|
Joël-François Durand, composer |
les raisons des forces mouvantes (1996)
for Organ
Incipit
I. L'eau
II. La terre
III. L'air
IV. Le feu
Program Notes
The
piece is in four parts, preceded by an introduction. Each
part is associated with one of the four traditional
elements: the water, the earth, the air and the
fire. The title, as well as the order of
the elements as is used here, comes from the 17th-century
French engineer Salomon de Caus, who in his treatise Les
raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines tant
utiles que plaisantes studies the principle of the
hydraulic organs. But the relation to de Caus, who sees the
interaction between elements in a purely mecanistic manner,
ends here. I have placed each element in relation with an
aspect of the human nature, and each one illustrates one of
the categories ("reasons") of the human motions: - spacial ; inertia, gravity: the
water - emotional: the earth - mental: logic, intellectual
comprehension: the air - spiritual: intuitive
comprehension: the fire We notice in this arrangement an
evolution from the physical to the spiritual domain. The
musical realization follows the natural evolution in that
each of these domains influences and interpenetrates the
others. Each part has a
specific character and compositional technique. For example,
the second part, earth, is composed of a long, slow monody;
the fourth part, fire, is a double canon, with one canon in
fast running figures in the middle parts and a slower canon
in the outer parts; the first part, water, borrows elements
from the beginning of the third part (air) to develop a
partially hidden rhythmic canon, whose slowly rising melodic
line is periodically interrupted by quiet, tenous ostinati
in the upper register, and loud, powerful chords. Les raisons des forces mouvantes is dedicated to
Hans-Ola Ericsson. It was premiered in 1997 by Hans-Ola
Ericsson at the "Internationale Woche für Neue
Orgelmusik," in Trossingen (Germany). A recording of Les
raisons des forces mouvantes by Mr. Ericsson is
available on a CD of Durand's music released by Mode Records
(Mode 139) in September 2004; see Discography