Espace vital
Élise Turcotte, Roxanne Turcotte
Programme notes
The piano beside itself. Sounds from a German Steinway, a Yamaha U3, and a digital Kurzweil, along with erased words and old scratchy records. The two live pianists are supported by ten modified / prepared piano tracks set up as if there were twelve players sporadically answering one another. A dialogue between pianists expresses things left unsaid. Duel, wandering, laughs, and delirium. Putting one’s ideas in order. Days go by… A week and a few bridges, months, years, but there’s always time… Euphoria, nostalgia, being hunted. Twelve variations on a state… The diary of a present, future, and past life.
The sound of the piano is a trigger that harmonizes with the feelings and the letting-go of one’s self… Vital space. Suffocating, having trouble breathing
Structure
Technique
Sources of pianistic and literary inspiration:
- A little diary of ideas started one day and never meant to see the next, where words don’t manage to clearly circumscribe myself, or maybe are they too obvious
? Everything is on my piano, like a book of musical tales. - Glenn Gould’s piano
; the piano of Russian musicians. George Gershwin’s piano; the impressionists and the jazz pianists. - Élise Turcotte, La maison étrangère, Éditions Leméac, Montréal, 2002.
- Élise Turcotte, Ma petite sœur et moi, Radio-Canada, 2001.
- Henrich Neuhaus, L’art du piano, Éditions Van De Velde, 1971.
- Miguel Angel Estrella, Musique pour l’espérance, Le Seuil, 1997.
- A wink at Claude Debussy.
— Roxanne Turcotte [English translation
Espace vital [Vital Space] was realized in 2004 at the composer’s studio (Studio Séducson) in Montréal, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). The composer thanks Laure Fugère, Élise Turcotte (recorded voices).
About this sound recording
The acoustic piano part, performed by Christian Parent, was recorded on October 10, 2008 at Studio Digison (Magog, Québec).
- Writer(s): Élise Turcotte
- Composer(s): Roxanne Turcotte
- Year of composition: 2004-08
- Duration: 22:43
- Instrumentation: 2 pianos and stereo fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISRC: CAD501110045
