IRCAM at Columbia: Sospeso Concert

The Ensemble Sospeso and IRCAM perform works by Magnus Lindberg and Tristan Murail in Miller Theatre's New Works series

Throughout the past two decades, the IRCAM in Paris has been an expanding forum for collaboration, exchange and innovation, and a trigger for a broad range of applications of technology and music. It seems that such an integration of the creative powers of researchers, engineers, composers, instrumentalists has become a productive model leading to some of the most interesting pieces in recent contemporary music. Perhaps it is relevant to note that both featured composers of this evening’s concert had been important members in collaborative associations before they came to work at IRCAM: Magnus Lindberg in the Finnish Korvat auki! (‘ears open’) Society and Tristan Murail in L’Itinéraire, an ensemble comprised of composers and instrumentalists, that can, to a certain degree, be seen as one of the precursors of IRCAM.

Composers that visit IRCAM today often learn very similar things. But it is in the way they are subsequently enabled to implement this acquired knowledge in their creative work and in the collaboration with the programmers and engineers—the musical assistants—that the primary contribution of IRCAM to contemporary musical composition lies. The differences between creative personalities remain untouched by the exposure to the possibilities IRCAM has to offer, as became quite evident in listening to the music of Lindberg and Murail. 

Lindberg’s Related Rocks (1997) for two pianists, two percussionists and electronics opened the concert with a bang that builds—a formal trajectory that can be found frequently in his works. Pianists Stephen Gosling and Eric Huebner and percussionists Tom Kolor and Pablo Rieppi performed with breathtaking agility a piece that requires taut muscle and quick reactions. The electronics, brilliantly managed throughout all of the concert’s four pieces by IRCAM’s Eric Daubresse and David Poissonier, need very subtle balancing since the soundfiles, triggered by the pianists on MIDI keyboards, must often fuse with the dense textures in the percussion or piano parts (not an easy job given the problematic acoustic conditions of Miller Theatre). The transformations of these sounds—derived from a Baroque cello and the rather rare sounds of the physical destruction of a grand piano—however, remain often outside the initially somewhat minimalist sonic world established by the pianos and percussions, making it clear that Lindberg is in this piece more concerned with modes of layering heterogeneous materials and their interaction rather than their fusion to form a hybrid compound. Later this process with its restless activity across all registers translates into a rapid and frivolous fast-forward juxtaposition of identifiable stylistic allusions—Chopin, Rock, boogie-woogie—with almost cartoon-music-like pacing. 

It would be safe to say that the attributes of the second piece on the program, Murail’s Bois flotté for amplified ensemble and electronics, also composed in 1997, are the direct opposite of those of Related Rocks. Here the form unfolds like a slow motion sequence, occasionally punctuated by sonic “pillars” of resonant depth. Following the captivating opening—a calm, chorale like progression of overlapping sonorities (derived from a microscopic analysis of water sounds)—most of the remaining sources of the electronic sounds are easily identifiable to the listener as being reminiscent of water sounds: trickling, droplets, waves breaking on a shore. The electronic metamorphosis of these sounds and the way the ensemble music is composed around them turns the familiarity of these sounds into the clarity of scintillating musical gestures mediated by quiet transitions. The material is economic yet rich in color. Compared to other compositions by Murail the pre-recorded sounds have more weight and space in Bois flotté. Perhaps the title gives a clue: the wood (ensemble) “afloat” on an undulating surface in constant motion (electronic sounds).

Lindberg’s Ur, 1986, for amplified ensemble and electronics features the rapid-fire world of extreme horizontal and vertical density that characterizes many of his earlier pieces for orchestra, in particular Kraft or Kinetics. Ur is intricately composed in such a way that one is often tempted to hear more than the five instruments it is scored for. Like Related Rocks, the piece is relentless in its bold perpetuum mobile energy and doesn’t shy away from the plentiful use of extended techniques and a remarkable episode, where the cello’s lowest string is de-tuned. It seems the virtuosity of the ensemble writing is at times engaged in a challenge against the potentially overpowering electronics and much of the sustenance of the piece derives from Lindberg’s keen sense for the dramaturgical disposition of his forces. One can sense Vinko Globokar’s influence, with whom Lindberg studied when he came to Paris in 1981; and: the piece certainly lives up to its title—ur in German implies being of archaic origin or energy. 

Murail’s L’esprit des dunes (1993/94) for amplified ensemble and electronics (sampled sounds triggered by a MIDI keyboard) starts with a characteristic ascending figure that is passed back and forth between the oboe and the electronics, mediated by the flute. Throughout the course of the piece the origin of this motif is progressively revealed by the gradual accumulation of partial-strata that occasionally fill in the whole spectrum at sonorous anchor points guiding the listener’s ear through the form. In Murail’s own words: There is melody within a single pitch; the melody is created through the pitch’s harmonics. It’s both a sound and a melody. And while the opening notes of the oboe constitute a phrase, it is also a sound. The origin of the motif is in fact a snippet from an overtone “melody” found in Mongolian chant, a tradition that can be described as the art of creating (overtone-) melodies out of a single (sung) pitch. The vocal paradigm is felt in various forms throughout the piece: strands of kinetic energy that produce a pattern of tension and release; the alternation of compact and diffuse ensemble writing with the occasional appearance of re-synthesized Tibetan chant; the overall dynamic curve of the form make the piece breathe in a curiously organic way. 

All four pieces received superb, energetic and imaginative performances by the Ensemble Sospeso under their excellent conductor Jeffrey Milarsky (Bois flotté and L’esprit des dunes were American premieres). Conducting these pieces involves the very tricky coordination between the time scale of the triggered electronics and that of the ensemble as well as balance issues that are handled in close collaboration with the musical assistants and sound engineers. The integration of the exemplary musicianship of the ensemble under Milarsky and the expertise of the IRCAM sound management made the evening a success.

The Ensemble Sospeso is certainly one of the most interesting American ensembles around, featuring highly exciting contemporary repertoire that is not often heard in the US. One looks forward to their next concert and season.

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