Lemoine Hurel Philippe - Pas A Pas

Summary of This Score

Dated 10/08/2015 (Venice, Biennale, Sala delle Colonne) and associated with the Ensemble Recherche, this score is accompanied by a text in which Philippe Hurel reflects on two moments in his compositional journey. He first discusses Figures libres, composed "fifteen years ago" for the full forces of Recherche, then the creation of a new piece conceived according to a somewhat different project.

The composer highlights a major contrast: whereas Figures libres was a directed work with a largely predetermined form, the more recent piece belongs more to chamber music, with a formal organization built progressively, "step by step." Despite these differences, Hurel explains that he chose to reactivate principles he had not used since, gathered under the idea of "contamination."

Concretely, this involves making distinct musical situations coexist, initially superimposed or juxtaposed, until they mutually transform. In Figures libres, the opposition arose between the string trio on one side and the winds and piano on the other. Here, in the absence of the string trio, the balance is redrawn: piano and percussion form one pole, while three woodwinds constitute the other. These two levels, initially without apparent connection, approach each other through "rhythmic and morphological contamination" to become struck and resonant spectra, before regaining their autonomy and recomposing into small groups.

Far from an abstract exercise, these successive transformations aim to build the dramaturgy of the piece and renew listening. Hurel also relates this formal thinking to literature, citing Claude Simon and Leçon de choses, where heterogeneous narratives eventually produce a homogeneous perception. He concludes on the compositional work under commission constraints and on the chain of actors (engraver, musicians, programmer, publisher), evoking l'Espace littéraire by Maurice Blanchot.

Technical specifications

Musical Genre

Classical

Composer	Philippe Hurel	Instrumentation	chamber ensemble (piano, percussion, three woodwinds)
Artist	Ensemble Recherche	Genre	contemporary music, chamber music