Quartetto 2

Written in 2018.

Quartetto 2 seeks to reschedule music inside a system of logically inevitable propositions, such as
“protocol sentences” in the definition of a grammar where any identity of opposites,
any “transformational equivalent,” entails a denial of the “principle of non-contradiction.”
Changing things make possible the continued existence of other things. The reality of a string quartet
in today’s technological world is confronted with a present that is no longer recognizable, in which
the screams of expressionism fossilized long ago.
The ideas conveyed here would like to challenge this assertion.

In Limine Cœlorum

Written in 2017.

I wrote this piece in memoriam Franco Donatoni. “In Limine Coelorum” depicts a conviction that Franco Donatoni, at peace with himself, has reached one of many ceilings in the Heavens whence he considers the delirium of this known universe and marvels at the simplicity of the spiritual oblivion.

Les Étoiles de la Terre

Written in 2017.

Les Étoiles de la Terre comments on the public reckonings faced by numerous, heretofore “untouchable’’ luminaries of our time.

It begins with an exploration of the godlike status bestowed upon them by the commonality; shudders with the realization that no one is without their faults; and resolves with the understanding that life must continue regardless of past imperfection, as the stars now dwell upon the Earth.

Elle & Lui per violoncello

Written in 2016.

Elle & Lui is a tribute to Benjamin Britten’s Cello Suite No. 1, opus 72.

Elle & Lui is intended to portray a dialogue between two opposite, yet complementary characters. It does not seek to develop any material, but to articulate a collection of events inspired by the natural expressivity of the cello’s registers and expressive possibilities. The vocal quality of the high register speaks to the woody grain of the mid-range and restarts in the sonorous bass colla parte before reiterating the Italian expressivity of the dialogue in the high-pitched apex. The profoundly emotional contrast embellishes the unfolding of the piece toward a similar narrative in the low bass at the end, mixing fifths and pizzicati, as if a reconciliation were to take place.

Oratio Horarum, Miserere

Written in 2016.

Played by the gamUT Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Toronto, February 4, 2017, as part of the Via Italia concert, New Music Festival. Featuring Ian Sabourin, countertenor and Prof. Gary Kulesha, conductor.

“Oratio Horarum – Miserere” is an anxious prayer and a cry of overwhelming fear of one’s destiny. The anxiety is first portrayed in the reaction to the name of God by the ensemble’s laughter using onomatopoeic figures, symbolizing the profound unease of the world and the incapability of men to worship God. The unfolding of the piece indeed illustrates the inner fear of one who knows his awkwardness and misery, yet supplicates God not to look upon him with the weight of his sins. The end of the gesture brings a timid Amen still tainted with anxiety but looking with hope to the promised mercy.

A buildup of fourths and fifths leads to a statement of the name of God from the countertenor, followed by an elongated arsis using projected rhythmic figures in which a person’s inner evil, among other realities, is portrayed by the audacious roar of the tambour à corde (lion’s roar), and which ends with a whispered remark by the guitar. The two subsequent variations follow the same pattern, culminating in the Amen.

Throughout the piece, the stylistic predetermination of the countertenor struggles against the apparent hostility of its harmonic surroundings. As Salvatore Sciarrino pointed out during the premiere of the piece, “the material we heard is not transformed but only articulated.”

La Fille sur l’Eau per trio d’archi

Written in 2016.

La Fille sur l’Eau is written for the birth of my second child, Anna Leora. It is a tribute to the fragility of life, its transcendental beauty, and the overwhelming fear of the unknown.

It is intended to portray a continuum from “the fear of trying,” as the girl considers the water and the unknown it represents, to her eventual fusion with the water, musically shown in a recurrent figure that continuously changes in order to “give birth” to a classical-type theme at the viola (bar 225). Her methodic curiosity will drive her to love what she does not understand at first as she perceives her beauty in the water and discovers her image in its reflection.

A Lyrical Interval of Time

Written in 2016.

“Lyrical Interval of Time – poetry” is written for the Sound of Silence Art Song Project. It is based on a particular harmony inspired by Scriabin’s Mystic chord and some cognitive “dissonances” using exaggerated emphasis on some of the onomatopoeias in the poem. It is intended to portray an array of dramatic colors in which the full indeterminacy of the poem coexists in a musical determination. The dialectical function of the music can be felt as painting within the immanence of the structure, resulting in an utopian sense of happiness.

Poem © 2016 by Karen Lee –

Side Road Swamp
Where roads are called side or concession Curled leaves embrace brown frog
bark arms sway praise summer sky Half dipped in swamp
dark green glass ripples rot of aged earth floats hot mist
frogs dragonflies birds unseen thin tree pins mulch island in place
answer roll call what hold me?
sharp sounds whistle strings in tiny throats no leaf beneath
laden creatures bellow untethered living only this
hide in weepy green drapes
Faceless maestro new friends breathe together as old keen sight ears cocked pores wide
breath of seen unseen red car rests between hot tar and marsh hold visual soundscapes
leads silence more intrigue here later frame in words unequal
fugue of browns greens than scentless lavender fields to lyrical interval of time inimitable
caw splash bubble burst I share poetry we laugh marvel inhale
rustle whistle ribbit splash she lives photography with skin
veiled flight swoosh whirl perched on random tree stump swallow swamp whole
birds plead coax flirt leans precariously suspended.
captures curve line reflection
of masterpiece through lens
less perfect than her eye

Delirium Potastis per clarinetto, sassofono e pianoforte

Written in 2015.

