DVD Program Notes Part One: Annette Vande but the dramatization of a text by, Faisons savoir, aux maıtresˆ des enclos Gorne, Curator among other things, the placement et des arenes,` of the sounds and spatial figures. The Inform the masters of the pens and technology of the music finds a link Curator’s Note arenas, with the tradition of singing opera. The libretto describes how incan- Satisfied since 1971 that acousmatic Que nous viendrons, comme chaque tatory ritual in Aeschylean tragedy music is the alpha and omega of all annee,´ avec le fils des espaces sans represents the fighting of duels within aesthetic and technological research barriere.` us, concepts of life opposed, and is in electroacoustics, that its very ex- symbolized by the struggle of a con- That we shall be there, like every istence has changed the conditions dor and a bull that still takes place year, with the son of the wide open of production, reception, and percep- during the “feast of blood” in some spaces. tion of music, I could only offer for villages founded by the Spanish in the this Computer Music Journal DVD Qu’ils se preparent´ pour la corrida. Peruvian Andes. music produced for these new imagi- Elle est a` eux! A nous la lutte, Comme An example between poverty and nary relationships to sound, without chaque jour que nous vivons. the power of money, “Who to cut images. the cord of misery?” This is also Tell them to prepare for the bullfight. Teaching the techniques of ecriture´ the attraction of desire and brute It is theirs! Here’s to our fight, Like for media and acousmatic composi- force. Only art brings the two forces every day that we live. tion at the higher level of the music together, the author concludes: “That conservatories since 1986 has finally Chœur: A genoux, taureau! Plie, ploie here at least where the words are created an acousmatic “school” in sous celui qui nous venge! acts for what they are: the party Belgium with its own specific charac- continues. Here at least where the Chorus: On your knees, bull! Bow, ter. I propose that the listener discover words are sung, all come together in bend beneath he who avenges us! here a selection from three genera- games of shadow and light.” tions of Belgian composers, as well as The chief of the Indians, the tim- Que sa victoire gonfle nos moissons a guest of honor, Hans Tutschku, Pro- bre of bass, reassurance personified et que ses vastes ailes les protegent!` fessor at Harvard, who combines the by a declamatory questioning, spiri- rigor of his culture of origin, Germany, May his victory swell our harvests tual wisdom whose strength always with a richness of sound and musical and may his vast wings protect wins eternal in duration, the material immediacy of play on a sounding us! contingencies, political and eco- body—in this case of old pianos. nomic. (The Dalai Lama is a current Chef: Ils ont besoin de la souffrance example.) et de la peur ceux qui possedent,` car The choir of the Indians is orga- ils regnent` sur du neant.´ nized by alternating opposite timbres 1. YAWAR FIESTA: Acte I, Chief: They have a need for suffering crossing all the text, the choice of Condor (extrait: Peuple aux and fear those who possess, for they words in the overall shape of the fetesˆ emplumees)´ —Annette reign over nothingness. Vande Gorne (Chief: Nicholas three acts. YAWAR FIESTA Isherwood, bass; Chorus: was produced Vous, je vous ai conduit vers celui qui at Studio Metamorphoses´ d’Orphee,´ Nicholas Isherwood, bass; mange la mort pour qu’elle ne reste Musiques & Recherches, Ohain, pas inutile et serve encore. Paul-Alexandre Dubois, Belgium. baritone) You, I have led you to the one who Text (translation: Anne-Marie eats death so that it might not remain Can space, written and performed Glasheen) useless but serve again. live, lead to expression and dramati- Chef: Peuple aux fetesˆ emplumees,´ Chœur: Qu’il soit notre heraut!´ zation. Music? Opera? Even if the aux femmes en corolles de laines Que sa colere` d’otage parle pour project does not involve any singers rouges, allons! nous. on stage, a majority of sound material derives from the voice. This is not Chief: People of the plumed festivals, Chorus: May he be our herald! an electroacoustic work (with its re- whose women wear red wool corol- May his hostage’s anger speak for search materials and abstract writing), las, let us go! us. 112 Computer Music Journal Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00141 by guest on 30 September 2021 Figure 1. Annette Vande Gorne. Souffrance et peur, nous pouvons en both of her own works and those of donner: nos greniers en sont pleins international composers. plusquederecoltes!