About: The Angel of Death's attaque – à plusieurs niveaux, j'espère – à la notion de chemins alternatifs, de sursis. « Si je devais le refaire », pense-t-on, « les choses seraient différentes ». Mais dans quelle(s) mesure(s) ? Parfois, on a l'opportunité de recommencer, de re-évaluer et de re-façonner des faits qu'ils soient petits ou immenses. The Angel of Death offre cette perspective. Un pianiste soliste et un orchestre de chambre interagissent de maière plus complémentaire que concurrente. Ils sont joints, à mi-parcours, par un long arc de musique électronique multipiste. lire la suite
(from the audio CD booklet)
The Angel of Death arose out of a collaborative relationship that developed between me and Stephen McAdams, then the Director of Perception and Cognition at IRCAM in Paris. He and his colleagues were interested in the responses of audiences to unfamiliar works they encountered for the first time in concert. I devised a chamber piano concert which involved two traversals of the same five brief themes positioned over an identical time scale. There was an articulated “Sectional” version and a more organic “Domaine” version. The idea was to see how changing musical contexts would effect listener recognition and retention of thematic identity. So, the work is both a major musical statement, and an “experimental object” that helped the scientists and myself to understand more about how human beings process musical experience.