Delirium Potastis is Latin for a “given delirium,” poetically stirred up by the consequences of war (the theme suggested by the Thelema Trio for their commission) in which ordinary soldiers are both purveyors and victims of gunfire, landmines, bombs, and other forms of death. Despite the harsh reality, they try to reach inner peace by singing their incomprehension and guilt in the midst of the violence and darkness surrounding them: “I moan like a culprit, fault blushes my face, begging Thee, forgive, O Lord.” The graphic and sonorous representation expressed in the musical ideas is “seen” in the numerous onomatopoeias that punctuate the discourse.

Sol pour huit flûtistes

Written in 2001.

As Greeks are not singing the frequencies but rather are comparing them to one another, Sol for eight flutes, in addition to the musical sublimation of the key nominal elements of Psalm CXI, is articulating “platonic bounds” around the Ut queant laxis sapphic hymn.

It is a collection of distinct and recurring musically sublimated nominal elements where instinctive choices are guarantee of the elements value for themselves.

Played in Montréal when I was leaving the over-subsidized musical scene, afraid of what my own words might do to me (Beckett, L’Innommable, p. 26).

Demain(s)

Written in 2000. Played by André Ristíc and his trio.

The revelation of the sons of God (bar 3) to man (bar 232)  is like a Word of God into his works. To the objective manifestation corresponds, in man, an evenly created ability to feel and to worship Him.

Tomorrow toward hope, toward infinite; Demain(s) toward the conjunction of the expectation lines, toward the One Who was supposed to come, toward the One Who came, that comes at each day to the wounded, tattered, to save him from his ruin, tomorrow again.

The work is a collection of distinct and recurring sublimated nominal elements from Genesis I.1-27 where instinctive choices are guarantee of the elements value for themselves.

Délivrance pour neuf instruments

Written in 1997, following the meeting with the shadow of the divine during a game of chess, September 7, 1997 — War is raging in man. He is part of the combat. The mind and the body are torn and ripped, slashed, torn apart, devastated, exhausted by these Powers and Principalities in their cosmic conflict that we cannot even comprehend. We are the scattered remnants, tattered and mislead, of what’s left of a glorious army. Among us, there are princes, captains, lords, amnesics, aphasics, ataxics, haggard, trying to remember what was this battle whose noise still resonates in our ears…

Played by the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal.

DesCœurs per violino solo

Written in 1997. The last piece I wrote before my last act in life and the encounter with the divine.

Played by Silvia Mandolini to whom I once gave my heart.

Seul in memoriam henri bernier

Written in 1996. To Henri who put an end to his life, with François.

I will always pray for you, always.

His last poem:

Sur voie de parchemins esseulés, déconfits
Par marée des cadrans, galvaudeux des quasars
Observe aube de nuit, belle photographie
Que sculptent azimuts de latries fort bizarres.

La Lune entremet orbe occultée, absconse
Mais loquace chez bien de sentiments de l’être
Dont la main caresse, en dépit de craintes, ronces
Qui maculent de fiel la lorgnette champêtre.

Basculant d’horizon en massifs, le Soleil,
Fuyard, vain dévoyé, cède sous l’arc lunaire
À l’idylle du masque ou éclipse de vermeil,
N’envie que le coït noir, égal, débonnaire.

Le vieillard sur croisée voit l’orgasme étrange
Tel un cortège oblong de constellations
Qui secoue la prison, savoir élu dans fange
Dont blandice humain ne sent délation.

Dans l’abysse du nord, camouflé par étoiles,
S’éprennent dans lacis de terre les deux astres,
Enchevêtrés, diable n’y voyant cathédrale
Au grand rire du fou, jouissent de ces cadastres.

Au matin sur dormant, spectateur recru dort,
Jusqu’à ce que soudain Pierrot tance Agénor,
Le laisse folâtrer, bêle sons du pandore
Qui soutire l’élan aux sybillins ténors.

Un intrus éclatant ouvre aussitôt judas
Devant une éponge aux anfractuosités
Emplies d’un nourrisson crevé par les soldats,
Aveugle le sage et l’oint de morosité.

Henri Konchalovski

Regard per dieci strumentisti

Written in 1995 for Flute, C, Flute G, Bass flute, Bass clarinet, Bassoon, Contrabassoon, Timpani, Percussion, Trumpet C, Tenor Trombone, Pianoforte and Violin.
Played by Serge Verstockt’s Champ D’Action ensemble.

Manu per due tromboni

Written in 1995.

Dedicated to Massimo Costantini the greengrocer, il fruttivendolo dell l’Anagnina.

Played by Frédéric Parmentier and Nicolas Suppin.

Limite Murmure

Played by Gaël Lhoumeau & David Nuñezañez in a dining room in Brussels, 1996.

Quartetto 1, Attacca

Written in 1993.

Une réflexion solitaire devant l’apothéose du jeu collectif. La complexité de la machine intime est mise en branle. Il y a une succession de micro-événements sur un abîme de silence. Des strates agitati d’insectes odonates introduisent à l’ambiance du vide-agresseur initial la déformation, la transmutation; je reviens, j’éclate; il s’amalgame, il respire. He was crazy.

Played by Quatuor Arthur Leblanc.