fixés"


Listen to  an excerpt ( Real Audioformat)  by  Gérard Sircusa :    Métalmorphose (extr.)

or download in Real Audio format :    Métalmorphose (extr.)

Description :

Commissioned by INA/GRM, Métalmorphose  was realized in their studios from January to December 1989, mostly with the SYTER system for sound transformations (essentially based on the same percussion instruments than those used in concert) as well as for some sound synthesis. I did not want to write a concerto, nor a piece where the instrument is a mere alibi to the absence of live and visual elements in the tape, but instead to find a relation of equality between percussion and tape. Thus, they are strongly integrated, even if this does not prevent some autonomy. The percussion part is mostly very precisely written, leaving in a single passage a space for improvisation.

The piece is based on a metaphor of the idea that every sound has for origin a transfer of energy. The hitting object communicates its dynamics to the struck sound body (mostly metal in this piece) and similarly, the resulting sound from this percussion generates its own electronic modification. These transformations operate both in the acoustic world (prepared vibraphone, chords of heterogenous sounds, special modes of attack), on the tape (through the use of Syter and of the multitrack studio ), and between those two worlds (by relay, merging, illusion).

The original and its double, the forward and backward directions, articulated or slack time, impatience or restraint of the discourse, principles of periodicity or of systematic irregularity, shape the elements of a mosaïc of contrasted passages of varied durations.

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