Leçons de ténèbres
Leçons de ténèbres is based upon various settings of the Lamenta5ons of Jeremiah, including compositons by Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Tallis, Zelenka, and Couperin (from whom the title is derived), using only the Hebrew letters which precede each verse. Musical materials are derived from various performances and various settings of the given letter for each section of the composition. The idea behind this process is that the content of the text of each verse is expressed by the setting of the letter that precedes it. What remains are traces of expressivity, without the semantic content of the text.
These traces of the original settings are contained in the instrumental parts, but also in the electronics, which are transmitted through the instruments with the use of transducers. At times the resulting effect is that there is an ‘original’ source which emanates from the certain instruments and propagates itself through the ensemble, but it can also be the reverse, that there is a resonance which is a consequence of the instrumental parts, which is in turn a resonance of the original composi5on referenced. This is heard in traces of harmony and melodic lines which emerge from a sometimes noisy and complex musical texture.
The pianist pilots the electronics in part by playing on a small midi keyboard placed on/in the piano. In order to superimpose a 20th-century figurative language on materials originating in earlier musics, the pianist employs some gestures and figures inspired by the Ligeti études on both the piano and keyboard. This stylistic juxtaposition is apparent as well in the use of extended techniques in the other instruments, which also have the effect of suppressing the recognizable timbre of each instrument to create one unified ‘meta-instrument’ from the ensemble.
This work is dedicated to Ensemble Recherche, with much gratitude for their insights during the composi5onal process. I would also like to thank other musicians with whom I have had close collaborations over the past year, as their advice has also shaped the work: in particular, the members of Ensemble Interface and Ensemble InterContemporain. I also wish to thank Donaueschinger Musiktage and the SWR for their kind collaboration and generous support in providing the required materials for the electronics.
