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Track listing detail

Quatuor à cordes

Alexandre David

Quatuor à cordes

  • Alexandre David
  • Year of composition: 2021-22
  • Instrumentation: string quartet
  • Commission: Quatuor Bozzini, Hellerau, with support from the CCA

The composition of my String Quartet has been one of my main refuges through the last years of pandemic isolation. In the creation of this highly complex piece, I had the deliberate goal of disconnecting myself from the performer and diving deeply into its structural elements. In particular, I worked on games of proportions, quasi-repetition, perceptual blurring as well as on the orchestration of different spectral impressions. This approach, which pushed me into an intense mathematical rigor, nevertheless preserves a certain humanity, being motivated by a distress, a desire for escape and expression. The score of the piece, conceived for itself, gives a feeling of rebirth when it arrives in the hands of the performers. The distress that fueled the writing of this hermetic work gives way to a lively, touching, gentle and altruistic discourse.

Premiere

  • November 6, 2022, Residenzkonzert mit Quatuor Bozzini, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden (Sachsen, Germany)

Awards

Performers

Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre

Alexandre David, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine

Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre

Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre is a two-movement work based on poems by Innu poet Natasha Kanapé Fontaine. Conceived for vocal quartet and baroque quartet, this composition seeks to confront the aesthetic universes of the baroque tradition with those of today’s music, while retelling the poet’s story. The music, concise and neutral, serves as a backdrop to the texts without attributing meaning.

The work uses a variety of writing techniques that coexist in a heterogeneous environment, creating an abstract and strange sound object. Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, who has a great sensitivity to music, participated in the creative process by meeting with me on several occasions and by reciting extracts from her collection throughout the concert. Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre questions our perception of artistic genres and boundaries, between text and music, between aesthetics and traditions, creating relationships and connections amongst a rich diversity of members in our community. The work reflects on memory, identity and artistic expression, offering audiences an auditory experience that welcomes introspection.

[xi-24]

Performers

Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre, 1: I — Je suis l’île

Alexandre David, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine

I — Je suis l’île

Stereo

ISRC CAA4J2410051

  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Performers

Nanimissuat Île-tonnerre, 2: II — Je suis ma grand-mère

Alexandre David, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine

II — Je suis ma grand-mère

Stereo

ISRC CAA4J2410052

  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

Performers

Photogrammes

Alexandre David

Photogrammes

Stereo

ISRC CAA4J2410053

  • 48 kHz, 24 bits

I have always had a strange relationship with music as a listener. Often, without realising it, I try to completely detach myself from it and analyse it objectively, no matter the context. It is a form of protection. At different times in my life, however, certain pieces of music have completely invaded and inhabited me, accompanying me, sometimes even short passages of a song. In this work for 20 musicians, I bring together several of these passages, rearranging them, transforming them and making them interact.

— Alexandre David [xi-24]

Awards

Performers