GÉRARD PESSON (France, 1958)
LA MESSAGÈRE (2021)– 5e mouvement de FAURÉ À LUGANO
d'après Gabriel Fauré
L'Instant Donné et Marion Tassou (voix)
enregistrement live : auditorium de la Radio Suisse Italienne, Lugano, Suisse
le 19/09/2021 – Festival La Via Lattea, Teatro del Tempo, Lugano

Album de Rémy Jannin

Pesson | La Messagère – Fauré à Lugano | live at Lugano, 2021

Premiered by Ensemble et cetera  (Dustin Donahue, marimba; Curt Miller, clarinet; Scott Worthington, double bass) at Conrad Prebys Music Center - Recital Hall. October 10th 2014.

Program Notes

The prefix intra- signifies ‘within’ or ‘between layers of’, hence the title intrascaling means between layers of scaling and is a reference to the use of durational ratios of attacks, that control the rhythmicity and permeate various compositional aspects of the work, at various temporal levels by means of scale invariance. I am very interested in the conflict between variance and invariance among different—two, three, or even more—superposed rhythmic structures. I find very appealing the fact that, the antagonistic relationship of such perpetually interwoven rhythmic structures and their metric ambiguity results from a limited number of sets of invariant data, each one set independently in motion from the others, at different scales.

The texture of Intrascalings is based on a constant flow of rapid pulses that is confronted by multiple, polyrhythmic temporal streams of different and varying densities. The contrasting timbres that have been assigned to the layers of the design, as well as their different registral positioning create an effect of independent intrwoven lines, which are in constant conflict with one another, thus maintaing an intense and, at times, escalating energy plain until the end of the work. 

The pitch domain, on the other side, is governed by an additive and combinatorial generative process, which takes a few germinal cells as input and engenders inexaustible variants at the output. Cyclic patterned recurrences of patterns, that share the same underlying structure, unfold in time, elaborating centripetally on the the same structural complex again and again, creating, maintaing and exalting one or various states from a single or from a variety of perspectives.

In this work I make extensive use of algorithmic routines that have been implemented in the frame of the research project Patterns of Intuition at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics at the University of Music and Performing Arts at Graz, Austria. 

Intrascalings (2014)

Excursion II - for Flute, Bb Clarinet, Sheng (37-reed), Pipa, Piano, 2 Violins, Viola, and Cello

This composition was selected by the 70th International Rostrum of Composers (IRC) as one of the Recommended Works. It was originally commissioned by the Hong Kong Composers’ Guild (HKCG) in 2023 to commemorate its 40th anniversary, under the concert titled "Transcending Music Legacy". The composition originated from the original quintet named “Excursion” and was subsequently expanded for this nine-member ensemble. The piece uses octatonic scale and augmented chords as dialectical forces and transcends towards a somewhat tonal conclusion as a synthesis. It is an excursion experiencing the phenomenon of the inescapable cognitive association of tonality, regardless of how far music evolves. This inescapable fate resonates with the concept of “Tonality” as one of the pre-expressive qualities of every sound, articulated by the composer Helmut Lachenmann, who stated that one can immediately hear and create tonal connotation even in non-tonal settings. Many people grow up with tonality and habitually generate musical meanings with it, thus our listening is somehow conditioned by tradition, culture, and ideology.

With the aim of letting the listener experience the inescapable fate of having tonal connotation when listening to sounds, besides having a tonal conclusion as mentioned, inspired by Lachenmann’s Accanto, I intentionally slip in a fragment of Mozart’s piano sonata during the obscured tonality, giving the moment a heightened tonal aura. At the same time, the piece continues by deconstructing, extracting, and re-contextualising the acoustic qualities of the sonata’s fragment as a way to open up the possibilities of the materials that were once supposed to be used only in tonal language.

In commemorating the 40th anniversary of HKCG through this composition, the intention is not merely to celebrate the past but to transcend musical legacies (as the concert title suggests). By blending the Mozart with the contemporary, fusing Western with Chinese instruments, this piece invites the listeners and performers to contemplate and to participate in the ongoing evolution of musical meanings.

Sheng: LOO Sze-wang 盧思泓
Pipa: PANG Wai-lun 彭偉倫
Flute: Marco LEUNG 梁俊彥
Clarinet: Stephenie NG 吳麗文
Piano: Joanne LI 李玟鋗
Violin: Sean LI 黎逸晞
Violin: Vanessa CHAN 陳朗瑚
Viola: William LANE 凌藝廉
Cello: PUN Chak-yin 潘澤然
Conductor: Angus LEE 李一葦

Excursion II (for Ensemble)

Performed by: Ensemble Espai Sonor

3rd prize of the contest "Jóvenes Compositores Fundación SGAE-CNDM"

Instrumentation: Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello.

Offsprings of Wrath, for seven instruments (2014)

MDR-Sinfonieorchester
Michael Wendeberg - conductor

recorded live in MDR-Studio in Leipzig, on 18/06/2025

Quasi un notturno, for orchestra (2025)

Premiered on the 18th of June 2025 by the MDR Sinfonieorchester and conducted by Michael Wendeberg.

Stryphos, for MDR Sinfonieorchester (2024-25)

桑原ゆう｜三つの聲 (2016) for violin, viola, and cello
written as part of Academy Voix Nouvelles 2016 at Fondation Royaumont
recorded live at Abbaye de Royaumont on September 9, 2016
premiered by Talea Ensemble｜Yuki Numata Resnick (violin), Elizabeth Weisser Helgeson (viola), Chris Gross (cello)
The recording+score video is available on the Score Follower channel: https://youtu.be/maphPICGEvQ

Three Voices

Three Voices (2016) for violin, viola, and cello

For alto flute, bass clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, and percussion

Performed by Ensemble Échappé, conducted by Jeffery Milarsky

Incredulous (2018)

Angus Lee : Et lux perpetua
spatial litany for three performers

for the ilSuono Academy for Young Composers

première :
23rd July, 2017
Sala degli Specchi, Circolo degli Illuminati,
Città di Castello, Perugia, Italy 

Soloists of Ensemble Suono Giallo
Andrea Biagini (flutes), Michele Bianchi (saxophones), Laura Mancini (percussion)

Excursion II (for Ensemble)

Samuel Hong-yu Leung