Commissioned by Ensemble Allogene(Montréal, QC).
Premiered at Chapelle Historique Bon-Pasteur, Montreal, QC. Dec 14, 2012.

score

This is a composition for your ears and eyes, performed through the instrumental capabilities of performing bodies.

Every instrumental composition involves the sequencing of performance gestures; unwittingly, the composer becomes a choreographer of gestural instructions tailored for the production of specific sounds. Gesture and sound combine to create events in time, and these events are apprehended through the imperceptible interaction of auditory and visual modalities. In most cases, sound and gesture are inextricably coupled; sound is the by-product of action. Through this relationship, sound and gesture mutually reinforce a single perceptual quality, or complement one another to create a combinatory perception.

In this piece, I have attempted to sever the causal link between sound and gesture in order to explore a range of combinatory possibilities between the two. Actions, performance gestures, movements, effort, breathing, and traditional musical materials are developed independently and in relation to one another throughout the work’s duration. The communicative potential of performative gestures, now independent of its sounding result, raises new possibilities: How can density be created in the absence of sound? How can audiovisual harmony, dissonance, and counterpoint operate within a single performer, or between ensemble members? How can the conductor structure the temporal flow of a musical work through visual segmentation?
Sound unsound, unsound sound; resound.