plastic boom
forbidden party
plastic boom
for voice, percussion & strings
In Plastic Boom for voice, percussion, and string sextet, I replaced the usual notation of rhythmic figures subject to a tempo with a proportional representation. Using the software Max MSP and the Bach library developed by Andrea Agostini and Daniele Ghisi, I was able to write directly on a medium that disregards measures and beats, resulting in a graphic notation that retains only noteheads and lines whose lengths correspond to duration. This representation is then read by a cursor that illuminates the notes to be played simultaneously, similar to the video game Guitar Hero. The score was then displayed to the musicians in real-time on screens serving as music stands during rehearsals and the concert, with performers having a video or a small program to work on the piece beforehand.
The use of this method addressed my desire to work with glissandi but quickly proved to be a playful and surprisingly effective solution for the rhythmic work I required from the musicians. The subtle differences in durations, which would have been extremely complex to transcribe and interpret (especially without a conductor) using our traditional rhythmic notation, were suddenly well understood, heard, and, after some acclimatization, simple to execute. The cursor thus serves as a visual click track for reference.
However, from the very first rehearsal, an entirely different paradigm emerged: the performers, glued to the screen-partitions and responding to the visual stimuli of the notes illuminated by the cursor, seemed subjected to the authoritarian time of a machine. The image formed a striking analogy with the alienation from screens that we experience, which recent digital inventions like Deliveroo or Uber, to name a few, have exploited, enslaving workers to the rhythm of intangible algorithms.
Thus, in seeking to resolve a weakness in rhythmic notation and to focus perception on the micro-variations inherent in human or animal play, I found myself alienating the performers, subjecting them to the ever-renewing present of the visual click, stripping them of their ability to anticipate and internally represent, as allowed by traditional reading.
Could it be that the dialectic between the immateriality of duration and the desire for its exact notation thus poses the paradox of the relationship between man and machine that our era raises: the infinity of the reality and its impossible, but above all undesirable, digital discretization? or perhaps even more that controlling time is the first condition of any form of authoritarianism.
duration ~ 10'
commissioned by festival nouveaux horizons
premiered on nov. 6th, 2021, in Aix-en-Provence, FR
Diana Syrse, voix
Aurélien Gignoux, percussion
Raphaëlle Moreau, violon
Manon Galy, violon
Paul Zientara, alto
Violaine Despeyroux, alto
Aurélien Pascal, violoncelle
Max Bumjun Kim, violoncelle