Treize virgule huit
Ingrid Drese
Programme notes
To Marc Moniez
Nothingness,
Chaos,
Light,
Magma,
Darkness,
Explosions and collapse
have been generating sweeping waves throughout the cosmos for 13.8 billion years from the beginning to now, and will continue to do so until the end of time.
This raging structures the composition, and the transposed events define the writing. The states and the transitions combine in the poetic imagination of the witness.
Sounds, derived from scientific concepts, suggest an interpretation swinging between images and abstraction.— Ingrid Drese, Marc Moniez [English translation
: Yvette Haissinsky]
In other words. The music was written for eight loudspeakers. Set exercise number one
The events in the story act as time markers and carry the architecture of the work. In-between these milestones/pillars appear windows/vistas. These act as freedom spaces, invitations to poetic and musical gestures that lean towards abstract expression, like the actions of a simple “witness” interpreting the scientific argument, inspired by what he or she has heard (understood).
The work consists of five sections without breaks
— Ingrid Drese
Thirteen point eight [Treize virgule huit] is how old the Universe is in billions of years.
This musical work rests on transpositions of electromagnetic and gravitational waves into acoustic waves, then shaped and organized to represent an auditory fresco that is telling the history, contents and structuring of the Universe, the three components of modern cosmology.
The scientific author used the software mathematica, a reference in scientific calculations, to produce purely synthetic sounds. His knowledge of cosmology and physics allowed him to produce a representation that describes the 13.8 billion years of history of our universe. He worked closely with the composer on synthesizing other sounds in relation with cosmic events, and on adjusting the story wherever artistic imperatives required so.
The composer integrated all these elements with other sound sources coming from a musician’s usual tools, following her perception and interpretation of the phenomena described in the work. For this collaboration, the composer had at her disposal “scientific” raw materials and a global description of the history of the Universe. She was completely free to organize and structure the work as she saw fit, like a painter interpreting her model by using the coloured pastes at her disposal.
The thermal history of the Universe — its constant cooling, superimposed on the formation of the galaxies, according to the sequence established by the latest research — serves as the thread running through the work. Some of the basic sounds were produced by transposing key processes in physics
— Marc Moniez
— Ingrid Drese, Marc Moniez [English translation
Treize virgule huit [Thirteen Point Eight] was realized in 2018-19 at the composer’s studio in Brussels (Belgium) and the studios of the Groupe de recherches musicales (Ina-GRM) in Paris (France), and was premiered on January 19, 2019 at the concert Akousma 2 presented at the MPAA’s Auditorium Saint-Germain (Paris, France) as part of the Ina-GRM Multiphonies season. Treize virgule huit was commissioned by the Ina-GRM and completed with support from the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (Administration générale de la culture, Service de la musique). Thanks to Nicolas Moniez for his electric guitar experiments and to composer/organist Benoît Mernier for his inspired improvisations on the organs of the Du Sablon Church in Brussels (Belgium).
Premiere
- January 19, 2019, Multiphonies 2018-19
: Akousma [5], Auditorium Saint-Germain — MPAA, Paris (France)
- Composer(s): Ingrid Drese
- Year of composition: 2018-19
- Duration: 22:35
- Instrumentation: 8-channel fixed medium
- Publisher(s): Ymx média
- Commission: Ina-GRM
- ISRC: CAD502410042
