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Eliane RADIGUE
“Asymptote Versatile (1963-64)”
Éliane Radigue completed her piece Asymptote Versatile in New York in 1964. The piece had never been performed publicly until Rhodri Davies convened an ensemble to perform the work at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November 2023. The first performance took place just short of sixty years after the piece was conceived, and that is the music that you hear on this CD.
The pioneering French artist referred to her 1960s works as propositions sonores, rather than compositions, and this piece is the only one she kept from the period. The graphic score comprises logarithmic curves devised from the Fibonacci sequence, superimposed over sheets of additional notation, to be performed as sustained tones by up to four groups of acoustic instrumentalists spanning the full range of the audible spectrum. ASYMPTOTE VERSATILE sows the seeds of Radigue’s exploration of long durational forms, bridging a 50-year gap between the school of composers she met in 1960s New York and her 2011- onwards OCCAM OCEAN series, where she composes for individual instrumentalists. This recording includes many of the OCCAM soloists who have worked closely with the composer and are steeped in Radigue’s aesthetics and working methods.
"I was young when I composed the Fibonacci suite. I was in New York at that time… During this period of my life I was very interested in mathematics and for this piece I constructed a logarithmic spiral. It is to do with the infinitesimal; the ever-changing, until its destruction in the dance of constant change. It is this versatility, nevertheless, which maintains the rule; it is about playing with the rule. So we gave this concept of a special equilibrium, which is forever being readjusted.”
Eliane Radigue in conversation with Rhodri Davies on 26 June 2023, Paris
Xavier Charles: clarinet
Angharad Davies: violin
Rhodri Davies: harp
Julia Eckhardt: viola
Bertrand Gauguet: alto saxophone
Susan Geaney: bass flute
Dominic Lash: double bass
Thierry Madiot: bass trombone
Aonghus McEvoy: guitar
Hannah Miller: french horn
Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh: viola
Carol Robinson: bass clarinet
Accompanying booklet in French and English.
Introduction by Rhodri Davies and Julia Eckhardt.
17,00€
In stock
CD
Rhodri DAVIES
“Telyn Rawn”
"A Telyn Rawn is a harp strung with horse hair and predates the appearance of the triple, lever and pedal harps. The earliest reference to this early Welsh harp can be found in the Laws of Hywel Dda (13th century), the codification of traditional Welsh laws. This harp remains largely unknown to contemporary audiences. One of the last references to a Telyn Rawn made in Wales was around two hundred years ago.
In 2016 Davies researched the Telyn Rawn in early Welsh poetry and commissioned the building of a new harp. "All the music on this album is improvised. I designed and built a long forgotten instrument, experimented with wound and pleated horse hair strings, I engaged with historical texts and poetry, learnt the techniques and music from the Robert ap Huw manuscript and researched the importance of the horse and horse cults in Welsh culture. All these interventions were a means to improvise historically informed music and re-evaluate the legacy of the harp in Wales but ultimately served as a jumping off point so as to create new possibilities."-Rhodri Davies
13,00€