radulescu clepsydra astray

8/13/2019 Radulescu Clepsydra Astray

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HORATIU RADULESCU

24 22CLEPSYDRA[ ~ R6 SOUND ICONS

EUROPEANLUCERO ENSEMBLELEITUNGHORATIU RADULESCU

22 47ASTRAYUR

6 SAXOPHONE


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Conservatoire Nat ional in L imo-ges un a m Conservato i re Nat io -nal Super ieur in Paris, w o er ErstePre ise fu r Saxophon und Kam-merrnusik erhie lt . Er grun dete e inEnsemble f i i r Al te Musik, d i eGruppe Musica Ficta, in der e r197 4-78 Vio la da Gamba, B lock-f lo ten , Krummhorn und Sackpfei-fe spie lte. Sei t Ende der 70er Jahrew id met e e r s i ch ganz d e m Saxo -p h o n . D a er mit de n konven t io-nel len Spie l techniken n ic ht zufr ie-de n war, arbei tete er zunachstin einem Privatstudio, spater imI R CA M a n d e r E r f i nd u n g undErweiterung neuer Spieltechniken,wobe i e r auch e lek t ron ische Mit-te l e inbezog. Er trug maf lgeb l i chdazu bei , das Saxophon als e inwich t iges Ins t rument der ze i t -genossischen Mus ik z u etabl ieren.Seine Ab ha nd lu ng Les Sons Multi-p les aux Saxophones wurde 1982be i de r E ditio ns Salabert, Paris,veroffentl icht.

CLEPSYDRA op. 47 (1982) for 16 SoundIcons. (clepsydra: intermittent fountain orebbing wells; a contrivance used inancient times for measuring time by theflow of water; a water-clock n contrastto clepsammia, whereby time is meas-ured by the flow of sand in a glass).

This composition describes the macro-shape of a horizontal clepsydra whichgradually filters a single pitch from a richsound spectrum. The music then ))passesthrough(( his pitch to develop into a newspectrum, becoming richer and moreexpansive.

In the 16-part score, the spectral compo-nents are activated as fundamentals withtheir own enhanced ))spectral life(((al'kmanation de I't5manationcc). by dif-ferent bowing techniques on the SoundIcons. These processes of dynamicltim-bra1 evolution oscillate between hetero-geneous and homogenous techniques ofsound production a kind of sspectralheterophonycc of sound sources.

The dynamics of the 16 parts are differ-entiated, with a deep or faraway rppp((occuring more or less simultaneouslywith a very near sfffa. Since it is difficult

to distinguish between the many layersof sound in a stereo recording, oneshould listen at a higher volume and con-centrate on imagining the circle of 16Sound lcons around oneself.

The four historical musical paradigms.monody, polyphony, homophony, andheterophony, are actually quite impossi-ble to distinguish from one another with-in this wsound plasrnacc living soundthat can only be comprehended from aglobal perspective, resembling the blueimage of earth as viewed from outerspace. Horatiu Radulescu

ASTRAY op. 50 (1983) for Double Duowas composed for the Roma Villa MediciMusica estival where it premiered in1984. The score consists of 81 paintingsusing symbols from ancient languages.These 81 micro-music entities were pho-tographed and projected as slides duringthe performance. In addition to itsancient alphabet symbol, each imagecontains precise indications for the twoplayers: the saxophone player performson six saxophones (bass, barytone, tenor,alto, soprano, sopranino) which hangfrom a frame, the other player performson a Sound Icon.

This duo plays simultaneously with an-other identical duo. Both duos performthe same score, but at different speeds.The first duo performs the score twice:slowly at first, faster the succeeding timethe second duo performs the score onceduring the same time span very slowly.

DUO A A- *2* DUO A 'It should be noted that each (4of the 81micro-music entities (the chain of thosethree aspects of the same score: (A , A ,A ') appears at three different momentsof the macro-music and develops its ownrinner lifecc within three different times.The rgolden number(( (0.618034 11.00)

sectio aurea determines all of thesetime proportions.

This macro-formal process affects oursubconscious, often creating a sensationof remembrance or premonition merginginto a magic trance. The ancient symbolsare mnemotechnical indications for the

specific performance technique requiredfor each micro-music. Their colors indi-cate the six registers (from low to high:red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet).These special techniques of sound pro-duction reinforce the spectral energy(variable distribution) of each event orchain of events (spectral pulse). Foursimultaneous levels of perceptual speedoccur; MMT - macro-macro time of the22'45 macro-form tension; mMT - micro-macro time as pulse of the 3 x 81 micro-music entities, each of which lasting be-tween 5 and 34 ; MmT - macro-microtime of the rhythm produced by the actualonsets, and mmT - micro-micro time, in-trinsic rhythm of the sound material up to333 timbral transformations per second.contributing to the spectral enhancementof each event.

All sounds notated in the score are per-formed live and are not electronicallymodulated. The cause (sound source) andthe effect (sound parameters) are render-ed unrecognizable by the special tech-niques of sound production.

