Bucolic & Broken
Pierre Alexandre Tremblay
Programme notes
This piece is an ode to the fragile beauty of post-industrial rural England
It is a sort of anxious love song contemplating the area’s bucolic beauty, with its protected moors, its omnipresent stone walls dividing minuscule allotments, its fashionably converted factories, its refreshing replanted forests
It is also an affectionate nod to its people, with their resilience, composure, and stoicism, where a cup of tea seems to put everything into perspective. Anywhere else, such a division would create chaos and unrest. Here, it seems as though everyone is taking a deep breath, pausing to observe the waters, before taking the plunge.
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Bucolic & Broken was realized from October 2016 to April 2017 in the SPIRAL (Spatialisation and Interactive Research Lab) of the University of Huddersfield (England, UK) and in the Studio 3 (hemisphere) of Notam (Olso, Norway), with a testing session in the spherical studio of the University of Hull (England, UK). The work premiered on April 29, 2017 during the BEAST FEaST festival in Birmingham (England, UK). The 5.1 version was realized in 2021. Thanks to Scott Wilson and Annie Mahtani at BEAST for their trust
Premiere
- April 29, 2017, BEAST FEaST 2017
: Concert 7, Elgar Concert Hall — Bramall Music Building — University of Birmingham, Birmingham (England, UK)
- Composer(s): Pierre Alexandre Tremblay
- Year of composition: 2016-17
- Duration: 12:32
- Instrumentation: 28-channel fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- ISRC: CAD502110043
