© photo : Harald Hoffmann

Trayectorias (from the cycle Poética del espacio) proposes the experience of a dynamic space where the work is shaped by the spatial, temporal and frequency displacement of the sound.

Two instrumental groups are placed at opposite ends of the hall, one on the stage and the other at the back, to create a contrast between hearing in front and behind. Each ensemble is in turn divided into three small groups or units to produce a sensation of laterality in the listening (left, centre, right).

Movement of the sound becomes a primordial subject of the work, designing different trajectories: zigzag, star shapes, journeys in symmetrical circles, spirals, front-­‐to-­‐back …

However, the perception of movement is not determined just by the location of the sound source but by the speed of displacement, and its connecting mechanisms. Various systems of temporal articulation, expanding, compressing, accelerating and slowing, have been linked to those displacements. The musical material and the distribution of densities and pitches frequently act as connectors between the various sound locations or, exceptionally, as a disruptive element.

To paraphrase Bachelard, in Trayectorias perception of the movement of the sound engraves the hierarchy of the various functions for inhabiting the space.

Alberto Posadas

World premiere

Collegium Novum Ensemble, Peter Rundel (cond.)

 

16 November 2018, Studio Ernest Ansermet, Genève

 

17 November 2018, Tonhalle Maag, Zurich