´ Professor of electroacoustic com- position at the Royal Conservatory Suffering and fear, we can dish them in Liege` (1986), then Brussels (1987) out: we have more of them than crops and Mons (1993), she founded an in our granaries! autonomous Electroacoustic Music Chef: Il est temps. Regagnez vos section at the latter, which was later maisons ou` dorment encore les revesˆ (2002) integrated to the European feconds´ de vos femmes. graduate studies framework. Since Chief: It is time. Return to your 1999, she has been managing an in- houses where the fertile dreams of ternational summer training session your wives still slumber. on spatialization and, since 1987, on electroacoustic composition. Allez, non comme des poules qu’on Her works can be heard in every emmene` au marchelat´ eteˆ en bas, festival and on every radio program mais comme en troupe joyeuse qui presenting media-based (previously escorte son champion. “tape”) music. Her current work Go, not like chickens being taken focuses on various energetic and to market their heads hung down, kinesthetic archetypes. Nature and but like a merry band escorting its the physical world are models for champion. positions to grab its basics, then an abstract and expressive musical studied musicology (Universite´ libre language. She is passionate about two Gens du maıs¨ et des feves,` soyez de Bruxelles) and electroacoustic other fields of research: the various comme le ciel qui bruleˆ et qui brille composition with Guy Reibel and relationships to word, sound, and au-dessus de vos champs. Pierre Schaeffer at the Conservatoire meaning provided by electroacoustic People of the corn and beans, be like national superieur´ in Paris. technology, and the composition the sky that burns and blazes above She founded and managed of space seen as the fifth musical our pastures. Musiques & Recherches and the parameter and its relationship to Metamorphoses´ d’Orphee´ studios the other four parameters and the Chœur: Taureau, nous voici, et avec (Ohain, 1982). She also launched a archetypes being used. Her work nous, ton cavalier aux eperons´ en series of concerts and an acousmat- falls essentially in the acousmatic couteaux de boucher. ics festival called L’Espace du son category, including the Tao suite Chorus: Bull, we are here, and with (Brussels, 1984; annual since 1994), and Ce qu’a vu le vent d’Est, which us, your horseman with spurs like after assembling a 60-loudspeaker renews electroacoustic music’s ties butcher’s knives. system, an acousmonium derived with the past, with a few incursions from the sound projection system in other art forms, including theatre, Following her classical studies at designed by Franc¸ois Bayle. She is the dance, sculpture, etc. (translation: the Royal Conservatories of Mons editor of the musical aesthetics re- Franc¸ois Couture) and Brussels, and her studies with view Lien and Repertoire´ ElectrO-CD´ Jean Absil, Annette Vande Gorne (1993, 1997, 1998), a directory of chanced upon acousmatics when on a electroacoustic works. She also training position in France. Instantly founded the composition competition 2. Protopia/Tesseract— convinced by the works of Franc¸ois Metamorphoses´ and the spatialized Elizabeth L. Anderson Bayle and Pierre Henry of the performance competition Espace du revolutionary nature of this art form son. She has gradually put together The initial idea for the acousmatic (disruption of perception, renewal Belgium’s only documentation cen- work Protopia/Tesseract was inspired of composition through spectromor- ter on that art (available online at by a literary interpretation of the phological writing and listening con- www.musiques-recherches.be). tesseract, defined in the children’s duction, historical importance of the She gives numerous spatialized fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time movement), she took a few training acousmatic music performances, by Madeleine L’Engle as a concept DVD Program Notes 113 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/COMJ_e_00141 by guest on 30 September 2021 Figure 2. Elizabeth Anderson. Figure 3. Ingrid Drese. where intergalactic travel is made possible through spatio-temporal compression. Much of the sound material for the work was created during a residency at the Centre de Creation´ Musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris with the support of Le service de cooperation´ et d’action culturelle de l’ambassade de France en Belgique. The work was composed in the multichannel electroacoustic Unveiling Spatio-Temporal Perti- studio at City University; the nences in Acousmatic Music,su- studio Metamorphoses´ d’Orphee´ at pervised by Denis Smalley, centers Musiques & Recherches in Ohain, on the perception of electroacous- Belgium; and the Studio Akousma in tic music and the elaboration of a the Academie´ de Musique de Soignies, metaphorical language for electroa- sible for the course on semiology in Belgium. I am grateful to Annette coustic art. Funding for her doctorate electroacoustic music there, which is Vande Gorne and Jean-Louis Poliart was provided by an Overseas Research based on concepts she developed in for having opened their institutions to Scholarship as well as subsidies from her doctoral dissertation.