In this particular studio recording, thetwo duos were recorded in playback wi thDaniel Kientzy and the composer. For aconcert performance, 4 to 7 players arerequired (The Sound lcons (3 & 2) require5 players); the two duos are disposedaround the audience. The score, project-ed from slides, contributes to the visualnenvironrnentcc. Horatiu Radulescu

THE SOUND ICON: a grand piano layingvertically on its side, with the stringsplayed by bowing.

The instrument is presented in a newlight; it now resembles a religious object-Byzantine icon. At a time, when religionwas only possible in Romania throughmusic, I called this instrument ))SoundIconcc. Because I played violin myself, Iwas obsessed with the idea of reversingthe proportion of the roles between bowsand strings. The problem was solved byreducing the bow to a single hair inmost instances, a very fine thread (di-ameter 1/10 mm). By describing a sVearound the piano string, this rosinedthread brings the string into vibration andcauses all other open strings of the pianoto resonate in sympathetic vibration


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resulting in a fabulous resonance; rhythmis transformed into timbre, etc..The first public performance with Soundlcons took place in 1974 at the Festivalde Provence in France, where 17 playerspremiered A DOINI op. 24. In A DOINI,CLEPSYDRA and ASTRAY as well as inother works, the bowing technique usedon the Sound lcons takes many variableparameters into account: speed, angle,diameter, pressure point along the string(a minimum of six: sul ponte, verso lponte, normal, un poco sul tasto, moltosul tasto, moltissimo sul tasto), doubleand triple ponticello, multiphonics on asingle string, etc.. The tuning of thestrings (scordatura) of the Sound Icon isspecific to each score and strictly corre-sponds to the intervals determined by thespectral components (i.e. harmonic scalesof logarithmic and thus unequal inter-vals). Horatiu Radulescu

HORATIU RADULESCU was born onJanuary 7, 1942 in Bucharest, Romania.He studied violin privately under NinaAlexandrescu, herself a disciple of Geor-ge Enescu and Jacques Thibaud. In 1969he was awarded the Master of Arts inComposition from the Bucharest Aca-demy of Music, where he studied compo-sition, orchestration, analysis, and for-malized music under Tiberiu Olah, StefanNiculescu and Aurel Strob. He has beenliv ing in Paris since 1969.

From 1970-72 he attended courses fornew music given by Mauricio Kagel andLuc Ferrari in Cologne, and John Cage,lannis Xenakis and Karlheinz Stockhau-sen in Darmstadt. He later worked withcomputer assisted composition and psy-cho-acoustics in Paris at IRCAM from1979-81. In 1988 he was guest of theArtists-in-Berlin Programme of the Ger-man Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)in Berlin. In 1989 and 1990 he was awar-ded the French Villa Medicis hors lesMursgrant for the USA and Italy.

In 1969 he began to develop the spectraltechnique of composition: variable distri-bution of spectral energy (sspectrumpulse((), synthesis of global sound sour-ces, processual micro-and macro-form,four simultaneous layers of perceptualspeed, spectral scordatura (scales of une-qual intervals corresponding to harmonicscales).

Publications describing his compositionaltheory include: Sound Plasma - Music ofthe Future Sign Edition Modern, Munich1973 and Musique des mes UniversRevue Silences NQ 1, Editions de la Dif-fkrence, Paris 1985.

His ceuvre includes over 70 pieces forsolo instruments, voice, chamber ensem-ble, orchestra and tape which have beenperformed in Europe, North and SouthAmerica. Israel, Japan and Australia.

DANIEL KIENTZY was born on June 13,1951 in Pbrigueux. France. From 1966-72,he played in various jazz and rock groups.He studied double bass at the VersaillesConservatory and played in the orchestraof the Grand The8tre, Limoges, from1972-74. Kientzy went on to study saxo-phone at the Conservatoire National,Limoges and at the Conservatoire Natio-nal Superieur, Paris, where he was a-warded first prizes for saxophone andchamber music. Interested in early music,he founded the Musica Ficta group, inwhich he played viola da gamba, record-ers, crum horn and bagpipe from 1974-78.Since the late 1970 s. Kientzy has devot-ed himself entirely to the saxophone. Notcontent with stereotyped playing tech-niques, he undertook a comprehensiveresearch program, first in a private studioand then a t IRCAM, and has succeeded inmaking the saxophone a major soloinstrument for contemporary music. Hehas become internationally well knownthrough his inventions and extensions ofnew playing techniques of the saxo-phone, including the introduction of elec-tronics into the instrument s range. Histreatise Les Sons Multiples aux Saxo-phoneswas published with Editions Sala-bert, Paris in 1982.

This recording was made possible by theArtists-in-Berlin Programme of the Ger-man Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)and Noch Musik

Edition RZLeibnizstraCe 33D-1000 Berlin 12ED.RZ 1007

990

Printed in Germany

radulescu clepsydra astray

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