“and matter was (not) perfectly conserved [2015] • for trio, ensemble & electronics

… Rien ne se perd, rien ne se crée, ni dans les opérations de l’art, ni dans celles de la nature, 

et l’on peut poser en principe que, dans tout opération, il y a une égale quantité de matière avant et après l’opération ; 

que la qualité et la quantité des principes est la même, et qu’il n’y a que des changements, des modifications…”. 

Antoine Lavoisier

This quote is taken from the “Traité élémentaire de chimie” d’Antoine Lavoisier and correspond to the description of the mass conservation law, expounded in 1777.

Nowadays we know that this law is approximate cause certain chemical reactions are not completely adjusted to a full conservation. This idea of approximating phenomenon behaviours of real world in a theoretical rule in order to understand it is the central idea of the piece.

I wanted to use the idea behind this law and the beautiful illusion that it proposes of a perfect system of transformation and conservation as a metaphor to the construction of a musical form made from musical “material” transformations.

The rhythmical, harmonic and timber components are used again and again all along the piece following successive and endless transformations. The soloist trio is often interrupted by intempestives interventions of the ensemble, which lead us to the idea of matter being decomposed and reorganised. This take place until the middle of the piece, from where the hole ensemble build a continuum based on granular and in-harmonic sounds. Towards the end, we hear the trio again as soloists, proposing a new organisation, made from the first sonorities of the piece.

This cyclic idea has the purpose to give the impression of matter being conserved even after several transformations. But even this cycle is interrupted in order to question what seemed coherent in what we have listened until now. Or simply to try to understand the hole from another point of view.

standard-modell • Antoine Alerini, Noam Bierstone & Joshua Hyde

Orchestre des Lauréats du CNSMDP

Laurent Cuniot • Conductor